What is a BBS?

Bulletin Board System. Basically it's a system which you dial up with your dial up modem, connect to an individual telephone line interface with a text based program. It supports communities.



Why Are They Special?

Apart from telnet access via internet you really can't connect to these things anymore. They've become obsolete. Before the internet became a residential service this is how people could interact with each other via computer. The people that ran them largely ran them from their basement, garages, offices and the like. They would pay for the computer, the receiving modem, the phone line (or lines known as nodes) and the software that was the BBS. They were people like you and me.

It's kinda like building a website, except for a very obscure audience. People that love to communicate in new ways digitally. As the 80's matured the personal computer became more and more prevalent in the home. More and more people sought out ways to connect to other people. The BBS became the home user's first online forum.

How Many BBS's Are We Talking About?

Thousands world wide before the internet.



What Does This Have to Do With the Internet?

BBS's supplied the first access to the internet in a text based format. The big guys like Telus, Sympatico, Bell, and AOL were not providing internet services (ISP). BBS's would pass on their connection to the internet which meant the first access to services like email, websites and IRC (Internet Relayed Chat).

^{An Aside: Did you know deviantART has an IRC service? No, I don't mean dAmn. I mean a chat service which began the chatroom revolution. IM applications were born out of this. If you're interested in dA IRC please let me know and I'll supply you details.}



Without BBS's the internet would not have been popularized.

Yah OK... So BBS's Were Cool. What about Text Art?

What do you think I am?! The Gallery Director of TEXT ART?!

I've been leaving you guys hanging for a while, so here it is:

I'm still going to leave you hanging. Your mission is to tell me how text art relates to BBS's. I will display your answers. I want you to do some research. Once I have three or four outlooks on this subject I'll give you the low down. Lets give it a week. I want to hear from you.

EOF