Philly DDials.. (Diversi-Dial)
Savage Frontier, Active Imagination, Improbability Factor, Somerton Telecom, The Cat House, Iron Fang Keep… If any of these sound familiar to you, you just might be an old school ddialer. WTF is DDial? Go google it, I’m sure you will find a wiki somewhere. For those of you who know what I’m talking about, then you probably know me. Back in the mid 80′s, I was known as ‘King Ben’. When I think about 300 baud modems, the screeching sound of a carrier signal, and the everlasting sound of a busy signal, it takes me back to the days of my Amiga 500, running JRComm to connect. The feuds between certain DDials, and when other DDials would link up a node with CA, or NY.
That truly was our first taste of an ‘Internet’. Being able to call a local number, and able to talk to other ddialers in other states, and even other time zones was unheard of for many people, but it made memories. Terms like ‘Owned’ and ‘ROFL’ weren’t born yet, and ‘LOL’ was just making its way around. We had terms like ‘m0e’ (as of right now, that is not in WiKiPedia, so I will give you a link to find out what it is: http://everything2.com/title/m0e ) ‘Re” which meant you left for some reason, and just came back online, or even ‘Lurk’ which means I will be right back, or I am doing something else, but I am not logging off. That is all I can remember off the top of my head, but many of these terms did not survive, however, the old schoolers know what time it is 
Some day, I want to reopen the doors of DDials, even for nothing more than nostalgic purposes, which will include 7 nodes, just like the original. Maybe see if we can even bring back the names, AI, IF, SF etc.. And maybe even some of the old ddialers. That would be fun 
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversi-Dial
One persons ‘Anti-Ddial’ rant:
Here are three pictures full of ugly people – 1 – 2 – 3. Who are these enigmatic abnormalities, you ask? DDialers. DDial stands for Diversi-Dial, and was basically the first online chat system. It only ran on Apple IIe computers using 300 baud modems. Created in 1984 by Bill Basham, it quickly became a mecca for the misfits cast out by higher-ranking misfits. On DDials nationwide, you were able to find the lowest of the low in the online hierarchy. Not accepted by their family, friends, or even other BBSs, they would turn to DDial for their daily dose of awkward human interaction. DDial eventually died during the Internet-boom, and being the insipid little cyber-survivors they are, they created a DDial emulation client and still gather to talk to this day on the Internet, since they are banned by AOL/Yahoo chatroom misfits. History repeats itself, folks. The pictures I included are from a very recent gathering of these endangered mutants. You didn’t think there was still a guy with a beat up Metallica shirt and feathered blonde hair? You didn’t think there was an oriental guy still walking around in stone-washed denim jeans and a boxed haircut with a “Hello, My Name Is” sticker? You actually thought the guy with the mullet wearing a snakeskin tie was long gone? Look no further, fellow critics of human behavior. They all ended up on DDial, permanently stuck in 1988, forever doomed to reminisce about the glory they’ve convinced themselves they once had. - Styx of Rebel-Alliance.net styx@rebel-alliance.net
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