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  • The History of HobbyNet

    From Mike Dippel@954:895/1 to All on Thu Sep 17 21:27:08 2026
    Back in the late 80's, I had a subscription to Prodigy. When it expired, I did some
    research and purchased the DOS version of Mustang's BBS software and ran 4 phone
    lines into my house.

    My wife loved to write in Prodigy's Cross-Stitch echo, so I decided to make my own
    Prodigy and devote it to hobbies.

    I lived in Broward county and found various other dialup systems that were willing to
    carry my feeds. The feed went as far as south Dade county and as far north as Palm
    Beach county.

    I even included a conference area devoted to Business Advertisers because I found that
    I could charge them to advertise, knowing that their ad would touch 3 nearby counties.
    I also found that I could charge my dial up users and give the paid ones a card that
    would give them a discount at any of the paid advertisers that I had on my system. I
    called it the HobbyNet Discount Card.

    Back then, BBS users expected everything to be free, and it was. But the paid members
    got the discount bonus feature with my business advertisers.

    That's my trip down memory lane. I'm sure everyone has a great story that you could
    share.

    Mike Dippel

    --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v10.0gr17
    * Origin: The Hobby Line! BBS - hobbylinebbs.com (954:895/1)
  • From Mickey@954:895/12 to Mike Dippel on Thu Sep 17 21:27:08 2026
    On 25 Sep 2023, Mike Dippel said the following...

    I also found that I could charge my dial up users and give the paid ones
    a card that
    would give them a discount at any of the paid advertisers that I had on
    my system. I
    called it the HobbyNet Discount Card.


    That's a great story, Mike. Wish I'd thought of that, though my first BBS back in 1989 called Oxford Mills Remote was in a small town that was long distance to all other surrounding towns. I used to advertise at the pin-up notice board at the local grocery store.

    Those were the days.

    Mick

    ------
    Mick Manning
    centralontarioremote.com:2300
    Central Ontario Remote

    ... Youth is glorious, but it isn't a career

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Central Ontario Remote Systems (954:895/12)