So....BBS systems please help me understand.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

I've been curious about the old BBS systems that had the wonderful art made of ANSi characters.
Are these kinds of things still popular?
What is required to run such a board if so?

From what I gather they are a sort of forum before forums existed.
Now what is all this about a call number?

Sorry, I was crawling around and pooping my pants when this stuff was in its heyday...

[benny!]

The BBS systems are not popular anymore. There are some still active which you can access via telnet (e.g.: http://paradisebbs.ath.cx/bbslogin/ ).

Back in the BBS times ANSI/ASCII art was a real big thing, since it was the only way demoscene groups could beautify the bulletin board systems. Again ASCII/ANSI art shows the real demoscene spirit. Having limited resources (just characters in this case) but the wish to produce art.

I ran myself a BBS system back in the 90's. I coded my own system on the amiga. It was quite a fun, but a rather expensive hobby, esp. as a pupil. Since the internet as it is now did not exists, BBS was the only true way for demosceners to spread their productions and cracks worldwide. Most BBS systems were rather closed systems to which you gain access only if you answered certain questions right or a trustful member recommended you.

Technically, it was just a programm which waited for an incoming call. If there was a call the BBS programms sends a command to the modem to accept the call and to establish a connection (handshake). When the connection was established it just sends out text and waited for input (like a shell). That was basically it.

When you wanted to call a BBS you called a direct phone number, ie. if a BBS only has one phone line, only one person at a time was able to connect to a BBS. Bigger BBS systems offered multiple phone lines. The bulletin boards/message boards where sometimes connected between multiple BBS systems and created therefor a net. Normally one BBS system makes a call during the night to another BBS system and exchanged messages.

All I can say that I really did love the BBS era. It was so undergroundish and geeky and therefor cool 8-)

[Pot Noodle]

Ya me to, I ran a BBS back in the 90's it was called Starfleet I used to write my own utils then in Arex any one remember it ? My old 2400 Us-Robotics Modem was on 24/7 then those were the days, it's been a long time since some called me
Sysop!.   

AmiExpress.

[Shockwave]

There used to be a forum called boondocks on asciiscene.org

Sadly it seems to be gone now   Shame, there were some really cool things there.
If you like to see ascii art a lot of groups use them in their infos, particularly warez groups.

I'd give defacto2.net a look - there's loads of stuff there about bbs's.
If the ascii art interests you, have a look at xrel and check out the nfos' - some of them are brilliant.  The site is in German but it's pretty simple to figure out what's what.


NO - CARRIER

[Kirl]

 

Awesome thread, lovely bits of fascinating history here!
I just visited defacto2.net (Thanks Shockwave!), clicked the 1st link I came across and got a very cool talk by Jason Scott. Good stuff!

Just popped in to say how much I enjoyed this thread and I would love to see more of the oldskool bbs scene and ascii art!

[Shockwave]

Defacto2.net is a cool site.  I love it so much that I even wrote an intro for them once

Loads of cool nostalgia to be had there.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

Sounds like it was a geat time to have a computer in front of you.
I think the only downside is the bandwidth problem. Not too many lines in at any given time.

Still it might be fun to make something people could telnet into.
I've kind of start seeing the value of minimalism. Just getting your message across with few distractions.
Also I suppose it is a double edge sword when it comes to the members on a BBS. On one hand it is private so you don't get a lot of unwanted people, on the other you probably miss out on valuable people joining because they don't know the number.

Interesting. It probably was a very exciting time when this kind of technology was really breaking down barriers.

[Shockwave]

I think the only downside is the bandwidth problem. Not too many lines in at any given time.

The boards that are talked about on Defacto2 were the pirate bbs's - very exclusive!

When these Amiga BBS's were in their prime if you wanted to get access to the best ones, you needed to have a good reputation in the scene - something that you would normally get by being in a respected group.  This meant that you'd have to be skilled at something in order to join.. Maybe you would have a job in a computer shop and supply originals for cracking, or you'd be a cracker, or maybe you'd hack pbx numbers, or maybe you'd even pay for access to the bbs's.

Stories of kids in the pirate scene running up huge phone bills of thousands of dollars were common place!

I was never a modem trader, I had contacts who were into all that.. I did all my socialising at parties and mail trading (stamp faking) through the post and phreaking but that's another story!