They are probably long extinct. Everybody now can run a single computer with a high speed connection to the internet and have about the same things across a telnet connection. But BBSs really started all the chatting fun. I got hooked on them by a friend. The summer after my freshman year in high school, 1993, I spent at least two hours a day online, and it was usually from 11pm till around 1-2am. I would have turned nocturnal if my parents would have let me. Chatting today tends to be natural. People tend to act like they were at a party, meeting total strangers and then carrying on 20 minute conversations with them. Chatting on the BBSs was all a game. Who is that person? Who can harass others more? Who can form an online relationship? Even better yet would be forming an online relationship with someone who was not lying every step of the way.

People talk about the sense of community existing on the Internet. People send e-mail and chat with others worldwide, but how often are they chatting with those familiar with their own surroundings? Bulletin boards were always local systems, with participants from your own physical location. This is the sense of community that people idealize. It could have been compared to walking into a local bar and striking a conversation up with every person there, both friend and stranger. Those days were a lot of fun. Today, I have seen some BBSs reappear, but they have been in the form of MUDs. Sometimes I feel like starting my own, but then I remember how costly it was to run one before the Internet boom in 1994-1995. With a server and the money for a dedicated Internet connection, you can all have your own BBS and invite people everywhere to visit your community.