mirror of
https://github.com/opsxcq/mirror-textfiles.com.git
synced 2025-08-07 10:36:32 +02:00
154 lines
10 KiB
HTML
154 lines
10 KiB
HTML
<html>
|
|
<title>T E X T F I L E S</title>
|
|
<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#00FF00" LINK="#00FF00" ALINK="#00FF00" VLINK="#00FF00">
|
|
<CENTER>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH=80%>
|
|
<TR><TD VALIGN=TOP ALIGN=RIGHT>
|
|
<FONT FACE="Courier New" COLOR="#33FF33">
|
|
<nobr><A style="text-decoration: none" HREF="index.html">INTRODUCTION</A> </nobr><BR>
|
|
<nobr><A style="text-decoration: none" HREF="jason.html">THE BBS YEARS</A> </nobr><BR>
|
|
<nobr><A style="text-decoration: none" HREF="internet.html">THE INTERNET</A> </nobr><BR>
|
|
<nobr><A style="text-decoration: none" HREF="textfiles.html">><B>TEXTFILES</B><</A> </nobr><BR>
|
|
<nobr><A style="text-decoration: none" HREF="today.html">10 YEARS</A> </nobr><BR>
|
|
</FONT>
|
|
<TD BGCOLOR="#00FF00">
|
|
<TD>
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<FONT FACE="Courier New" COLOR="#00FF00" size=+2>
|
|
<b>TEXTFILES</b>
|
|
</font>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<font face="Courier New" COLOR="#00FF00">
|
|
<small><i>In which a Website is Born</small></i>
|
|
<p>
|
|
Perhaps it seems strange considering how long ago this was, but to someone who'd come up through
|
|
BBSes and had spent five years watching the World Web Grow, it really felt like there wasn't anything
|
|
not on the Internet at that point. While archives were considered beyond belief if they measured in the
|
|
dozens of megabytes and search engines were the party of research projects and tech demos, I did feel
|
|
like everything was now online and I could find it.
|
|
<p>
|
|
I couldn't.
|
|
<p>
|
|
I couldn't find my old favorite BBS (Sherwood Forest II, 914-359-1517). I couldn't find any old text
|
|
files like the classics I'd considered BBS canon. In fact, I couldn't find much mention of BBSes as
|
|
a subject. I didn't find lists, or software, or any sort of hint that they'd ever been around anywhere
|
|
but in my own mind. It felt, to me, like they were lost, a part of history not lucky enough to be
|
|
around when the Internet hit its stride, and were going to be forgotten. That was a horrible thought.
|
|
<p>
|
|
(I must say, of course, that this would never have been the case; people would certainly have continued
|
|
to add computer history of all stripe to the Internet and time has borne out amazing collections of
|
|
computer and bulletin board system history for all to find. Work was being done before 1998 in this
|
|
area, but I, for all my belief in my abilities, could not find it. I felt alone, but was not, actually,
|
|
alone.)
|
|
<p>
|
|
<hr width=100 color="#00FF00">
|
|
<p>
|
|
At the time, registering domains that included nouns was a bit more trivial than the present day; I
|
|
decided a website that would collect some of these old textfiles I'd kept on floppies all these years,
|
|
from the days before The Works and post-dating the life of my own BBS. Because it was available, I
|
|
registered <b>TEXTFILES.COM</b>. In one of those strange bits of history that hindsight would have
|
|
benefitted, I also registered <b>TEXTFILES.ORG</b> but chose to let that one lapse, thinking it wouldn't
|
|
have much purpose. I do regret that choice. TEXTFILES.COM it was, and I set to work finding my old
|
|
collection of textfiles to put online.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<hr width=100 color="#00FF00">
|
|
<p>
|
|
Why green? Why long file directories? Why these strange classifications, this eclectic set of
|
|
categories? What's up with a blinking GIF?
|
|
<p>
|
|
<a href="http://artscene.textfiles.com/intros/APPLEII/bpgsm.gif"><img src="images/bpgsm.gif" align=right vspace=10 hspace=10 border=0></a>
|
|
Good questions, all. Not all of them I can answer with definition, of course, but good questions.
|
|
Green, of course, was trying to harken back to a time of green monitors and lack of color, an era
|
|
I experienced via Apple II computers at my various schools and at friend's homes. The monitors that
|
|
Apple used had a quality to them, a glowing and sharp green, that has always struck me as pleasant.
|
|
Why I continue to think of this as a useful interface to the present day is beyond me, other than
|
|
how it tells you, in one swift glance, that you are seeing something from history, a history that is
|
|
limited technology compared to what you are now used to. It can predate variable-length text. It
|
|
predates nearly unlimited columns on the screen. It definitely predates multi-user experiences that
|
|
we now consider mundane and the realm of the majority of computer entertainment. I feel it's a
|
|
signifier, and it stays.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The classifications and sometimes strange filenames are the products of a twelve year old. I came
|
|
up with my own classifying approach, out of my head, and that was what these files were placed
|
|
under. Over time, I allowed myself to think this was more effective than it was, and by the time
|
|
textfiles.com had come along, it seemed too much work to redo. So when a file's name ends in HUM
|
|
(humor) or PHK (Phreak), bear in mind that a very young upstart was behind them.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Advertising had not truly and completely infected the online experience, so I can't lay claim to
|
|
being ahead of my time or particularly principled in regards to access to the files. I simply
|
|
never liked banner ads when they were tacked onto the commercially-oriented sites and didn't have
|
|
an interest in adding them to my own site. I definitely didn't think much of Google Adsense when it
|
|
started providing text-based ads, even if I thought they had the potential to be less intrusive. I
|
|
guess it comes down to never wanting to make use of people as nickels and dimes, instead of just
|
|
letting them enjoy the place.
