Before the internet computers were all disconnected. Even if you had a network, it was limited to the building you were in. Files were traded on floppies, and a 200MB harddrive was two hundred bucks.
We did have modems though, and with these you could - using a regular phoneline - call other computers. One at a time though, you couldn't do group calls. Back in these days I ran a Bulletin Board System (BBS) called the Wombat's Den. It was unusual among the 20 or so BBS' where I lived, in that it was not devoted to file trading or piracy. Instead it was focused on messaging, with a bulletin board - the precursor to today's forums - and little else.
I ran the place and condoned conversations of an intelligent nature. It was, in essence, the ancestor of this forum. I had a 'white supremacist' forum where a friend of mine, who was a deranged racist target pistol shooter, could rant and rave and the rest of the forum's more rational users could argue against him. It was a fascinating social experiment.
It also had a sex forum, the Wombat's Bedroom. Herein were discussed all manner of things. It was an open environment long before the internet gave every freak of every kind a soapbox to stand on. It was a lot of fun, and for a while it was the busiest BBS in the region.
Several HDD and modem failures in a row brought the den down, much to my dismay.
But now, two decades later, here we are again.
And in case you were wondering why 'wombat'... Before the internet and the 9,000,000 million other chumps using the same name, I used the handle 'wombat'. It's my favourite Australian animal and, apparently, an obscure aussie colloquialism for "lady's man". When we had some friends over - cousins I think - from Australia I just happened to have a fantastic run of luck with the women. I was out late with a different girl four nights of the first week they were staying with us, and they started calling me a wombat.
Welcome to the new Wombat's Den. The name has changed, but the concept is the same.
And yes, there's a sex forum. =)
A newspaper article from 1993 regarding the old Den is right here!
