The Bulletin Board System (BBS)

[Sofly]

Oh hey hi

As you've probably noticed, i love old forms of online communication, such as IRC for example (of which i already have a post), but this time want to talk about something that goes even further than that, something from before the concept of a graphical interface was as common as it is now, the Bulletin Board System (or BBS for short)

It was created in 1978 by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, inspired by the frustration of not being able to meet with their computer club do to a blizzard, they created the Computer Bulletin Board System (CBBS) in order to stay in touch; and what started as a way to keep communicating across a good chunk of distance ended up being one of the most revolutionaries technologies for the early internet

Millions of people ended up using it in local areas (since remember, connecting to the internet was treated just as a phone call) to post stuff, chat, play games and even download/upload software, things we take now for granted that were almost magical in that time; all these possibilities were helped also by how easy they were to set up, from complete and professional geeks to people that was just curious about computers in general

Nowdays, with more user friendly alternatives to everything BBS offered, it's safe to say that it's practically dead, with only 232 servers active using Synchronet, which is (to my knowledge) the most popular BBS software out there [source], but that doesn't mean there's nothing left of it, there's still a tiny community hosting servers worldwide, that source is an excellent list in case you want to give it a look, and here's another really complete one!

Despite how old the technology is, calling a BBS today is really easy, you can do it either by using the surprisingly intuitive SyncTERM or by the in-browser terminal the sites i mentioned before offer; there's a lot of cool stuff hidden in there, from incredible pieces of ANSI art and games to posts by people reminiscing the old days.

I love looking at how the social aspect of the internet has been there since the beginning, and how people were achieving it despite all the technical limitations, it's almost inspiring to put it somehow

[Cobra!]

I recently got into BBS myself, there's a BBS called thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE, and they have an MRC (Multi Relay Chat, their equivalent to IRC), where they host a "Gravy Train" event every Friday night at 8pm GMT (@875), and 20 users or so connect and just chat away.

There's one happening in 15 minutes as of writing this, so it'd be cool to see people from this forum join in!

[doubleincision]

BBS has always been fascinating to me because i was around for the old web, but not for the days of BBS. that link to telnet BBS guide is really cool— the artwork that people create within the limitations of the format blows my mind.

but BBS exists in a similar realm as things like MUDs and MUCKs for me: i'm fascinated and would love to get into it, but all of the technical language you need to know is overwhelming and i don't know where to start

[RogerMexico]

I’d love to get involved with the scene but I’ve never been sure how to get started.

[Cobra!]

I’d love to get involved with the scene but I’ve never been sure how to get started.

Here’s a directory of BBSes to join.

Have fun!

[Sofly]

I’d love to get involved with the scene but I’ve never been sure how to get started.

The BBS experience is pretty similar between servers, but as for recommendations there's the aforementioned qUAntUm wOrmhOle (over at bbs.erb.pw, SSH port 45022) and Absinthe BBS (over at absinthebbs.net, Telnet port 1940)