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The 25th Anniversary of the BBS

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the arbitrary-dates dept.

Jason Scott writes "25 years ago today, Ward Christensen and Randy Suess officially announced the creation of a little project they threw together with a 300 baud Hayes modem, a Z-80 based S-100 computer, and a phone line. They called it "Chicago Bulletin Board System" (CBBS) and it was the first dial-up BBS. From this beginning, BBSes grew into the many thousands and became an entire industry, and when the Internet started to mature with the World Wide Web, the users who had cut their teeth on BBSes moved over to it. So raise a toast to these two fellows for a quarter century of great online times."

4 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. damn, this brings back memories by sickboy_macosX · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I remember in 1988 begging my mother to get a modem for our computer. It was expensive, and started somthing somthing bigger.

    I rememberm dialing into the Local High School BBS and just chilling, and playing games with other. who would have thought back then, those BBS'es would turn into this, what we know now.

    it is kind of cool to think about

    Cheers to the invention of the BBS!

    --
    --- /* In Soviet Russia, the Mac OS X kernel panics you! */
  2. Elite A2 board: call ASGARD (313) 540-8579! by iocat · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Ok, that BBS went down about 15 years ago, but still...

    I credit early days BBSing with my typing skills, helping my writing skills, and even my socialization skills (uh, you know, on the war boards...). If you missed those days you missed out; it was so much more "underground" than the Internet ever was, and consequently, a lot more enjoyable, especially for geeks. You could come home from your boring school filled with stupid jocks and just enter a totally different world.

    I'm definitely still nostalgic for the 80 column greenscreen and carrier tone.

    -iocat -uif -immortal

    --

    Dude, I think I can see my house from here.

  3. BBS's did not become antiquated, per se by kfg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Somtimes it's good to have a global scale, and sometimes it's good to be able to go have a beer where everyone knows your name.

    The internet is like an planet sized mall. A BBS is like your neighborhood bar.

    Yes, you and your friends can meet at a bar in the mall, but it *isn't* really the same thing.

    I guess we just have to redefine "neighborhood" now.

    There are certainly benifits to the "mall" model, I admit. I "know" people all over the world, whom I've never actually met, who I could call on to put me up on their couch for a couple of days if I needed it.

    The flip side is that I, perhaps, know fewer in my own meat space neighborhood of whom I could ask this favor.

    The world is different for "interneters" than it is for BBSers.

    KFG

  4. Slashdot *is* a BBS. by gklinger · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Slashdot is online, it's a community, users share ideas and the Sysop can't spell.

    Sounds like a BBS to me.