Having a play with BBS

I recently discovered  [textfiles.com](http://textfiles.com). This site is was new to me, and the technology of BBS passed me by. Apparently it was a tool of the 1980s, that through dial up let people communicate and post files. Textiles.com hosts some of these old classic forgotten text files. Some of them are pretty amusing. It's a glimpse back into a different time of computing.

As I'm curious, I wondered if this technology is still running?

Apparently, yes it is. A quick google search brings up a few old websites with information.

Getting access:

I followed these steps to get access. It wasn't difficult:

1. Install Virtualbox for Mac (already had this)
2. Install Windows XP in Virtualbox
3. XP already has Telnet installed, just click on the link from this server list and you are away. It fires up a command window and connects to the BBD

The experience was pretty awful if I'm honest. Although this really should be expected from technology that is 30 years old. It felt a bit like teletext but slightly faster, and more confusing.  Here is how the experience went:

1. Clicked on link and the command box popped up.
2. A connection established and some ASCII art header popped up.
3. Promoted with a message of new or exiting user.
4. New user, so had to go through an interrogation into name, location, password etc.
5. Finally in.
6. No clue how to access anything.
7. Randomly hitting ESC and other keys finding a few messages and logs.
8. Quitting without really actually getting anywhere.

I'm sure the experience was pretty decent back in the 80s. It hasn't aged well. As an experiment it was interesting, but I can't see a BBS revival anytime soon.