I waan't sure where to post this, but this seems like as good of a place as any. Below are the words of a man by the name of Steven Bennett from his Facebook post concerning Doug Rhea of bbsfiles.com.

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I feel like I'm always the harbinger of doom, but this has been weighing on me lately.BBSFILES.COM was run by Doug Rhea for very many years. He gave us free registration codes for a lot of door games. It was the go-to place to find door games that were available to register, and a lot had free reg. codes. He ran the Game Master's Realm BBS for over 30 years. He was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2016, but kept providing keys and access to hundreds of BBS doors on his web site. I hadn't heard from Doug for a long time, and even mentioned it in some BBS groups. His actual BBS was down, but the web site was still active. After several months, he re-appeared, almost 6 months ago, stating that the cancer had taken a turn for the worse. He was in the hospital for 63 days, but thought he had a chance to beat it. Apparently, Doug didn't make it. BBSFILES.COM is down, and no emails have been answered (in months). It makes me sad that I seem to be the only one that has noticed.We have lost a great resource as SysOps. Both in the loss of Doug, and BBSFILES.COM. He spent a great deal of time and money acquiring all the BBS doors he could find, and providing those files to us.I have never heard anything official from his friends or family. It makes me wonder though how many SysOps have contacted him over the years, and might possibly have more insight. I also can't believe, if he HAS passed, that there was no contingencies in place to continue the web site he built for so many years. It seems to have been un-plugged and forgotten.


SYS64738

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Re: Doug Rhea
By: Sys64738 to All on Tue Dec 21 2021 12:32 am

any. Below are the words of a man by the name of Steven Bennett from his Facebook post concerning Doug Rhea of bbsfiles.com.

what facebook post?

never heard anything official from his friends or family. It makes me wonder though how many SysOps have contacted him over the years, and might possibly have more insight. I also can't believe, if he HAS passed, that there was no contingencies in place to continue the web site he built for so many years. It seems to have been un-plugged and forgotten.

if he is suprised by doug not having a plan for bbssfiles to go on after his death, he did not know doug. That's not how Doug Rhea is.

He also wasn't very active in bbsing for the past 20+ years.

he seemed to have been involved more with this community: https://www.tenkarstavern.com/2021/05/news-doug-rhea-ntrpg-con-founder.html
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Sys64738 wrote to All <=-

I waan't sure where to post this, but this seems like as good of a
place as any. Below are the words of a man by the name of Steven
Bennett from his Facebook post concerning Doug Rhea of bbsfiles.com.

It makes me sad that I seem to be the only one that has
noticed.

I saw the Facebook post. There was a flurry of messages here on the BBSs when Doug passed, though. So his loss was noticed.

I have never heard anything official from his friends or family.

They most likely had no idea what he was doing, where he was communicating, who he was communicating with, etc. and had no idea who and where to let us know.

I also can't believe, if
he HAS passed, that there was no contingencies in place to continue the web site he built for so many years. It seems to have been un-plugged
and forgotten.

I can believe it. Doug was probably too focused on his cancer. He probably had no close friends that he could pass things along to.

If his web site was hosted, they probably took it down since no one is paying the hosting fees. If it was self-hosted, his family probably unplugged it when they cleaned out his home, not knowing what it was.

I remember when my dad passed. I pretty much had to hack his PCs to get his Facebook and email passwords just so I could let people know that he had passed.


... Women were meant to be loved, not understood.
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Re: Re: Doug Rhea
By: Dr. What to Sys64738 on Tue Dec 21 2021 08:19 am

If his web site was hosted, they probably took it down since no one is paying the hosting fees. If it was self-hosted, his family probably unplugged it when they cleaned out his home, not knowing what it was.

it wasn't self hosted. someone pulled the plug on bbsfiles.com shortly after he died. I don't think it was because the bill wasn't paid because he always paid for everything way in advance.

he wanted bbsfiles to go down with him.
His assist-inc site is still up. Not much to it.

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MRO wrote to Sys64738 <=-

what facebook post?

It was in the BBS Corner Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/bbscorner).

if he is suprised by doug not having a plan for bbssfiles to go on
after his death, he did not know doug. That's not how Doug Rhea is.

Not surprising. We all interact with many people on the BBSs that we really don't know well - even though it sometimes we feel like we do.


... If I want your opinion I'll beat it out of you!
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