Monochrome, a modern BBS still running as of January 2009.
A
Bulletin Board System, or
BBS, is a
computer system running
software that allows
users to
connect and
log in to the system using a
terminal program. Once logged in, a
user can perform functions such as
uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other
users, either through
electronic mail or in public
message boards. Many BBSes also offer
on-line games, in which users can compete with each other, and BBSes with multiple phone lines often provide
chat rooms, allowing users to interact with each other.
Originally BBSes were accessed only over a
phone line using a
modem, but by the early 1990s some BBSes allowed access via a
Telnet,
packet switched network, or
packet radio connection.
The term "Bulletin Board System" itself is a reference to the traditional cork-and-pin
bulletin board often found in entrances of supermarkets, schools, libraries or other public areas where people can post messages, advertisements, or community news.
During their heyday from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s, most BBSes were run as a
hobby free of charge by the system operator (or "
SysOp"), while other BBSes charged their users a subscription fee for access, or were operated by a business as a means of supporting their customers. Bulletin Board Systems were in many ways a precursor to the modern form of the
World Wide Web and other aspects of the
Internet.
Early BBSes were often a local phenomenon, as one had to dial into a BBS with a phone line and would have to pay additional long distance charges for a BBS out of the local calling area. Thus, many
users of a given BBS usually lived in the same area, and activities such as
BBS Meets or
Get Togethers, where everyone from the board would gather and meet face to face, were common.
As the use of the Internet became more widespread in the mid to late 1990s, traditional BBSes rapidly faded in popularity. Today,
Internet forums occupy much of the same social and technological space as BBSes did, and the term BBS is often used to refer to any online forum or message board.
Ward Christensen and the computer that ran the first public Bulletin Board System, CBBS
Although BBSing survives only as a niche hobby in most parts of the world, it is still an extremely popular form of communication for Taiwanese youth (see
PTT Bulletin Board System). Most BBSes are now accessible over
telnet and typically offer free
email accounts, FTP services, IRC chat and all of the protocols commonly used on the Internet.
History
A notable precursor to the public Bulletin Board System was
Community Memory, started in 1972 in
Berkeley, California, using hardwired terminals located in neighborhoods.
The first public
dial-up Bulletin Board System was developed by
Ward Christensen. According to an early interview, while he was snowed in during the
Great Blizzard of 1978 in Chicago, Christensen along with fellow hobbyist Randy Suess, began preliminary work on the
Computerized Bulletin Board System, or
CBBS. CBBS went online on
February 16,
1978 in
Chicago, Illinois.
[, BBSDocumentary.com, retrieved June 30, 2007]With the original 110 and 300
baud modems of the late 1970s, BBSes were particularly slow, but speed improved with the introduction of 1200
bit/s modems in the
early 1980s, and this led to a substantial increase in popularity.
Most of the
information was displayed using ordinary
ASCII text or
ANSI art, though some BBSes experimented with higher resolution visual formats such as the innovative but obscure
Remote Imaging Protocol. Such use of
graphics taxed available
channel capacity, which in turn propelled demand for faster modems.
Towards the early 1990s, the BBS industry became so popular that it spawned three monthly magazines,
Boardwatch,
BBS Magazine, and in Asia and Australia,
Chips 'n Bits Magazine which devoted extensive coverage of the software and technology innovations and people behind them, and listings to US and worldwide BBSes.
[, catalogue.nla.gov.au, retrieved March 15, 2009] In addition, in the USA, a major monthly magazine,
Computer Shopper, carried a list of BBSes along with a brief abstract of each of their offerings.
According to the
FidoNet Nodelist, BBSes reached their peak usage around 1996, which was the same period that the
World Wide Web suddenly became mainstream. BBSes rapidly declined in popularity thereafter, and were replaced by systems using the
Internet for connectivity. Some of the larger commercial BBSes, such as
ExecPC BBS, became actual
Internet Service Providers.
The website
textfiles.com serves as an archive that documents the history of the BBS. The owner of
textfiles.com,
Jason Scott, also produced
BBS: The Documentary, a
DVD film that chronicles the history of the BBS and features interviews with well-known people (mostly from the
United States) from the heyday BBS era.
The on
textfiles.com contains over 105,000 BBSes that have existed over a span of 20 years in North America alone.
