While the vast majority of the textfiles on this site came from Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes), a much smaller percentage concern themselves with the actual nuts-and-bolts issues, heartaches, triumphs, and wonder of the BBSes themselves. This section covers those files specifically.
Imagine a simple home computer, maybe an Apple II or Commodore 64, sitting in a basement of a suburban house, or maybe in the bedroom of a young computer kid, waiting eagerly for the next calling to come down the second phone line (or even the only phone line, late at night) so that the single user could read and post messages, upload and download files, or ask the SysOp (system operator) if they wanted to chat. This was the single node of power which gave hundreds of kids the platform to express themselves or affect the world around them, one caller at a time.
These files rank among my favorites; reading the rants about the rules of the BBSes, the distant but emotionally powerful networks that rose between groups of people who never met, and the glimpses you are given into how it was to have your machine running a message base, hoping that you were going to get the most "posts" of any of the boards running in your neighborhood. Fantastic.
| Filename | Size | Description of the Textfile| ADS | DIRECTORY | Small Ads for Various BBSes | BBSLISTS | DIRECTORY | Lists of Telephone Numbers of BBSes Long Past | DESTRUCTION | DIRECTORY | Files on or how to Crash and Destroy BBSes | FIDONET | DIRECTORY | Files, News and Information from the FidoNet Experience | FILELISTS | DIRECTORY | Lists of Files Available on BBSes Long Past | ICENEWS | DIRECTORY | Issues of the ICEnet Newsletter | KEELYNET | DIRECTORY | The File Collection from the Incredible KeelyNet BBS | MINDVOX | DIRECTORY | The MindVox Collection: Menus, Files and Forums of MindVox BBS, First Edition | TMOK | DIRECTORY | Files from the 401 BBS "The Ministry of Knowledge" | WWIVNEWS | DIRECTORY | Issues of the WWIVnews Newsletter | 12budord.txt | 1152 | The Twelve Commandments of BBS Users
| 144bbs.txt | 27770 | 144BBS List, Compiled by the Downtown BBS (List of BBSes running 14.4k Modems)
| 144intro.txt | 7370 | Introduction to the 14.4k Modem BBS List
| 1598.ufo | 43110 | The MUFON Member's Guide to BBSing (How to Act on a UFO Format BBS)
| 1757.ufo | 2329 | A List of Local UFO BBSes by Joe Holland (February 27, 1988)
| 221 | 21798 | Taming the Wild Kitty: Running a Wildcat! 4 BBS
| 514cu.txt | 18680 | The Complete Story of How to Become Elite in 514 by Mechanix
| 612bust.txt | 18512 | The IBM Bust of 612 by Professor Falken, Ex-Sysop of The Alliance (January 29, 1988)
| 800_4bbs.txt | 4016 | How to Get an 800 Number so All the Phreaks can Call the Best BBSes in the World and AT&T Pays for It
| 800bbs.txt | 16937 | America's Validated Toll-Free BBS List by Kevin Brook (December 31, 1994)
| 96list.txt | 273526 | BBS's Supporting 9600 bps CONNECT Rates (List)
| 9x.nfo | 2463 | Introduction to the 9X Group (Guidelines)
| a-dial.txt | 4833 | Soft Docs: A-Dial Version 2.0, by Gerard Lane
| abbbs.txt | 3491 | All the secrets of Another Bloody BBS
| abuse.bbs | 12992 | Jim Anderson Gives up on The Most Significant Byte BBS (January 13, 1985)
| abuse.txt | 13975 | The Jim Anderson BBS Rant, with Additional Comments
| abusebbs.txt | 9741 | The Best Ways to Abuse a BBS by The Joker
| access.app | 4526 | Application for Access to the Altered States BBS
| ad | 1327 | BBS Ad: Country Micro RBBS
| ad-art.txt | 12800 | Rusty and Edie's BBS: From the Beginning to the Beginning
| ae.pro.tutorial | 4608 | The Blue Adept presents: ASCII Express II: The Pro (1993)
| an13.txt | 4365 | BBS Crashing Techniques by Mr. Memorix (January 27, 1987)
| arghack.new | 10036 | Another Chat with the Argus BBS Hackers (Boston BBS) by Criminal Minded
| argusdrk.fun | 8268 | Argus Hackers: Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel by Kingpin (April 2, 1992)
| arrest.txt | 4024 | Getting Busted: An Experience and a Warning
| arubin.txt | 7530 | Andy Rubin Says Goodbye to The Spies in the Wire
| at_set.txt | 9693 | A Rundown of the Hayes AT Command Set
| author.txt | 11750 | Some Words from the Scan Man of P-80 BBS about His Hacker Chronicles CD-ROM
| babbs001.txt | 8498 | Babbs Boy Presents: Anti-Fed BBS Security
| basics.asc | 61990 | BBS Basics from Pasco BBS Magazine
| bbs.txt | 5571 | Whatever Happened to COMMUNICATION In BBSes?
