Bulletin board system facts for kids

A bulletin board system or BBS was like an early version of the internet, but usually much smaller! Imagine a special computer that people could connect to using their modems and a terminal program. Once connected, you could do cool things like sharing files, reading messages, and even playing games with other users. It was a bit like a mini-internet before the big internet we know today became popular.

What Was a Bulletin Board System?

BBSes were popular from the 1980s through the early 1990s. They were special computers running software that let users connect from their own homes. To connect, you needed a modem, which was a device that allowed computers to talk to each other over phone lines. You also needed a special terminal program on your computer.

Once you connected to a BBS, it was like entering a different world! You could:

• Upload and download files: Share computer programs, pictures, or other data.
• Read news and bulletins: Get updates or information posted by the BBS owner or other users.
• Exchange messages: Talk with other users through public message boards. Sometimes, you could even have direct chats with someone else who was online at the same time.
• Play games: Many BBSes offered online games where you could compete against other users.
• Chat rooms: If a BBS had many phone lines, it could have chat rooms where several people could talk together at once.

BBSes Before the Internet

Bulletin board systems were, in many ways, like the first steps towards the modern World Wide Web and social networks we use today. They showed people how useful it was to connect computers and share information.

In the early 1980s, networks like FidoNet appeared. These networks allowed different BBSes to connect and share messages. This meant you could send a message from one BBS to another, which was similar to how email works now.

BBSes became very popular because modems became cheaper and faster. By 1994, it was thought that there were about 60,000 BBSes in the United States alone, with 17 million users! This was a huge number, even bigger than some of the first major online services like CompuServe.

Why Did BBSes Become Less Popular?

The world of online communication changed quickly in the mid-1990s. The main reason was the rise of the Internet. When dial-up internet service became affordable and easy to use, and web browsers like Mosaic came out, people could access information from all over the world.

The Internet offered a much bigger and easier-to-use experience than most BBSes. Because of this, many BBSes quickly lost their users starting in 1994. Over the next year, many companies that made BBS software went out of business, and tens of thousands of BBSes disappeared.

Are BBSes Still Around?

Today, BBSes are mostly a fun hobby for people who remember them from the past. It's a way to enjoy a bit of computer history! However, in some places like Taiwan, BBSes are still a very popular way for young people to communicate (for example, the PTT Bulletin Board System).

Most BBSes that are still running can be accessed using Telnet, which is a way to connect to them over the modern Internet. Many of these surviving BBSes offer free email, file sharing (FTP), and even IRC (another old form of chat). Some can even be accessed through special packet radio connections.

Images for kids

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  A welcome screen for the Free-net bulletin board, from 1994

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  Ward Christensen holds an expansion card from the original CBBS S-100 host machine.

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  The 300 baud Smartmodem led to an initial wave of early BBS systems.

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  Amiga 3000 running a two-line BBS

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  Welcome screen of Neon#2 BBS (Tornado)

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  BBS ANSI Login Screen example

See also

In Spanish: Bulletin Board System para niños