Software and hardware
Unlike modern websites and
online services that are typically hosted by third-party companies in commercial
data centers, BBS computers (especially for smaller boards) were typically operated from the SysOp's home. As such, access could be unreliable, and in many cases only one user could be on the system at a time. Only larger BBSs with multiple phone lines using specialized hardware, multitasking software, or a
LAN connecting multiple computers, could host multiple simultaneous users.
The first BBSs used simple homebrew software, quite often written or customized by the SysOps themselves, running on early
S-100 microcomputer systems such as the
Altair,
IMSAI and
Cromemco under the
CP/M operating system. Soon after, BBS software was being written for all of the major
home computer systems of the late 1970s era - the
Apple II,
Atari, and
TRS-80 being some of the most popular.
A few years later in 1981, IBM introduced the first PC-DOS (
MS-DOS) based
IBM PC, and due to the overwhelming popularity of PCs and their
clones,
MS-DOS soon became the operating system on which the majority of BBS programs were run.
RBBS-PC,
ported over from the CP/M world, and
Fido BBS, created by
Tom Jennings (who later founded
FidoNet) were the first notable MS-DOS BBS programs. There were many successful commercial BBS programs developed for MS-DOS, such as
PCBoard BBS,
RemoteAccess BBS, and
Wildcat! BBS. Some popular freeware BBS programs for MS-DOS included
Telegard BBS and
Renegade BBS, which both had early origins from leaked
WWIV BBS source code. There were several dozen other BBS programs developed over the MS-DOS era, and many were released under the shareware concept, while some were released as freeware.
During the mid-1980s, many sysops opted for the less expensive, ubiquitous
Commodore 64 (introduced in 1982), which was popular among
software pirate groups. Popular commercial BBS programs were
Blue Board,
Ivory BBS,
Color64 and
CNet 64. In the early 1990s a small number of BBSes were also running on the Commodore
Amiga models
500,
1200, and
2000 (using external hard drives), and the
Amiga 3000 and
Amiga 4000 (which had built-in hard drives). Popular BBS software for the Amiga were
ABBS,
Amiexpress,
Infinity and
Tempest.
MS-DOS continued to be the most popular operating system for BBS use up until the mid-1990s, and in the early years most multi-node BBSes were running under a DOS based multitasker such as
DesqView or consisted of multiple computers connected via a
LAN. During the 1990s, a handful of BBS developers implemented multitasking communications routines which, although run under MS-DOS, allowed multiple phone lines and multiple users to connect to the same physical BBS computer. These included Galacticomm's
MajorBBS (later WorldGroup), eSoft
TBBS, and
Falken.
By 1995, many of the MS-DOS-based BBSes had begun switching to modern
multitasking operating systems, such as OS/2, Windows 95, and Linux. These operating systems also provided built-in TCP/IP networking, which allowed most of the remaining BBSes to evolve and include Internet hosting capabilities. Recent BBS software, such as
Synchronet, EleBBS,
DOC or
Wildcat! BBS provide access using the
Telnet protocol rather than dialup, or by using legacy MS-DOS based BBS software with a
FOSSIL-to-Telnet redirector such as
NetFoss.
Presentation
BBSes were generally text-based, rather than
GUI-based, and early BBSes conversed using the simple
ASCII character set. However, some home computer manufacturers extended the ASCII character set to take advantage of the advanced color and graphics capabilities of their systems. BBS software authors included these extended character sets in their software, and terminal program authors included the ability to display them when a compatible system was called. Atari's native character set was known as
ATASCII, while most Commodore BBSes supported
PETSCII. PETSCII was also supported by the nationwide online service
Quantum Link. (Quantum Link and parts of
AppleLink went on to become
America Online).
The use of these custom character sets was generally incompatible between manufacturers. Unless a caller was using terminal emulation software written for, and running on, the same type of system as the BBS, the session would simply fall back to simple ASCII output. For example, a Commodore 64 user calling an Atari BBS would use ASCII rather than the machine's native character set. As time progressed, most terminal programs began using the
ANSI standard, but could use their native character set if it was available.
A BBS GUI called
Remote Imaging Protocol (RIP) was promoted by Telegrafix in the early to mid 1990s but it never became widespread. A similar technology called
NAPLPS was also considered, and although it became the underlying graphics technology behind the
Prodigy service, it never gained popularity in the BBS market. There were several GUI-based BBS's on the
Apple Macintosh platform, including
TeleFinder and
FirstClass, but these remained widely used only in the Mac market.