| bbs30.asc | 3310 | The 30 Commandments of BBSing
| bbs_mnrs.txt | 8704 | Some Hints on General BBS Etiquitte
| bbsdeath.pro | 7639 | The Death of BBSes
| bbsethic.txt | 10159 | Ethics for BBS Users
| bbsfaq.toc | 12476 | The Official BBS FAQ, Version 1.0, 1994 by Claire Walters
| bbsfaq01.txt | 30558 | The Official BBS FAQ: Chapter 1: Introduction
| bbsfaq02.txt | 30969 | The Official BBS FAQ: Part 2: Shareware
| bbsfaq03.txt | 27994 | The Official BBS FAQ: Part 3: Remote Access
| bbsfaq04.txt | 34186 | The Official BBS FAQ: Part 4: Vision X
| bbsfaq05.txt | 23531 | The Official BBS FAQ Part 5
| bbsfaq06.txt | 23069 | The Official BBS FAQ Part 6
| bbsfaq07.txt | 43013 | The Official BBS FAQ, Part 7
| bbsfaq08.txt | 39041 | The Official BBS FAQ Part 8
| bbsfaq09.txt | 37462 | The Official BBS FAQ Part 9
| bbsfaq11.txt | 10424 | The Offical BBS FAQ: Part 11
| bbsinfil.txt | 7934 | Computer Terror and Distruction: Issue #1 - BBS Infiltration by the Chamelion
| bbslaw.man | 40618 | Version 1.1 - BBS LEGAL GUIDE by Clary and Kraft, 1993
| bbslaw.txt | 7685 | Collection of BBS Laws Disclaimer To Put On Your BBS
| bbsloser.txt | 49305 | The Loser Users, by The Trash Compactor
| bbspeak.txt | 4121 | Collection of BBS Speak
| bbsrates.txt | 5489 | On the Oregon BBS Rates Case (1992)
| bbsrev.asc | 119595 | Jeff's BBS Review, Developed by Jeff Hunter and Temple of the Screaming Electron (July 1, 1993)
| bbsting.txt | 5120 | Police Set up BBS Stings, by Jim Forbes, Infoworld
| be-sysop.txt | 16438 | So You Want to Be a SysOp, by Wally Byczek, Wallyworld BBS 1989
| billcat.ana | 4213 | Exploding Bill the Cat's Brain
| bio | 5767 | The Biography of the Sysops of The Invention Factory BBS
| blitzend.txt | 1582 | The End of the Blitzkreig BBS, Transcribed by Phantasm [09/01/93]
| boards.txt | 13312 | My Secret Life on the Boards by J.D. Hildebrand
| bob-2.man | 191208 | The Bust of the Private Sector BBS (August 1985)
| bom.app | 5783 | An Application to Join the BOM Squad
| bradford.txt | 955 | BRADFORD LUDES IS A MAJOR LAMER
| brainst.orm | 9800 | Some of the HoHoCon 1991 Brainstorming Session
| bullshit.txt | 3352 | The Pirates of Puget Sound talk about the Hard Drive Crash
| callback.txt | 9834 | Callback Verification is for Chump Sysops! By Colostomy Bagboy
| capitol.txt | 3968 | Information about the Capitol Connection BBS
| career.txt | 7399 | Fraudulent Behaviour #2: Career Opportunities: A Hacker's Guide to a $50,000 Job (June 14, 1996)
| cbv.txt | 2582 | How to hack CBVs (Call-back Verification Systems) by Morpheus
| chatwar.txt | 13845 | IronHorse goes deep into a chat-war being held on three BBSes in the New Jersey Area (Excellent)
| closing.net | 31426 | Closing the Net by Greg Costikyan (January 1991)
| color | 3556 | The Facelss Computer, by Tony Curro (1992)
| colorama.txt | 1280 | BBS CAPTURE: The Colorama BBS
| comcrime | 4878 | Computer Crime and Punishment by Kevin Heyboer, Sysop of the Pinellas Law Enforcement BBS (March 17, 1986)
| command.txt | 3343 | The BBS Commandments from "Link-Up" Magazines
| commands.bbs | 2944 | The Thirty BBS Commandments
| compcult | 17441 | An Introduction to the Computer Underground, by The Butler, 2/26/1991
| compueti.txt | 6844 | Computer Etiquitte by Mel North
| computer.cri | 98842 | Computer Crime: Current Practices, Problems and Proposed Solutions, by Brian J. Peretti
| coolhand.hac | 3301 | Coolhand Luke explains what is happening with TNSHB TGR
| corruptinf.hac | 5695 | Corrupt Security BBS Introduces Itself
| cosysop.txt | 4529 | Thoughts on Co-Sysops for WWIV Boards and Security Levels in General
| crash2 | 3772 | How to Crash GBBS II Boards
| crashae.pro | 5376 | |