★ WELCOME TO THE BBS SYSOPS UNION LOCAL #2400 OFFICIAL WEB PRESENCE ★ THE UNION WILL FIGHT FOR YOU! ★ JOIN TODAY ★ MODEM RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS ★ BEST VIEWED IN NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR 3.0 AT 640×480 ★ LAST UPDATED: SOMETIME BEFORE Y2K ★ PLEASE SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK ★ DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE WITHOUT PERMISSION ★ THE UNION WILL FIGHT FOR YOU! ★                
★ AFL-CIO AFFILIATED LOCAL #2400 ★

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BBS SYSOPS UNION
LOCAL #2400

:: ORGANIZED LABOR FOR THE DIGITAL UNDERGROUND ::
Est. 1987  |  Protecting Sysops Since The Days of 300 Baud
★ PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION ★
⚡ THE UNION WILL FIGHT FOR YOU! ⚡
WHETHER YOU WANT IT TO OR NOT

People are literally lining up to join!
4,872 MEMBERS
(approx.)
2,400 LOCAL #
(also baud)
37 GRIEVANCES
FILED
0 GRIEVANCES
RESOLVED

[ ABOUT THE UNION ]

Brothers and sisters, fellow sysops, late-night modem warriors — we have gathered here, in this sacred 14.4K-connected space, to say ENOUGH. For too long, you have sat alone in your basement, surrounded by humming tower fans and the gentle screech of a dial-up handshake, asking yourself: does anyone care about ME?


The BBS Sysops Union Local #2400 was founded in 1987 by a group of visionary system operators who, after a particularly difficult week of ANSI art complaints and "door game" crashes, decided that the working sysop deserved representation. We are proud to be affiliated with the AFL-CIO, the IWW, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Engineers, and the Tri-County Commodore 64 Enthusiasts Club.


THE UNION WILL FIGHT FOR YOU!  Even at 2AM when your BBS goes down because your cat sat on the keyboard and accidentally SYSOPed itself.

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[ MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS ]

To join the BBS Sysops Union Local #2400, you must meet at least 3 of the following criteria:

✓ You have stayed up past 2AM to fix a BBS problem that turned out to be a loose cable
✓ You have not given up on BBSing despite the TROLL JAS HUD flaming you
✓ You have a folder named "temp" that is 27 years old
✓ You refer to your BBS as "your home" and members must use real names as "guests in your home"
✓ You have a favorite door game and are prepared to defend it
✓ You know the difference between ANSI and ASCII art and you have opinions
✓ You have used the phrase "the BBS is down" as an excuse for not attending a family event
✓ A user has threatened to "go to a different BBS" and it kept you up at night

[ MEMBER PHOTO GALLERY ]

Real sysops doing real work. These are our people. These are YOUR people.

Sysop at terminal
BRO. TERRY UPLOADS 47 FILES
AT ONCE. LEGEND.
Network meeting
LOCAL #2400 MONTHLY
GRIEVANCE MEETING
Sysop convention
ANNUAL SYSOP SUMMIT
"WHO USED ALL THE NODES?"
Sysop working
Dangerous hacker Sysop Configures WILDCAT! BBS v4.01
The mainframe
FILING A GRIEVANCE
WITH THE MAINFRAME
C:\BBS> _
LOADING UNION DUES...
STRIKE MODE: ARMED

YOUR WORKSTATION.
YOUR RIGHTS. OUR UNION.
!! IMPORTANT NOTICE !!
If you are a sysop currently being oppressed by a user who is demanding more file download slots, a teenager who keeps asking you to "be the sysop faster," or a co-sysop who changed your ANSI welcome screen to a picture of Bart Simpson — THE UNION WILL FIGHT FOR YOU! Call the 24-hour hotline: 1-900-SYSOP-42 ($3.99/min, first minute free, must be 18+ to operate a BBS in some states).

[ MEMBER BENEFITS ]

  • Legal defense if your BBS is raided (again)
  • Free PhoneNet handshaking consultation
  • Monthly "Sysop Sanity" newsletter (mimeographed)
  • Access to our grievance hotline, staffed 6pm–8pm Tuesdays
  • 10% off replacement floppy disks at participating retailers
  • Emotional support after a particularly bad DOOR.SYS incident
  • Official union card (laminated for an extra $4)
  • A strongly worded letter sent to anyone who bugs you
  • Everything in Standard
  • Priority grievance processing (4–6 weeks instead of 8–12)
  • One (1) free ANSI art commission per year
  • Access to the Union's private FidoNet echo "SYSOP.GRIPES"
  • Representation at any door game tribunal
  • Personalized "The Union Is Fighting For Me Right Now" bumper sticker
  • Quarterly modem speed benchmarking report
  • Your name on the Wall of Honored Sysops (ASCII edition)
⚡ THE UNION WILL FIGHT FOR YOU! ⚡
(Results may vary. Fighting™ is non-refundable. Union not responsible for outcomes.)

[ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ]

Q: What exactly IS a sysop, and why do they need a union?
A: A System Operator, or "sysop," is a dedicated individual who runs a Bulletin Board System from their home, usually in a spare bedroom, basement, or converted closet they call "the server room." They sacrifice sleep, sanity, phone bills, and marriages to ensure that strangers can log in at 3AM to download shareware Tetris and leave flame war messages about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. These people need a union for the same reason anyone does: because someone has to fight for their right to not be woken up by a page at 4AM because a user forgot their password. Again.
Q: Will the union actually fight for me, or is that just a slogan?
A: Both. THE UNION WILL FIGHT FOR YOU! is absolutely our official slogan, trademarked in 1989. It is also a promise. Granted, "fighting" in our context means sending a sternly worded letter via FidoNet, leaving an angry voicemail for whoever wronged you, and possibly staging a very small picket line outside a computer fair. But we are passionate. We will fight. We will fight hard. We fought once for 45 minutes and someone sprained a wrist.
Q: My users keep uploading files with descriptions that are just the word "good." Can the union help?
A: Yes. This is covered under Article VII, Section 3 of our collective bargaining agreement: "Crimes Against File Descriptions." We have a dedicated task force. They haven't found a solution yet, but they meet every other Thursday and they are very concerned. In the meantime, please document every incident. You'll need it for the tribunal.
Q: What if my co-sysop has sysop'd without sysop-ing responsibly?
A: The union takes co-sysop misconduct extremely seriously. Under our Code of Conduct (v2.3, revised after the Great ANSI Incident of 1993), all co-sysops must be trained, certified, and forbidden from giving out SYSOP access to their girlfriend's cousin "just to see what happens." If your co-sysop has abused their powers, file a Grievance Form 2400-B, attach your system logs, and pray. Actually, praying is optional but statistically has had similar resolution rates to our formal process.
Q: My phone company is charging me more because I leave the line open 24/7. Help?
A: Ah yes. The Sysop Tax. Technically legal, unfortunately. The union has been lobbying against this since 1991. Progress has been slow, mostly because our lobbyist operates a BBS and is very busy. We did once get a sympathetic mention in a local newspaper's Technology Section (page C-12, below the fold, next to an ad for Kinko's). THE UNION WILL FIGHT FOR YOU! We just can't promise the phone company will fight back any less hard.
Q: Is this union affiliated with any government agencies, law enforcement, or the Secret Service?
A: NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT. DO NOT EVEN ASK THAT. We are a legitimate labor organization for legitimate system operators running perfectly legitimate bulletin boards. The events of 1990 were a misunderstanding and all charges were eventually dropped or reduced. We don't talk about the Phoenix Project. Moving on.
Q: Can cats be union members?
A: This came up at the 1995 convention and was hotly debated for three hours. The ruling was that cats may serve as "Associate Members" if they have demonstrably contributed to BBS operations, such as by sleeping on the keyboard and accidentally typing a macro that fixed a recurring door game crash. You know who you are, Mr. Whiskers of Raleigh, NC. You are a hero of the labor movement.
Q: What does "Local #2400" mean? Why that number?
A: Because 2400 baud was the modem speed at which you felt like things were actually happening. 300 baud was watching paint dry. 1200 baud was acceptable. 2400 baud was civilization. When we were founded, 2400 baud represented the cutting edge of what a committed sysop could achieve. We briefly considered renaming to Local #9600 in 1992, but the T-shirts were already printed, so here we are.
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[ JOIN THE UNION ]

Fill out this form completely. Incomplete forms will be returned via FidoNet, which could take anywhere from 2 hours to never. THE UNION WILL FIGHT FOR YOU! But first, paperwork.


[ CONTACT US ]

FidoNet: 1:102/999

BBS (call us!): (800) you-WISH
Running TBBS 2.2 on a 386SX. Be patient.

Email: [email protected]
Checked bi-weekly, or when we remember

Mon-Fri: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Saturday: "We'll see"

Sunday: Closed (door game maintenance)

Holidays: Open, obviously. The BBS never sleeps. Neither do we. That's why we need a union.