A Bulletin Board System or BBS is a computer system running software that allows users to dial into the system over a phone line (or Telnet) and, using a terminal program, perform functions such as downloading software and data, uploading data, reading news, and exchanging messages with other users.

During their heyday (from the early 1980s to the mid 1990s), many BBSes were run as a hobby free of charge by the "SysOp" (system operator), while other BBSes charged their users a subscription fee for access, or were operated by a business as a means of supporting their customers. Still others were run by Internet service providers as part of their service to subscribers.

The term BBS may also be used to refer to any online forum or message board.

Bulletin board systems were in many ways a precursor to the modern form of the World Wide Web and other aspects of the Internet. BBSes were a highly social phenomenon and were used for meeting people and having discussions in message boards as well as for publishing articles, downloading software, playing games and many more things using a single application.

The BBS was also 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 area, as opposed to less expensive local charges. Thus, many users of a given BBS usually lived in the same area, and activities such as BBS Meets or Get Togethers (GTs or GTGs), where everyone from the board would gather and meet face to face, were common. As the use of the Internet became more widespread, BBSes slowly faded in popularity.

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.

According to an early interview, while he was snowed in during The Great Chicago Snowstorm of 1979, Ward Christensen began preliminary work on the Computerized Bulletin Board System, or CBBS.

CBBS went online on February 16, 1979 in Chicago, Illinois, and was the first of its kind. [1]

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. This was also the time when Apple-based BBSes were surpassed by DOS ones. Oropallo was eventually able to connect several TRS-80 systems, each using separate phone lines, allowing for several people to be online simultaneously.

Most of the information was presented using ordinary text or ANSI art, though some offered graphics, particularly after the rise in popularity of the GIF image format. 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 two monthly magazines, Boardwatch and BBS Magazine, which devoted extensive coverage of the software and technology innovations and people behind them, and listings to US and worldwide BBSes. In addition, a major monthly magazine, Computer Shopper, carried a list of BBSes along with a brief abstract of each of their offerings.

Arguably the most profitable BBS was Event Horizons (1983-1995). According to Wired Magazine [2]and The Economist ("A hitch-hiker's guide: America's information highway,"1993), Event Horizons BBS grossed more than $3 million in 1992. Event Horizons BBS was founded by Jim Maxey in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The BBS began as a message board but soon offered forums, mazes, puzzles, online games, and thousands of astronomy images. Later, Event Horizons BBS was one of the first to offer adult images and video clips for downloading to a huge customer base.

With the rise of the World Wide Web function of the Internet around 1996, BBSes rapidly declined in popularity in the west. In Europe and Asia, BBSes continued to increase in popularity for several years, but very few existed by 2004.

Several BBS systems connected directly to the Internet, removing the necessity of direct dial-up and consequently attracting a more geographically diverse user base. This also allowed email to pass between them, so that (for instance) a user on a FidoNet system could send and receive messages in the days when Internet access was limited.

Public BBSes were often prone to abuse. It was not uncommon for BBSes (especially ones that did not use call back validation) to be flooded with rants full of profane language and insults. Some of these activities became legendary, especially in areas like Cincinnati in the late 1980s.