# How long have you been a "Message Board" person?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 8, 2012, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822 "2012-01-08T14:51:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/1 "2012-01-08T14:51:59Z")
Public poll.
Counting the years before “the internet” (let’s say early 90’s and the World Wide Web anyway) when it was local dial-up bulletin boards or other modem-oriented connections with other personal computers, how long have you been a participant in such things?
For a bit of history, check out [History of the World Wide Web](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_World_Wide_Web)
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### Author:  [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/2 "2012-01-08T14:59:08Z")
I can remember being back in middle school when kids were passing around BBS phone numbers (mostly for porn – in text, of course). I’m 32 now, so yeah, over 16 years. I’m such an addict.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/3 "2012-01-08T15:04:55Z")
12+ years just here, then there was the AOL boards. Plus I was on other message boards on AOL before the SDMB came along. Before AOL I screwed around with the sorry excuse for message boards they had over at Prodigy and before that I did the BBS thing. But that was just one or two local people that were hosting little servers out of their bedrooms. Once in a while I might dial into something bigger, but not much. I’m going to say 15-16 years only because that would put me at 16 years old and I distinctly remember having a driver’s license when I was first getting started with the BBS thing.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/4 "2012-01-08T15:36:26Z")
> [@fluiddruid](#):
>
> I can remember being back in middle school when kids were passing around BBS phone numbers (mostly for porn – in text, of course). I’m 32 now, so yeah, over 16 years. I’m such an addict.
Yep. I was already grown when my son got into “modeming” with the Commodore Users Group in our area. My first log-on was in 1985. Just now I was having a momentary brain fart with arithmetic and thought that meant 16 years. That’s off a bit! We didn’t get an IBM-type PC (Compaq actually) until 1995 and it took a little while before the message board thing caught us, but that may be why 16 years were stuck in my mind. That and fuzzy thinking.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/5 "2012-01-08T15:39:12Z")
The GEnie boards and Usenet go back 20+ years for me.
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### Author:  [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/6 "2012-01-08T15:44:22Z")
Got my KayPro II in '83 and found a movie review bulletin board. My, how time flies.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/7 "2012-01-08T15:48:37Z")
Not too long ago, and maybe still, you could still find my first Usenet posts from 1997.
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### Author:  [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/8 "2012-01-08T15:48:49Z")
I was on the “fly boards” and “yeast boards”, more like list servs, back in grad school in early '90s. They were for asking questions about techniques using these experimental orgs. If I google my old email from grad school these posts come up still! Also, we had access to Usenet boards like alt.tv.etc and other topics that I participated in. I found an old Twin Peaks post and an old recipe request once while ego googling.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/9 "2012-01-08T16:04:24Z")
I went with 15-16 years since I’ve been doing it since discovering the Buzzsaw boards on aol sometime during my freshman year of college, so probably early in 1996 (if not Christmas break in 1995).
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### Author:  [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/10 "2012-01-08T16:28:56Z")
!3 years. AOL boards and then the X-Files message board, then Gingerbeer.
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### Author:  [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/11 "2012-01-08T16:46:16Z")
Usenet via the Uni computers, 1995. Good times 🙂
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/12 "2012-01-08T16:47:21Z")
Since 1983, starting with local bulletin boards, up on through fidonet, then onto usenet newsgroups. Strangely, I avoided WWW message boards for a long time, based on the perception that they were exclusively populated by half-wits.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/13 "2012-01-08T16:53:10Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#):
>
> Since 1983, starting with local bulletin boards, up on through fidonet, then onto usenet newsgroups. Strangely, I avoided WWW message boards for a long time, based on the perception that they were exclusively populated by half-wits.
Just out of curiosity, has that perception changed? 😃
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/14 "2012-01-08T16:56:13Z")
> [@Zeldar](#):
>
> Just out of curiosity, has that perception changed? 😃
Yes. “Half” was being generous :D:D
Wow, looking at the poll results, we’ve got some geezers here! Including myself, who fondly remembers Fidonet and all the others…
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### Author:  [@Ambihelical\_Hexnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambihelical_Hexnut)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/15 "2012-01-08T17:02:00Z")
9 - 10 years for me. I got an internet connection in early 2000, but it took over 2 years before I discovered message boards. I first joined a message board (GameFAQs) in November 2002.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/16 "2012-01-08T17:03:02Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#):
>
> Yes. “Half” was being generous :D:D
>
> Wow, looking at the poll results, we’ve got some geezers here! Including myself, who fondly remembers Fidonet and all the others…
It’s a geezer party for sure. I’m wondering if the public nature of the poll is scaring short-timers away. Or maybe it’s that short-timers are just not into polls to start with.
One other thing: when “geezers” include folks in their 30’s, maybe we need a new term for that group. Ideas?
Board-weary?
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/17 "2012-01-08T17:27:13Z")
I’ve been here for a _long_ time. :o
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### Author:  [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/18 "2012-01-08T17:52:45Z")
I’ve been fascinated by message boards for as long as I’ve been on the internet - which I think started in 1994 or so. I’m pretty sure I joined my first message board when I was 11 (a BBS discussing some silly computer game I played), and I’m 26 now, so 15 years. Wow.
I didn’t have my own computer from 2004 - early 2009, but I still read message boards on the occasions I did have access.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/19 "2012-01-08T17:55:46Z")
Since I was about 14 in 1993. Like **Larry Mudd** I remember AOL and the www were considered sort of bullshit when they came around.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-a-message-board-person/608822/20 "2012-01-08T18:02:38Z")
The oldest Usenet post I can find is from 1994 (in alt.fan.conan-obrien).
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