Category: Zone BBS Q&A
Hi, it's sunflower. I just want to know when the zone's birthday is and what the BBS stands for in zone BBS. Thank you, this question might seem silly, but it is a question of mine.
I believe it stands for either bulletin board system or bulletin board service. Not sure about the birthday, but I think some time this month?
I think the zone's birthday is on January 24.
pretty sure it's bullitin board system
BBS stands for Bulletin Board system.
the BBS thing dates the site, I think. I don't know that bulletin board systems have been used for years. Come to that, I was never really sure what a bulletin board system meant in the first place. I've heard that acronym long before I ever knew about the zone. Anyone know what BBS actually did?
wow; it's interesting to know what bbs actually stands for.
Yep. It used to be that internet used to be fast if it went about three bytes per second. So people used to connect to a server bank and write things up for people to see, and you would have to download them to read them. It was pretty much a slow motion tape of a slow motion tape of a slow motion tape of a slow motion tape of the zone, and you have to download the boards to read them. Also, there weren't very many board options, and you couldn't start your own. That's what I heard anyway--I wasn't arround to see them.
Except in the case of the zone, it actually stands for blind bullshit.
Lol. In some cases, that doesn't seem to be too far off.
lol yeah blind bullshit.
I like that better, actually. hahaha.
oh so do i!
OK I'm gonna wax slightly geeky for the sake of the curious, and those who weren't even thought of when BBS's were alive so shallow, awkward-aware semi-hominids have been warned:
People have said it right: bulletin Board System.
You dialed direct, downloaded direct, and while it functioned in some aspects like a server, rarely were they run on servers. Generally you called one locally or long-distance, there was no routing between bulletin boards with a few exceptions. For the most part they were IP-ignorant - no concept of pages or web traffic, no addressing or links. To understand what that means, and give a bit of perspective, what happens now is you send out a request (user clicks link or types web address and hits 'go' or 'enter') and with said request goes your address. It complicates here because what may actually go out to the universe at large could be the gateway address, or the address of your ISP, and your ISP routes it to you. Then, like so many calling birds, servers start looking up the name you request, provided there isn't a direct route, and when a node responds positive, your request goes to it, the page you request is sent back, script and spyware included, and is neatly delivered to your browser or ftp client to interpret. That means basically the web author, unless they're smart, doesn't know who sent it. That's what makes the web so portable and versative: it's device and location agnostic.
A BBS requires you use a telecommunications program, basically a black-and-white rendition of your Hyperterminal with no menus or dialogs. You connect to the BBS, and function as a dumb terminal much like a computer connecting to a mainframe. The only difference is you can initiate a file download through your terminal program and take the file which you'd have to view offline unless your terminal had a viewer for that (hardly).
The BBS intrinsically knows it's you, you dialed it directly, and you paid any long-distance charges. You could only access what was on the BBS unless the operator had a modem bank which could route out to another BBS, technically a possibility but I never heard of one doing that.
Speaking of modem banks, only a certain number (often just one or two) of people could call the BBS at a time. Also, no network-awareness means no calling it from work, since it didn't function over IP.
Later on, BBS's became IP-aware if the operator cared to do so, but still, you operated it with Telnet, SSH or some other client by which you are again, a dumb terminal.
Frankly in those days I couldn't be bothered with them much, they were definitely the hobbyist's toy. A few people charged a monthly subscription to belong, but again, you could only log on when it was available and might get yourself kicked off so someone else could get on.
If memory serves me, they made this site in 2003? I think I read that on here someplace. Bulletin board systems were largely long-defunct by then, except for those who keep them alive for historical purposes. The concept of message boards, chat, mail, etc. were features you could find in one malformation or another on BBS's. Mail was usually limited in size and there were no attachments, and you had no real address. It actually was much like mail here or on Facebook, minus any eye candy that didn't involve sixteen colors of ANSI graphics.
That's the rough of it: serious hobbyists could probably find all sorts of exceptions to what I've said, minus the IP / traffic stuff, but there you have it. If you're like my daughter, you might be asking 'But why?'
The answer is simple: there was nothing else, and no infrastructure anywhere for linked systems accessed by home users, like the WWW we all enjoy now.
Hmm,
Good, blind bolshit. Thanks.
wow!! smile.....
Yes, bulletin board systems are still used. Here's a board post that I made on 2 August, 2010 about one that's still around. For some reason, I never posted it here at The Zone nor on Klango, but only to one of the computer lists of which I'm a member.
"Here is an incredible website for those interested in using and/or in operating a BBS (bullitin board system). I thought some of you might find this useful, particularly if you've used them in the past and thought they had all disappeared. This is their about page. Themain page is full of great information and resources.
http://www.bbscorner.com/about
Personally, I've never been on one and have always wanted to try it. It will be nice to work with a plain text interface for once and to
not have to deal with annoying graphics and other unnecessary clutter."
Of course, I wrote that before LeoGuardian wrote his post, so I was lacking in a few essential details. Thanks so much for explaining them. So is this basically like the usenet groups and can one access them via broadband or a ppp account or is a shell account needed? I'm assuming that I couldn't use a web browser like FireFox in Windows or Net Tamer in DOS. So would I need to get a Tellnet client, and if so, can you recommend one for each os? I've heard the term SSH but am not sure what it is. Will I need to pay attention to it in regular internet browsing with DOS? Also, while we're at it, why did older e-mail addresses have numbers in them like 12345@compuserve.net and could such an address still be used today?