/retro/ - What were BBSs like outside the West? I'm talking Japan, the
USSR, etc. Japan had NEC PC-88s and 98s, what BBS software did they
have?
reddit / bbs

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samalex01 · 2020-08-24 17:22

I never called any BBSes outside of the US and Canada back in the day,
but I remember talking to lots of folks on Fidonet saying the
decentralized manor of BBSes and Fidonet specifically made it a great
way to communicate especially in communist countries.  East Germany
for example had a few lines out that people would use to get news and
info about the world, as did some areas of USSR where the government
heavily monitored the media outlets.  BBSes back then could go under
the radar on analog phone systems as all they needed was an outside
phone line and a minute or two for data bursts.

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[deleted] · 2020-08-24 17:31

That’s awesome

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velskapt · 2020-08-24 19:54

Up here in Norway we used mostly PCBoard, wildcat and MBBS (Mike's
Bulletin Board System, similar to RBBS(?)).

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[deleted] · 2020-08-24 21:40

[deleted]

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lucidphreak · 2020-08-24 23:50

I called (from the states) into canada, UK, ireland, australia,
france, germany and I think even some stuff in africa.. I was a phone
phreak so access to stuff far away was not a big deal. There were some
foreign language bbs’s out there but believe it or not most were in
english.. I dont recall dialing into any communist locations like
russia so I cant speak for that. LOTS of stuff in germany though... I
mostly saw stuff like PCBoard abroad, though some of them ran the
“scene” bbs softwares of the day like forum, emulex, FCP, genesis, and
especially Celerity.. Great memories!!!

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dmine45 · 2020-08-26 09:26

Asian BBSes are vastly different than the ones we're used to. And
surprisingly there quite a few still out there.