Before the Internet...
A bulletin board system, or BBS, is a computer server running custom software
that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once
logged in, the user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading
software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with
other users through email, public message boards, and sometimes via direct
chatting. 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. Bulletin board systems were in
many ways a precursor to the modern form of the World Wide Web, social
networks and other aspects of the Internet. Low-cost, high-performance modems
drove the use of online services and BBSes through the early 1990s. Infoworld
estimated there were 60,000 BBSes serving 17 million users in the United
States alone in 1994, a collective market much larger than major online
services like CompuServe.
The introduction of inexpensive dial-up internet service and the Mosaic web
browser offered ease-of use and global access that BBS and online systems did
not provide, and led to a rapid crash in the market starting in 1994. Over the
next year, many of the leading BBS software providers went bankrupt and tens
of thousands of BBSes disappeared. Today, BBSing survives largely as a
nostalgic hobby in most parts of the world, but it is still an extremely
popular form of communication for Taiwanese youth see PTT Bulletin Board
System and in China.1 Most BBSes are now accessible over Telnet and
typically offer free email accounts, FTP services, IRC and all of the
protocols commonly used on the Internet. Some offer access through packet
switched networks, or packet radio connections.
Contents
1 History 1.1 Precursors 1.2 The first BBSes 1.3 Smartmodem 1.4 Higher
speeds, commercialization 1.5 GUIs 1.6 Rise of the Internet and decline of
BBS 1.7 Estimating numbers 2 Software and hardware 3 Presentation 4
Content and access 5 Networks 6 Shareware and freeware 7 Features 8 See
also 9 Footnotes 10 References 10.1 Sources 11 External links
History Precursors
A precursor to the public bulletin board system was Community Memory, started
in August 1973 in Berkeley, California. Useful microcomputers did not exist at
that time, and modems were both expensive and slow. Community Memory therefore
ran on a mainframe computer and was accessed through terminals located in
several San Francisco Bay Area neighborhoods.2 The poor quality of the
original modem connecting the terminals to the mainframe prompted a user to
invent the Pennywhistle modem, whose design was highly influential in the
mid-1970s.
Community Memory allowed the user to type messages into a computer terminal
after inserting a coin, and offered a pure bulletin board experience with
public messages only no email or other features. It did offer the ability to
tag messages with keywords, which the user could use in searches. The system
acted primarily in the form of a buy and sell system with the tags taking the
place of the more traditional classifications. But users found ways to express
themselves outside these bounds, and the system spontaneously created stories,
poetry and other forms of communications. Unfortunately, the system was
expensive to operate, and when their host machine became unavailable and a new
one could not be found, the system closed in January 1975.
Similar functionality was available to most mainframe users, which might be
considered a sort of ultra-local BBS when used in this fashion. Commercial
systems, expressly intended to offer these features to the public, became
available in the late 1970s and formed the online service market that lasted
into the 1990s. One particularly influential example was PLATO, which had
thousands of users by the late 1970s, many of whom used the messaging and chat
room features of the system in the same way that would become common on BBSes.
The first BBSes Ward Christensen holds an expansion card from the original
CBBS S-100 host machine.
Early modems were generally very simple devices using acoustic couplers to
handle telephone operation. The user would first pick up the phone, dial a
number, then press the handset into rubber cups on the top of the modem.
Disconnecting at the end of a call required the user to pick up the handset
and return it to the phone. Examples of direct-connecting modems did exist,
and these often allowed the host computer to send it commands to answer or
hang up calls, but these were very expensive devices used by large banks and
similar companies.
With the introduction of microcomputers with expansion slots, like the S-100
bus machines and Apple II, it became possible for the modem to communicate
instructions and data on separate lines. A number of modems of this sort were
available by the late 1970s. This made the BBS possible for the first time, as
it allowed software on the computer to pick up an incoming call, communicate
with the user, and then hang up the call when the user logged off.
The first public dial-up BBS was developed by Ward Christensen and Randy
Suess. According to an early interview, when Chicago was snowed under during
the Great Blizzard of 1978, the two began preliminary work on the Computerized
Bulletin Board System, or CBBS. The system came into existence largely through
a fortuitous combination of Christensen having a spare S-100 bus computer and
an early Hayes internal modem, and Suesss insistence that the machine be
placed at his house in Chicago where it would be a local phone call to
millions of users. Christensen patterned the system after the cork board his
local computer club used to post information like need a ride. CBBS
officially went online on 16 February 1978.3 CBBS, which kept a count of
callers, reportedly connected 253,301 callers before it was finally retired.
Smartmodem The 300 baud Smartmodem led to an initial wave of early BBS
systems.
