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Diversi-Dial

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Diversi-Dial, or DDial was an online chat server that was popular during the mid-1980s. It was a specialized type of bulletin board system that allowed all callers to send lines of text to each other in real-time, operating at 300 baud. In some ways, it was a sociological forerunner to IRC, and was a cheap, local alternative to CompuServe chat, which was expensive and billed by the minute. At its peak, at least 35 major DDial systems existed across the United States, many of them in large cities. During the evening when telephone rates were low, the biggest DDial systems would link together using Telenet or PC Pursuit connections, forming regional chat networks.

Diversi-Dial was written by Bill Basham, a computer hobbyist who ran a company known as Diversified Software Research in Farmington Hills, Michigan. All of his software followed the same naming scheme as "Diversi-[something]".

Customers typically paid the local DDial owner a flat rate of about $10 to $20 per month. Open access to anonymous visitors (called nons, r0s or m0es) was an effective hook to draw in paid registrations. Nons typically had a five-minute connect time limit unless they were "validated" by an assistant sysop, and were shut out of the system during peak usage hours.

A typical DDial system ran on a small cluster of Apple II computers, with seven connections per computer. In 1989, a DDial-like clone, Synergy Teleconferencing System AKA STS was developed for the IBM PC, but by this time it was outpaced by alternatives like GEnie. By the mid-1990s, DDials had been bypassed by the Internet and IRC, although at least one, Chicago's Point Zer0, kept a loyal following until it went offline in 1998. ENTchat, an Internet-based DDial look-alike, was somewhat active in the mid- to late 1990s but also went offline.

In 2006, The Late Night BBS went online, utilizing the original ddial software running on an Apple //e, but was accessible from the Internet via telnet. The system provided an authentic 1980s ddial experience, including the traditional 300 bit/s connection speed. Late Night BBS has since gone offline.

As of 2008, there are only a couple of operating DDials via telnet. One is a reincarnation of the long-running DDial Station #28, The Savage Frontier. This system served the Philadelphia metropolitan area in the 1980s and 1990s, at times under other names. Today, the system uses the same, authentic DDial software with TASC mods, and can be reached via telnet at chat.thesavagefrontier.com on port 9000. The other is XxSwitchBladexX's Digital Dial, which can also be reached via telnet at digitaldial.homeunix.com on port 10000 or Shark's which can be reached via telnet at chitchat.mooo.com port 20000.

References

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