BBS & FIDONET: THE ORIGINAL DECENTRALIZED REBELS (A MANIFESTO FOR NOSTR)
"Kids today think ‘decentralization’ started with Bitcoin. Let me school you in how we built the internet’s immune system—with 300-baud grit and volunteer rage."
1. THE 90S UNDERGROUND (NO VC FUNDING, NO SAFETY NETS)
Costs We Ate:
$200/month phone bills (one line per user, dial-up screeches).
Electricity roasting 486 CPUs in mom’s basement.
Zero pay—just pride in hosting The Pirate’s Cove BBS or FidoNet Node 666.
Why? Because freedom wasn’t a SaaS product.
2. THE RULES WE LIVED BY:
✅ No ‘scale at all costs’ → If your BBS hit 10 users, you bought another phone line.
✅ No ads → Just ANSI art and shareware ethics (“Pay if you like it”).
✅ No censorship → Mods were janitors, not thought police.
3. THE NOSTR PARALLEL:
Relays = Modern BBSes
Volunteer-run.
User-curated.
"Don’t like my rules? Spin up your own."
Zaps = Shareware Honor System
Toss a few sats to your favorite relay op—not because you have to, but because they’re keeping the lights on.
4. THE WAKE-UP CALL:
"You think running a Nostr relay is ‘too hard’? Try debugging a multi-line Wildcat! BBS at 3AM because some warez kiddie crashed it.*
We didn’t wait for ‘business models’—we built the damn future with soldering irons and stolen phone lines.
#NostrIsJustBBS2.0
#DialUpTheRebellion 📠⚡
P.S. To the new gens: "You want decentralization? Earn it. We did." 😏
Farley / Farley | Retired Fortune 10 ☕
npub1fa…x670r
2025-04-21 02:20:41
Author Public Key
npub1farleyjgt90e2sr8nlneuwg7vcx0yjq3uc3ksya7902eteulzfkqyx670rPublished at
2025-04-21 02:20:41Event JSON
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"content": "BBS \u0026 FIDONET: THE ORIGINAL DECENTRALIZED REBELS (A MANIFESTO FOR NOSTR)\n\n\"Kids today think ‘decentralization’ started with Bitcoin. Let me school you in how we built the internet’s immune system—with 300-baud grit and volunteer rage.\"\n\n1. THE 90S UNDERGROUND (NO VC FUNDING, NO SAFETY NETS)\n Costs We Ate:\n $200/month phone bills (one line per user, dial-up screeches).\n\n Electricity roasting 486 CPUs in mom’s basement.\n\n Zero pay—just pride in hosting The Pirate’s Cove BBS or FidoNet Node 666.\n\n Why? Because freedom wasn’t a SaaS product.\n\n2. THE RULES WE LIVED BY:\n✅ No ‘scale at all costs’ → If your BBS hit 10 users, you bought another phone line.\n✅ No ads → Just ANSI art and shareware ethics (“Pay if you like it”).\n✅ No censorship → Mods were janitors, not thought police.\n\n3. THE NOSTR PARALLEL:\n Relays = Modern BBSes\n Volunteer-run.\n User-curated.\n \"Don’t like my rules? Spin up your own.\"\n\n Zaps = Shareware Honor System\n Toss a few sats to your favorite relay op—not because you have to, but because they’re keeping the lights on.\n\n4. THE WAKE-UP CALL:\n\"You think running a Nostr relay is ‘too hard’? Try debugging a multi-line Wildcat! BBS at 3AM because some warez kiddie crashed it.*\n\nWe didn’t wait for ‘business models’—we built the damn future with soldering irons and stolen phone lines.\n\n#NostrIsJustBBS2.0\n#DialUpTheRebellion 📠⚡\n\nP.S. To the new gens: \"You want decentralization? Earn it. We did.\" 😏",
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