What is the 0utzone? It's a bulletin board system (BBS) dedicated towards giving those of us who still have nostalgia for the art scene a venue of communications using up to date technologies. The 0utzone currently runs Mystic BBS 1.073 on Linux, with custom graphics and coding made by the sysop Johnny Ernest (johnnyernest@outzonebbs.net).

This site is used as a base to not only give a continuous news source of happenings in the art scene, but to also give a way to access data from the bbs through the web using php. Users can log in, post messages, message other users while online, download files, and several other functions the telnet bbs does (not all functions are completed yet but are constantly being worked on).

If you are new to bbs's, or are not familiar with the art scene, let me take a moment to help clear the air.

What is the "art scene"? The computer art scene, usually shortened to "the scene" is a consortium of artists, musicians, programmers, and other such people with computer interest who have been doing graphics art and other projects since around 1990 usually without monetary compensation. Instead they do it to gain acclaim among other scene members or to build on their own talents and experience.

Bulletin Board Systems (BBS's) have been around since the 80's and have been a means of communication among computer users long before the internet was commercialized in the early to mid 90's. With BBS's you can post messages to people in discussions (this is what started the idea of web forums today), download and upload files, send e-mail, etc. When a long time ago you used to have to use dial-up modems and call each BBS's phone number to log in, today you can do essentially the same thing through a protocol called telnet over the internet. The 0utzone is one such telnet board of many in existence today. The current popular BBS software is a program called Mystic BBS written James Coyle (g00r00) who I am currently working to port the software over to php for web use.

At any rate, enjoy the system, and be a part of the scene community, drop by any time and converse with some of the most talented people in the computer industry!