List of bulletin board systems

Not to be confused with Comparison of Internet forum software.

Main article: Bulletin board system

This is an incomplete list of notable bulletin board systems:

• CBBS – the first BBS on record, established 1978
• Celco 51 – used by the United States Secret Service during the Operation Cybersnare sting
• Demon Roach Underground – popular hacker BBS and former home of the CULT OF THE DEAD COW
• ExecPC BBS – America's largest dial-up BBS through the late 1980s
• Forum 80 – based in Kingston upon Hull, the UK's first BBS, started in 1980
• ISCABBS – largest worldwide BBS, formerly located at the University of Iowa, and still both running and active as of 2024.
• MindVox – famous New York based BBS and internet service provider founded by members of Legion of Doom
• Monochrome BBS – BBS based in the UK, founded in 1990 and still running 2023
• OSUNY – legendary old-school hack/phreak BBS from the 1980s
• pcmicro
• Plover-NET – early hacker BBS, origins of hacker group Legion of Doom
• PTT Bulletin Board System – largest BBS in Taiwan, still the most popular online forum in 2018
• Purple Ocean – one of the largest North American Gaming BBS's of in the mid-1980s
• Rusty n Edie's BBS – raided by the FBI in 1993 and sued by Playboy in 1997
• SDF Public Access Unix System - Started in 1987 as an ANIME SIG and continues to run as sdf.org "In Noisy Digital Era, Elegant Internet Still Thrives".
• SF Net – was a coin-operated BBS accessible from select coffee shops located throughout the San Francisco Bay Area
• SMTH BBS – The largest BBS in China, hosted by Tsinghua University
• StarDoc 134 – DOS/Linux hybrid test BBS. Running modified ELEBBS software
• The Brewers' Witch BBS – Texas-based BBS catering to Pagan and Neopagan discussion and community
• TOTSE – Bay Area BBS known for large and often controversial selection of text files and internet discussion forum

See also

• List of BBS software
• List of artscene groups
• Boardwatch Magazine
• FidoNet

Further reading

• Mark, Richard Scott (1996). Internet BBSs: a guided tour. Manning. ISBN 1-884777-30-9. via the Internet Archive.

External links

• BBS: The Documentary
• List of bulletin board systems at Curlie
• TEXTFILES.COM Historical BBS List - A collection of BBS numbers from the past 20 Years
• Roblist - An article on (and extract of) "Roblist", the de facto BBS list for South Africa active until 1996.
• Telnet BBS Guide - The largest active listing of Telnet accessible Bulletin Board Systems on the Internet (since 1997)
• bbs-scene.org bbs list active boards c. 2013 (via Wayback Machine)