Probably the best form of
expression ever created as a reult of the
computer age. Before the
internet and all your
wizbang websites and
weblogs there were
BBSes and people, whoever wanted to really, would write text files and upload them to a BBS for others to
enjoy. If you wrote something
fantastic, it might be spread around to other BBSes, and your work would live on
forever.
And the
variety! From
bomb building to
credit card fraud,
pagan rituals to
angsty song lyrics. Surprisingly, there wasn't too much
porn. I suppose people were still
impressed with
pictures of naked people at that point and didn't need
novellas detailling the exploits of naughty
coeds.
One can still read text files, even in
this day and age. The
Cult of the Dead Cow still actively creates text files and you can find a very complete archive of them at www.textfiles.com. Hell, one could even
write their own.