OC HIGH: STUDENT NEWS AND VIEWS : Chat Central : Let Your Fingers Do the Talking at Capt. Redbeard’s Bulletin Board

How can you chat with hundreds of people you’ve never seen, engage ina vicious food fight without any food, and conquer the universe without using a single armament?

You can do it by docking your ship at the Emerald Isle, a computer bulletin board system (BBS) run by Sunny Hills High junior James Wihardja, alias Capt. Redbeard.

“People just have to call in via modem, and at their fingertips they can find a wide variety of people, games and computer files,” Wihardja said of his bulletin board, which gets about 600 calls a day.

Although the majority of users are in their late teens and early 20s, and there are more males than females, Wihardja has found that the variety of topics discussed on his board is almost limitless. Members often discuss the latest in politics or school life or their personal problems.

“The thing I like best about my board are the users. All the users are really caring and friendly,” Wihardja said. “It’s not like that everywhere. Everyone is ready to help out if someone has a problem, needs advice or just wants someone to talk to. I think that is why people are so comfortable on my board, and that is why chat is such a big feature.”

“In the beginning, I was calling other BBSs, and I got hooked real quick,” Wihardja said. “But in the back of my mind, I always wanted to start something bigger and better, and now I have done it.”

When the Fullerton teen’s BBS was established three years ago with a single phone line, teleconferencing, or chat, soon became the main feature.

Today, Emerald Isle has 25 high-speed phone lines, 18 CD-ROMs, more than three gigabytes of hard-disk space, two computers based on Intel’s Pentium co-processor, one 486-based computer and a 386-based computer--but chat is still the main feature.

Members of the board find chat communication easy since everyone uses a pseudonym. No one you talk with can see you or know who you are--if that’s what you prefer.

People often hook up with the Emerald Isle to anonymously talk about their problems. With thousands of callers, almost everyone can find someone who shares a common interest, however unusual it might be.

“There are no barriers,” said a board member known as Scopeboy. “All you see are words on a computer screen, and you can really get to know a person because there is no awkwardness.”

Others view on-line communication as an escape from the dull, daily routine of life.

“It provides a sort of alternate reality where you can meet new people and make friends in an educational and exciting atmosphere,” said another board member, this one known as Vrolokchild. “And a realm where there is no discrimination or prejudice, where people of any age or ethnic group can communicate easily.”

“It’s a getaway for me, a second life where you can contact people you couldn’t have in the real, day-to-day life,” said Confucious II, another board member.

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Wihardja started his first BBS, Starbase Atlantis, in the summer of 1992 without any vision of how large it would ultimately grow.

All he wanted was to play was his favorite game, Trade Wars, with a few of his best friends. Initially, the board was not open to the public.

“At first it was a private board for just a few of my friends. It was basically just a Trade Wars board, based on a single game,” Wihardja said. “But then I decided I wanted to open it up to the public to get more people playing Trade Wars.”

Wihardja was not satisfied with his one-dimensional board for long after seeing the variety in other bulletin boards. He proceeded to open up the files section for downloading, offered more games and started a messaging system.

“After making my board a little more well-rounded, I thought I would call another board to find out what makes a BBS good,” Wihardja said.

“That’s when I discovered teleconferencing, or chat, which was new to me. I instantly got hooked on chat, but at that point I knew I did not have the resources to start it on my own board.”

Soon Wihardja added an extra phone line for a total of two, but a friendly competitor who also ran a BBS had upgraded his board to four phone lines. Wihardja countered by going up to five lines. This is when he decided to start his favorite feature, chat.

The immediate success of his board, combined with his friendly rivalry, prompted Wihardja to expand his board to nine lines. Then Wihardja and his friend developed a grand plan to merge the two boards, creating a mega-BBS. Although Wihardja’s friend was unable to follow through, Wihardja’s parents unexpectedly offered to finance Wihardja’s desire to create a bigger, better BBS, and the Emerald Isle went into operation last July.

“My parents approached me and were willing to finance me about $25,000, so it kind of became a family business. My parents handle all financial aspects, and I run the entire system,” Wihardja said. “In the future, the board might be able to help pay some of my college tuition.”

Since its inception, Emerald Isle users have posted more than 336,000 messages and the board has received more than 171,000 phone calls.

Of the more than 1,000 members on the board, about 100 pay the $10 monthly subscription fee for complete access to the BBS and unlimited downloading of software. Costs associated with running the expanded board include phone bills, which run about $500 a month, new modems, new CD-ROMs and the electricity bills that accompany running four computers 24 hours a day.

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For those interested in meeting the people whom they have known only through the computer screen, Wihardja organizes social outings once every two weeks at amusement parks, pizza parlors or a bowling alley. About 50 people usually show up. According to Wihardja, some members have carried out romances over his BBS and then met at the social gatherings. And friends who become separated by distance use the board to keep in touch with each other. Last fall, Wihardja hosted a huge Halloween party for his board members in cooperation with a few smaller boards.

“What makes the Emerald Isle special, I think, is that people can remain secure in anonymity, but they also have the opportunity to interact personally with the other members,” Wihardja said. “I want my board to be a little more personal than a computer screen. I am trying to create a family-type atmosphere.”

The social gatherings serve multiple purposes, according to Wihardja. They offer members a personal forum to share ideas and also let him know what they like on the board and what could be improved or added. More important, most members are eager to meet the people they have known only through a pseudonym. Contrary to stereotypes, Wihardja has found most users to be social and caring people.

“I call here because I like to talk to people here and they’re usually friendly,” said a board member known as Drummer Girl. “I like to chat because it gets me away from the stress of everyday life.”

Multi-player interactive games are also a big attraction, says Wihardja, with four-player Doom, Trivia, Trade Wars 2002 and Global Destruction being the most popular. Interactive games represent the essence of being on-line, according to Wihardja, because instead of playing a game against the computer, game-players can compete and match wits with fellow humans.

Members can download games, word processors, spreadsheets, graphics programs, business and accounting programs, utilities and desktop publishing software. Once players are hooked to an on-line game, they are sometimes absorbed in it for weeks at a time.

“On-line games are more competitive with real opponents rather than artificial ones. The games are more exciting,” said Confucious II, an avid game player. “I play games here because they are multi-player games, meaning I am in competition to be the best at that game with many other people.”

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In the future, Wihardja hopes to make the board easier to use and more accessible. To raise money for his board, Wihardja is writing his own software, such as games, utilities and interfaces, which he hopes to sell to other BBSs. He is almost finished creating a game based on a simulation of gladiator combat during the Middle Ages. BBS software typically sells for several hundred dollars.

The Emerald Isle contains several specific chat groups in addition to the main room. There is a base for discussing politics, literature, music and just about anything anyone wants to discuss. The BBS constantly adapts to what the members want, Wihardja says.

“The main reason people call is because they want to socialize. If people want a special chat room for a particular topic, then the board will create one,” Wihardja said.

One fast-growing and popular chat base is the poetry room. Members have written more than 600 pieces of poetry, and new poems are posted every day.

Although Wihardja is not making any profit from the board right now, he isn’t preoccupied with finances. His main focus is to have fun with the board and provide a service.

“I derive satisfaction just from being kind of like the king of the system,” Wihardja said. “I feel like I am creating a little society on the board where I can mold the atmosphere, the etiquette and the tone of the system.”

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Wihardja’s Emerald Isle bulletin board offers a free 12-day trial with unlimited time for new users. The system can be accessed by modem at (714) 870-3050. For voice or fax, call (714) 870-3067 . Subscribers can pay a monthly flat rate or an hourly rate.