A key innovation required for the popularization of the BBS was the Hayes
Smartmodem. Internal modems like the ones used by CBBS and similar early
systems were usable, but generally expensive due to the manufacturer having to
make a different modem for every computer platform they wanted to target. They
were also limited to those computers with internal expansion, and could not be
used with other useful platforms like video terminals.
Hayes solution to the problem was to use a small microcontroller to implement
a system that examined the data flowing into the modem from the host computer,
watching for certain command strings. This allowed commands to be sent to and
from the modem using the same data pins as all the rest of the data, meaning
it would work on any system that could support even the most basic modems. The
Smartmodem could pick up the phone, dial numbers, and hang up again, all
without any operator intervention. The Smartmodem was not necessary for BBS
use, but made overall operation dramatically simpler. It also improved
usability for the caller, as most terminal software allowed different phone
numbers to be stored and dialled on command, allowing the user to easily
connect to a series of systems.
The introduction of the Smartmodem led to the first real wave of BBS systems.
Limited in both speed and storage capacity, these systems were normally
dedicated solely to messaging, both private email and public forums. File
transfers were painfully slow at these speeds, and file libraries were
typically limited to text files containing lists of other BBS systems. These
systems attracted a particular type of user who used the BBS as a unique type
of communications medium, and when these local systems were crowded from the
market in the 1990s, their loss was lamented for many years. Higher speeds,
commercialization
Speed improved with the introduction of 1200 bit/s modems in the early 1980s,
giving way to 2400 bit/s fairly rapidly. The improved performance led to a
substantial increase in BBS popularity. Most of the information was displayed
using ordinary ASCII text or ANSI art, but a number of systems attempted
character-based graphical user interfaces which began to be practical at 2400
bit/s.
There was a lengthy delay before 2400 bit/s gave way and 9600 bit/s models
began to appear on the market. 9600 bit/s was not even established as a strong
standard before V.32bis at 14.4 kbit/s took over in the early 1990s. This
period also saw the rapid rise in capacity and dramatic drop in price of hard
drives. By the late 1980s, most BBS systems had relatively significant file
libraries, and this gave rise to the leech, users who called BBSes solely
for their files. These users would tie up the modem for some time, leaving
less time for other users, crowding them out. The resulting upheaval
eliminated many of the pioneering message-centric systems.4
This also gave rise to a new class of BBS systems, dedicated solely to file
downloads, often a euphemism for pornographic images in GIF format. These
systems charged for access, typically a flat monthly fee, compared to the
per-hour fees charged by most online services. A host of 3rd party services
sprang up to support these systems, offering simple credit card merchant
account gateways for the payment of monthly fees, and entire file libraries on
compact disk that made initial setup very easy. Early 1990s editions of
Boardwatch were filled with ads for single-click install solutions dedicated
to these new sysops. While this gave the market a bad reputation, it also led
to its greatest success during the early 1990s, there were a number of
mid-sized software companies dedicated to BBS software, and the number of
BBSes in service reached its peak.
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.5 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. GUIs
Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was considerable experimentation
with ways to improve the BBS experience from its command line interface roots.
Almost every popular system improved matters somewhat by adding ANSI-based
color menus to make reading easier, and most also allowed cursor commands to
offer command-line recall and similar features. Another common feature was the
use of autocomplete to make menu navigation simpler, a feature that would not
re-appear on the web until decades later.
A number of systems also made forays into GUI-based interfaces, either using
character graphics sent from the host, or using custom GUI-based terminal
systems. The later initially appeared, unsurprisingly, on the Amiga and
Macintosh platform, where TeleFinder and FirstClass became very popular.
FirstClass offered a host of features that would be difficult or impossible
under a terminal-based solution, including bi-directional information flow and
non-blocking operation that allowed the user to exchange files in both
directions while continuing to use the message system and chat, all in
separate windows. Skypix featured on Amiga a complete markup language. It used
a standardized set of icons to indicate mouse driven commands available online
and to recognize different filetypes present on BBS storage media. It was
capable to transmit data like images, audio files, and audio clips between
users linked to same BBS or off-line if BBS was in the circuit of FidoNet
organization. On the PC, efforts were more oriented to extensions of the
original terminal concept, with the GUI being described in the information on
the host. One example was the Remote Imaging Protocol, essentially a picture
description system, which remained relatively obscure. Probably the ultimate
development of this style of operation was the dynamic page implementation of
the University of Southern California BBS USCBBS by Susan Biddlecomb, which
predated the implementation of the HTML Dynamic web page. A complete Dynamic
web page implementation was accomplished using TBBS with a TDBS add-on
presenting a complete menu system individually customized for each user. Rise
of the Internet and decline of BBS
The demand for complex ANSI and ASCII screens and larger file transfers taxed
available channel capacity, which in turn propelled demand for faster modems.
