Introduction

While technically a hobby system, The Gnome At Home was possibly the biggest Viewdata BBS existing, back in the late 1980s.  With paid-for subscriptions and aspirations of providing national access via PSS, it was almost a commercial success.

MicroGnome was a regular news spot within Viewfax 258 on Prestel, however limitations of space encouraged them to set up their own viewdata bulletin board.  Initially operating a single-user system on a BBC Micro running CommunITel, it was quickly upgraded to a custom written host software supporting at least six telephone lines in, each answered by a BBC Micro and modem, with yet more computers running automated softwares (the AutoGnome) to watch over and update various services, chat with and generally annoy the users.

Operated on a day to day basis by The Great Goblin (Glyn Philips) regular articles were penned by MicroGnome himself (Bob Clark) alongside the Prestel-published columns.  There were multiple "Grotto" areas - space rented by users to publish their own pages, and multiple special-interest groups.


More to come..