Following is as acurate a history of this BBS system as I can remember, it hasn't always been called The Crow, it hasn't always been run on a PC. Over the years I have run a BBS many things have changed, some for the good, some for the worse. Here is a brief history of time (well at least what I can remember :)= )

Way back when I was just 17, (1993) I had to do an assignment for my BTEC National, it involved seeing what information could be gained from the Prestel system. To access the system we were given access to an Amstrad PCW green screen computer, with an old Hayes modem (1200/75 what a top baud rate :)= ). Prestel was, as you might expect, dull and boring, but it sparked an interest. A month or so later, my fave computer mag at the time (ST Format) ran an article on BBS's and listed a few numbers, so in a quest for knowledge (thats what we told our tutor :)= ) we started exploring. The first BBS we entered quickly became our fave, Ad-Lib in Newcastle. It seemed amazing... I was hooked!, every chance I got, I'd be on the Amstrad logging on, checking for new mail, sending out new messages.

This was just the first step. The next issue I got of ST Format had a full BBS package on a seperate cover disk, for a laugh I setup a 2meg RAM disk (considered a LOT of memory back then) and installed the software (I didn't have a hard disk, they also were things of awe). Now I was completely hooked, I logged onto this virtual BBS, created some scripts for it, played with it. It was fun, but I wanted it to do more, it wasn't good enough, I wanted people to be able to connect, to send messages etc etc. This required some cash, so I broke into the cash I was left from my grandads departure from this world, and went out and purchased a large hard drive (240 meg! stand back in awe eh? :)= ) and a nice quick modem (2400 baud! whoo!). A month or so of fiddling and it was set up, BT popped round and installed a new telephone line, and I was off! full 24Hrs access! Large Scale Integration BBS was born! (LSI BBS for short)

There were obviously a few bugs (few being an understatement), but eventually users started popping on, on saturdays I would get about 12 calls topps. It seemed Great!..... Until I ran some special disk de fragmenting software on my hard drive, and it all went off to silicon heaven! BOO!... I had only had the BBS running for 6-8 months at this point, I had also heard about all the limitations with the BBS software I was using (Michtron) such as after 2000 files in the database, things started going horribly wrong, it had a limited speed, few file areas, couldn't connect to FidoNET etc etc.... It was around this time (maybee just before the big bang :)= ) that I met Mark Williams of Merseyside BBS (changed to Nickelodian shortly after), he introduced me to the ways of Fido and QuickBBS.... new challenges, a new software... so what the heck a new modem!

My new 14400 modem (another Supra) named "Monty" arrived and off went LSI BBS again, this time with a LOT more time spent setting up, the open ended ness of QBBS made it a much better system, more people came to the BBS, I became a host for Tim Putnams InfiNET message network (the most busyest host in fact... we have a LOT to chat about up north), the callers went up, I bought a second ST so I could play without shutting down the BBS....

LSI BBS lasted probably around 1-2 years, it was doing well, the only problem was the hardware was dated... the modem was slow, there was no real point buying a faster modem, the ST's comm port would only work at a top speed of 19200, and everyone was going over to 28800 modems that had just come out.... I myself was becoming more and more fed up with the diminishing support for the ST, it had had it's day, now it was time to move over. So I twisted my parents arm and got a PC (well I built it... a DX4 100... not bad for the first PC I ever built!). Of course this meant buy buy to LSI (Hey I'm a poet and I don't know it), well sort of......

Just before I built my PC I had made quite a few new friends at priestly college, namely Andrew "Goot" Gauton (current co-sysop of The Crow), and Ian Morris. Andy showed a great interest in BBSing, and soon too was hooked, he offered to take over the role of Amiga Sysop on LSI (the previous one had been my ex-girlfriend Rachel Ryan), I accepted and Goot commenced Sysoping. Ian Morris became interested in BBSes also and planned to setup his own BBS on his PC (the was during the time I still had my ST), he started up a BBS using the RemoteAccess software, unfortunately, he never got the time to fully start up the BBS so it got shelved.

Anyway, once I had my own PC I decided to run my BBS off my PC, after all it was state of the art (well for comms packages anyway), so I also started up the BBS again, this time using RemoteAccess, LSI had been closed down for a few months now, I had become sick of the name the final ST system was a damn good one, it had it's own little personality and it worked!, but that was the past. I started up the crow, this would probably be around 1995 sometime, before September. The sysop team was myself and Andy, and we were both VERY suprised with how fast the BBS took off!, the introduction of the new name, new software, more fido echos and more time we had spent on setting it up ment more users, on average around 6-7 EVERY weeknight, peaking around 30 on a weekend. There was a steady mail flow from the system, the user base grew to over the 100 mark, about 40% of these were regular users, the file base grew faster than I could keep up with it and soon exceeded the 300 meg mark, new features were being added left right and center. Then I decided to make a switch, over to OS/2 Warp V3. Another ace decision, I could now modify and log onto the BBS whilst people were using it, enabling me to keep the BBS online more, I could also do my college work without interfering with the BBS.

Unfortunately, I needed more and more of my computer for college, (and games) so alas I had to close the BBS, being far too poor to be able to buy another machine for it......That is until now.... Now I have a machine dedicated to running the BBS (OK so it might do a bit of server work for my pooter as well), running OS/2 Warp V4 and RemoteAccess.... at the time of writing this message the system is still being set up, there are still many quests to perform (CD drive, modem, dedicated telephone line), but it's coming back... and even with EMail facilities (hopefully if I can get it to work :)= ).. and this time, it SHOULD stay back....


Well anyway, thats enough of me reminising, if you can, LOG ON NOW! it may not be the internet (which was another reason I closed the BBS down) but it is a damn good experience.. if not my BBS try someone local, someone with a few message echos, give it a try, it's actually pretty damn good, sortof a homly feel to it, like a small cyber communitiy.

Sorry about any spelling mistakes, but I am writing this in Notepad (the only true HTML editor :)= )... this is Me Graeme Hinchliffe saying, seeya untill next tyme :)=