Quote from http://www.planetmarauder.com/oldart.htm

Artwork and misc pictures I've done for my 'ol BBS and one true love, AOU. I ran the AOU BBS from 1993 to 1997, first in Toronto when I was there for school. I helped out a lad named Empedocles, who ran a 0-1 day warez board called Ash Ock Society. It was an elite board, and proffesionally run. No idiot kiddies here. (Very nice change, consdering that at that time, and I imagine today, the boards were overrun with moron hax0rz and "We R Krad warez d00dz"... You know the type, I'm sure. The internet is full of them. (*cough* counterstrikeplayers *cough*)

A few months after starting with AOS, I started up AOU, first as a source for underground information. Hacking/Phreaking mags, that sort of stuff. I pretty much ran it with an iron fist. No idiots allowed, and very few people under 16 period (again, kept the idiot factor down.) I ended up starting a few message nets (Such as BREnet, dedicated to Barren Realms Elite. Message nets were just like Newsgroups, but the messages were generally passed to one central BBS, the spread from there a few times a day.) and spent most of my time working on the board and the nets. (I was working part time at UPS at this time.) The board gradually moved into doors, (online games) and files. (On my big 'ol 85 meg hard drive and 286/16 baby !)

When I moved back home to Grand Valley in 1994, the board came with me. I ran one of the most succesful BBS's in the local area, and certainly one of the longest running. The board ended up averaging around 80 calls a day, and ran on two lines. I also started STEALTHnet, a message net with limited success. We had something like 10 nodes in Southern Ontario.

Due to lack of user financial support, I finally took the board down permenantly in 1997. I still miss those days in one way, but in another, considering the amount of work and money that went in, and the ingratitude and unwillingness to help of most of the users (Again, stupid kids.) it just wasn't worth it. Ahhh well.

I still talk to many of the great folks I met back in the day via the boards. :) It was worth it in the end, just from the friends and memories. It's kinda neat when I still get a "You're THE Marauder from AOU? Oh my god! I used to call your board like 8 years ago! " :) Heh. The boards were much more personal than the Interweb, and better in alot of ways in my opinion. It was also amazing how data spread.