I want to understand how the experience was (this is "user experience" Sysop experience is different. > what was the cost involved For users the cost of a com

I want to understand how the experience was (this is "user experience" Sysop experience is different. > what was the cost involved For users the cost of a computer, modem, terminal software, phone line, and any applicable long distance. Maybe BBS subscription fee if it was some pay to use BBS. > what were the entry barrier for an average person to join Cost of a modem (before the VIC MODEM modems cost several hundred dollars, after that prices started dropping, but it was still as significant cost. Long Distance charges - unless you were in a larger area with local and good BBSs you were calling long-distance to connect. If living with others with one phone, you would battle for tying up the phone to call BBSs, so you would probably do it late at night like friday and saturday (not school nights) >How similar was it to current social media networks Think of internet usenet message groups or on-line forums for BBS message boards, email, and some downloading of programs and on-line games. Very few board were multi-line where there was more than one user so not much chatting, except with the Sysop occasionally. > How big the industry around it actually become Pretty big, at the high end there were mini-online entertainment services, with fancy multi-line chat boards offering paid content. some businesses had on-line ordering/support BBSs, as well as portals for say government clients to submit data, etc. News agency portals, etc. From a tech point of view what do you think were the major breakthroughs and what made it to the internet we see today. Electronic File Transfer (upload/download), Email, message boards, multi-BBS network data transfer (aka FidoNet), terminal graphics. > I have watched the documentary www.bbsdocumentary.com , so I have some context but want some more anecdotes if I can :) The hard part if you weren't a kid pre-internet, you dont know how compressed your world was. Back then communication was usually occasional phone with friends, face to face meetings (usually limited to your community's social group/neighbourhood), reading a lot of magazines, going to the library for information, lots of mail (catalogs by mail, order by mail) TV catered more to families and local grocery/clothing/appliances. BBSs let you expand your reach for interesting/provocative information (see textfiles.com), a big part for me was communicating with other like minded computer geeks (not only nearby but in other cities or even across the US or even world - as a BBS sysop I had a few international callers no idea how much their phone bills were). There were also some less technically minded lonely people able to get on-line looking for connection (on-line pen pal, etc.) That's my perspective,