Lothlorien BBS

I was surfing the Net yesterday, and was wondering about this BBS that I used to frequent back in the 90s, when BBSes were in and the Internet belonged to the universities. I found, to my surprise, that someone has decided to set up a forum to try and revive the old Lothlorien BBS. This new Lothlorien BBS can be found here.

The old Lothlorien BBS was run by a sysop going by the handle of Celeborn. In real life, I think his name was Marc Tan. It was a very different BBS from the rest in Singapore during its time. Most other BBSes focused on exchange of files, with upload and download ratios. Others focused on door games, such as Legend of the Red Dragon (aka LORD) and Barren Realms Elite (BRE). Lothlorien was different. It focused on people and their thoughts. People were known by their handles (aka aliases) such as Darkness, Midnight, Cipher, Modeus and Prim & Proper. There was a main discussion section, where everyone can read the messages that someone wrote to someone else. There was another private mail section known as Les Liaisons Dangereux (LLD in short) for times when you didn't want others to see you messages to one another. The syspop Celeborn had his own section too, and Cipher had her own too. There were a few door games, but most people logged in for the mails, not the door games.

At its peak, Lothlorien BBS (affectionately known as Lothy) had more than 300 mails a day in the main discussion area. On an average day, there would be 150 to 200 mails a day. Most of us would log in, download the mail packets, and read them offline with an offline mail reader such as BlueWave. With 300 mails, it takes around 3 hours to go through the mails and reply to those that interest you. Topics were varied; everything under the sun was discussed. For a teenager that I was then, Lothy introduced me to people from all walks of life, people whom I would otherwise not meet had I stayed in my little well. It allowed me to learn the viewpoints of others, to learn the fact that everyone has their own opinions. No one is always right, and in most cases, no one is ever right or wrong. The denizens of Lothlorien also had gatherings, where we were able to put a face to a name. It was through them that I learnt about the card game Magic: The Gathering.

Lothy started to go down with the rest of the BBSes when the Internet became more popular. With Singnet offering connection to the Internet, more and more online users started migrating from BBSes to the Internet.

I have yet to really join in at the new Lothlorien BBS, but it lacks the familiar feel of the old Lothy. Maybe it is because the discussion areas are not named the same. Maybe it is because the user base is not the same. I don't know. Lothy was to me a great board, one that deserves to be remembered as one of the fond memories of teenage years. I really miss the trees of Lothlorien.