Axis/Cabela's package ca 2016

[Dave Hoback]

Yes, but they were bulletin boards. The first one goes back to the 1970’s.. “Community” something.. They were part of Usenet, which is probably what you remember? Our two interpretations of “average joe” could very well be vastly different. And I think it is. Weren’t you an Engineer Charlie? Did you by any chance go to Berkely? My family had a computer in 1985 because my sister won it in some competition. We were the only family which owned one I ever came in contact with; across dozens & dozens of neighborhoods & several different states on the East coast. But we were poor folk! We couldn’t afford to pay attention half the time.Lol! It was a crappy little Apple with like an 8” screen that we played Tetris on. We had one phone line in the house with a rotary phone and it certainly was never used for the computer. (Not that we had a clue what User Network even was during that time! But I get what you saying. My point was they were nothing like the first Forums in the early 2000’s. Which are the model that we still know them as today.

It was rudimentary, crude really. Like pretty much everything from 40 years ago. Hard enough today weeding through the BS when we can easily research things to discern fact from fiction. These private bulletin boards were for a select few. Even then if you were looking for an answer, good luck, because all you had were a guys words. No way to prove anything. Within a timely fashion I mean.) And even then there trolls & LIARS! There are things I miss from the 80’s. But I’m glad my computer era started in 1999.

[charlie b]

Yes, it was rudimentary and crude by today's standards. But, a lot of good information was shared and you could find out an awful lot on a variety of topics. Plenty of good arguing as well, just like today. It still means that when someone said they posted back in the 80's they probably are not lying about it.

And, yes, most 'poor' people did not have computers back then. And, yes, I am an engineer, but, back then I was a CPT and then a MAJ in the Army, with a wife and kids. Not a lot of disposable income. Not Berkley, West Point :) I remember one of the gun boards that had firemen, teachers, plumbers, construction guys, etc on it. So, yeah, average joes. Still does not change that the message boards back then were a viable method of sharing information.

I would say there were not as many trolls, percentage wise, as there is today. I only remember two, and they ended up booted from the systems pretty fast. And even today, all you have is someone's words. They can reference other sources, just like we used to on the msg boards to justify their position, but, when someone says, "I did this", you basically have to take their word for it or challenge it, just like the old days. :)

And they were like the early forums. Many of the forums grew from those earlier systems. The only real differences came when the computer and network connection speeds increased.