In the UK, the
BBC Micro based
OBBS software, available from
Pace for use with their modems, optionally allowed for colour and graphics using the
Teletext based graphics mode available on that platform. Other systems used the
Viewdata protocols made popular in the UK by
British Telecom's Prestel service, and the on-line magazine
Micronet 800 whom were busy giving away modems with their subscriptions.
The most popular form of online graphics was
ANSI art, which combined the
IBM Extended ASCII character set's blocks and symbols with
ANSI escape sequences to allow changing colors on demand, provide cursor control and screen formatting, and even basic musical tones. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, most BBSes used ANSI to make elaborate welcome screens, and colorized menus, and thus, ANSI support was a sought-after feature in terminal client programs. The development of ANSI art became so popular that it spawned an entire BBS "
artscene"
subculture devoted to it.
Today, most BBS software that is still actively supported, such as WorldGroup, WildCat! BBS and
Citadel/UX, is Web-enabled, and the traditional text interface has been replaced (or operates concurrently) with a Web-based user interface. For those more nostalgic for the true BBS experience, one can use NetSerial (Windows) or
DOSBox (Windows/*nix) to redirect DOS COM port software to telnet, allowing them to connect to Telnet BBSes using 1980s and 1990s era modem
terminal emulation software, like
Telix,
Terminate,
Qmodem and
Procomm Plus. Modern 32-bit terminal emulators such as mTelnet and SyncTerm include native telnet support.
Content and access
Since early BBSes were frequently run by computer hobbyists, they were typically technical in nature with user communities revolving around hardware and software discussions. Many SysOps were transplants of the
amateur radio community and thus amateur and
packet radio were often popular topics.
As the BBS phenomenon grew, so did the popularity of special interest boards. Bulletin Board Systems could be found for almost every hobby and interest. Popular interests included politics, religion, music,
dating, and
alternative lifestyles. Many SysOps also adopted a
theme in which they customized their entire BBS (welcome screens, prompts, menus, etc) to reflect that theme. Common themes were based on
fantasy, or were intended to give the user the illusion of being somewhere else, such as in a
sanatorium, wizard's castle, or on a
pirate ship.
Some BBSes, called "elite boards" or "warez boards", were exclusively used for distributing
pirated software,
phreaking, and other questionable or unlawful content. These BBSes often had multiple modems and phone lines, allowing several users to upload and download files at once. Most elite BBSes used some form of new user verification, where new users would have to apply for membership and attempt to prove that they were not a law enforcement officer or a
lamer. The largest elite boards accepted users by invitation only. Elite boards also spawned their own subculture and gave rise to the
slang known today as
leetspeak.
Another common type of board was the "support BBS" run by a manufacturer of computer products or software. These boards were dedicated to supporting users of the company's products with question and answer forums, news and updates, and downloads. Most of them were not a free call. Today, these services have moved to the web.
thumb|Access group editor in a developer build of OpenTG BBSSome general purpose Bulletin Board Systems had special levels of access that were given to those who paid extra money, uploaded useful files or knew the sysop personally. These specialty and pay BBSes usually had something special to offer their users such as large file libraries,
warez,
pornography,
chat rooms or
Internet access.
Pay BBSes such as The
WELL and Echo NYC (now Internet forums rather than dial-up),
ExecPC, and
MindVox (which folded in 1996) were admired for their tightly-knit communities and quality discussion forums. However, many "free" BBSes also maintained close knit communities, and some even had annual or bi-annual events where users would travel great distances to meet face-to-face with their on-line friends. These events were especially popular with BBSes that offered
chat rooms.
Some of the BBSes that provided access to illegal content did wind up in trouble. On July 12, 1985, in conjunction with a
credit card fraud investigation, the
Middlesex County, NJ Sheriff's department raided and seized The Private Sector BBS, which was the official BBS for
grey hat hacker quarterly
2600 Magazine at the time.
[, thegreatgeekmanual.com, retrieved March 26, 2009] The notorious
Rusty n Edie's BBS, in
Boardman,
Ohio, was raided by the FBI in January 1993 for software piracy, and later sued in November 1997 by
Playboy for copyright infringement. In
Flint,
Michigan, a 21 year old man was charged with distributing
child pornography through his BBS in March 1996.
