• RIP, Ward Christensen

    From j0hnny a1pha@21:4/158 to All on Mon Oct 14 13:14:04 2024
    We lost another one, Ward passed away at the age of 78.

    Sorry if this was already covered here. I just saw it.

    "On Friday, Ward Christensen, co-inventor of the computer bulletin board
    system (BBS), died at age 78 in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Christensen,
    along with Randy Suess, created the first BBS in Chicago in 1978, leading
    to an important cultural era of digital community-building that presaged
    much of our online world today."


    |07 .'|08.
    |07 ||15o|08| |03J0hnny A1pha
    |07 .'|15o|08'. |06gOLD mINE HQ
    |07 |.-.|08| |08---------------------
    |07 '|14( |12)|08' |05SpaceJunkBBS.com|13:|052323
    |07 |12)

    --- Talisman v0.54-dev (Linux/x86_64)
    * Origin: Space Junk! BBS :: SpaceJunkBBS.com:2323 (21:4/158)
  • From SYS64738@21:1/245 to j0hnny a1pha on Tue Oct 15 00:51:58 2024

    We lost another one, Ward passed away at the age of 78.

    Sorry if this was already covered here. I just saw it.

    "On Friday, Ward Christensen, co-inventor of the computer bulletin board system (BBS), died at age 78 in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Christensen,
    along with Randy Suess, created the first BBS in Chicago in 1978, leading
    to an important cultural era of digital community-building that presaged
    much of our online world today."


    Aw, man. I hate to hear that. Such a pioneer. RIP, Mr. Christensen.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: Get Synched! (geo.synchro.net) (21:1/245)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to j0hnny a1pha on Tue Oct 15 07:05:00 2024
    j0hnny a1pha wrote to All <=-

    "On Friday, Ward Christensen, co-inventor of the computer bulletin
    board system (BBS), died at age 78 in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Christensen, along with Randy Suess, created the first BBS in Chicago
    in 1978, leading to an important cultural era of digital community-building that presaged much of our online world today."

    I'm glad Jason Scott interviewed him for the BBS documentary - we have
    some footage of him that'll live on.

    RIP.



    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to j0hnny a1pha on Tue Oct 15 10:13:14 2024
    Re: RIP, Ward Christensen
    By: j0hnny a1pha to All on Mon Oct 14 2024 01:14 pm

    "On Friday, Ward Christensen, co-inventor of the computer bulletin board system (BBS), died at age 78 in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Christensen, along with Randy Suess, created the first BBS in Chicago in 1978, leading to an important cultural era of digital community-building that presaged much of our online world today."

    I saw this the other day, and it's sad to hear. I saw his interview in BBS: The Documentary, where he was talking about making his BBS software with Randy Suess, where they were snowed in and couldn't go to work, and they started working on CBBS. That seems to me like it would be a perfect snowed-in project to work on at home.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to j0hnny a1pha on Wed Oct 16 12:49:10 2024
    On 14 Oct 2024 at 01:14p, j0hnny a1pha pondered and said...

    We lost another one, Ward passed away at the age of 78.

    Sorry if this was already covered here. I just saw it.

    RIP Ward... :(

    I saw this earlier on social media but good to see it being shared in echomail which I think is more poignant.

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Avon on Wed Oct 16 11:13:02 2024
    We lost another one, Ward passed away at the age of 78.

    Sorry if this was already covered here. I just saw it.

    RIP Ward... :(
    I saw this earlier on social media but good to see it being shared in echomail which I think is more poignant.

    F
    RIP Ward... </3

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... Redundant book title: DOS For Dummies

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)