In the late 1970s and '80s, people built their own online worlds using home computers, phone lines, and dial-up modems. These systems were called Bulletin Board Systems, or BBSs. They weren't designed by corporations or optimized for growth. They were small, local, and constrained by default. This video traces the rise, connection, and collapse of BBS culture: from a Chicago blizzard that accidentally invented the first online community, to a global grassroots network that supported art scenes, fandoms, activism, and underground hacking all before the modern internet existed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3wVhCE4j1c