Before the internet, back in the days of 2400 baud modems, I ran a BBS for school and did ANSI art for welcome screens on pirate BBSs for a worldwide ANSI crew called [GMA]. For anyone interested in understanding the time of BBSs, it's an interesting geek journey... I highly recommend this docco:
http://www.iwatchdocumentaries.com/docu ... tary-2005/