Textfiles, intended to be transferred from BBS to BBS and user to user, were the longer-lasting legacy of the 1980's, but a much more fluid portion of the boards was the true lifeblood of the culture: the messages. Every BBS has a number of message bases where users could post about whatever they thought to discuss; debates, rag wars, advertisements, and boasts all played out the same dramas all over the country and the world. When you logged onto a BBS, and started reading the bases you had access to, you could get a sense, almost immediately, of what the "character" of the board was. Some were dictatorships, some were insane asylums, some were office buildings.
In the files below, you will get a glimpse of these wonderous worlds that affected mine and others' lives, and the steady stream of mind-to-mind communication that shot out of a thousand nighttime modems.
| Filename |
Size |
Description of the Textfile |
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ALANWESTON| The Alan Weston BBS Message Collection (1990-1996) | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ALTERREALITY| Message Bases from the Alter Reality BBS (1989-1991) | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BACKWATER| Message Bases from the Backwater BBS (Unsorted) | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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YABBS| Message Bases from Alex Wetmore's YABBS (1994) | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
103dbug2.txt | 4248 | MESSAGE: Tradewars Informationn, by Stephen Whitis (March 5, 1994)
| 103dbug3.txt | 6499 | MESSAGE: Tradewars Information by Stephen Whitis (March 5, 1994)
| 103dbug4.txt | 5902 | MESSAGE: Tradewars Information, by Stephen Whitis (March 5, 1994)
| 103dbugs.txt | 5942 | MESSAGE: Tradeware Information, by Stephen Whitis (March 5, 1994)
| acking.txt | 2383 | Some BBS Messages about Hacking, December of 1984
| anarchy.txt | 53621 | Postings from an Anarchy Sub-Board, Telegard Conference, Late 1991
| anonym.txt | 5686 | Postings to the Anonymous Attic on the 1985 BBS, May, 1984
| apples.txt | 8960 | Messages from the Apple Pirate board on Sherwood Forest II, 1985
| avatar.posts | 44288 | The America Online Project Avatar Posts Archive (June 28, 1992)
| bbs.txt | 4302 | Message Base with Ads for BBS's, 1985
| bice.txt | 47412 | LODCOM: Selected Messages from Black Ice Private (April-May 1989)
| black1.txt | 64553 | LODCOM: Large Sampling of Messages for the LODCOM Project
| bombs.ana | 19444 | Postings to the Bombs Message Base from the South Pole BBS
| bruce.txt | 1757 | MESSAGE: Monty Python Lyrics, by Micah Holmes (February 16, 1994)
| bruce2.txt | 5701 | MESSAGE: Monty Python Lyrics (The Bruces) by Saul Ansbacher (March 23, 1994)
| brutal.txt | 23411 | CAPTURE: Text Capture of Brutal, early Danish Hack/Phreak BBS by FIgaro (1992)
| buldagr1.txt | 13202 | BBS Messages: Johnny Dagger and friends build a story late one night (1993)
| bullcreek86.txt | 112306 | BBS MESSAGES: The Bull Creek BBS in Austin, TX (Sysop: Mark Bryant) Messages from 1986
| bust_bbs.txt | 4216 | Some Messages Preceeding a BBS Piracy Bust (September 27, 1991)
| channl-1.txt | 19120 | Discussion of the Modem Tax on the Channel 1 BBS (August, 1993)
| chatter.asc | 19662 | GodNet General Chatter Message base (February, 1993)
| chin.txt | 2517 | MESSAGE: Monty Python Lyrics (I Like Chinese) from Micah Holmes (March 15, 1994)
| circlems.txt | 12794 | Some Postings from The Inner Circle about Blue Boxing
| citadel-story.txt | 2472 | Citadel Explains the Citadel-TOPx Log Files from 1996 (2002)
| citadel-top.log | 173991 | Log Files of TOP BBS (January, 1996)
