LLLLL

[spatch]

The end of the ISCABBS, once the largest telnet-based BBS on the entire Interbutt, appears to be nigh. The story, which I'm quoting third-hand from a post on another telnet-based BBS, started when a sysop started deleting, er, salacious posts in a public forum.

The rest of the users were told to take their sex talk to the forum called Kama Sutra>, which is age verified. Unfortunately, very few users on ISCA are age verified, and none of the users in quesiton were. More than willing to play along, the users sought age verification, but the system, which requires snail mailing a photocopy of picture ID with birthdate, is defunct. Not to mention the IDs of all those who had been verified were lost years ago. This left the userbase in an impossible place, and the Sysops unwilling to do anything about it without the permission of the actual Iowa Student Computer Association, which hasn't had a meeting in over a year and only has two or three allegedly active members. Some upset users have attempted to contact the University of Iowa, which has only led to UofI being made aware of a machine on their network that they didn't even know existed anymore. It's the Hindenburg alright, and everyone on board is smoking cigarettes. ISCA has been down since 8am Central Time for unknown reasons...

This ending, which involves sysop powers, "sexxxy chat", bureaucratic mumbledy-peg and an administration which has forgotten about it, is more than fitting. I'm sure I'll be able to wax rhapsodic on the whole ISCA experience later on tonight, but for now, I'm just laffin.

Comments

[giantfightbot.livejournal.com]

I find it a little surprising that the university didn't know it existed, seeing how it was such a massive enterprise back in the day. You know, when there was a queue of a thousand people waiting to get in.

What is Bearwalker going to do for fun now?

Though there's a near-equivalent level of discourse on the IMDB forums.

My ISCA account died years ago, but this does make me a little sad.

[spatch]

Though there's a near-equivalent level of discourse on the IMDB forums.

Oh man, I cringed and went "BURRRRRRN!" but I know it's true.

[slit.livejournal.com]

it was such a massive enterprise back in the day

But you see it wasn't something thought up by a tenured professor that went through three years of departmental meetings and Board of Regents approval before being implemented. It was students? Who? They're doing whut? Thinking without permission?

[spatch]

They made up for that, however, by adding more layers of bureaucracy to the project than absolutely necessary. The Board should've been proud.