The History of BWMS (BackWater Message System) 1981 to 1997 by Michael Day BWMS was an early BBS (Bulletin Board System) which was originally brought on line June 11, 1981 as a system to test (300 baud) modem kits which Mike Day had designed and were sold by PCS (Portland Computer Society) to raise money for their own BBS. The modem kits were so popular (over a hundred kits were sold) that the BBS soon became a well known system. As a result, on September 1, 1981 BWMS was opened up for public access. This consisted mainly of letting people know that it existed. Originally BWMS operated from West Linn, Oregon. In 1983 BWMS was moved to Portland, Oregon where it remained. In 1986 a project was started to switch BWMS off of the old Diskwriter and onto a Sanyo 555 computer (a PC incompatible MSDOS based system). This was accomplished on May 17,1987. The authors of BWMS II were Mike Day, Shawn Instenes, Steve Neighorn, and Leonard Erickson. For those who are interested in such things, the BWMS II software was initially written in Turbo Pascal Ver3.0. It was quickly moved over to V4.0, later to V5.0, then V6.0 and finally V7.0. Starting around the later part of 1992, BWMS began to lose callers because of the users moving on to other areas of interest. Including the internet which was beginning to become popular. Soon after, several serious failures of the computer caused by weather related power problems, and the failing user base, caused three of the members of the original programming group to consider moving the system over to the internet. In 1996 a project was initiated by three of the original authors (Mike Day, Shawn Instenes, and Steve Neighorn), to move BWMS onto the internet. The first step of this was accomplished quickly, the domain name was registered, and the initial home page was created. Unfortunately, time constraints of the interested parties caused delays of the system being implemented beyond that level. With exceptions for the initial few months of use as a test site, full archives of the BWMS message base have been retained. Many of the users asked for copies in order to re-read the many stories and debates that occurred on the system. In January of 1997, Mike Day finally decided to install the archives on the internet in the hopes that it would at least be a start. There was also the worry that with the uncertain future of BWMS due to failing hardware and interest, that perhaps it would at least keep the concept alive for a little longer. The Hardware: The original hardware that BWMS ran on was built literally from junk box parts. The concept behind BWMS was from the day of it's creation, to cost no money other than the cost of the power and phone line costs. The parts were obtained from the junk parts from Hands On Terminals which built a store and forward computer called a DiskWriter. The software was a specially adapted version of the software that ran on the Diskwriter. Mike Day built the original system and adapted the software. The result of its early introduction and limited expenditures was a rather crude and limited text based line editor. With immediate storage to a floppy disk. This put many constraints on the users, but they didn't seem to mind. Many wrote their own software in order to be able to upload messages to the system. BWMS ran over five years with the original hardware only requiring two major repairs to keep it running. There were various minor upgrades to the hardware and software. Finally however, circumstances forced the retirement of the the original system. The old hardware was still fully operational, but it could no longer keep up with the demands being placed on it by the user base. In the later part of 1986 after much discussion, a small group of crazed programmers began the project of creating a new BWMS system. The intention was to retain the flavor of the original system, but to move it to a new hardware base and provide the ability to easily add new features that were not possible in the old EPROM based system, such as user accounts and passwords. After many months of effort and frustration, BWMS II was born and placed on line May 17, 1987. Mike Day adapted a spare Sanyo 555 that he had to be the host computer, and supplied an ATT 1200 baud modem. The original system had 256K of ram and two five inch DDDS floppy disks. The system was later updated to 512K of ram. Later, a core group of users got together and bought a replacement modem for the system after the ATT 212 modem died. After a lightning strike caused the computer and modem to fail, that modem was replaced with a generic spare 2400 baud modem that Mike Day had. The Sanyo was repaired (replacement monitor, new serial port, and several new memory chips) and placed back on line. In 1992 and 1993 weather problems caused major failure of the system, including lost data. The system encountered repeated problems after the last failure and was the primary reason for the decision to move the BWMS to the internet. In May 1996 the Backwater web site was created (just the home page). It remained that way for the rest of the year due to lack of time to pursue the matter further. Finally, in Jan 1997 the archives were added as a component to the web page. On 19 July 1997 the Sanyo system failed for the last time. Since Mike Day was in the process of moving to a new house, he just turned the system off and that was the end of BWII. After ten years of continuous operation, the Sanyo 555 well deserved its retirement. May it rest in peace. On November 24, 2001 Mike day finished putting all the previous BWMS archives (up to the 19 July 1997 termination date) on the internet at http://www.backwater.com. Coming in the future (hopefully), will be the resurrection of BWMS in all its glory on the internet - BWWW (BW3). -- 24 November 1997 --