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[BBS]es once played the role that the InterNet does today, in an age when there was no such thing as the WorldWideWeb, and the InterNet was still a government research project. [BBS]es were text-based. Connecting to them was like logging into Linux in text mode. After you got past the login prompt, the [BBS] would send a menu over the phone line. You would respond by typing a letter or number from the menu. For example, if the menu said <tt>E)mail</tt>, you would type "e" to send [Email]. SysOp~s tried to spruce up the plain text interface by adding colour. For those who had colour monitors, [BBS]es looked like those lighted, coloured pegboards that they sold to kids during the same era. The bulletin board originally started out as strips of paper posted up in the supermaket; this type of bulletin board is still in widespread use today. When computers became more widespread at home (late 1970s/early 1980s), the bulletin board system ([BBS]) took off. A [BBS] was a computer with a MoDem,hooked up to a phone line, which accepted incoming calls and enabled callers to exchange electronic messages. The very first [BBS] provided no other functionality. Later on, [BBS]es would support file uploads and downloads (via the <tt>XMODEM</tt> protocol at first, and later on the <tt>ZMODEM</tt> protocol), "door" games, real-time chat with the system operator (SysOp), real-time chat with other users if multiple phone lines were installed, and Netmail. Netmail was transferred daily over a global, MoDem-based network called FidoNet that mimicked [UUCP] and even improved upon it. Some [BBS]es provided a service called Echomail, which was very much like UseNet and was built on top of Netmail. An entire industry rose around selling software for running [BBS]es. Some of these programs evolved into [ISP]s in a box and are still being sold today. Others, like the powerful Synchronet BBS, have gone in the OpenSource direction. [BBS]es at the time ran mostly on single-tasking OperatingSystem~s, so a whole computer had to be dedicated to a [BBS]. [BBS]es and FidoNet still exist today, while [UUCP] has been phased out in favour of [TCP/IP] protocols such as [SMTP]. Some of today's [BBS]es run on modern computers under Linux. Some modern [BBS] software, in fact, offers a [Telnet] interface to its services – a number of [BBS]es aren't even hooked up to a MoDem any more, and can only be reached over the InterNet. Lots of people involved with Linux (and the WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup) are old [BBS] people. Here are some of those involved with [WLUG] who started out in the HamiltonBulletinBoardScene: * CraigBox (sysop of [Toontown]) * RaymondBurgess (sysop of Blender and Ritual Idea) * MattCairns * KyleCarter * OliverJones (sysop of TheDigitalDream) * DanielLawson * PerryLorier (co-sysop of TheDigitalDream and Toontown) * PaulMacDonald (Wellington scene) * IanMcDonald (sysop of Kononia) * GreigMcGill (sysop of EchoesBbs) * JonPurvis * AndrewThrift (sysop of Euphoria BBS (Whakatane), The Realm Of the Skull (Gisborne) and ex-maintainer of the NewZealand [BBS] List.) * MarcelVanDeSteeg * zcat(1), sysop of Cherrybomb (and later Cherrybomb Voicemail) Feel free to add your name to the list.
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BulletinBoardSystem
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BBS
HamiltonBulletinBoardScene
SysOp
WlugCulture
