Welcome to the BBS Wiki.

What is a BBS? Edit

BBS stands for Bulletin Board System. In the days B.I. (before internet) hobbyists ran computers dedicated to letting other hobbyists dial in to exchange messages, download software and perform other functions of the BBS software. What was needed was (usually) a dedicated PC, a modem and a phone line. Communities formed around these BBSes and a lot of people have good memories of this time. The rise of dial-up Internet made almost all of these stop. There are a few BBSes left who now can be visited via the Internet.

About this Wiki Edit

The BBS Wiki is a project to document everything related to BBSes. This is a wiki, so anyone can create or edit a page. So far we have created 149 articles. For the basics on editing, you can refer to "how to edit a page" on Wikipedia. One of the easiest ways to contribute is by making an article about your area code's BBS scene, favorite BBS, or BBS software!

Many of the articles currently consist of material from Jason Scott's BBS Documentary library and timeline, used with permission. The content has been wikified with the intent that other users contribute and expand what is already there; the BBS Documentary material is only meant as a foundation to get this wiki started.

TIP: Unless the BBS wiki's entry on a particular subject is going to be more specific than Wikipedia's entry on the subject we should try to link directly to the Wikipedia article by linking like this: Wikipedia:FOO versus just linking to FOO, that way we don't duplicate efforts.

BBS information sources Edit

• textfiles.com is a vast collection of BBS history that can provide an excellent foundation for new wiki articles. Writing articles about topics covered in the textfiles.com collection is encouraged, rather than simply copying the textfiles into the wiki.
• bbslist.textfiles.com Jason Scott's North American BBS List includes well over 100,000 BBSes in the US and Canada.