Left on Line BBS
Written for the Utne Reader, April, 1995
Reviewed by Scot Hacker
LEFT ON LINE BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM (LBBS) (18 Millfield St., Woods Hole, MA. 02543. or write sysop@zbbs.com DOS, Mac, Windows. $20 one-time membership fee plus nominal connect-time charges)
Far off the information superhighway's beaten track lies a little-known electronic hideout where the technoscenti may well be planning America's version of Paris '68. Left On Line Bulletin Board System (LBBS), the genius child of Z Magazine and a handful of sympathetic co-sponsors, is playing host to some of the most thorough and penetrating intellectual public discussions in cyberspace. Like an American Samizdat, these refugees from the (often) politically vacuous commercial online services gather to hash out the writings of U.S. foreign policy critic Noam Chomsky, the role of progressive publications, pop culture and the media, the machinations of U.S. imperialism, race, sex, gender, class, general philosophy, labor laws, the state of education, and All Things Left and Deep.
Chomsky plays as active a role as his schedule allows, immersing himself in discussion with some of the most astute political thinkers in the world as well as with the online lay-community. Leftist luminaries such as Howard Zinn, Lydia Sargent, and Michael Albert also maintain a presence. In addition to the broad array of discussion groups, LBBS provides massive libraries of downloadables: essays, news, interviews, and Z Magazine content. A virtual "Store" offers a plethora of books (the real kind, not electronic), while polls and questionnaires keep a thermometer on the intellectual climate. Come February, LBBS will allow students anywhere in the world to take or audit affordable classes from noted writers and thinkers in the Learning On Line University.
Superficial reading is almost impossible on LBBS: every discussion thread seems more astute and gripping than the last, every file in the library an engrossing challenge. In one three-hour session I paged through debates on the relative merits of paying media attention to Khallid Muhammad (did it increase his influence?), the role of incentives in culture (touching on everything from capitalism and machismo to Fermat's last theorem and child psychology), and whether early shamans were society's first propagandists. The Philosophy forum held discussions on biological determinism and the mind/body problem, chaos theory and quantum mechanics. There was even a posting from an 11-year old girl who wrote with more clarity than many adults on other services.
True to its ideals, the board is inexpensive to run. QuickMail allows users to do the majority of their reading and writing off-line, so moderate use totals only $4 or $5 per month. Internet mail capability is active, with telnet, ftp, and gopher coming soon.
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