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Introduction - pic showing Diesel

Diesel's Dump is the home for my humorous writing. Diesel was my first "net persona" - the handle or nickname I used when I first got involved in online communications. Why Diesel? Because I'm a dyke and at that time I had pretensions towards being very butch.

Note for those who have led a sheltered life: dyke is a word for lesbian; a diesel dyke is a butch lesbian, also known as a bull dyke or bull dagger.

And yes, at the time I did look quite a bit like the picture!


The Origins of Diesel's Dump

Way, way back in the mists of time... well, in the early nineteen-eighties, actually... I bought myself a computer. And I began to be intrigued by adverts in the magazines for online networks. The idea of talking to people using my computer appealed, and as a long-time fan of adventure games I wanted to play the multi-player games that people were starting to talk about.

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So I subscribed to a network called Compunet which was especially for Commodore 64 computers (which was what I had bought myself).

Compunet was a remarkable system. It was much loved by all its members because of the freedom it gave for self-publishing. It was a graphic network, using the C64 character set to allow rather crude, blocky graphics to be displayed online.

At a time when computer communications really was a black art, which often failed to work for no obvious reason, Compunet made it easy by selling a modem for the C64 that had all the software built in. You just had to plug it in and log on. There was no mucking about with parity, stop bits and so on. This meant that the subscribers were not just complete computer nerds in love with the technology... they were people genuinely interested in communication using a new medium.

Much like the web today, Compunet had little structure, allowing the members to create the system as they wished. In effect, it was one giant empty hard disk waiting for people to fill it. Of course, there were "official" moderated areas for news and so on, a chat room called Partyline, several games including Federation, but mostly the system was left to the users to create.

Some found this freedom daunting or disliked the anarchy and chaos, preferring something more organised (the only other commercial consumer network in the UK at the time was Micronet, part of BT's Prestel system which was much more traditionally ordered).

But many people took to Compunet's laid-back approach and used it to develop their own creativity. It was a way to distribute their shareware programs, utilities, and games, to publish writing or artwork, and to get immediate feedback on their work. Before the world wide web, before blogs, Compunet gave people that freedom. That was its appeal. For me, it led to a re-discovery of the joy of writing, something I hadn't had time for since I left school and entered the real and serious world of work.


An online star is born...

And so Diesel's Dump was born as a home for my articles, which were based on incidents that happened to me, or things I overheard or read about. Whenever I was inspired to write something, I would upload it to my page. People seemed to like my writing which encouraged me to keep going.

Diesel's Dump became more popular than I ever anticipated. It wasn't long before I became a net "celebrity", and my work was often given awards for the best writing on Compunet. I still have the rather tacky plastic trophies somewhere in the bottom of a drawer.

All good things must come to an end, and the same was true of Compunet. Since its demise, the Diesel's Dump articles have languished on a floppy disk - until now!

The miracle of the world wide web allows self-publishing by those vain enough to think people will be interested in what they have to say, so Diesel's Dump lives again.


...and reborn!

So here are the articles from Diesel's Dump on Compunet. I have edited them for spelling and grammar (my proof-reading abilities in those days left a lot to be desired) and removed the rampant exclamation marks (a fault of amateur writers everywhere is to end every sentence with a ! which results in nothing being emphasised) and in the process I have tampered with them a little, adding in new jokes where I can think of them. I've also put in explanations where necessary, for people who have never heard of Compunet, and for foreigners who won't get the Brit references, and updates where appropriate.

Editing these old articles has inspired me to write some new ones, and I've got a number of ideas, so all I have to do now is find the time to dump those ideas out of my brain and onto the computer. Meanwhile, enjoy the old ones.


So what happened to Compunet?

Sadly, like many consumer networks, Compunet eventually failed. A few bad moves by the management reduced its popularity and its profitability, so they sold it to someone else. The new owner was so incompetent he was unable to find his own arse with his hands. Even when given a manual and shown a large flashing neon arrow pointing to his posterior, he remained completely clueless as to the location of his buttocks! He not only couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery, he couldn't even get the door to the brewery open. The system limped along, the subscribers left in droves, and eventually Compunet went out with a whimper.

If you detect a little bitterness in the above paragraph, you are right - this pillock took something wonderful and he killed it by his sheer stupidity.

There has never been another system like Compunet. Despite its anarchic non-structure, it was a civilised place, without any of the hooliganism you see today on the net. Its subscribers were the cream of the computer world. It was unique.

R.I.P.


More information on Compunet

There's a Compunet nostalgia page where you can read articles by other Compunet celebs, notably Dr. Fogg, who was even more of a superstar than I was (yes, I admit it!). It also has pictures from Compunet get-togethers, and other interesting archive stuff.


More info on Diesel

I have another web site, where I publish my more professional articles (ok... let's be honest... my less crude work, the stuff guaranteed not to offend!). It's called f-space.

Together with the top games designer, Alan Lenton (also an ex-Compunetter (Yeti)) I run IBGames, a company providing Internet multi-player games including Federation, which used to be on Compunet.

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