14.4 kbit/s modems were standard for a number of years while various companies
attempted to introduce non-standard systems with higher performance, normally
about 19.2 kbit/s. Another delay followed due to a long V.34 standards process
before 28.8 kbit/s was released, only to be quickly replaced by 33.6 kbit/s,
and then 56 kbit/s.
These increasing speeds had the side effect of dramatically reducing the
noticeable effects of channel efficiency. When modems were slow, considerable
effort was put into developing the most efficient protocols and display
systems possible. Running a general-purpose protocol like TCP/IP over a 1200
bit/s modem was a painful experience. With 56 kbit/s modems, however, the
overhead was so greatly reduced as to be unnoticeable. Dial-up Internet
service became widely available in 1994, and a must-have option for any
general-use operating system by 1995.
What resulted was a perfect storm that almost completely destroyed the BBS
market through 1995. Technically, Internet service offered an enormous
advantage over BBS systems, as a single connection to the users Internet
service provider allowed them to contact services around the world. In
comparison, BBS systems relied on a direct point-to-point connection, so even
dialing multiple local systems required multiple phone calls. Moreover,
Internet protocols allowed that same single connection to be used to contact
multiple services at the same time, say download files from an ftp library
while checking the weather on a local news web site. In comparison, a
connection to a BBS allowed access only to the information on that system.
Estimating numbers
According to the FidoNet Nodelist, BBSes reached their peak usage around 1996,
which was the same period that the World Wide Web and AOL 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 MaxMegabyte and ExecPC BBS, evolved into Internet Service
Providers.
The website textfiles.com serves as an archive that documents the history of
the BBS. The historical BBS list on textfiles.com contains over 105,000 BBSes
that have existed over a span of 20 years in North America alone. 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. Software and
hardware Amiga 3000 running a two-line BBS
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 SysOps home. As such,
access could be unreliable, and in many cases, only one user could be on the
system at a time. Only larger BBSes with multiple phone lines using
specialized hardware, multitasking software, or a LAN connecting multiple
computers, could host multiple simultaneous users.
The first BBSes used homebrew software,nb 1 quite often written or
customized by the SysOps themselves, running on early S-100 bus microcomputer
systems such as the Altair 8800, IMSAI 8080 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 8-bit
family, Commodore and TRS-80 being some of the most popular.
A few years later, in 1981, IBM introduced the first DOS based IBM PC, and due
to the overwhelming popularity of PCs and their clones, 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 DOS BBS programs. Many
successful commercial BBS programs were developed for DOS, such as PCBoard
BBS, RemoteAccess BBS, and Wildcat! BBS. Some popular freeware BBS programs
for 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 DOS era, and many were released under the shareware
concept, while some were released as freeware including iniquity.
BBS systems on other systems remained popular, especially home computers,
largely because they catered to the audience of users running those machines.
The ubiquitous Commodore 64 introduced in 1982 was a common platform in the
1980s. 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. Popular BBS software for the Amiga were ABBS, Amiexpress,
C-Net, StormforceBBS, Infinity and Tempest. There was also a small faction of
devoted Atari BBSes that used the Atari 800, then the 800XL, and eventually
the 1040ST. The earlier machines generally lacked hard drive capabilities,
which limited them primarily to messaging.
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. In the late 1980s, a handful of BBS
developers implemented multitasking communications routines inside their
software, allowing multiple phone lines and users to connect to the same BBS
computer. These included Galacticomms MajorBBS later WorldGroup, eSoft The
Bread Board System TBBS, and Falken. Though most BBS software had been
written in BASIC or Pascal with some low-level routines written in assembly
language, the C language was starting to gain popularity.
By 1995, many of the DOS-based BBSes had begun switching to modern
multitasking operating systems, such as OS/2, Windows 95, and Linux. TCP/IP
networking allowed most of the remaining BBSes to evolve and include Internet
hosting capabilities. Recent BBS software, such as Synchronet, Mystic BBS,
EleBBS, DOC or Wildcat! BBS provide access using the Telnet protocol rather
than dialup, or by using legacy DOS based BBS software with a FOSSIL-to-Telnet
redirector such as NetFoss. Presentation Welcome screen of Neon2 BBS
Tornado
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. Ataris native character set was known as ATASCII, while
most Commodore BBSes supported PETSCII. PETSCII was also supported by the
nationwide online service Quantum Link.nb 2
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 machines 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.
