Why Do We Do This?
                Why run a board?  What do you get out of it?

    I  guess  every  sysop  starts  out as a user.  After playing on other
    peoples' boards all hours of the night,  running  up  enourmous  phone
    bills  in the process, one reaches the point where the only thing left
    to do is to be a sysop.

    But, having done it for a month or two, why keep at it?  The nature of
    BBS users seems to be changing somewhat.  From what I gather, the user
    who feels that BBSing is his God given right is becoming something  of
    a  minority.   Users in general seem to be a much nicer crowd than the
    often used to be.  But still, what is so great  about  being  a  sysop
    that anyone keeps doing it?

    Could computers possibly be addicting?

    I  once  thought  so;   perhaps  I still do.  I remember when I was in
    college I spent more time in the computer room than in  my  own  dorm.
    Sometimes  I'd  sit at the terminal (we used a mainframe then, anybody
    remember them?) staring at the screen, trying to  think  of  something
    interesting to do.

    The strangest time was about a month before I graduated.  I'd sit down
    at the tube and get a weird feeling of detachment.  After  all,  in  a
    short  time  I'd  be  leaving,  and I'd probably never see that system
    again.  (I was wrong, but that's another story.) What's the  point  of
    writing something you'll never use?

    I figured out something to do anyway.  We'd had reputations as hackers
    there, so we spent the last month showing them all the things we could
    have done, but hadn't.  But that's beside the point.

    Take  now  for example.  At this moment it is a little past two in the
    morning.  I could be in bed  now,  asleep.   Why  am  I  at  the  keys
    instead?   The  best  I can come up with is that some people are "into
    it", and will go to almost any lengths to feed their obsession.

    The condition may well be incurable.