I think that defines 95% of the world population.

:) 

Tue Nov 04 2025 22:09:57 UTC from darknetuser

, but most BBS networks are frequented by losers. 

Scumbag Altman wants to borrow 1 Trillion ( yes TRILLION ) for data center expansions for his company.

And thinks the federal government ( us ) should should play guarantor.

WTF?

It may be too late by then... 

Thu Nov 06 2025 18:07:58 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Hopefully the AI bust is coming soon. We're still in the phase of "whoever controls AI will rule the world" just like it was for the Internet itself 30 years ago. The current pace is unsustainable and everyone knows it.

And global warming? Even the worst person in the world is pivoting away from global warming alarmism. Nuclear is the better way and everyone knows it.

As long as you're still alive it's never too late.  Defeatism is the domain of the defeated.

We may not live to see the results of improvements but that doesn't matter!

Im with you.

The sad part is the collapse will take us with it im afraid.

Sat Nov 08 2025 19:16:32 UTC from darknetuser

I wish I could be half as positive as you. I myself only see dumb peple heading to their destruction.

Sun Nov 02 2025 22:54:25 UTC from Nurb432

I think that ship has sailed for the most part. FB and such have eaten the non-techie crowd.  

And with all the noise they generate, even most techies don't see us here.  Honestly, if i had not been into the BBS world back when that was all there was ( both from being sysop, and user since i had free long distance ), i might have missed it too.

Sun Nov 02 2025 21:46:18 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Funny thing about that, I like the tech stuff, but I never really wanted Uncensored to be a "techies only" place. 

 

I think you're right. I come here when I am done with that shit. It is just... mainstream, banal. I think what we ALL really want is.. 1985-1987 back again - when dialing into a BBS... especially a Citadel - brought you to this weird intellectual place that was beyond a C=64 Warez board full of 733T haxor kidz - into a a place where really smart misfit toys like us could connect with other people who got us. Who we could communicate with about whatever it was. Coding in assembly, playing D&D, listening to underground thrash, working on our PhD dissertations - but you had to be pretty smart just to figure out how to hook up your damn modem and then find a number to dial into back then. 
Now EVERY mouthbreathing knuckledragger can get online - and it shows. You don't REALLY want that here. I mean, you do, for traffic, for clicks - but if you get it, you'll regret it. It'll stop being your thing, and a corporation will come in and buy Citadel and a team will decide the future by committee and it'll become... Facebook. And you'll be sitting on your island in the Caribbean, Ig, with a garage full of Ferraris and Lamborghinis, wishing you could come back to this point right here and now, or maybe earlier. 

The thing that makes this magic is that it IS a little underground. It is a place where people like us can come when we need to get away from the rest of the world. 

It is Citadel.  

No one wants a Citadel community to turn into the roar of mainstream social.  I'd be happy if we had maybe a hundred regulars, after that it would get too big.

I have some ideas, but I haven't even gotten my webcit rewrite to the point where I can even start working on them yet.  We'll get there.

And yes, I'd take the big payday, but I can't see how anyone would want to spend a billion dollars on a GPL program they can't easily monetize.

A hundred regulars would be too much. If you had doors and they were spread over 5 sub BBSes maybe... 

But what you really want is somewhere between about 10 and 20 regular users with 5-8 who are big content creators. 

That was how the best dialup Citadels were. Maybe even like, 12 to 16 constant content creators - in a few different BBS cliques. It was real dynamic back then - at the end of the 80s into the early 90s. 

Phone call this morning on my house phone. "bla bla power outages due to wind storm, thank you for your patience" sounded almost like a Chinese woman. bad pronunciation and poor quality.   But, no 'please call us' or "press 1 " or anything like a scam. But didn't ID themselves as being with the company ( or it was cut off as if they started talking before the recording started..ive seen that before with robocalls ).. and while it is windy, there no outage reported in our area..  And last i remember our power company doesn't have our house number and instead my cell. BUT of course my area code and prefix will tell you the general area i live if one was scanning. 

Agreed 100 regular posters would make it hard to follow what is going on.

Just readers, you just toss more resources at it. 

Tue Nov 25 2025 03:22:48 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

A hundred regulars would be too much. If you had doors and they were spread over 5 sub BBSes maybe... 

But what you really want is somewhere between about 10 and 20 regular users with 5-8 who are big content creators. 

That was how the best dialup Citadels were. Maybe even like, 12 to 16 constant content creators - in a few different BBS cliques. It was real dynamic back then - at the end of the 80s into the early 90s. 

 

Yup. Passive users are easy - but you want a certain limitation on content creators - on posters - too much chatter - and it becomes X, or Facebook. Too much noise. Too many mouth-breathers. 

