Let's rewind the Web
As an amusing piece of BBC News, this story came out after I published the info about it being BBS time, well, I was writing it for what seems like ages, so maybe it was 10 mins before or after, whatever....
The funny thing is.... he's a multi-millionaire sitting on a tax haven island someplace getting bored - yes, read how much he sold the Bebo site for,........twice! Yes, I fully appreciate that he had to put the "hard work in" in the first place to make it happen, in essence fleecing people for their details and then flogging all that data to a company who was going to try and find a way to exploit it and/or sell it to others....
That's not what I wanted to focus on though, what I was amused by was the fact that he is sitting there, bored stupid (island or no island) and he's fed up with Social Media sites (as I was eluding to in this Page), and was no doubt thinking to himself.... hmmmm.... what the world needs is some form of, oh I don't know, maybe some form of "Online Community".....
A place where you could connect to, a place you could virtually meet up with other people, have chats, maybe send an email or two to each other, perhaps, y'know, share some files or even some photos (careful!)....
Yes, in essence, he's describing a glorified BBS.
....then scrolling through the comments, yes, I am probably one of the few people who actually do scroll through some comments, just coz..... I find this nugget of wonder, totally 100% on the ball:
See.... the pure essence of the concept of a BBS is a "local pub online", but it is for people who wouldn't have gone to the pub, the pub was for social people, these people (and I include myself 100% in this group) would have been too geeky to have gone to a pub... that was for, social people... people who liked to brag about stuff, wear the latest fashions and liked to see others and be seen - I assume all of the above, as I wasn't there during my late teens / twenties!
Maybe....just maybe it might be worth writing a NEW hybrid of a BBS, mixed with a bit of MySpace, a bit of Match.com, Friends Re-united, Bebo, tw*tter, f*ceb**k, Y*uT*be all thrown into the mix and make a new form of BBS.....
But, still keep the Time Limit feature - I REALLY like this concept, I appreciate why it existed in the first place, but I am thinking that if you limit access to something that people are addicted to, they'll keep coming back, they'll manage their time better when they are Online....today, there's so much of everything, all of the time, instant access, whenever you want it and even when you don't. We've spoilt a generation giving them the very thing our parents denied us - I do recall only being allowed to use the family Amstrad CPC-464 on the dining room table for 1hour per night, no if's, no but's, 1 hour limit was hit, that switch was flicked and it was off....the monitor (it was huge) and keyboard were then ceremoniously moved to the other end of the living room and there it stayed until tomorrow at 7pm.... On a Saturday morning, I was allowed to switch it on from 8am (when parents had gone to work) and I could use it until midday, when I had to then go meet parents at work, OR, if it was a great day, I could use it all day until 6pm, when I would hear the car pull up on the driveway and then it was panic time to clear the computer up and set the table for dinner, all in about 30 seconds..... I'm sure my parents used to sit in the car for longer, just to give me time to clear everything up!
Anyway, I digressed again.....the point being, by having that limited time / access, I was more efficient with the timeI did have, I valued it more. I planned what I was going to do, I actually wrote code (in BASIC) in pencil on A4 paper, I debugged that code in my head and fixed it (hence the pencil), so that I could spend the most efficient amount of time with the computer.
That is where I believe the next BIG THING is going to go towards. Limited access. Ability to earn extra time, I don't know, like selling some of your soul to advertisers, by doing some survey or something. Still have the Social element, but cater for unsocial people too...
I've waffled on for far too long, again.....I wonder, if I had 100hours a week "spare", whether I could design and code a platform.....not for selling, that's against the point, but for helping the Gen Z's to actually experience or have a glimpse of what we had (or not) back when we first experienced computers and technology. As sad as it is to say, I have to go back to work / work on Monday and I'm pi$$ poor at my job, I dedicate all of my time and effort to make my company's customers happy that it leaves me with very little time and brain power to do stuff on my own.... I have tried to cut it down a bit, but I find I can't and I've been doing it for so long now that my company's managers kind of expect it now...
Now...where did I put that "Socket Programming in Turbo C" book?..... I reckon that might be a good place to start, I still have, what 3.5 days left of "vacation"..... :-D
Although I just burnt up 1/2 a day getting the Mystic BBS / MS-DOS File Upload / Download capability working and updated in the article!
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