Why I started this...why did you join?

[Tomte]

I started this Google Group for ISCABBS yesterday after reading some
of the posts in the Iowa Student Computer Association> forum about the
shaky ground the BBS is on. It got me worried about the future of the
BBS, and the fear that if someone pulled the plug there would be no
place to go.

I had a lot more reasons to do this, but the "tipping point" was a
desire to have a meeting point off the BBS in case the unthinkable
happens and someone at the University does pull the plug soon.

In the meantime, I feel really open about what a new group might mean
or what it might do. A few ideas:

A place to bounce around ideas for making new users feel welcome
A place to brainstorm ideas for marketing the BBS for effectively
A place to wonder about the future of this on-line community so many
of us have used for over 15 years.
Metadiscussion about BBS life

<your ideas here>

[kiwirat]

Tomte wrote:
> I started this Google Group for ISCABBS yesterday after reading some
> of the posts in the Iowa Student Computer Association> forum about the
> shaky ground the BBS is on. It got me worried about the future of the
> BBS, and the fear that if someone pulled the plug there would be no
> place to go.

I really have a hard time believing they would actually pull the plug.
It seems the university has stuck 'isca' in a closet, and nobody seems
to care. That in it's self is the problem, with IM and everything else,
a texted based BBS seems 'old'. Where I would agree, ISCA is on the
decline, there does seem to be base of core people that really do care.

>
> I had a lot more reasons to do this, but the "tipping point" was a
> desire to have a meeting point off the BBS in case the unthinkable
> happens and someone at the University does pull the plug soon.
>
> In the meantime, I feel really open about what a new group might mean
> or what it might do. A few ideas:
>
> A place to bounce around ideas for making new users feel welcome
> A place to brainstorm ideas for marketing the BBS for effectively
> A place to wonder about the future of this on-line community so many
> of us have used for over 15 years.
> Metadiscussion about BBS life
>

I have tried setting people up with ISCA, but they lose interest very
quickly. With society today, the interest doesn't seem to hold. We have
become a 'me' and only me people, and an instant me at that.

Has it been 15 years since ISCA started? I can't even remember when I
signed up, I think somewhere around 1994.

[Michael Malone]

kiwirat wrote:
> Has it been 15 years since ISCA started? I can't even remember when I
> signed up, I think somewhere around 1994.

I know I was on ISCA no later than 1992, if not 1991.

I'd hate to see 15+ years of my life vanish overnight.

[Tomte]

I first logged in around 1991 as well.

[Rachel Rosenthal]

I first logged into Isca in March 1992, spring break of my freshman year of college. All these years later and here I am.

 

I'm Roses, btw. What's everyone's handle?

[Ozzy Sr]

Let's all remember that the University is a bueracracy. (bet I spelled
that wrong).

Before they decide to pull the plug there will be at least one meeting
and they'll make sure they tell us the date. We will see it coming.

If/when the day does come, maybe we can figure out a way to move it to
a new server somewhere else. The box doesn't need much horsepower, it
more a question of bandwidth.

Just a thought

[Tomte]

One thing I wasn't aware of when I started this is that Gestalt stands
alone from the University.

Apparently it isn't possible to create a new account on Gestalt right
now because of some migration issues when they moved from HP/UX to
Linux, but in a couple of weeks it will be possible to duplicate one's
ISCABBS account on Gestalt. I am under the impression that it is
possible to log into Gestalt and access the ISCABBS message base.

So, one can use Gestalt now (or at least soon) and if ISCABBS goes
down one can keep on using Gestalt with little or no service
interruption.

At least that is what I gather from reading others posts in Future>
and other such forums. Since I have yet to log into Gestalt I could
be very wrong about this. :)