NIRVANAnet

Article summary

NIRVANAnet was a dial-up BBS network, started in 1989 in the San Francisco Bay Area, by Joe Russack (also known as Dr. Strangelove, the sysop of Just Say Yes, an early two node BBS), and Jeff Hunter (also known as Taipan Enigma, sysop of the & the Temple of the Screaming Electron), when they linked their existing systems using FidoNet protocol. Later, they were joined by Ratsnatcher (sysop of the East Bay based Rat Head Systems). NIRVANAnet was unique among BBS networks at the time because member BBS systems agreed to allow anyone to connect, and access everything on the systems, instantly and anonymously. They also traded thousands of text files between the systems covering every subject imaginable. &TOTSE continued as a website until January 17, 2009, when it was closed by Jeff Hunter. It later expanded to include other eclectic BBSs that valued liberty and privacy, including realitycheckBBS (Poindexter Fortran), The New Dork Sublime (Count Zero Interrupt), My Dog Bit Jesus (Berkeley-Oakland, Dittany of Crete/Susan), Lies Unlimited (South San Francisco, later Salt Lake City, Mick Freen), Sea of Noise (Norwich, CT), El Observador, The Salted Slug (Santa Cruz, also Dr.…

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