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By Jim Trageser
See, I thought I had some e-mail messages I'd saved from sysops wanting their boards reviewed. But then I couldn't find them, so I figured my memory was just acting up again (parenthood seems to have brought that on). But then I got a new computer, and while moving files over from the old hard drive, well, you know what happened. So apologies to all the sysops who've been wondering why the butthead columnist promised to visit and then didn't.
Anyway, it s been awhile, so here's a BBS review:
619/688-1026
The Crypt BBS runs on a half-dozen lines and uses Wildcat! software. The log-in sequence is fairly quick; you do need proof of age and a monetary contribution if you want to get to the naughty parts. There is some nice ANSI artwork; even better in color. (And I find it interesting that BBS sysops feel compelled to post various federal privacy disclaimers to protect themselves while Webmastesr don't.)
The Crypt offers a one-week free trial period; after that, access costs a $5 monthly subscription.
What do you get for your money? Well, first-time visitors don t seem to get access to much, so I don t know entirely. However, from the active conversation areas – remarkable, given that the ones I saw were local to The Crypt only – it seems there are quite a few online games for subscribers, games that appear to inspire a healthy level of competitiveness among callers.
The files area is well-stocked: Internet, entertainment, anti-virus, graphics (sorted by animation, gifs, bmps and jpgs). There were tons of Windows games; literally hundreds of shareware and public domain arcade and adventure games.
As mentioned, the five conversation areas are pretty busy for not being netted; the Crypt BBS main message area has several messages per day from regular users.
The Crypt has been up for more than a year, and seems likely to be around for a bit longer, anyway.
The San Diego Hysterical Society is seemingly a parody of the San Diego Historical Society, presenting an alternative history of San Diego. Since the Historical Society is relatively low-key and scandal-free, one might wonder what they did to bring parody on themselves. One might also wonder why this parody isn't very funny.
Lord knows there's enough unearthed scandal in this county without having to resort to making stuff up – but certainly much of what's here is complete fiction. Since there is no serious spot on this page, it's simply impossible to know what's based on fact and what's based on sheer imagination.
Maybe I'm being a curmudgeon, or perhaps I'm in a foul mood as I write this, but this site struck me as, well, boring; kind of like Al Gore trying to be funny.