That is what made Citadel so good - it was the HARDEST BBS to get your head around - not like the menu driven C-64 Warez BBSes that were all 14 year old kids going, "WaR3z, D00d!" 

Citadel - you had 20 regular posters - they were all *smart* enough to be there. It weeded out the riff-raff. Snobby? Sure - but true. 

In Sacramento - it was a bunch of CSUS students and teachers - and then a bunch of really smart metalhead kids - and both cliques fought constantly... flamewars - insults, threats... 

But very intellectual - for the most part. I am still connected with a half dozen of them on Facebook - and oddly, their kids and cousins and sons-in-laws who heard about "Paranoid Delusions on the Citadels..." 

Gerhard of Eldweisse - GoE... dude has his own Wiki. He claimed he was a a mad dwarf - he wrote in prose, Shakespearian insults - against me as a 17 year old metalhead. He destroyed me - but he respected I tried to fight back. 

Pagan Flames - I still have his "collected works" in ASCII from Citadel 916. 

I get a little of that vibe here - This is an 80/20 website - you have the top 20% of online intellects here... and I'm sitting right at 19% among Uncensored users. The bottom of the top of the barrel. I know I'm the "dumb" one here. 

But it isn't a bad thing to be the dumbass able to hang with the top 20% of intellects. 

Man, Plex has sunk to a new low. They have been suckage for a while now, but this is even amazing for those scumbags.  If you want to stream from a friends personal server, it now costs you.   

I don't see why anyone messes with these jokers. 

https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/plex-starts-paywalling-remote-streaming-to-tvs-beginning-with-its-roku-app-160535590.html?guccounter=1

My friend who has been pirating via Plex on a buddy's server for years will be very disappointed. 
It is just an opportunity for some other streaming media service though. 

While not quite the same use case, i ditched them long ago and went to JellyFin.

Fri Nov 28 2025 07:04:15 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

My friend who has been pirating via Plex on a buddy's server for years will be very disappointed. 
It is just an opportunity for some other streaming media service though. 

 

Citadel - you had 20 regular posters - they were all *smart* enough to be there. It weeded out the riff-raff. Snobby? Sure - but true. 

[...]

I get a little of that vibe here - This is an 80/20 website - you have the top 20% of online intellects here... and I'm sitting right at 19% among Uncensored users. The bottom of the top of the barrel. I know I'm the "dumb" one here. 

Well then, pick whatever number you want ... 200, 100, 50 ... but the fact is that our community here, right now, is small enough that your triumphant return to our little corner of the 'net significantly moved the needle.

And that's why you're not just a "user" but truly an online friend.

So yes, there is a level of traffic beyond which that environment gives way to the mainstream roar of the information superhighway.  We're not even close to that.  We could have three or four times the traffic (including regulars and big posters) that we have now, and we'd probably hit the sweet spot.

I wouldn't get drowned out - even if that were the use case here. On Facebook - they've been trying to make me "go pro," for several years - because I generate big engagement. And I've been fighting it - because they already censor and silence me on unpopular opinions - and they've been blunt about, "If you go pro, you have to be very aware of our ToS and community guidelines." Oh, I'm aware MFers - I just choose to ignore them - so NO. 

And then they were like, "you have to make a choice, private account, with these limitations, or pro account, with these advantages, and these rules..." 

And I ignored that, and they made me pro. I've got 400 followers, above my "friends," at least half of which I don't know personally already. They give me feedback now, and goals on what is working, what isn't, what I should post to broaden my reach. 

THIS is the sweet spot. 

Sun Nov 30 2025 16:47:35 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Well then, pick whatever number you want ... 200, 100, 50 ... but the fact is that our community here, right now, is small enough that your triumphant return to our little corner of the 'net significantly moved the needle.

And that's why you're not just a "user" but truly an online friend.

So yes, there is a level of traffic beyond which that environment gives way to the mainstream roar of the information superhighway.  We're not even close to that.  We could have three or four times the traffic (including regulars and big posters) that we have now, and we'd probably hit the sweet spot.

As expected, Qualcomm are a bunch of **** and should be taken out back and shown the wall, in Doug Adams style.

https://thenewstack.io/adafruit-arduinos-rules-are-incompatible-with-open-source/

Samsung announced that they are going to start feeding you ads ( pun intended ) via the screens on their 'smart fridge' prodcuts. If you are dumb enough to spend 2k on an internet connected fridge, you deserve ads.

Myself, just give me a box that gets cold, and has a light in it so i can see my food. We dont need computers everywhere, simple electronics and even mechanical controls do just fine most of the time.

And related:

They have come up with an AI AD system for 'smart glasses' that will look at the world you see and 'quietly' swap in 'placement ads' Like if someone is holding a can of Pepsi.. its changed to say coke..    Or add a billboard in the distance that does not even exist..