‘Bbsing’ Is Educational And Fun Not Criminal

Sat., Aug. 20, 1994

Jim Holderman Special To Opinion

As a hobby, I run a computer bulletin board in Spokane. It’s called Extreme Online and I have devoted most of my free hours for the last 18 months making it work 24 hours a day. I have invested a small fortune in hardware and software. I don’t solicit contributions, but I do accept them when offered. I don’t often receive even enough to pay the $17 a month phone bill.

I strive to present a friendly atmosphere on my bulletin board system, called bbs for short. Using a phone modem, people call my computer, play games, and “talk” to others around the world. I help all I can and offer support for those who are new to “bbsing.”

That’s why I take offense when people put down bulletin boards. “Bbs’s” aren’t a haven for sex, perverts and child molesters. The media have taken a few incidents and blown them out of proportion.

This negative publicity is scaring people away from the information super highway, and that’s unfortunate because there’s so much to discover on computer bulletin boards locally and worldwide.

There are about 150 of them in Spokane. Most have one phone line, but some have more than 100 lines. We all choose the software we want and then customize it to give our bbs’s a unique look. As a systems operator (SysOp), I check out everyone who wants to log on. I make sure they are 18 and that I know their real name and phone number.

If you call my bbs, you won’t find perverts and child molesters. You will find 100-plus message areas. Some of the topics include Mystery Science Theater and Spokane Current Events. You can also read the local weather forecast, play in a casino (for fun, not money) and even vote in mock elections.

Most of us run bbs’s as a hobby, not for profit. Boardwatch magazine estimates that there are about 57,000 bbs’s in the United States and each bbs averages 25 calls a day. That’s 1.4 million calls a day to bbses.

When all is said and done, we have become the fastest growing technology in society today. Sure there are a few bad apples, but that shouldn’t stereotype us all.

We do this for fun. So why not join in? I invite you to try my bbs or one of the 150 others in Spokane. A whole new world may open up for you.

Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion page. To submit a column for consideration, call Rebecca Nappi/459-5496, or Doug Floyd/459-5466.

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