Login
You're viewing the front-end.social public feed.
  • Jun 29, 2026, 9:50 PM

    One of my friends went to #Grinnell College (Iowa) and talks occasionally about "Plans", a text-only social media site for Grinnell students / alum that functions as a sort of blog, message board, essay hosting, etc.

    The name confused me for a minute, until they sent me this link to a history of Plans - and it turns out it's older than the Web! Originally it referred to a social system of users on the school's #VAX machine, where you could stage a .plan file and use the "finger" command to read messages "posted" by others. And then they retired the VAX, so Plans moved online!

    web.archive.org/web/2024021702

    Anyway, it's a neat read about the novelty of using a shared #UNIX system back in the days before the Web.

    💬 1🔄 3⭐ 3

Replies