I always thought that a BBS was just like a very old, text only forum.

Am I way off target here, or close enough?

Not being an arse, I really have never used one and don't know much (anything really) about them.
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They can be used like forums, but you can also use them for sharing files and sending emails.

And not neceseraly text only.
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They are basically what they are called. A Bulletin Board System. I would say think of them more like very early blogs, rather than as a forum. With them used to share and post information and share files. Many were similar in format to Amiga PD and Demo Scene magazine and music disks.

BBS was also one of the main areas that ASCII art became commonplace as a BBS is text based and so ASCII artists developed some great artwork for their BBS banners and page art.


As I mentioned, a BBS is similar in content to today's blogging web software, but less advanced. So there is really little point in running one other than for historical and retro purposes.
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All this talk about BBS's makes me think back about all the quarrels between modem-traders and swappers on the Scene. None of us won in the end, as the Internet kicked both factions ass. We all got redundant scenewise and had to think of other stuff to do in our groups.
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