I also miss the BBS scene. Though I grew up in the Chicago area, I first got online in Champaign-Urbana, since my folks categorically refused to buy a modem for the home Apple II. I'm not sure if that was because they thought I might go full WarGames, or if it was just that they didn't want to risk a massive phone bill.
C-U had a hopping BBS scene at the time, but the real standout for me was Tranquillity II, which was conversation only with no downloads. At first it ran on, of all things, a TI 99/4 with the expansion box. Later it was moved to an Amiga. There were several Fido systems, and I ran a point (a subnode of an existing Fido node) for a while. Since I was out of school by then, echomail was the closest thing I could get to Usenet newsgroups.
When I got back to the Chicago area, I continued with Fidonet until the local ISPs started popping up. It still surprises me just how quickly the Internet bulldozed the BBS scene, and I think we've lost something because of that, even though we've gained a lot as well. Sure, there are still BBSes here and there (and Fidonet still exists even today), but telnetting into one halfway around the world just isn't the same as dialing into one that's a couple of miles away.
C-U had a hopping BBS scene at the time, but the real standout for me was Tranquillity II, which was conversation only with no downloads. At first it ran on, of all things, a TI 99/4 with the expansion box. Later it was moved to an Amiga. There were several Fido systems, and I ran a point (a subnode of an existing Fido node) for a while. Since I was out of school by then, echomail was the closest thing I could get to Usenet newsgroups.
When I got back to the Chicago area, I continued with Fidonet until the local ISPs started popping up. It still surprises me just how quickly the Internet bulldozed the BBS scene, and I think we've lost something because of that, even though we've gained a lot as well. Sure, there are still BBSes here and there (and Fidonet still exists even today), but telnetting into one halfway around the world just isn't the same as dialing into one that's a couple of miles away.