BBS vs WWW: The Future of Bulletin Board Systems: ================================================ The World Wide Web has taken over. It has changed the way people communicate and do business. The Web has changed our way of thinking and brings people from across the globe and from all walks of life together (although it has been known to simultaneously be the reason for the breakup of a few marriages too:) The World Wide Web has made it child's play to retrieve information and research any chosen topic. Getting a copy of that great new game/demo is as easy as upgrading the software already residing on our computers. Bugfixes and service packs have become readily available. You can do your banking on the internet, you can book movie tickets as easily as you can book a flight. Listen to the radio on the 'net. Watch previews of the latest movies... hell, in the not too distant future you might as well watch the bloody movie itself on the 'net! Chat to people in every corner of our globe, be it via IRC, via voice or, providing you've got all the right hardware and the wallet to support it, hold a VideoConference... why the hell not? All this, of course, much to the dismay of long-distance Telco's... There are less and less things you can NOT do via the internet: Feeling lonely and want someone to talk to? Speak/type to virtually ('scuse the pun) anyone, set a date, meet him/her at a restaurant where you've pre-arranged a table, all via the 'net. Things turn out well, you want to get married? Retrieve advice on your wedding arrangements, what flowers to use, book a chapel, a venue for the reception or a limo... hell, you'll probably even be inviting your guests via the Web! Short-term relationships? Sure, you can find hookers or swingers on the 'net... Picked up a disease from that hooker? Several excellent medical sites are available that'll help you to determine why you're sick, physically or mentally! Advice and information on just about any topic you might think of is, in some form or another, available. All you have to do is find it, and hence the term 'surfing'! Corporations and companies big and small are making use of the Web to advertise and sell their products, irrespective what it may be... you're able to buy a toaster, a mink coat, or even a car or a house via the 'net. Research and development takes place via the Web, with companies being able to communicate with the consumer in a quasi-direct method, determining his/her dis/likes about a given product. Hell, product support (and spamming) has never been easier! What it boils down to is this: Businesses need to have a presence on the internet in order to survive in today's world. INTRAnets are popping up everywhere, opening the channels of internal company communication that were previously limited to paper memos and circulars. Most importantly, internet/WWW services are current, in real-time! The latest stock-market and trade figures are really the latest stock-market and trade figures... no more waiting for the next TV news bulletin or radio or the printed media, what you see is what you got! Weather reports? As live as it gets, let's find out whether that snow storm in Vladivostok is over. The printed media, yes, that too is on the Web. Kinda contradictory, but it's there. Wanna read the New York Times or the London Times today? Now, let's see how many cokes are left in that vending machine over at Berkeley... Almost everybody is connected. If you cannot get hold of someone via the telephone (you know, that thing you plug into your modem), you can leave them a message on their cellular phone via SMS or, better still, email that person. Chances are s/he has a personal Web page, simply pop in there and drop them a comment, where-ever either of you might be at any given point in time. The internet has gateways (or rather the other way around!) to just about any other commercial or amateur mail network in the world, one has almost no excuse for not being able to get hold of anyone, even via fax. There even exist facilities that allow you to email a service provider a message which is printed and posted via snailmail to the intended recipient. All this is thanks to the graphical user interface (GUI). No more arcane and obscure commands to remember, just point and click... isn't the Web so pretty, with all its animations and Java applets and scrolling text and borders and frames and what have you? Sure it is... Now: Where does that leave the humble BBS? Most BBSs are DOS-based, or at least have some form of text interface. There aren't that many BBS programs around that offer a GUI, let alone one that's generic enough for all computer/platforms. Some BBS programs insist on the prospective user downloading a proprietary client program which, in most cases, runs under Windows or similar GUI (goooy?) operating system and therefore also offer a point-and-click interface. Hey, I've even seen some that attempt to mimic certain Web browsers! BBSs mimicking the Web? Shit, short of each internet service/site being "connected to each other", it used to be the other way around! Man, there's no future left for the BBS if they're trying to clone the mighty internet... No, not quite. BBSs used to, and still do today, cater for a specific crowd. They're the hangout place of what one might call a clique, a group of generally well-behaved folks with similar interests, ideas and perversions. Un/fortunately, this group of people is also limited by geographical boundaries. The internet, on the other hand, is really the catalyst for the Global Village; a village where everyone is welcome, anyone can connect and all of us are welcome to surf the white beaches of cyberspace to our hearts' content... no SysOp to kick us off if we flame once to often, no call-back verification, and - this has to be mentioned - no controlling body. Yet. Though it is quite true that BBSs were/are usually the domain of white middle-to upper-class males of average to above average