Article caused quite a stir among fans and hackers, after a short time began to appear numerous clones CBBS. By the mid-80's around the BBS to form an active community, and at least three magazine covers this news to the online era. They say that the idea came to Christensen, when he was locked in his house during the Great blizzard in 1978 in Chicago, and the concept of BBS was borrowed from conventional boards with ads, which at that time, the plight closed the entrance to public places, including libraries, schools and supermarkets.
After discussing the idea of digital "room" for meetings and announcements, Christensen and Suess undertook the creation of the software and managed to make it just a month. Moreover, some evidence suggests that in reality they made the program more quickly - in just two weeks - and the same amount spent on decorations.
Either way, the results were impressive. It was a real home internet connection. Despite its primitiveness, BBS soon proved their revolutionary nature.
In contrast to the modern Web, traffic from the BBS went over regular phone lines, so to connect to remote computers you needed to dial a telephone number from another region or even another country, then pay the bill for the phone company. Therefore, the first BBS was strongly localized systems for local residents, and such restrictions have created a life of phone phreaking, and other hacks.
Because of the complexity, limitations, and the brakes BBS first users were computer enthusiasts, who have spent considerable sums on a relatively fast modems. No wonder that with such an audience is a typical BBS (like the entire network in the early years) was a strange mixture of highly technical communications, software distribution and primitive online games.
You can also say thanks to BBS for the first in the history of IT holivar, which broke out between fans of Atari game console and the Amiga.
Over time, the early WWW superseded bulletin boards, but even today, trampled on the throne of popularity BBS not disappeared completely. Moreover, they really thrive in Taiwan, where this BBS are extremely popular form of communication for young people.
