I feel this. Almost exactly the same experience. 300bps in early days. At some point got a 1200bps. Then 2400, then 14.4 and 28.8 came fast. WWIV variants. CDC. 2600. Phrack. 612-341-2459 for local Telenet dialup at the time, my fingers still know the number unconsciously. War dialing! 5ESS. SS7. Bluebeep. 0700 bridges. Even in the early days of the internet, EFnet had BBS flavor to some extent. Certainly the warez. haha. A lot of the same people. What a time. I remember the first time I was going through Computer Shopper and found the BBS list. First one I ever called was Unlawful Entry... welp. If fate exists, it was busy that day.

As someone else mentioned, the community is gone. But, I think there's also the feeling of victory from when you actually connected. You may have needed to autodial for hours to get onto the BBS. There was a huge amount of anticipation that led up to getting connected. Once you were on, it felt more special that it does today with the instant connection.

That is exactly what I felt looking at Darkrealms' site again.

I grew up on BBSes and ran one in the late 90's. It's not the same, there's no going back. Downloading random txt files with wacko conspiracy theories, fighting other online users in door games, dialing long distance for a chance to find cool warez, it's all hollow now. There's no community left. Any info you want can be found in seconds.

The community was gone. I guess that’s the reason. Nowadays discord and HN and other forums keep the same vibe.