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What is Bulletin Board System (BBS)?

Bulletin Board System (BBS): Here, we are going to learn about the Bulletin Board System, its history, and features, etc.
Submitted by Anushree Goswami, on January 24, 2021

BBS: Bulletin Board System

BBS is an abbreviation of the "Bulletin Board System". It is a computer server running software or an application, committed to the sharing or exchange of messages or additional files on a network and enables users to connect to the system by using a terminal emulator.

In the beginning, an electronic version of the form of bulletin board was discovered on the wall in numerous kitchens and workplaces, the BBS was used to post straightforward, easy messages among users. The BBS turned out to be the chief category of the online community through the 1980s and near the beginning of the 1990s before the World Wide Web came into the scene. At the beginning of the 1980s, message networks such as FidoNet moved up to make available services such as NetMail, which is related to email.

Bulletin Board System History

• In 1978, the first BBS, which is called the Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS), was developed by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess. Even if ARPANET was in process at that instance, it was restricted to institutions funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
• As of March 2019, the majority of conventional BBS systems have transferred to the Internet using Telnet or SSH protocols. At any specified time, expected numbers of active BBS systems are between 400 and 500, in which less than a dozen BBS systems being of the conventional "dial-up" (modem) range.

Bulletin Board System Features

• A computer system
• One or more modems
• One or more phone lines, with more enabling for augmented simultaneous users
• A BBS software package
• A sysop – system operator
• A user community

The BBS software generally offers:

• Menu Systems
• One or more message bases
• File areas
• SysOp side, live screening of the entire caller activity
• Voting – opinion booths
• Statistics on message posters, top uploaders/downloaders
  Online games (generally single-player or merely a single active player at a specified time)
• A doorway to third-party online games
• Custom auditing facilities and potentials
• Multi-user chat (only feasible on multi-line BBSs)
• Internet email (more widespread in presently Internet-connected BBSs)
• Networked message boards
• The majority of up to date BBSs enable telnet access over the Internet by using a telnet server and a virtual FOSSIL driver.
• Primitive social networking features, such as sending-off messages on a user's profile.

Reference: Bulletin board system

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