David Hayward worryingly enjoys the sound of a modem a little too much
Long before Facebook or Twitter or any other social media, the limited internet population communicated through bulletin board systems.
Each BBS was really just a server sat somewhere, usually in a university, that ran a front-end for users to dial into. Once connected, the user would be able to upload and download any stored programs, catch up on news through the various message boards and send each other private or public messages.
It all depended on the system in place and what modules were loaded in to the server. For example, the BBS I recall fondly was the Airedale BBS at Trinity and All Saints University just outside of Leeds. It was a small, locally run BBS with a Teletext-like front-end and access to various university resources, as well as local information and more mainstream PC-related downloads.
There was also a chat function, where the students could sit around in the computer labs dotted throughout the uni and engage in a spot of public and private chatting. On the whole, it was a fairly efficient system and, looking back now, a pretty good resource.
Of course, there were more BBSs available. Not just locally but across the world. You could effectively have a conversation with someone in Australia or the US and exchange files. It was a simple system that worked and used very little resources on the server.
Its History
The first BBSs appeared in the 70s, where different organisations, universities and colleges dialled up each other in the same kind of way that Matthew Broderick hacked into the military computer in the classic film Wargames.
As modems and access to the wider communication giant that was the beginning of the internet began to evolve, the BBS took on a new role and became a more central repository for resources.
Dial-up was the boom the BBS needed to increase its popularity. Suddenly home users could dial into a BBS, as opposed to computers directly linked to the institute’s network. And with dial-up came many privately owned bulletin boards, with some users even taking advantage of free evening calls to make their own BBS accessible.
As time and technology marched on, the BBS began to introduce better GUIs and improve the user’s experience when they logged in. Rather than simply using Telnet to access the BBS, Netscape introduced a web-based terminal access, which greatly improved the experience and utilised better HTML and more modern extensions.
Unfortunately, that same advancement of technology rapidly brought about the demise of the popular BBS. With far more functional websites now available and the ability to chat through separate programs, the BBS eventually faded into obscurity.
There is a happy ending, though: the BBS is still alive – and in incredible numbers too. Check out www.synchro.net/sbbslist.html for a current list.
The Good
A well-designed BBS was an amazing resource, long before we could visit a site and download its contents.
Games, work, utilities and tools could all be had with a few simple commands. Glorious days, indeed.
The Bad
If you think modern trolls are bad, the old BBS trolls made the current lot seem positively tame. Plus getting carried away in a conversation on dial-up could be expensive.
Conclusion And Confession
The BBS was a great place to hang out back in the day, so thank you SysOps for all your hard work.
I have a confession. I was the one who hacked the Airedale BBS and added words like ‘it’, ‘the’ and ‘but’ to the swear list. For that, I am very sorry.
Did You Know…
• Most early BBSs could be hacked by hitting escape when logging in, to get access to the login scripts and files.
• Autocomplete first appeared on a BBS, long before becoming part of the internet.
• There are still thousands of active BBSs alive today.
• All SysOps had beards (that may not be totally true, but it’s plausible).