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History of Online Magic

Not long after Electronic Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) connect people by computers in the late 1970s, magicians started using it in the 1980s to discuss magic.

MicroMagicon (MMC)

Steve Burton and Martin Lewis created MicroMagicon, possibly the first on-line computer conference of magicians. It was a weekly "magic convention" on CompuServe. Burton hosted the conference under the name of "Daedalus", which happened every Tuesday night at 11:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Membership was up to 120 by 1987 and their official online journal, started in 1988, was called Abracadata. It has attracted the likes of Eugene Burger, Peter Samelson, and Penn & Teller. Items you could find in the online library were an article on Erdnase by Burton; an after dinner speech for the magician by Gary Ouellet; a concise interpretation of the Tarot cards by Wayne Keyser; lists of dealers, magic magazines, and magicians; and an online version of Thaumaturgist by Jeff Busby (which contained stuff he couldn't fit into the print version.)

Alt.magic

Magic enthusiasts started posting on the newsgroup "alt.magic". Web-based archiving of Usenet posts began in 1985 at Deja News with a very large, searchable database. In 2001, this database was acquired by Google.

Penn and Teller's Mofo BBS

Penn and Teller had a dial-up computer running in New York City called Mofo around 1986, with all kinds of magic related stuff.

MAGIC! - The Global Magicians Network

Magic! was a private Bulletin Board System (BBS) strictly for magicians to engage in both private and double private chats. It brought hundreds of conjuring related aficionados together via the modem. Ran by the System Operator (Sysop) Dave Lichtman. participants grew to be around 1,000 and included Max Maven, T.A. Waters, Max Abrams, Pete Biro, Tommy Wonder, Tabby Crabb aka Tabman, Paul Kozak, David Williamson, Charlie Randall, Bill Wells, Frank Zak, Paul Cummins, Steve Bryant, Mac King, Wittus Witt, Jamy Ian Swiss, Ron Wilson, Gary Plants, Jim Sisti, Michael Ammar, Jeff Busby, Harry Blackstone, Jr., Geno Munari and Dante Larsen.

MAGIC! ran from 1990 - 1997. Tabby Crabb put up an archive of the messages on the web at: http://www.questx.com/magic!/

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 === Penn and Teller's Mofo BBS ===
 [[Penn and Teller]] had a  dial-up computer running in New York City called Mofo around 1986, with all kinds of magic related stuff.
-== 1990 ==
-By the beginning of 1990, private forums started to be created. Early Internet forums could be described as a web version of a newsgroup or electronic mailing list (Usenet) allowing people to post messages and comment on other messages.
-Also in 1990 Tim Berners-Lee created the first World Wide Web server and browser.
 === MAGIC! - The Global Magicians Network  ===
 [[Magic!]] was a private Bulletin Board System (BBS) strictly for magicians  to engage in both private and double private chats. It brought hundreds of conjuring related aficionados together via the modem.  Ran by the System Operator (Sysop)  Dave Lichtman. participants grew to be around 1,000 and included [[Max Maven]], [[T.A. Waters]], [[Max Abrams]], [[Pete Biro]], [[Tommy Wonder]], Tabby Crabb aka Tabman, Paul Kozak, David Williamson, Charlie Randall, Bill Wells, Frank Zak, Paul Cummins, Steve Bryant, Mac King,  Wittus Witt, Jamy Ian Swiss, Ron Wilson,  Gary Plants,  Jim Sisti, Michael Ammar, Jeff Busby,   [[Harry Blackstone, Jr.]], Geno Munari and Dante Larsen.
-It ran from 1990 - 1997. [[Tabby Crabb]] put up an archive of the messages on the web at: http://www.questx.com/magic!/
+MAGIC! ran from 1990 - 1997. [[Tabby Crabb]] put up an archive of the messages on the web at: http://www.questx.com/magic!/
 [[Internet|Read more about the history of magic on the internet...]]