Quote:
Originally Posted by AdventurousMouse
Being an early 90s baby, I have no idea what you're talking about when you mention these multi-line dial-up bulletin boards. I will say, however, they sound awesome.
Just like I did well with the online hookup market in the early to mid 2010s, I likely would have done well with whatever it is you're talking about from the late 80s to mid 90s (had I been of age back then)
I'm not 100% sure who you're responding to. All I will say is: As the OP of this thread, I'm under no impression my height, looks, or income are to blame for why I have a hard time in the current dating market.
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Those multi line dial boards were the predecessor to chat rooms you would have found on AOL or Internet Relay Chat which could have well over 50,000 registered channels or rooms with all sorts of names/topics.
Problem is being the Internet someone from New York could connect to channels listed as "Houston" so being local was not always the case.
Most people joining a channel would get asked A/S/L (age, sex, location) I mean you are not about to try to hook up for a ONS if you are in Houston, and they are in some other state.
So being a local area code you dialed into that meant everyone was in the same area. Hooking up for a quickie was VERY easy.
Hell we had list of items needed to be a "cyber player"
1) laptop with modem
2) PDA (personal digital assistant - Palm Pilot or Handspring Visor were preferred. The latter was a cheaper version of the former but used same docking station & software
3) cell phone (this was when cell phones cost 50 a month just for service & 1 hour of included time then it was so many cents per minute (minute rates would vary depending on time of day) Weekends were usually free from 7 pm Friday to 10 pm Sunday.
4) 2 way alpha pager so you could send a text message to their 2 way page that might look like : L=2 T=20:00 D=(date)
L=Location of hotel indicated by a # (referenced via the PDA)
T=Time indicated via military time
D=Date
The PDA stored all the referenced data like contact names/numbers, the location names/addresses with a Location # assigned to it. Plus you could store other info in it as well.
Now the PDA could be passcode protected but there was a reset button on the back that would reset it, but in doing so there went all the data.
By using the alpha-numeric pager for comms once you met up one of the things you did before you left the hotel/motel was you would delete the message thread to.
Now that you have a headache about all the above it was 99.5 % foolproof.. Nerds used it to get laid all the time because PC's were problematic back then and we would fix them for a "fee" (guess what we would accept?)
Wives would barter to fix the PC and tell their hubbies we were friends doing them a favor for "free" when in fact while the hubby was at work or staying home while his wife would out with other lady friends (who would cover for her) she would pony up.
If she tried to pay in cash (we would accept it) but if the hubby found out he would get mad because most did not like the PC, thought it was a damn contraption and paying to fix it was a waste of money.
I would say from 1985 to about 2000 Nerds were benefiting from their technology skills.
And I also like how you describe seeing professionals vs civies - I think we're on the same page (though I'd rather you stay the full time and not leave any sooner than necessary)
