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125 lines
6.7 KiB
HTML
125 lines
6.7 KiB
HTML
<HTML>
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<TITLE>T E X T F I L E S</TITLE>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000">
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<IMG WIDTH=336 HEIGHT=105 SRC="images/state.gif" ALT="STATEMENT">
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<TABLE WIDTH=620>
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<TR><TD>
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<FONT FACE="Courier New" COLOR="#00FF00">
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A wonderful thing happened in the 1980s: Life started to go online. And
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as the world continues this trend, everyone finding themselves drawn
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online should know what happened before, to see where it all really started
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to come together and to know what went on, before it's forgotten.
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<P>
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When a historian or reporter tries to capture the feelings and themes that
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proliferated through the BBS Scene of the early 1980's, the reader nearly
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always experiences a mere glimpse of what went on. This is probably true
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of most any third-party reporting, but when the culture is your own, and
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when the experiences were your own, the gap between story and reality is
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that much wider, and it's that much harder to sit back and let the cliche-filled
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summary become "The Way It Was." You want to do something, anything so that
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the people who stumble onto the part of history that was yours know what
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it was like to grow up through it, to meet the people you did, to do the
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things you enjoyed doing. Maybe, you hope, they might even see the broader
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picture and the conclusions that you yourself couldn't see at the time.
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<I>This is history the way the chronicled want it to be.</I>
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<P>
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Of course, the very nature of history is that it often has to be told
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in a linear fashion, with a beginning, middle and then an end. Cause and
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effect must somehow be shown, even if no apparent flow exists.
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The evidence and indications that the big innovations were the
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results of hard work by others are hard to track down, and often lost.
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If the participants are still alive (or their descendants), then the
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historical narrative becomes a chance for aggrandizement, for capitalization
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on the lucrative possibilities of Who Did What First. Gaps in the history
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get filled based on fuzzy memories or educated guesses, and if new facts
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emerge from new evidence, entire lines of thought about what took place and
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when, would fall and rise overnight. If the historian has an agenda, then that
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agenda worms itself into the story, and attempts to portray figures within
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the story become more regimented, summarized, and occasionally refashioned
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to fit the needs of the storyteller. Schools of thought base themselves
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around the new history, and suddenly an entire period in which people
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lived, died, loved, hated, succumbed to darker desires and rose to secret,
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wonderful heights are turned into pasteboard.
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<I>This is history the way it usually ends up in the minds of the world.</I>
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<P>
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But I was there, and I played my part. There were things I saw firsthand
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and rumors I heard whispered on illegal telephone conferences late in the
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night, and there were a lot of words I read and a lot of places I travelled.
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I communicated with people who thought it was all a ridiculous joke, and others
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who thought they were refashioning the world, online, one message at a time.
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It would be foolish and, more importantly, a lie to say I saw and
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witnessed it all; I only saw a small part of everything that went on. But I
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think a lot of what I saw indicated what was happening all over the country,
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and later the world, and I want to share it with you.
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<P>
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In the culture of "underground" BBSs I was in, information became the juice
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that people traded in to build themselves up, tear others down, or share
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with everyone to bring the whole social group up a few notches. Information
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manifested itself in many different ways; among these ways were CODES, WARES,
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and T-FILES.
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<P>
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<B>CODES</B> were telephone access codes for free phone calls, or passwords
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to get into everything from the newest Apple II game to the school or
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business down the street. One simple number, one simple word, and they could
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earn someone honor or disgrace depending on if they worked or not. Of course,
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many of these codes were fleeting, meaning the search was endless and the
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reward that much more for finding the next one.
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<P>
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<B>WARES</B> (or "Warez") were software programs, any and all that ran on any
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computer, that were the work of others, stolen or acquired for free from a
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source, useful or useless depending on the trader involved. Some collected
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for the prestige of getting the next big thing, some actually needed the
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program to accomplish a goal and couldn't afford it, and others traded just to
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trade. Wares started out with games and business software, and the world has
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since grown to include digitized music, clip art, movies, and anything else
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digital. This juggernaut isn't going to slow down any time soon: if it can
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be digital, it can be copied, and if it can be copied, it WILL be copied.
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Back then, it just took a different kind of talent.
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<P>
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<B>T-Files</B> (G-files, Philes, a dozen other names) were my specialty, the
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part of the culture that attracted me the most. Simply put, they were
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textfiles of any sort, written to explain in detail an important new
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computer discovery, a great new concept, or an old piece of knowledge that
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needed to be passed on. It included stories, poems, songs, ramblings,
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and long treatises on theories that the writer couldn't possibly have known.
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They were full of bravado, of half-truths,
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of promises, and occasionally, of brilliance that shines to this day. Here's
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where the true heart of the 80s BBSes beat for me; and it is my belief,
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to this day, where you'll find it yourself.
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<P>
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A pile of 6-digit numbers don't tell you what it was like to scam the
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newest phone access codes and trade them on the local phreak board;
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playing "Choplifter" on an Apple II Emulator
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won't give you the feeling of the people trying to trade it for another
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hot Ware, and you won't find many of the reasons why people spent night
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after night, grinding their eyes and their minds to post rebuttals to
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BBSs, by picking up a pile of hardware at a tag sale and plugging it in.
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It's in the writing of those who were there that you have your best shot
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at experiencing (or re-experiencing) the time, and the purpose of this site
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is to bring the writing to you.
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<P>
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There are some ugly things down in these archives; there are narcissistic
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ravings from pre-adolescent social misfits. There are calls for anarchy.
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There's satanism, there's racism, there's all the -isms in the book lurking
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in the words. But there's hope, too. There's excitement, there's joy,
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there's every manner of feeling being crammed down into ASCII and posted
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for the world to find. It's a spectrum of humanity, and this is what I
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hope you'll find, buried there, among the text. Enjoy.
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</FONT>
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</TR></TD>
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<TR><TD ALIGN=RIGHT>
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<P>
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<FONT FACE="Courier New" COLOR="#00FF00">
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Jason Scott<BR>
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<I>Proprietor, TEXTFILES.COM</I>
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<P>
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</FONT>
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</TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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</CENTER>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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