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by dunnevens 1743 days ago
Regarding high latency twitter: maybe someone should make FidoNet.social. For those who don't remember, back in the early 90's your local BBS's might offer message boards connected to the rest of the US/world. Not a continuous connection. Every day at 2 AM (or whenever), your favorite BBS would dial into some remote node and sync messages.

Practical effect was a roughly 24-48 (or more) hour wait for responses. Didn't stop bickering though. I was quite young at the time. Asked some question about a game. The first response was fairly hostile. Which started an argument. My first time flamed online, and my first online argument. Which went very slowly.

Still, slow social media would be interesting. I kinda like the FidoNet model. Where syncing only happens once a day. Maybe only at a set time overnight. Faster than snailmail but you have the full day to type out your response about why Ultima V did not suck as your opponent claimed. With the ability to submit a post any time, but also with the ability to edit it until sync. I think it would encourage long posting more than the current systems. Which may or may not be a good thing.
2 comments
int_19h 1743 days ago
FidoNet didn't really mandate syncing once per day. It required the nodes to sync at least that often, and established a common hour for each zone to allow direct node-to-node connections for that purpose; but even in late 90s, larger nodes would already sync more often in practice.

FWIW FidoNet is still around, although most connections seem to be over IP these days.

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hkt 1743 days ago
I've always wondered about the practicality of doing something like fidonet over AX25/some other packet radio system. It'd be fabulous to be able to ditch the internet and participate in something slower and more humane. Your post has reminded me of that ambition. These days, I'd love an e-ink display to accompany it. Slow computing!
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int_19h 1743 days ago
With AREDN, you get a whole TCP/IP ecosystem to play with. This could then be used to run protocols like UUCP or NNTP, that are tailored to disconnected scenarios.

https://arednmesh.readthedocs.io/

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