COCONET, a BBS system made by Coconut Computing, Inc., was released in 1988
and only supported a GUI no text interface was initially available but
eventually became available around 1990, and worked in EGA/VGA graphics mode,
which made it stand out from the text-based BBS systems. COCONETs bitmap and
vector graphics and support for multiple type fonts were inspired by the PLATO
system, and the graphics capabilities were based on what was available in the
Borland BGI graphics library. A competing approach called Remote Imaging
Protocol RIP emerged and was promoted by Telegrafix in the early to
mid-1990s but it never became widespread. An industry standard 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 BBSes 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 color 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 Telecoms 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 sets 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. BBS ANSI Login Screen example
The Amiga Skyline BBS software was the first in 1987 featuring a script markup
language communication protocol called Skypix which was capable of giving
the user a complete graphical interface, featuring rich graphic content,
changeable fonts, mouse-controlled actions, animations and sound.6
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 most early BBSes were run by computer hobbyists, they were typically
technical in topic, with user communities revolving around hardware and
software discussions.
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, and so on 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, wizards castle, or
on a pirate ship.
In the early days, the file download library consisted of files that the
SysOps obtained themselves from other BBSes and friends. Many BBSes inspected
every file uploaded to their public file download library to ensure that the
material did not violate copyright law. As time went on, shareware CD-ROMs
were sold with up to thousands of files on each CD-ROM. Small BBSes copied
each file individually to their hard drive. Some systems used a CD-ROM drive
to make the files available. Advanced BBSes used Multiple CD-ROM disc changer
units that switched 6 CD-ROM disks on demand for the callers. Large systems
used all 26 DOS drive letters with multi-disk changers housing tens of
thousands of copyright-free shareware or freeware files available to all
callers. These BBSes were generally more family friendly, avoiding the seedier
side of BBSes. Access to these systems varied from single to multiple modem
lines with some requiring little or no confirmed registration.
Some BBSes, called elite, WaReZ or pirate boards, were exclusively used for
distributing cracked 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 companys 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.
Some 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, PsudNetwork and MindVox which folded in 1996 were admired
for their tight-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 faced opposition. On
July 12, 1985, in conjunction with a credit card fraud investigation, the
Middlesex County, NJ Sheriffs department raided and seized The Private Sector
BBS, which was the official BBS for grey hat hacker quarterly 2600 Magazine at
the time.7 The notorious Rusty n Edies BBS, in Boardman, Ohio, was raided
by the FBI in January 1993 for trading unlicensed software, and later sued by
Playboy for copyright infringement in November 1997. In Flint, Michigan, a
21-year-old man was charged with distributing child pornography through his
BBS in March 1996.8 Networks
Most early BBSes operated as individual systems. 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 email 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 Fidos 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 messages
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 DBridge, 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 users local
email box or into the BBSs local message bases reserved for Echomail. As
such, these mail processors 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 gateway to Usenet. Elaborate schemes allowed users to download binary
files, search gopherspace, and interact with distant programs, all using plain
text e-mail.
As the volume of FidoNet Mail increased and newsgroups from the early days of
the Internet became available, satellite data downstream services became
viable for larger systems. The satellite service provided access to FidoNet
and Usenet newsgroups in large volumes at a reasonable fee. By connecting a
small dish receiver, a constant downstream of thousands of FidoNet and
Usenet newsgroups could be received. The local BBS only needed to upload new
outgoing messages via the modem network back to the satellite service. This
method drastically reduced phone data transfers while dramatically increasing
the number of message forums.
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 and freeware
Much of the shareware movement was started via user distribution of software
through BBSes. A notable example was Phil Katzs 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 nearly all Apogee Software games were
distributed as shareware Apogee is, in fact, credited for adding an order
form to a shareware demo . The Internet has largely erased the distinction of
shareware - most users now download the software directly from the developers
website 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 computer One or more modems One or more phone lines, with more allowing
for increased concurrent users A BBS software package A sysop - system
operator A user community
The BBS software usually provides:
Menu Systems One or more message bases File areas SysOp side, live viewing
of all caller activity Voting - opinion booths Statistics on message
posters, top uploaders / downloaders Online games usually single player
or only a single active player at a given time 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 Most modern BBSes allow telnet access over
the Internet using a telnet server and a virtual FOSSIL driver. A yell
for SysOp page caller side menu item that sounded an audible alarm to the
SysOp. If chosen, the SysOp could then initiate a text-to-text chat with
the caller. Primitive social networking features, such as leaving messages
on a users profile
See also
ANSI art BBS: The Documentary Shell account Imageboard Internet forum
Internet Relay Chat KOM BBS List of BBS software
List of bulletin board systems Minitel PODSnet Terminal emulator Textboard
UGC Usenet Warez
Footnotes
CBBS Chicago which Ward Christensen programmed was about 20,000 lines.
of 8080 assembler Quantum Link and parts of AppleLink went on to become.
