@Mark Ollig
Before the World Wide Web became part of everyday life, many computer enthusiasts, including this humble columnist, operated a computer bulletin board system, or BBS.
Before the World Wide Web became part of everyday life, many computer enthusiasts, including this humble columnist, operated a computer bulletin board system, or BBS.
A BBS uses a software program running on a computer connected to one or more dial-up modems plugged into telephone lines.
Users called the BBS’s telephone number using a communications program such as ProComm on their modem-equipped computers, then logged in over a dial-up telephone connection.
Once connected, they could read messages, exchange files and emails, or engage in real-time chat with other users on the BBS.
In 1992, I launched my own hobbyist bulletin board system, WBBS Online, using The Major BBS, a popular “gold standard” BBS software platform developed by Galacticomm.
WBBS stood for Winsted Bulletin Board System.
An electronic handshake between the callers’ and the BBS modems produced audible squeals, screeches, and tones as the two negotiated a data rate, sometimes reaching a cutting-edge 19.2 kbps.
In 1992, hitting 19.2 kbps was like breaking the sound barrier compared to the standard 2400 or 9600 baud modems.
Regular BBS users logged in every day, shared local news, traded software, discussed hobbies, and sometimes texted late into the night via real-time chat.
WBBS users in Winsted and Lester Prairie could dial in without long-distance charges because the two towns had toll-free calling between them.
On busy evenings, hearing the modem answer meant another local caller had connected and joined the conversation.
The technology has changed, but the camaraderie of participating in the virtual community did not.
Today, I regularly text chat with my kids (they are now middle-aged adults) and my siblings (we are forever young) through a Google Messages group instant-messaging (IM) thread on our smartphones.
Instant messages arrive seamlessly over wireless connections, with no dial-up modems, no phone lines, no busy signals, and no waiting.
IM is similar in spirit to the BBS message boards and real-time chat we used over dial-up telephone lines.
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) came out in 1997 and introduced millions of people to real-time text chatting over the internet.
BlackBerry Messenger, known as BBM, launched in 2005 exclusively for BlackBerry cellphones, letting users chat in real time instead of sending standard text messages.
BBM led people to buy BlackBerry phones just to access the service, but BBM was eventually opened to iOS and Android cellphone platforms in 2013.
By then, WhatsApp and iMessage had taken over the market, and BBM shut down May 31, 2019.
These instant-messaging services felt natural to early users because features such as contact lists, screen names, and visible online status were already familiar concepts.
They first experienced them in a slower form on dial-up bulletin board systems, and later saw them arrive in real time on computers and cellphones.
Computer users accessing WBBS would check in regularly, respond to posts, and join chats with others logged in at the same time.
They shared typed messages and simple images called ASCII art, which used letters, numbers and keyboard symbols to form pictures.
Photos were downloaded as image files, often in “.jpg” format, and could take several minutes to fully appear on screen.
Many of us might remember watching a photo load slowly, line by line, from top to bottom, as the dial-up connection transferred the data.
Today’s instant messaging friends and family group chats can fill quickly with updates, videos, and photos.
Apps have replaced BBS dial-up software, and fiber-optic broadband and cellular data networks have replaced the slow modem connections that once tied up a household’s only phone line.
Yet the core behavior remains: people still gather in online digital spaces to share messages and stay connected.
For those who were around back then, a BBS was likely the first taste of online communication.
That early experience paved the way for social media and messaging platforms.
I can still clearly remember the sound of a modem handshaking late at night, letting me know another computer user was connecting to WBBS Online.
It meant someone else was out there, sitting at their keyboard and joining our small virtual community.
Today’s instant messaging is simply a version of the local virtual communities we started decades ago in dial-up BBS chat rooms.
