By the way, there's currently space available in the user list to register as a new user at Snobsoft. But hurry - the few spots often fill up quickly since the 40-year-old list is already packed.
Quite interesting is that Christian, the coder and former sysop of Snobsoft, had pretty much forgotten everything about the Commodore 64 when I tracked him down for the Snobsoft comeback in 2022. His enormous knowledge of C64 assembler coding and C64 hardware—he had almost completely forgotten everything over the four decades. Did that happen to you as well with the old hardware and software when you resumed after a long break?
I was never much of a coder, but at least when it comes to C64 hardware, I pretty much remembered everything. The Snobsoft comeback was incredibly difficult as a result, since I had to teach myself nearly everything, such as how to operate the BBS and how to read the system logbook, almost without Christian's help. But somehow, that makes it fun too; it's part of the journey.
I also analyzed how BBS user behavior has changed 40 years later compared to the past. The data from the Snobsoft system logbook, which I have from 1986 and today, is quite interesting. I made a video about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsgsh8a3cNo
The video has German commentary, but it should be understandable with the YouTube English subtitles, which I believe are quite good nowadays.
Lutz G wrote on 2025-01-29, 08:11:Quite interesting is that Christian, the coder and former sysop of Snobsoft, had pretty much forgotten everything about the Commodore 64 when I tracked him down for the Snobsoft comeback in 2022. His enormous knowledge of C64 assembler coding and C64 hardware—he had almost completely forgotten everything over the four decades. Did that happen to you as well with the old hardware and software when you resumed after a long break?
That's how human brain works. These days there's just too much information to fit it all in, we've all came to rely on external memory. Books, audio recording, photos, videos, all the same thing.
I used to know Tcl, now I remember next to nothing of it. These days it's all about Python anyway. I have to look up certain BASIC stuff, like can I FOR a variable down with just end value being smaller or do I need to replace TO with DOWNTO, or set STEP to negative value? Little things like that. It all comes back quickly but I still need to look it up or experiment to recall.
I forgot most of the ZX Spectrum things, I can still write Z80 code but also need to look up some rarely used instructions. The only reason I still know how to write a DOS6 CONFIG.SYS menu is because play with that every few months. I used to know DOS int 21h calls and PC I/O ports but now I have to double-check at the very least. That list of things I sort-of remember but not in detail is quite long now...
Hello... I'm the "new" one..
That happens to me after 24 years without any BBS contact. Oh my gosh.....
So much knowledge was lost and there was so much scattered information about this topic on the internet.
It tooks weeks until I got some insight into what has changed since 1999!
A reason for me to open a forum specifically on this topic and everything that goes with it.
A lot of things in the forum are still a one man show because the acceptance among the sysops is not yet that high.
In my opinion, there is also a change in the nature of many sysops! Absolute my personal opinion!!!
But I believe in the goodness and benefit of this free project and I really enjoy adding new things to it almost every day!
If somebody like and has something to share (knowledge) or a story of his former or actual BBS.....
The door is open ==> www.sysops-finest.org
Mike