A summary for those that haven’t been keeping up with this series:
I found a number of 5.25″ disks at a thrift store a number of years ago (sometime in the late 1990s to the best of my recollection). I finally got around to acquiring a 5.25″ disk drive and extracting the contents a several years back. Since then, I have been occasionally posting the content here.
Based on the contents, most or all of these disks were apparently once owned by someone named Connie who used to run the “Close Encounters” Special Interest Group (SIG) on Delphi in the mid 1980s.
The following description of this SIG was found in a document on one of the disks: “This SIG, known as ‘Close Encounters’, is a forum for the discussion of relationships that develop via computer services like the Source, CompuServe, and Delphi. Our primary emphasis is on the sexual aspects of those relationships.”
This service was text based and was accessed via a modem and whatever terminal program you had available for your computer to dial in with. Many of these disks have forum messages, e-mails and chat session logs. All of this is pre-internet stuff and I am not aware of any archives in existence today that contain what was on Delphi in the 1980s.
This post includes the contents of LORDMHM.DOC. It contains a single e-mail dated January 27th, 1985. It’s from somebody with the handle of JOHNWG (presumably JWG are his initials). It refers to a prior conversation and seems to be about promoting the Close Encounters Special Interest Group. I have no idea if any of the items mentioned here ever came to fruition.
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LORDMHM.DOC
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.lt 10 24-NOV CONFERENCE PROTOCOLS The FRIENDSHIP Circle holds weekly conferences each Saturday night starting at 9:15 PM EST on a variety of subjects. Conference schedules are posted well in advance as are the protocols to be observed during the conference. Existing protocols for the Saturday Conferences: ? to signal the moderator that you have a comment or question you would like a chance to voice. ga means you are done with your talk. :::msg::: you are either unavailable temporarily, or just returning. There is no need to announce your arrival or departure into the conference area as the Delphi conference program does that for you. You could use this, however, if you want others to know that you will return shortly or something of that nature.The conference moderator has acknowledged your ? or !. (Please be patient.) Also, you will be called in turn to the best of the moderator's ability to keep track. ! Use this when you have a pressing but brief comment or question for the current speaker. The speaker has the first option to allow the interrupt. If this is abused, it will be treated like a '?'. It's purpose is to get immediate and relevant comments which can otherwise get lost in a long line. ATN should be self explanatory. Often you will find that these protocols are not strictly followed because of the "mood" of the evening. Do not be alarmed or upset if you suddenly see a lot of comments and then have the conference moderator (JohnMyself) call for ATN! We do try to follow the protocols as outlined in fairness to all, but being human, we do get carried away at times! As a matter of common courtesy, please keep side comments and /send messages to a minimum. Thank you. .el
