I just now realized that #Mastodon is pretty much the modern day incarnation of the Bulletin Board Systems of the 1980s and 90s. Anyone remember #FidoNet ? It was the most popular BBS software in that time. Any admin could host FidoNet on their server and it connect it to other FidoNet servers. Hence someone could join a FidoNet "instance" of their choosing and be connected to numerous other instances. Mastodon is like a BBS over an http protocol... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet
@ChrisWilson For that matter, I wonder if Mastodon could someday incorporate a P2P framework allowing individual users to make available files on their local drives?
@SteveJohnson I've only just joined and had the same thought, it even has an odd but functional addressing system.
I was mostly known as 2:254/524.27 back then. 😀
#Mastodon has replaced Echomail with hashtags!
I suppose the multiple FTNs (#FidoNet, BarNet, MusicNet, etc) are now instance local feeds.
I was mostly using Spot on the #Amiga connecting to Xenolink BBSs running on other miggys. We used to meet up and take over the bar at World of Amiga. :)
@amigiac A Commodore guy/gal eh? I started out as a TRS-80 guy, and then moved on to be an Atari ST guy. You and I might have bashed each other on message boards back in the day, only to find ourselves here in the Fediverse. 👍
@SteveJohnson never really a serious Commodore guy, started off on the Acorn Electron & BBC micro, then Amstrad CPC, Amiga and finally a mix of Windows and Linux, I've dabbled in the Mac world along the way.
I was all over the echos back in the early 90's trash-talking the ST so there's a big possibility. 😆
It's good to know I'm not the only Fido-veteran in the fediverse.
You might be interested in this video from the 34C3 conference last week.
https://media.ccc.de/v/34c3-9034-bbss_and_early_internet_access_in_the_1990ies
@SteveJohnson @Nixfreak
Well, sure. But in that sense, so is the entire internet. We might forget that these days because sometimes it seems like all we do is log onto one system (Facebook, Twitter) and talk to people there. But the reality is a squillions of computers linked together…
@SteveJohnson You're absolutely right, and that would make @CobaltVelvet our Sysop? Hopefully she doesn't have to sync nightly to other instances to propagate messages to other instances though!