Networks
Most early BBSes operated as stand-alone islands. Information contained on that BBS never left the system, and users would only interact with the information and user community on that BBS alone. However, as BBSes became more widespread, there evolved a desire to connect systems together to share messages and files with distant systems and users. The largest such network was
FidoNet.
As is it was prohibitively expensive for the hobbyist SysOp to have a dedicated connection to another system, FidoNet was developed as a
store and forward network. Private electronic mail (Netmail), public message boards (Echomail) and eventually even file attachments on a FidoNet-capable BBS would be bundled into one or more archive files over a set time interval. These archive files were then compressed with
ARC or
ZIP and forwarded to (or polled by) another nearby node or hub via a dialup
Xmodem session. Messages would be relayed around various FidoNet hubs until they were eventually delivered to their destination. The hierarchy of FidoNet BBS nodes, hubs, and zones was maintained in a routing table called a Nodelist. Some larger BBSes or regional FidoNet hubs would make several transfers per day, some even to multiple nodes or hubs, and as such, transfers usually occurred at night or early morning when toll rates were lowest. In Fido's heyday, sending a Netmail message to a user on a distant FidoNet node, or participating in an Echomail discussion could take days, especially if any FidoNet nodes or hubs in the message's route only made one transfer call per day.
FidoNet was platform-independent and would work with any BBS that was written to use it. BBSes that did not have integrated FidoNet capability could usually add it using an external FidoNet
front-end mailer such as FrontDoor, BinkleyTerm, InterMail or D'Bridge, and a mail processor such as
FastEcho or
Squish. The front-end mailer would conduct the periodic FidoNet transfers, while the mail processor would usually run just before and just after the mailer ran. This program would scan for and pack up new outgoing messages, and then unpack, sort and "toss" the incoming messages into a BBS user's local electronic mailbox or into the BBS's local message bases reserved for Echomail. As such, these mail processers were commonly called "scanner/tosser/packers."
Many other BBS networks followed the example of FidoNet, using the same standards and the same software. These were called
FidoNet Technology Networks (FTNs). They were usually smaller and targeted at selected audiences. Some networks used
QWK doors, and others such as
RelayNet (RIME) and
WWIVnet used non-Fido software and standards.
Before commercial Internet access became common, these
networks of BBSes provided regional and international
e-mail and message bases. Some even provided
gateways, such as UFGATE, by which members could send/receive e-mail to/from the
Internet via
UUCP, and many FidoNet discussion groups were shared via
Usenet. Elaborate schemes allowed users to download binary files, search
gopherspace, and interact with distant
programs, all using plain text e-mail.
FidoNet is still in use today, though in a much smaller form, and many Echomail groups are still shared with Usenet via FidoNet to Usenet gateways. Widespread abuse of Usenet with
spam and
pornography has led to many of these FidoNet gateways to cease operation completely.
Shareware
Much of the "
Shareware" movement was started via user distribution of software through BBSes. A notable example was
Phil Katz's PKARC (and later
PKZIP, using the same ".zip"
algorithm that
WinZip and other popular archivers now use); also other concepts of software distribution like
freeware,
postcardware like
JPEGview and
donationware like
Red Ryder for the Macintosh first appeared on BBS sites.
Doom from
id Software and many
Apogee games were distributed as shareware. The Internet has largely erased the distinction of shareware - most users now download the software directly from the developer's web site rather than receiving it from another BBS user 'sharing' it. Today shareware is commonly used to mean electronically-distributed software from a small developer.
Many commercial BBS software companies that continue to support their old BBS software products switched to the shareware model or made it entirely free. Some companies were able to make the move to the Internet and provide commercial products with BBS capabilities.
Features
A classic BBS had:
- A sysop - system operator
The BBS software usually provides:
- Statistics on Message Posters, Top Uploaders / Downloaders
- A doorway to third-party online games
- Usage auditing capabilities
- Multi-user chat (only possible on multi-line BBSes)
- Internet email (more common in later Internet-connected BBSes)
- Networked message boards setup by the SysOp
- Most modern BBSes allow telnet access over the Internet using a telnet server and a virtual FOSSIL driver.
- A "yell for sysop" feature that would make the BBS computer emit an audible noise so that if the SysOp was near the computer and chose to respond, he or she could join a remote user in text-to-text chat.
See also
