Request for help on Dune BBSs

[alharba]

Greetings. I am making my way here from Dune2k (which I actually joined more for discussions about the books than the games), and thought this community might be able to help me out.

I write and teach about American popular culture, and am beginning work on an article about Dune, a series I have long enjoyed. I am particularly interested in the idea of memory both within the Dune novels, as well as the issues that have emerged over "canon." Initially, I am focusing on the ideas around the Butlerian Jihad. Which brings me to my plea.

Up to this point, much of what I am looking at in terms of discussions about Dune and the BJ have been on usenet group alt.fan.dune. I am curious, however, about how much of this discussion may have taken place on BBSs in the pre-web days (If you have to ask, and you do not remember the screech of a 1200 modem, consider yourself lucky ). So far, I am slogging through lists of BBSs over at http://bbslist.textfiles.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Does anyone remember a BBS with a good deal of discussion about Dune? I have a lead (courtesy of Andrew over at Dune2k) on a BBS that existed in GA, and am pursuing that. Thank you for any help in advance. You have a great site here.

[Omphalos]

Greetings. I am making my way here from Dune2k (which I actually joined more for discussions about the books than the games), and thought this community might be able to help me out.

I write and teach about American popular culture, and am beginning work on an article about Dune, a series I have long enjoyed. I am particularly interested in the idea of memory both within the Dune novels, as well as the issues that have emerged over "canon." Initially, I am focusing on the ideas around the Butlerian Jihad. Which brings me to my plea.

Up to this point, much of what I am looking at in terms of discussions about Dune and the BJ have been on usenet group alt.fan.dune. I am curious, however, about how much of this discussion may have taken place on BBSs in the pre-web days (If you have to ask, and you do not remember the screech of a 1200 modem, consider yourself lucky ). So far, I am slogging through lists of BBSs over at http://bbslist.textfiles.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Does anyone remember a BBS with a good deal of discussion about Dune? I have a lead (courtesy of Andrew over at Dune2k) on a BBS that existed in GA, and am pursuing that. Thank you for any help in advance. You have a great site here.

I never found many old fashioned BBSs that talked about Dune, but I do remember finding a bunch of things on gopherspace back in the days before the WWW. I always wondered how many of them migrated over to the web in the early 90s.

I'd be interested to see what you find.

EDIT: I just went to look at that page. Man does that bring back a lot of FUN memories.

[alharba]

I never found many old fashioned BBSs that talked about Dune, but I do remember finding a bunch of things on gopherspace back in the days before the WWW. I always wondered how many of them migrated over to the web in the early 90s.

I never did much with gopher (partly because I never fully understood the difference between that and telnet - and once lynx came along, I got lazy!) Was gopher essentially connected servers with with IP addresses? I remember something about fetching documents online.
EDIT: Actually, I just got the overbite add-on for Firefox, and it appears there are some gopher servers still there. Suddenly I remember more that I thought I did about Archie and Veronica and WAIS. Thanks for the lead!

I'd be interested to see what you find.

EDIT: I just went to look at that page. Man does that bring back a lot of FUN memories.

I'll be happy to let you know. As for the bbs page, yep - me to. Well, except for the BBS that my roommate in college ran on our only phone line!

[SandRider]

just to clarify here, are you looking for discussion on your topic in general,
or, for what reason I almost grasped but then it just sorta slipped away,
discussion on your topic specifically from dead dune boards ?

cause, you know .... I'd think that just about anyway you could chew on the
Butlerian Jihad has been done several times over here in the sietch & @T(A)U .....

and of course there's always authorized vetted opinions & discussion on the
Official Corporate Dune Forum, http://www.404filenotfound.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ....

[Omphalos]

Was gopher essentially connected servers with with IP addresses?

It was basically non-graphical hyperlinks w/o any file transfer protocol stuff. You needed an FTP client to get docs from a gopher site. Telnet was for conversations.

[alharba]

just to clarify here, are you looking for discussion on your topic in general,
or, for what reason I almost grasped but then it just sorta slipped away,
discussion on your topic specifically from dead dune boards ?

cause, you know .... I'd think that just about anyway you could chew on the
Butlerian Jihad has been done several times over here in the sietch & @T(A)U .....

and of course there's always authorized vetted opinions & discussion on the
Official Corporate Dune Forum, http://www.404filenotfound.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ....

Right now I am working on an article that may become a book from a cultural studies perspective. For the article, I am interested in tracking how it was remembered both "in" the Duniverse and "outside" of it. The "dead dune boards" would be important here because that is where I could track discussions about the Butlerian Jihad at a time when the only references were the six original books and the DE. I am getting a good deal of that on alt.fan.dune, but that only starts in 1992 (or maybe 94 - I do not have my notes handy). Any BBS's would cover 1986 to 1992. What I am interested is the interplay among the different versions of what constitutes the BJ, and what that says about the nature of authority and canon in popular literature. I hope that clarifies things. Like I said, any files from dead bbs's would be great if I could find them, but I realize I am seeking the "golden yoke floating in the ocean." Heck, I might wind up seeking out a 5 1/4" floppy drive - maybe someone makes one with a USB connection!

[Omphalos]

just to clarify here, are you looking for discussion on your topic in general,
or, for what reason I almost grasped but then it just sorta slipped away,
discussion on your topic specifically from dead dune boards ?

cause, you know .... I'd think that just about anyway you could chew on the
Butlerian Jihad has been done several times over here in the sietch & @T(A)U .....

and of course there's always authorized vetted opinions & discussion on the
Official Corporate Dune Forum, http://www.404filenotfound.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ....

Right now I am working on an article that may become a book from a cultural studies perspective. For the article, I am interested in tracking how it was remembered both "in" the Duniverse and "outside" of it. The "dead dune boards" would be important here because that is where I could track discussions about the Butlerian Jihad at a time when the only references were the six original books and the DE. I am getting a good deal of that on alt.fan.dune, but that only starts in 1992 (or maybe 94 - I do not have my notes handy). Any BBS's would cover 1986 to 1992. What I am interested is the interplay among the different versions of what constitutes the BJ, and what that says about the nature of authority and canon in popular literature. I hope that clarifies things. Like I said, any files from dead bbs's would be great if I could find them, but I realize I am seeking the "golden yoke floating in the ocean." Heck, I might wind up seeking out a 5 1/4" floppy drive - maybe someone makes one with a USB connection!

I bet I can find an old Commodore 64 cassette deck for ya. No USB tho.

[SandRider]

I understand what you're getting at - discussion and ideas pre-McDune ....
historical perspectives ... I can dig it ....

now, I have several 5&a quarter drives that still work with a 386 ...
and I have a 3&a half drive that will connect to that 386, and a
3&a half USB drive ... or I could just pull the harddrive and daisy-chain
it up thru the pentium 2 & 3 machines out in the barn ....