America Online .
A bulletin board system, or BBS, is a computer server running custom software
that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once
logged in, the user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading
software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with
other users through email, public message boards, and sometimes via direct
chatting. 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. Bulletin board systems were in
many ways a precursor to the modern form of the World Wide Web, social
networks and other aspects of the Internet. Low-cost, high-performance modems
drove the use of online services and BBSes through the early 1990s. Infoworld
estimated there were 60,000 BBSes serving 17 million users in the United
States alone in 1994, a collective market much larger than major online
services like CompuServe.
The introduction of inexpensive dial-up internet service and the Mosaic web
browser offered ease-of use and global access that BBS and online systems did
not provide, and led to a rapid crash in the market starting in 1994. Over the
next year, many of the leading BBS software providers went bankrupt and tens
of thousands of BBSes disappeared. Today, BBSing survives largely as a
nostalgic hobby in most parts of the world, but it is still an extremely
popular form of communication for Taiwanese youth see PTT Bulletin Board
System and in China.1 Most BBSes are now accessible over Telnet and
typically offer free email accounts, FTP services, IRC and all of the
protocols commonly used on the Internet. Some offer access through packet
switched networks, or packet radio connections.
Contents
1 History 1.1 Precursors 1.2 The first BBSes 1.3 Smartmodem 1.4 Higher
speeds, commercialization 1.5 GUIs 1.6 Rise of the Internet and decline of
BBS 1.7 Estimating numbers 2 Software and hardware 3 Presentation 4
Content and access 5 Networks 6 Shareware and freeware 7 Features 8 See
also 9 Footnotes 10 References 10.1 Sources 11 External links
History Precursors
A precursor to the public bulletin board system was Community Memory, started
in August 1973 in Berkeley, California. Useful microcomputers did not exist at
that time, and modems were both expensive and slow. Community Memory therefore
ran on a mainframe computer and was accessed through terminals located in
several San Francisco Bay Area neighborhoods.2 The poor quality of the
original modem connecting the terminals to the mainframe prompted a user to
invent the Pennywhistle modem, whose design was highly influential in the
mid-1970s.
Community Memory allowed the user to type messages into a computer terminal
after inserting a coin, and offered a pure bulletin board experience with
public messages only no email or other features. It did offer the ability to
tag messages with keywords, which the user could use in searches. The system
acted primarily in the form of a buy and sell system with the tags taking the
place of the more traditional classifications. But users found ways to express
themselves outside these bounds, and the system spontaneously created stories,
poetry and other forms of communications. Unfortunately, the system was
expensive to operate, and when their host machine became unavailable and a new
one could not be found, the system closed in January 1975.
Similar functionality was available to most mainframe users, which might be
considered a sort of ultra-local BBS when used in this fashion. Commercial
systems, expressly intended to offer these features to the public, became
available in the late 1970s and formed the online service market that lasted
into the 1990s. One particularly influential example was PLATO, which had
thousands of users by the late 1970s, many of whom used the messaging and chat
room features of the system in the same way that would become common on BBSes.
The first BBSes Ward Christensen holds an expansion card from the original
CBBS S-100 host machine.
Early modems were generally very simple devices using acoustic couplers to
handle telephone operation. The user would first pick up the phone, dial a
number, then press the handset into rubber cups on the top of the modem.
Disconnecting at the end of a call required the user to pick up the handset
and return it to the phone. Examples of direct-connecting modems did exist,
and these often allowed the host computer to send it commands to answer or
hang up calls, but these were very expensive devices used by large banks and
similar companies.
With the introduction of microcomputers with expansion slots, like the S-100
bus machines and Apple II, it became possible for the modem to communicate
instructions and data on separate lines. A number of modems of this sort were
available by the late 1970s. This made the BBS possible for the first time, as
it allowed software on the computer to pick up an incoming call, communicate
with the user, and then hang up the call when the user logged off.
The first public dial-up BBS was developed by Ward Christensen and Randy
Suess. According to an early interview, when Chicago was snowed under during
the Great Blizzard of 1978, the two began preliminary work on the Computerized
Bulletin Board System, or CBBS. The system came into existence largely through
a fortuitous combination of Christensen having a spare S-100 bus computer and
an early Hayes internal modem, and Suesss insistence that the machine be
placed at his house in Chicago where it would be a local phone call to
millions of users. Christensen patterned the system after the cork board his
local computer club used to post information like need a ride. CBBS
officially went online on 16 February 1978.3 CBBS, which kept a count of
callers, reportedly connected 253,301 callers before it was finally retired.
Smartmodem The 300 baud Smartmodem led to an initial wave of early BBS
systems.
