It's hard to imagine that I have been "on-line" since 1984. My first experience on-line was during a visit home to Pittsburgh. Using my father's AT&T 6300 (named that because I think that is what the damn thing cost in 1984!!!) and his 300 baud...yes that is not a typo for all you Newbies...300 baud hayes modem.

In those days it was mostly technical stuff. You logged on to local Bulletin Board Systems (bbs) and posted messages similar to today's Newsgroups. You'd ask something like.."How do I kill high bits from a WordStar 1.1 document?". A day or so later you'd get a response on the proper DOS commands to do what you needed to do.

Once back in Los Angeles, and getting my own computer (IBM compatible 8088, 640 k of ram, 20 meg HD, using my limited funds to buy a 1200 baud modem instead of a printer!)I found a listing of local BBSs. The first time someone said/typed "Hello" to me I nearly fell off my chair. I was sure I was being hacked!! They were after the new family tree file my father had sent me...I was sure of it. But it turned out to be Ken Shuster, the SYSOP (system operator) of IPS, a local bulletin board for Actors, Writers and Directors.

Ken typed/talked me through my first download. It was a shareware program called Screen Write Pro...a script formatting program. It took the hassles out of properly formatting a film script. From then on I was a download junkie...which was dangerous in those days since there was no real protection for viruses.

I found my first Social BBS in the back of a local paper. It was called DABBS, David's Amazing BBS, and was based in Pacific Palisades. On DABBS there were five lines available. That meant that five of us could be online at the same time..chatting...or downloading...or posting messages in the "Forum" section. I can still remember some of the first people I met there Janis33, Penny5, David1 and Zippy699.

We really were pioneers...we discovered first that on-line time was faster than real time. Closer to Dog Years!!! We also discovered how by chatting you are involved in pure communication. You read, comprehend, then respond. In real conversations you only hear about 30 percent of what is really being said. However, on-line you are involved in 100% of the conversation. It builds bonds fast...sometimes too fast. You get to the point where you can tell just by the way a "friend" is typing how they feel, or if they are distracted. You miss them when you don't see them... and at times...spend wayyyy too much time waiting to see who will come around.

It was fun...innocent...and monochromatic. You were local...so you didn't pull the things people pull today in regards to deception on-line. Yes I'm sure that there were men acting as women...but not the rampant lies that you find today. It was a more honest...innocent time.

The Chat Explosion happened around 1987. Prodigy was the big Commercial Provider...giving national access... BBSes like TalkChannel, and Playpen, and US Pompeii added more and more modems...giving 20 or more people per service access to the system at one time. We had "doors" or "gateways" to an early version of the internet. I could email people all over the world. Companies like Compuserv and America Online were growing. The push was on.

I had been to a few DABBS get togethers. Usually five to ten of us regulars having a pizza at Wildflower Pizza in Santa Monica, but now, parties were full blown PARTIES!

What was interesting was people that were totally anti social in real life...were able to be completely social on-line. They were bold, witty, sexy, strong, assertive and in control as long as they were behind their monitors, safe without fear of rejection. At the parties, they would retreat again...falling into their shells...I can remember meeting a guy who was a regular in one of the chat rooms...he couldn't even look me in the face!!! He mumbled something about his wife...and ran out of the room...meanwhile...on-line he had put the moves on every woman in the chat room.

to be continued....