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In the '90s I occasionally dialed into a local BBS. Simple as it was, it felt like a glimpse of the future. Universities and businesses had network connections, even if it was only a LAN, but home computers at that point were typically standalone devices that you used by yourself. The idea of interacting with other far-away people from my house was so incredibly cool.
How did BBS work? I think you had to dial their number directly like calling someone on the phone, right? How did you find BBS's? Did you just have to know people who ran them or what? Was there a search engine or directory of BBS?
Yep, I dialed directly into a modem on the far end and used a terminal emulator to navigate the service. A local office supply store had a cork board by the door where people could post events or sell used stuff, and a few BBSs had their info posted there.
The BBS I used actually partnered with the office supply store to sell credits. I would go to the customer service counter and buy a piece of paper with an access code that I could then redeem for hours on the server. That's how the BBS paid for their hardware and phone lines.
BBS lists were published in computer magazines and on other BBS systems in the same area code, generally. Once you found one you quickly found links to others in your area.
Some guy in your city would just leave his computer on all day and you could call it over a regular phone line with your modem. Only one person at a time could connect and if someone else was on that board you just got a busy signal.
Terminal software and later modems themselves had “autodial” features that would keep trying to call until they eventually connected, so if you wanted to call a specific board you’d just wait while your computer dialed and hung up and dialed and hung up over and over again until it heard a modem on the other end. It was a huge technical innovation when US Robotics invented a modem that could detect the busy signal, allowing it to try the next attempt much sooner. Earlier modems just waited 30 seconds for either a connection or nothing and timed out before trying again.
In the late 80s BBS software started supporting interconnections where you could call your local BBS and send an email to a user on a completely different BBS, even in a different city. This could take multiple days to send and then more days again for any potential reply. It felt like Star Trek at the time.