A key innovation required for the popularization of the BBS was the Hayes
Smartmodem. Internal modems like the ones used by CBBS and similar early
systems were usable, but generally expensive due to the manufacturer having to
make a different modem for every computer platform they wanted to target. They
were also limited to those computers with internal expansion, and could not be
used with other useful platforms like video terminals.
Hayes solution to the problem was to use a small microcontroller to implement
a system that examined the data flowing into the modem from the host computer,
watching for certain command strings. This allowed commands to be sent to and
from the modem using the same data pins as all the rest of the data, meaning
it would work on any system that could support even the most basic modems. The
Smartmodem could pick up the phone, dial numbers, and hang up again, all
without any operator intervention. The Smartmodem was not necessary for BBS
use, but made overall operation dramatically simpler. It also improved
usability for the caller, as most terminal software allowed different phone
numbers to be stored and dialled on command, allowing the user to easily
connect to a series of systems.
The introduction of the Smartmodem led to the first real wave of BBS systems.
Limited in both speed and storage capacity, these systems were normally
dedicated solely to messaging, both private email and public forums. File
transfers were painfully slow at these speeds, and file libraries were
typically limited to text files containing lists of other BBS systems. These
systems attracted a particular type of user who used the BBS as a unique type
of communications medium, and when these local systems were crowded from the
market in the 1990s, their loss was lamented for many years. Higher speeds,
commercialization
Speed improved with the introduction of 1200 bit/s modems in the early 1980s,
giving way to 2400 bit/s fairly rapidly. The improved performance led to a
substantial increase in BBS popularity. Most of the information was displayed
using ordinary ASCII text or ANSI art, but a number of systems attempted
character-based graphical user interfaces which began to be practical at 2400
bit/s.
There was a lengthy delay before 2400 bit/s gave way and 9600 bit/s models
began to appear on the market. 9600 bit/s was not even established as a strong
standard before V.32bis at 14.4 kbit/s took over in the early 1990s. This
period also saw the rapid rise in capacity and dramatic drop in price of hard
drives. By the late 1980s, most BBS systems had relatively significant file
libraries, and this gave rise to the leech, users who called BBSes solely
for their files. These users would tie up the modem for some time, leaving
less time for other users, crowding them out. The resulting upheaval
eliminated many of the pioneering message-centric systems.4
This also gave rise to a new class of BBS systems, dedicated solely to file
downloads, often a euphemism for pornographic images in GIF format. These
systems charged for access, typically a flat monthly fee, compared to the
per-hour fees charged by most online services. A host of 3rd party services
sprang up to support these systems, offering simple credit card merchant
account gateways for the payment of monthly fees, and entire file libraries on
compact disk that made initial setup very easy. Early 1990s editions of
Boardwatch were filled with ads for single-click install solutions dedicated
to these new sysops. While this gave the market a bad reputation, it also led
to its greatest success during the early 1990s, there were a number of
mid-sized software companies dedicated to BBS software, and the number of
BBSes in service reached its peak.
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.5 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. GUIs
Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was considerable experimentation
with ways to improve the BBS experience from its command line interface roots.
Almost every popular system improved matters somewhat by adding ANSI-based
color menus to make reading easier, and most also allowed cursor commands to
offer command-line recall and similar features. Another common feature was the
use of autocomplete to make menu navigation simpler, a feature that would not
re-appear on the web until decades later.
A number of systems also made forays into GUI-based interfaces, either using
character graphics sent from the host, or using custom GUI-based terminal
systems. The later initially appeared, unsurprisingly, on the Amiga and
Macintosh platform, where TeleFinder and FirstClass became very popular.
FirstClass offered a host of features that would be difficult or impossible
under a terminal-based solution, including bi-directional information flow and
non-blocking operation that allowed the user to exchange files in both
directions while continuing to use the message system and chat, all in
separate windows. Skypix featured on Amiga a complete markup language. It used
a standardized set of icons to indicate mouse driven commands available online
and to recognize different filetypes present on BBS storage media. It was
capable to transmit data like images, audio files, and audio clips between
users linked to same BBS or off-line if BBS was in the circuit of FidoNet
organization. On the PC, efforts were more oriented to extensions of the
original terminal concept, with the GUI being described in the information on
the host. One example was the Remote Imaging Protocol, essentially a picture
description system, which remained relatively obscure. Probably the ultimate
development of this style of operation was the dynamic page implementation of
the University of Southern California BBS USCBBS by Susan Biddlecomb, which
predated the implementation of the HTML Dynamic web page. A complete Dynamic
web page implementation was accomplished using TBBS with a TDBS add-on
presenting a complete menu system individually customized for each user. Rise
of the Internet and decline of BBS
The demand for complex ANSI and ASCII screens and larger file transfers taxed
available channel capacity, which in turn propelled demand for faster modems.
