Bring back the BBS!
We may have to resort to Samizdat...........again..................
Bring back IRC!!!
I’m in... The main thing that helped kill that direct dial in trend was the phone bill per minute. Now days phone calls are unlimited for a set base fee. It would work better now that it did then because of this.
Seems a shame we have to consider going backwards in technology because of the greed and arrogance though.
I suspect with the better tech we have now, even a BBS system can be made to go much faster. But the old system relied on copper line telephony which in may areas you can’t get anymore.