punadit

...and why is it Slicks N' Slide?

Delay pedal.

As for the timeline: In Finland, I think it was about 1998 when the BBS scene first started seriously feeling the hit in popularity because of the internet.

I went to my military service in Jan 1997 and my BBS and the scene was just fine before I left. During my service all hell broke loose and there was a significant decline in the popularity of all BBS's, including mine.

By 1998 the scene was dead as a dodo. Probably the biggest BBS's survived 1998 because they didn't lose the critical mass when their userbase halved - probably even the death of other BBS's moved the people towards bigger BBS's, because there still was somebody else, too.

It's highly likely that 1998 was still a good year for MBNet, as other 09/019-area BBS's took a big hit late 1996/early 1997 and everyone escaped somewhere. Most to internet, but I'm guessing that some went to the safe haven of a big BBS, such as MBNet.