14.4 kbit/s modems were standard for a number of years while various companies
attempted to introduce non-standard systems with higher performance, normally
about 19.2 kbit/s. Another delay followed due to a long V.34 standards process
before 28.8 kbit/s was released, only to be quickly replaced by 33.6 kbit/s,
and then 56 kbit/s.
These increasing speeds had the side effect of dramatically reducing the
noticeable effects of channel efficiency. When modems were slow, considerable
effort was put into developing the most efficient protocols and display
systems possible. Running a general-purpose protocol like TCP/IP over a 1200
bit/s modem was a painful experience. With 56 kbit/s modems, however, the
overhead was so greatly reduced as to be unnoticeable. Dial-up Internet
service became widely available in 1994, and a must-have option for any
general-use operating system by 1995.
What resulted was a perfect storm that almost completely destroyed the BBS
market through 1995. Technically, Internet service offered an enormous
advantage over BBS systems, as a single connection to the users Internet
service provider allowed them to contact services around the world. In
comparison, BBS systems relied on a direct point-to-point connection, so even
dialing multiple local systems required multiple phone calls. Moreover,
Internet protocols allowed that same single connection to be used to contact
multiple services at the same time, say download files from an ftp library
while checking the weather on a local news web site. In comparison, a
connection to a BBS allowed access only to the information on that system.
Estimating numbers
According to the FidoNet Nodelist, BBSes reached their peak usage around 1996,
which was the same period that the World Wide Web and AOL 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 MaxMegabyte and ExecPC BBS, evolved into Internet Service
Providers.
The website textfiles.com serves as an archive that documents the history of
the BBS. The historical BBS list on textfiles.com contains over 105,000 BBSes
that have existed over a span of 20 years in North America alone. 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. Software and
hardware Amiga 3000 running a two-line BBS
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 SysOps home. As such,
access could be unreliable, and in many cases, only one user could be on the
system at a time. Only larger BBSes with multiple phone lines using
specialized hardware, multitasking software, or a LAN connecting multiple
computers, could host multiple simultaneous users.
The first BBSes used homebrew software,nb 1 quite often written or
customized by the SysOps themselves, running on early S-100 bus microcomputer
systems such as the Altair 8800, IMSAI 8080 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 8-bit
family, Commodore and TRS-80 being some of the most popular.
A few years later, in 1981, IBM introduced the first DOS based IBM PC, and due
to the overwhelming popularity of PCs and their clones, 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 DOS BBS programs. Many
successful commercial BBS programs were developed for DOS, such as PCBoard
BBS, RemoteAccess BBS, and Wildcat! BBS. Some popular freeware BBS programs
for 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 DOS era, and many were released under the shareware
concept, while some were released as freeware including iniquity.
BBS systems on other systems remained popular, especially home computers,
largely because they catered to the audience of users running those machines.
The ubiquitous Commodore 64 introduced in 1982 was a common platform in the
1980s. 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. Popular BBS software for the Amiga were ABBS, Amiexpress,
C-Net, StormforceBBS, Infinity and Tempest. There was also a small faction of
devoted Atari BBSes that used the Atari 800, then the 800XL, and eventually
the 1040ST. The earlier machines generally lacked hard drive capabilities,
which limited them primarily to messaging.
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. In the late 1980s, a handful of BBS
developers implemented multitasking communications routines inside their
software, allowing multiple phone lines and users to connect to the same BBS
computer. These included Galacticomms MajorBBS later WorldGroup, eSoft The
Bread Board System TBBS, and Falken. Though most BBS software had been
written in BASIC or Pascal with some low-level routines written in assembly
language, the C language was starting to gain popularity.
By 1995, many of the DOS-based BBSes had begun switching to modern
multitasking operating systems, such as OS/2, Windows 95, and Linux. TCP/IP
networking allowed most of the remaining BBSes to evolve and include Internet
hosting capabilities. Recent BBS software, such as Synchronet, Mystic BBS,
EleBBS, DOC or Wildcat! BBS provide access using the Telnet protocol rather
than dialup, or by using legacy DOS based BBS software with a FOSSIL-to-Telnet
redirector such as NetFoss. Presentation Welcome screen of Neon2 BBS
Tornado
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. Ataris native character set was known as ATASCII, while
most Commodore BBSes supported PETSCII. PETSCII was also supported by the
nationwide online service Quantum Link.nb 2
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 machines 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.
