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You're looking at the last static copy (1999) of Acheron.org, more recent but partial copies exist in the wayback machine. This site is online out of nostalgia and because of it's historic content, an up to date ANSI/ASCII art archive is available from 16colo.rs

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acheron.org > articles > regular articles

  The effect of technology on the scene
by God Among Lice (B. Phillip Smith) (29 April, 1998)

Contents:

page 1:
1. Introduction
2. The Interface of the BBS and Background of the Art Scene
3. The Rise of the Internet and the Interface of IRC

page 2:
4. General Issues and The Effect of Multitasking on Attention
5. Habermas' Theory of Cummunicative Action as it Relates to BBS and IRC
6. Conclusion


Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the reader to the online community of what is generally referred to by its members as the underground computer art scene, and to demonstrate the ways in which the adoption of new technology and new interfaces for communication have affected this community. Specifically, it will be shown that technology has served to reduce the amount of attention given to communication, and that changes in communication interface have caused an increase in distorted communication through the creation of issues of power and authority as well as a lack of trust among community members.


The Interface of the BBS and Background of the Art Scene

As is explained below, the underground computer art scene was formed within the context of electronic bulletin board systems (BBS or boards). Therefore, it seems natural to begin with a description of the services that BBS provide and the nature of the interface through which users access and utilize these services.

At the heart of most boards are both a directory of files available for download and a system for posting and reading messages. Often the file directories are divided into categories, like games, utilities, or graphics. Similarly, message boards usually contain from several to many different areas of conversational topics. A user wishing to participate in a conversation usually will pick an area of interest, read any new messages that others have posted since the user last looked at that message area, and then either reply to something that has been written or post a new message concerning a new topic. In both cases the message will be added to the end of the list of all messages stored in that area. Usually each message is assigned a number, and any future reader would typically read all of the messages in numerical (and chronological) order. Most boards also support sending private messages to other individual users as a more direct and less public form of communication.

In addition, many BBS support a number of other features. Online games can be very popular, and can allow people to play together or against one another, usually in an asynchronous manner, although larger boards that support multiple callers at one time may support more synchronous or real-time games. Another feature that larger multi-node boards allow is synchronous chatting among users who are online concurrently. Even with single-node systems, a user can typically page the system operator (sysop) and if the sysop is present and available, the two can chat with one another in real time. Some other features that may be found on a board include lists of other BBS that users can add to, "oneliner" programs that let users leave a short humorous quip or advertisement to be seen by others when logging on, and even matchmaking programs and classified ads. Essentially the features found on a BBS are limited only by the sysop's available time and effort spent, as well as what s/he [1] feels is appropriate to the scope or theme of the board.

Although the interface for a BBS can work just fine by consisting only of plain ASCII text command prompts and displays, most BBS (especially those used mainly as a form of leisure) employ ANSI graphics as a more eye-pleasing alternative. The ANSI protocol is essentially a standard for displaying ASCII characters that have been given attributes like position, color, and other display information. With some creativity, simple pictures and logos can be made to spice up the drab text-centered BBS world.


An example of a custom menu from an underground board

The underground computer art scene developed as a direct response to a need for these pictures and logos from sysops of bulletin boards who didn't have the time or artistic talent to create them themselves. Although there were a good deal of people creating ANSIs for many different kinds of boards, a community or scene arose among those creating art for "underground" boards, such as those trading pirated software, or those that dealt with hacking or phreaking. [2] Emerging BBS relating to the ANSI art scene thus carried over much of the underground nature of those boards.


An example of a welcome screen from a PD board

An underground board generally differs from a public domain (PD) board in several respects. First and foremost, access to an underground board is generally more restrictive. New users usually have to give references of accepted members of the board or other boards, answer quizzes to demonstrate sufficient knowledge about the scene, or write a message to the sysop explaining why they feel they should be accepted. (Meyer:59) Sysops of underground boards often take pride in their setup. A board that uses default settings, menus, and other options that come with a BBS software would be considered "lame" and too PD, whereas a board with many custom menus and other ANSI screens created by well-known ANSI artists and which has been modified by the sysop to include many customized commands and features would be highly respected and more "elite". Thus underground boards generally each display their own brand of uniqueness, and this uniqueness is due both to the visual appearance of the board, as well as the noticeable differences in interface and site organization that each sysop has imposed through custom modifications.


An example of a custom message reader from an underground board


The Rise of the Internet and the Interface of IRC

Over the past several years, the rapid growth of the Internet and changing technology have affected the underground computer art scene tremendously in terms of its focus, organization, and methods of communication. The first noticeable effects came in the form of changes in drawing media. As technology allowed the use of graphical user interfaces in operating systems to become more widespread, thus lessening the use of text- mode based applications, more artists began to create bitmap, or vga art, as it is commonly referred to within the scene. With the introduction of the graphical World Wide Web, the demand for such art has increased proportional to the rise in the web's popularity, to the point where there are now at least as many people drawing vga as there are ANSI. The rise in popularity of the Internet as a primary means of communicating and gathering information has essentially caused it to replace almost completely the use of independently operated bulletin boards as a method of accomplishing those same tasks. More and more, ANSI artists are creating their art not for a specific BBS, but simply for the act of creation; this is because fewer and fewer BBS exist that can be drawn for.


An example of a vga artwork (by JNA of ACiD, half size)

In place of bulletin board messaging systems, most of those associated with the underground computer art scene now communicate through the use of Internet email and Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Email is typically reserved for important person-to-person messages, although there do exist some conversational intra-group mailing lists. The bulk of communication, though, occurs on IRC. To understand fully the differences in communication patterns between BBS and IRC, an explanation of the interface and organization of IRC is needed first.

The basis of communication in IRC centers around channels. A channel is like a room with people in it, with each person taking turns speaking. Each user has a nickname and an optional longer identification that others can see by using a whois command on that nickname. Each statement said by a user is displayed in the channel for all to see. A channel has a name and a current topic for conversation, and can have other options set, such as invite only mode, passwords to get in, or a limit to the number of people allowed in. The first person to enter a channel has operator status (s/he is an "op"), and can change those settings for the channel, as well as grant others operator status ("give ops"). In addition, someone with ops can invite someone to join the channel, as well as kick a person out of the channel or even ban them altogether. Any user can also privately message any other user. There are several different large IRC servers and many smaller ones. Each server may have its own server mode options set differently from others, allowing longer or shorter nicknames, for example. Some servers are physically located in a specific region, and thus provide better performance for those living nearby, whereas others are larger networks of many servers dispersed over a large area. For example, IRC-NET has most of its servers located throughout Europe and thus has a larger number of European users, whereas EFnet is more equally distributed throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The underground computer art scene is located almost entirely on EFnet.

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