[OT] Why are BBSes? [was Where's the junk coming from?]

[Jim Lee]

On 06/28/18 11:45, Grant Edwards wrote:
> On 2018-06-28, Jim Lee <jlee54 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 06/28/18 07:34, Grant Edwards wrote:
>>> OK, I've got to ask...
>>>
>>> Why are there still BBSes?
>>>
>>> Who even has a modem these days?  [OK, I'll admit my 11 year old
>>> Thinkpad T500 has a built-in POTS modem, but it's never been used.]
>>>
>> BBS's are most often connected to via telnet these days.  There are
>> still hundreds (if not thousands) of them.
> Interesting.  In my exerience a BBS was just a poor substitute for an
> FTP site, a mailing list and Usenet.
>
> I'm a little baffled as to what "added value" they provide these days,
> but people are probably equally baffled why I choose to participate in
> mailing lists via a text-mode NNTP client rather that some
> pointy-clicky app or website.
>
Added value?  BBS, Usenet, IRC, Twitter, whatever - they're all just 
forms of communication.

BBS's were around before ARPANET became the Internet - before ftp, 
usenet, http, and personal computers.  I first started using them in 
1976-77 (with a 300 baud modem and a VT-52 terminal), and ran my own in 
the 80's and 90's - first on a PDP-11/23, then a Commodore 64 and later 
on an Amiga.  Some people like to keep that tradition alive.

-Jim