COCONET, a BBS system made by Coconut Computing, Inc., was released in 1988
and only supported a GUI no text interface was initially available but
eventually became available around 1990, and worked in EGA/VGA graphics mode,
which made it stand out from the text-based BBS systems. COCONETs bitmap and
vector graphics and support for multiple type fonts were inspired by the PLATO
system, and the graphics capabilities were based on what was available in the
Borland BGI graphics library. A competing approach called Remote Imaging
Protocol RIP emerged and was promoted by Telegrafix in the early to
mid-1990s but it never became widespread. An industry standard 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 BBSes 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 color 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 Telecoms 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 sets 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. BBS ANSI Login Screen example
The Amiga Skyline BBS software was the first in 1987 featuring a script markup
language communication protocol called Skypix which was capable of giving
the user a complete graphical interface, featuring rich graphic content,
changeable fonts, mouse-controlled actions, animations and sound.6
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 most early BBSes were run by computer hobbyists, they were typically
technical in topic, with user communities revolving around hardware and
software discussions.
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, and so on 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, wizards castle, or
on a pirate ship.
In the early days, the file download library consisted of files that the
SysOps obtained themselves from other BBSes and friends. Many BBSes inspected
every file uploaded to their public file download library to ensure that the
material did not violate copyright law. As time went on, shareware CD-ROMs
were sold with up to thousands of files on each CD-ROM. Small BBSes copied
each file individually to their hard drive. Some systems used a CD-ROM drive
to make the files available. Advanced BBSes used Multiple CD-ROM disc changer
units that switched 6 CD-ROM disks on demand for the callers. Large systems
used all 26 DOS drive letters with multi-disk changers housing tens of
thousands of copyright-free shareware or freeware files available to all
callers. These BBSes were generally more family friendly, avoiding the seedier
side of BBSes. Access to these systems varied from single to multiple modem
lines with some requiring little or no confirmed registration.
Some BBSes, called elite, WaReZ or pirate boards, were exclusively used for
distributing cracked 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 companys 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.
Some 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, PsudNetwork and MindVox which folded in 1996 were admired
for their tight-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 faced opposition. On
July 12, 1985, in conjunction with a credit card fraud investigation, the
Middlesex County, NJ Sheriffs department raided and seized The Private Sector
BBS, which was the official BBS for grey hat hacker quarterly 2600 Magazine at
the time.7 The notorious Rusty n Edies BBS, in Boardman, Ohio, was raided
by the FBI in January 1993 for trading unlicensed software, and later sued by
Playboy for copyright infringement in November 1997. In Flint, Michigan, a
21-year-old man was charged with distributing child pornography through his
BBS in March 1996.8 Networks
Most early BBSes operated as individual systems. 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 email 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 Fidos 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 messages
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 DBridge, 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 users local
email box or into the BBSs local message bases reserved for Echomail. As
such, these mail processors 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 gateway to Usenet. Elaborate schemes allowed users to download binary
files, search gopherspace, and interact with distant programs, all using plain
text e-mail.
As the volume of FidoNet Mail increased and newsgroups from the early days of
the Internet became available, satellite data downstream services became
viable for larger systems. The satellite service provided access to FidoNet
and Usenet newsgroups in large volumes at a reasonable fee. By connecting a
small dish receiver, a constant downstream of thousands of FidoNet and
Usenet newsgroups could be received. The local BBS only needed to upload new
outgoing messages via the modem network back to the satellite service. This
method drastically reduced phone data transfers while dramatically increasing
the number of message forums.
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 and freeware
Much of the shareware movement was started via user distribution of software
through BBSes. A notable example was Phil Katzs 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 nearly all Apogee Software games were
distributed as shareware Apogee is, in fact, credited for adding an order
form to a shareware demo . The Internet has largely erased the distinction of
shareware - most users now download the software directly from the developers
website 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 computer One or more modems One or more phone lines, with more allowing
for increased concurrent users A BBS software package A sysop - system
operator A user community
The BBS software usually provides:
Menu Systems One or more message bases File areas SysOp side, live viewing
of all caller activity Voting - opinion booths Statistics on message
posters, top uploaders / downloaders Online games usually single player
or only a single active player at a given time 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 Most modern BBSes allow telnet access over
the Internet using a telnet server and a virtual FOSSIL driver. A yell
for SysOp page caller side menu item that sounded an audible alarm to the
SysOp. If chosen, the SysOp could then initiate a text-to-text chat with
the caller. Primitive social networking features, such as leaving messages
on a users profile
See also
ANSI art BBS: The Documentary Shell account Imageboard Internet forum
Internet Relay Chat KOM BBS List of BBS software
List of bulletin board systems Minitel PODSnet Terminal emulator Textboard
UGC Usenet Warez
Footnotes
CBBS Chicago which Ward Christensen programmed was about 20,000 lines.
of 8080 assembler Quantum Link and parts of AppleLink went on to become.
America Online .
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