|
|
<p>
|
|
The site itself was (and is) a mass of directories, files by the <a href="http://www.textfiles.com/100">hundred</a>, selections and descriptions
|
|
written by myself over the course of months when I was in my late 20s. I began composing scripts
|
|
and <a href="http://www.textfiles.com/tools">tools</a> to assist me in describing them, and so I continued for a long, long time. When the site
|
|
opened, the files numbered in the thousands, an amazing size for the time and all of it was right
|
|
there, ready to be found. I wanted the feeling that people had when they came to my site to be the
|
|
same when I logged onto a BBS at 12: a sense of wonder, of opportunity, of so much to know that I
|
|
could never know it all but would instead dive into and soak in what I could. I've been given some
|
|
indication over the years that for at least a few people I was successful.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<hr width=100 color="#00FF00">
|
|
<p>
|
|
The website started getting attention almost immediately - people were excited to have all these
|
|
old BBS artifacts so easily found online. I got <a href="http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/1999/03/18175">interviewed in the press</a>, was asked to <a href="http://audio.textfiles.com/speeches/">speak</a> at
|
|
the DEFCON security conference, and found myself in demand as a speaker. And then, as if this wasn't
|
|
enjoyable enough, people started contacting me about collections of textfiles they had been holding all
|
|
these years, and that they'd like to contribute to my archive. Thus began the process of collecting
|
|
at an even greater rate than I had before, and the journey I continue to this day.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<a href="http://album.textfiles.com/index.cgi?d=2007.03.html5.APPLE&id=IMG_3728.JPG"><img src="images/stuff.jpg" vspace=10 hspace=10 border=0 align=left></a>
|
|
I've been sent stacks of disks, CD-ROMs, even entire old computer systems. I've been mailed printouts,
|
|
advertisements, magazines, and hard drives. Folks who had been holding into this stuff for reasons they
|
|
couldn't quite explain had finally found someone who would respect and maintain their childhoods
|
|
and earlier lives. I started adding both these files (growing to tens of thousands of textfiles) and
|
|
began splitting off the site into even more subjects. First
|
|
<a href="http://web.textfiles.com">web.textfiles.com</a> (textfiles after 1995), then collections
|
|
like <a href="http://artscene.textfiles.com">artscene.textfiles.com</a> and
|
|
<a href="http://audio.textfiles.com">audio.textfiles.com</a>. History wasn't just ASCII and textfiles,
|
|
after all: there were so many things to save, so much to keep. The site has grown exponentially,
|
|
upwards of hundreds of gigabytes. Hard drive technology is keeping ahead of it, but sometimes I
|
|
wonder if it's a race to see how much I can save versus how much I can store.
|
|
<p>
|
|
As many as a half-million people visit a textfiles.com site in a given month. They never meet me, may
|
|
not know I'm the person behind it, may not even know why this file is where it is. They probably never
|
|
used a BBS, and probably don't care. But they come to this site and they're happy to pull from it
|
|
what they need at that point in their life, and I'm happy to provide it.
|
|
<p>
|
|
While many might not be aware, a percentage are more than aware of the history of the BBS and they
|
|
kneel at the pool of files and just lose themselves in them, clicking from memory to touchpoint to
|
|
surprising new perspective. I know this because of the thousands of fan letters I've gotten; the thank
|
|
yous, the questions, the testimonials to this era of the BBS.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<a href="http://album.textfiles.com/index.cgi?d=2003.01.CACHESWITCH&id=p1010012.jpg"><img src="images/dreamcom.jpg" vspace=5 hspace=5 border=0 align=right></a>
|
|
I've naturally moved between a lot of different hosting providers over the years. They include the
|
|
Thomson Corporation, <http://www.dreamcom.net/">Dream Communications</a>, and currently <a href="http://www.tqhosting.com">TQ Hosting</a>. I've also kept it in my own basement when times have gotten rough, and I can assure you, they've
|
|
sometimes gotten rough indeed. When 800 gigabytes of data is in one place, something on there will
|
|
insult or offend somebody, somewhere, somehow. It's all part of the game, and a decade hasn't killed
|
|
me or the site yet.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<hr width=100 color="#00FF00">
|
|
<p>
|
|
<a href="http://www.bbsdocumentary.com"><img src="http://ascii.textfiles.com/bbsdocumentary.jpg" hspace=15 vspace=15 align=left border=0"></a>
|
|
Probably the most radical change to my life was the bright idea in 2002 to capture even more of the
|
|
history of the BBS by doing a documentary. The
|
|
<a href="http://www.bbsdocumentary.com">BBS Documentary</a> was a four year project that is still
|
|
paying off, between friends made, things learned, and history saved. Hundreds of people were interviewed
|
|
and hundreds of hours filmed for it, and the resulting work has been downloaded or bought by thousands.
|
|
How could I have known how much would come of putting up my collection of textfiles back in 1998?
|
|
<p>
|
|
It has been a great life, so far.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<i>A toast to <a href="today.html">10 years</a> ....</i>
|
|
<P>
|
|
</FONT>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
</TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
</CENTER>
|
|
</BODY>
|
|
</HTML>
|