The term BBS stands for Bulletin Board System. It actually is supposed to remind you of the material "Bulletin Boards", which your grandfather had when he was in university. Bulletin boards are there to share information, and hang cute little pieces of paper onto it...


Well this Guide Entry is about Bulletin Board Systems, that's one part of the large varieties of the
Internet.
BBSes are working just fine in Local Area Networks (LANs) too, it's just that the WWW includes more people. H2G2 can also offer an introduction to UseNet, the author doesn't think good of BBSes though.

History of the BBS

Well, let's skip the part of it which is not online, right? You wouldn't be interested hearing about people hammering messages into stones anyway.


The first BBSes were small programs consisting of the following functionalities:

• Users can dial in (over a modem)
• Users can write messages to other users
• Users can read a text file online.

Getting into a BBS nowadays

BBSes are usually just known to a small group of people, and you just get to know them through friends (real life or internet friends, whatever). Anyway, you need an internet connection and a terminal client (to call the BBS). Windows machines have "Telnet" installed, but you usually get better programs on the homepage of the very BBS you want to call. Right, BBS people also have a homepage, that does not exclude each other. A nice example of that is

The KaraNet BBS

, which is actually the reason I am writing this article.

Main concepts in a BBS

• File Areas
• Message Areas
• Online Games
• Other Areas

File Areas

File Areas allow users to download and upload files onto a BBS, very much like on a FTP site. However, files in a BBS File Area will be much better described and be more user friendly than on a common FTP server. Most of the terminal programs (which you use to call a BBS) also have a file transport protocol with them.

Message Areas

Message areas can be "Echomail" and local. Echomail areas work like Newsgroups, but you don't get spamming there. So the echomail areas work together with other BBSes. An example of Echomail is the FidoNet, the second largest message network (next to the Internet).

The local areas are just available inside that BBS, they are called "Forum" or "Room". Each of the areas have a certain topic, and users can "post" questions and discussions in there. Usually users are "Forum Moderators" in there and check the the discussion stays on the topic of the forum.

Message areas allow users to interact with each other on many topics, typing a message is called posting. Posting can be done either directly online, or through the mail service of a BBS, like checking your mail.

Online Games

The games in BBSes reach from text based adventures to graphical games, some even with sound. Some BBSes work together on a Inter_BBS to support one game (so called league). There are also BBSes which are just made for playing "Multi User Dungeons"
(MUDs). An example of that would be the
Imaginary Discworld, based on Terry Pratchett Discworld Series.

Other areas

The preceding concepts can be found in most of the BBSes, but every BBS can add special areas.
Some examples are Internet Access or Relay Chat (on the BBS). The SysOp of the BBS decides, which areas should be implemented.

Common people in a BBS:

• SysOP: stands for System Operator, they are the people who do the programming for the BBS and take care of the servers.
• Newbie: When you are new to the BBS, that's you.
• Helper: They help newbies to understand the basic instructions.
• FM: Forum Moderator, Forum Aide. Those are responsible of a specific room (forum) in the BBS.

Advantages and Disadvantages

To the advantages count following points: BBSes are typically free (you only pay for the phone call), there is a closer friendship between the people online as in chat areas. Other people online are mostly willing to help you on both BBS and other problems.

The disadvantages are the following: They are harder to learn for new computer users, because they all have different instruction sets. It is not easy to find information on how to locate and use a BBS, you usually need to know people who are already in.