Inside textfiles dot com A Time Capsule of the Early Internet
https://youtube.com/watch?v=rQY6di4s3wI
@textfiles@mastodon.archive.org @textfiles@digipres.club #textfiles
#TextFiles
"I deleted my #todo #app and switched to plain #textfiles, and here's why it works"
Anil Dash: How Markdown took over the world. “Though it’s now a building block of the contemporary Internet, like so many great things, Markdown just started out trying to solve a personal problem. In 2002, John Gruber made the unconventional decision to bet his online career on two completely irrational foundations: Apple, and blogs.”
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/01/12/anil-dash-how-markdown-took-over-the-world/
It took a long time to manually convert the html files to a gmi-happy format, but I have finally made all of textfiles.com available via Gemini Protocol (not the Google garbage). Please go read some textfiles! :-)
PS: If you find any problems please don't hassle Jason about it. I would guess that it is a result of my html-to-gmi translation, so hassle me instead.
PS2: If there is any other text-heavy or text-only content you'd like to see on Gemini let me know and I'll see what I can do.
2025 Week 43
https://blog.lmorchard.com/2025/10/23/w43/
TL;DR: Wrestled with my Synology NAS trying to get a Debian VM running, started learning Kubernetes and Argo Workflows, watched Catsby and Miss Biscuits become friends, populated my BBS with text files from textfiles.com. Also: no, I don't need to build a BBS Door that controls Home Assistant lights. (But maybe I do?)
#weeknotes #synology #nas #bbs #retrocomputing #kubernetes #textfiles #cats #nokings #homeassistant
I have a to-do list file I've been using sporadically since 2022. It's only 6kb. Granted, it doesn't actually amount to a whole lot of text, but it's pretty awesome that it's so small. And that it's still readable.
It's actually markdown, and I added it either with a text editor on one of my computers or the NextCloud app on my phone.
Congratulations! You've just discovered that text files can be interfaces! 🎉 #YAML is the new UI/UX darling, because who needs buttons when you have indentations? 🙄 Next up, ASCII art replaces #PowerPoint. 📈
https://ochagavia.nl/blog/configuration-files-are-user-interfaces/ #textfiles #interfaces #UIUX #ASCIIart #HackerNews #ngated
Calendar.txt by Tero Karvinen is a plain text file calendar that's versionable, supports all operating systems, is future-proof, easily syncs with Android, etc: https://terokarvinen.com/2021/calendar-txt
👨💻🤦♂️ Behold, the groundbreaking revelation: a social network built on the riveting #excitement of Org Mode files! Because who needs Twitter when you can peruse cryptic notes in a text file and pretend it's the future? 🚀📄
https://github.com/tanrax/org-social #OrgMode #SocialNetwork #TextFiles #FutureTech #HackerNews #ngated
You might want to check some edge cases. What if you pick full lines only and the start position happens to be exactly at the start of a line?
Long before Reddit threads and Discord servers, knowledge was passed around in plain text. textfiles.com, created by Jason Scott in the late 1990s, is a sprawling archive of text files from the BBS era—covering hacking, phreaking, anarchy, warez, conspiracy theories, and every oddball subculture that thrived on dial-up lines.
The site preserves a snapshot of digital rebellion and DIY culture, capturing the raw, unfiltered voice of early net denizens. It's not just nostalgia—it’s a vital historical record of how knowledge was shared when bandwidth was precious and curiosity was everything.
Still online and still growing, textfiles.com reminds us that the roots of digital freedom were written in monospace, passed hand to hand, and never meant to disappear.
#textfiles #BBSHistory #Cyberculture #HackerLore #DigitalPreservation #UndergroundInternet
Today I Learned that the birth of FAX is owed to The Third Reich. :ablobspin:
http://www.textfiles.com/computers/twxhist.txt
#todayilearned #telex #fax #history #textfiles
For St. Louisans, March 14 is #314Day! ⚜️ ☎️ 🎉
In celebration, I'm sharing a tiny tech time capsule — a collection of textfiles related to St. Louis-area #BBS networks!
I gathered these 30 years ago when I was cosysop of "Something in the Attic BBS" and seeking to attract more users.
Brace yourself for all manner of capitalization! (PIllowNet, SPORKnet, StupidNET)
Ending "z"s!
And lots of exclamation marks!
Here's the thing I made that WordPress lost its shit over. It's a study guide for the Salesforce admin exam I made myself (with the help of wifey for the cover). I'd written up a little something about it, but to hell with that. I wanted to make flash cards and wanted ALL the info in one place, which Salesforce doesn't provide in a decent manner. So here it is. Any help editing or formatting, go nuts.
These are the 7 files I printed to make this bad boy: https://drive.proton.me/urls/V4EHCTZVX0#QtneDpYea2UY
#Salesforce #SalesforceAdmin #DIY #projects #wip #TextFiles #writing #CRM #DIYProjects
Lifehacker: Use This App Instead of Excel to Directly Edit CSV Files. “ModernCSV, an indie app for Linux, Mac, and Windows computers, is the best tool I’ve come across for this purpose. If you work with CSV files frequency, or just need to edit one quickly, it’s worth checking out. This application is built specifically with CSV files in mind and makes working with them simple.”
In the early days of the internet, before slick blogs and endless social media feeds, TEXTFILES.COM was a goldmine for hackers, phreakers, and digital explorers. Launched in 1998 by Jason Scott, the site preserves thousands of underground documents from the BBS era. Guides on phone phreaking, early hacking techniques, and cyber counterculture manifestos are all there. It is a time capsule of raw, unfiltered knowledge from an era when the internet was wild and untamed. If you want to see where digital rebellion started, TEXTFILES.COM is still up, still free, and still essential reading.
#Hacking #Phreaking #BBS #RetroComputing #Cyberpunk #Textfiles
textfiles.com is a cool site. #textfiles
Saw something about using text files for notes instead of things like Word or Evernote or Notion. I don't use those apps, but I do end up putting things in Samsung Notes or Google Docs all the time, and those are ethereal. If I switch to a non-Samsung phone or ditch Google, they're gone.
I liked the idea of just plain text files in a local spot on my phone, I've always loved text files anyway. So I looked in the Play store, and sure enough, there's an app called txtpad+. I love it. Simple UI. You choose the location to save, and then make your files. Easy as hell.
Here it is on the Play store, it's free.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=vladyslavpohrebniakov.txtpad
Adám Brudzewsky is now demonstrating how Dyalog 19.0 lets you initialise and launch applications directly from text files—no session or workspace files needed.
In my cabin, reasonably far away from civilization and with tacky reception.
All websites should have a text file alternative.
#textfiles
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