intelligence, the Web is far more accessible to the average man (or woman) in the street. Almost anyone with a computer and a modem can, and does, connect to the 'net. BBSs, conversely, are run and used by fairly computer-literate creatures. Sure, there are enough twits around, those usually being little wankers using daddy's PC after school. Most twits have recently also migrated to the 'net. As for women, well - there are never seem to be enough on-line - you simply didn't find all that many on BBSs, largely due to the false impression that "it's just a man's thing". The internet has changed that too. A BBS, as a newbie recently described, is a one-on-one connection; it's you and the computer you connect to. Though BBSs, not unlike web pages, usually specialise or concentrate on a specific theme or topic, they more often than not offer a wide variety of, let's say, "services": Files are aplenty, mail and messages (both local and on amateur networks) provide more than a few good arguments and discussions and there are of course doors: Additional programs, usually games, which allow the user to try and beat the high score of the guy down the road at the latest round of SlotMachine, vote on any conceivable type of question, check your IQ or anything else that a sofware author can think of and the system operator feels will add value to his/her BBS. You see, BBSs are more often than not run by a hobbyist, a geek who does it for the love of the online community and computers in general. Usually funded (some even have sponsors) by some insane sod who has given up any hope of a social life and labours to make his/her BBS the best one in town, the average BBS ran on a spare machine out of a bedroom, attic or basement, purely for the love of it. There was hardly a system operator (SysOp) who actually broke even with the daily costs of running his BBS, let alone make any real money out of it (there are exceptions, of course). There was passion involved! Man, those days were great. The internet, vast and unwieldy as it may be, remains somewhat impersonal. It's just like running some piece of sofware on your own machine; you just never really get the feeling that you've actually connected to another human being's computer. But hey, that's the way of the future. And just to make sure, you can even page that human behind the keyboard and prompt him/her for a (keyboard) chat. Very one-on-one, very personal. In times to come the internet will become nothing more than an extension of your own computer's hard drive to add an infinite software library and a host of capabilities. Bill Gates will make sure of that. Is there a worthwile future for bulletin boards as we know them? No, I'm a frayed knot... I'm afraid not, not in their current position and configuration. Many - no, most - system operators have realised the futility of their exercise, left the sinking ship and simply shut down, disconnected from the online community altogether or have flocked to the internet, along with the rest of the sheep. Needless to say, there are many die-hard SysOps around who have not just as yet lost their faith, nor the love for their hobby. BBSs must merge with the internet. Competing is not an option. The survival of BBSs depends on their adaption of technology and, foremost, the potential user and his ability to use... no, be aware of these systems. So, how do you go about merging a BBS with the mighty 'net? Web Pages are, to a certain extent, mini-BBSs, though not in the traditional and true sense of the term. As I joked before, they certainly do look much prettier than what the old ANSI, or even RIP, interfaces that the average bulletin board are capable of offering. Many, mostly commercial, BBS programs sport a Windows or Windows-like interface via usually proprietary interfaces that are mostly mouse-driven. That's a step in the right direction... mouse interaction is cool and easy, and if you remember what I said earlier about the skill level of today's user... keyboards are passe! But... calling a Web page a BBS is an insult to any self-respecting SysOp! Hosting a Web page is relatively easy, in comparison to a fully-fledged BBS (or yes, I'll admit, a Web Server)... a BBS directly reflects both the time and effort that the SysOp has spent in making his system unique, different and a pleasure to use, not to mention the tricks and general grief s/he often goes through to get all the damn software to work in apparent unison! Let's compare them: Some web pages/sites expect the user to pay a certain membership fee before they may join or access all the juicy bits (as do some BBSs), guestbooks are available (a BBS's user list), files (duh!), as well as access to newsgroups (BBSs may or may not feature access to several or all newsgroups available on the 'net, as well as amateur networks and, invariably, a local message base). A Web page may feature some online games (on BBSs they're called doors), where some BBSs might offer text-based Web access, ftp or telnet doors... and who knows what other features a WebMaster or SysOp may dream of! The most viable option, from the spirit of BBSing point of view, is for BBS software authors and the SysOps themselves to come up with an HTML/VRML/Java interface for bulletin boards, accepting TCP/IP connections in order for a user to log on with his little comms program and then surfing the BBS with his/her favourite browser, just like one would do on the WWW! A double-edged sword this may be, it'll accomodate both the experienced, traditional user who's used to dialling BBSs the old-fashioned way as well as hauling in a horde of rookie WWW users, people that have never dialled a bulletin board before, and in both cases featuring the ease and comfort of use of the Web as we know it today. That would be the best of both worlds, I suppose. Aaargh, what the hell do I know, I'm just... The SysOp, The HMVH Corporation BBS, Johannesburg, South Africa +27 11 768-6153 (2400-33k6 / 8N1 / 24 hours).