Creator of Social Media & The BBS dies October '24

[@rainmant5724]

I met him in 1990 repairing his car!! I worked at a Saab dealer, and he had a 900 with the plates "XMODEM". Very humble, down to earth guy.

[@AlsGeekLab]

Aw that's lovely!

[@Grunchy005]

That is fantastic! On my BBS program I eventually was able to offer Xmodem, Ymodem, possibly Zmodem (not sure if I ever got that one), Kermit, and of course Punter. The algorithms were all published and relatively easy to implement.

[@mwolrich]

I ran CBBS Boston, using Ward’s gigantic assembly language BBS software that ran under CP/M, he did a great job with it, and even had several updates as technology improved, such as when the PMMI super fast 600 baud modem came out .. I even created a custom circuit for my BBS that rebooted the system when the incoming call arrived, because I was in college 50 miles away, and couldn’t easily reboot it.. I also got to work for Wayne Green in Peterborough,NH (BYTE and Kilobaud) for a few summers, as I received a call from him one day, inviting me to take a look at his place.. he found me because of the BBS, and a screenshot of it was featured on a cover of Kilobaud 👌

[@AlsGeekLab]

Lovely human connection story because of BBSes! Thanks for sharing!

[@MouzafphaerrePostal]

Old enough to use BBSs in mid 90's before internet became a thing for the general consumer. RIP 🙏🏼

[@danachristensen6375]

Nice work! Wondering where the 1978 photo came from. NYT is trying to locate pics of him from that era. He was my uncle. I miss him!

[@AlsGeekLab]

Hi Dana, lovely to hear from a loved one! We all owe a great debt of gratitude to your Uncle for his part in the modern world of online communications, he sounds like he was a lovely gentle guy. NB The photo came from the excerpt from Jason Scott's BBS: The Documentary. Jason may be able to track down the actual source for you. He is pretty active on socials such as X, last time I checked.

[@xiphod1337]

If/when appropriate (after grieving and if family agrees, etc), please reach out to the VCF Midwest (Chicago area) or ask around on ways to preserve the original CBBS equipment (my understanding talking with Ward just last year, that he did still have that equipment?). Or consider the CHM in Mountain View. Whatever the family decision is to do, just be aware it is historical and meaningful equipment (I believe it was an IMASI 8080 custom build, IIRC).

[@danielkelly6523]

Rest in peace, sir. Your work carries on!

[@Grunchy005]

Wikipedia has a good article about the "Great Blizzard of 1978," it really was quite a storm: "About 20 people died as a direct or indirect result of the storm, most due to heart attacks or traffic accidents. At least one person died of exposure in a stranded automobile. Many were hospitalized for exposure, mostly from homes that lost power and heat. About 100,000 cars were abandoned on Michigan highways, most of them in the southeast part of the state." I had a great time with BBS's back in the 1980s, some buddies and I cooked up our own version in Commodore basic for the C64. Looking forward from BBS I think there's a strong future for "decentralized wireless" networks: Meshtastic vs Helium, currently.

[@gklinger]

Ward Christensen has logged off. RIP.

[@RachaelSA]

+++ATH

[@AlsGeekLab]

Nicely put 🥲