| citadel-top2.log | 41084 | Log Files of TOP BBS (January, 1996)
| citadel-top3.log | 101457 | Log Files of TOP BBS (January, 1996)
| color$.txt | 9824 | The Color Box, from the Aluminum Gerbil (40 Columns, Uppercase)
| compcond.txt | 4783 | CAPTURE: The Computer Connection BBS (1982)
| compconna.txt | 8228 | CAPTURE: The Computer Connection BBS (1982)
| compconnb.txt | 6395 | CAPTURE: The Computer Connection BBS (1982)
| compconnc.txt | 9698 | CAPTURE: The Computer Connection BBS (1982)
| conspir.asc | 11274 | The GodNet Conspiracy Theory Echo (June, 1993)
| corruptc.txt | 8116 | Extracts from the Corrupt Computing BBS
| crash.txt | 2507 | Submission for mod.telecom ("Crashing" a Central Office) (April 26, 1987)
| crazy | 5103 | How Someone Harassed Someone Else on FidoNet
| crckin.msg | 4274 | Messages from a "Cracking" BBS Conference, August, 1994
| crime.txt | 23927 | Discussion of Credit Card Fraud on a BBS, with the Sysop Offering Help to the Secret Service (May, 1994)
| cy-chat.txt | 15924 | Cyberpunk BBS Message Base (Early 1991)
| cyberadv.txt | 12645 | Online Cyberpunk Role-Playing BBS (March 1991)
| death.txt | 1071 | MESSAGE: A Little Poem of Death by Robert (October 2, 1993)
| death2.txt | 1192 | MESSAGE: An Ode to Death, by Sysop III (October 19, 1993)
| debate.txt | 16545 | The Debate Den Message Board on the Safehouse BBS
| diversibuffer.txt | 24370 | BUFFER: Messages on a Diversi-Dial, Late 1980's
| docwho.eko | 61677 | Capture from a Dr. Who Converence, (May 1992)
| docwho1.eko | 36345 | Additional Captured Messages from a Dr. Who Conference (May 1992)
| ericbee.txt | 2038 | MESSAGE: Monty Python Lyrics by Micah Holmes (Eric the Half a Bee) (February 17, 1994)
| feather.txt | 58449 | 24 msgs on The Feather's Quill (A BBS Story Board)
| frwrks.txt | 6978 | Pyrotechnic BBS Message Base (May-July 1984)
| fuckyouf.txt | 155880 | Uncensored Transcripts from the MindVox "Fuck-You" Forum, Compiled and Moderated by Jim Felcher (1994)
| galaxy.txt | 2307 | MESSAGE: Monty Python Lyrics (The Galaxy Song), from Jason Levine (March 1, 1994)
| grabbag.msg | 8607 | All sorts of interesting snippets
| hackers.msg | 22918 | BBS Messages: The Compost Heap, Hacking Sub-Board, March 1986
| hackshak.txt | 19958 | LODCOM: Selected Messages from The Hack Shack BBS
| hate-mod.txt | 24613 | A Very Large Flamewar on a Usenet Message Base in West-Germany | The BBS Flamewar travels to USENET... hpnumber.txt | 23792 | Collection of Hacking and Phreaking Codes on a BBS Message Base (November-December, 1991)
| indy3.txt | 29560 | Capture of a Gaming BBS Message Base, Circa 1990
| info4 | 6272 | Hacker Messages from PC-Pursuit NetExchange BBS (February 1988)
| int_pyro.txt | 8904 | Messages from the Pyromania Section of a Citadel BBS (June 1990)
| iroc.txt | 19355 | LODCOM: Selected Messages from the Inner Realm of Communications BBS (IROC)
| jerky.txt | 50126 | A Large Collection of Jerky-Related BBS Messages and Files (1994)
| journal.txt | 13081 | The Works BBS Endless Story File
| junk.txt | 6528 | Message Base about Luding on the 1985 BBS
| kindbud.txt | 242150 | BBS Messages from Kind Bud's Hemp Discussion Corner
| letter.txt | 2234 | A Great Message by The Slipped Disk
| lifesong.txt | 2674 | MESSAGE: Monty Python Lyrics (Bright Side of Life) from Micah Holmes (March 8, 1994)
| lodcom.hac | 51395 | Lodcom Sample Messages Set #1, 4/20/93
| lodstuph | 60363 | LODCOM: Internal Release about the LODCOM Project, as well as LOD Messages
| lotsames.msg | 13507 | Complete Smattering of Messages, October
| luding.txt | 8526 | Posts on the Luding Message base from 1985 BBS, Feb.
| lumberja.txt | 2252 | MESSAGE: Monty Python Lyrics (Lumberjack Song), from Jim Maciorowski (February 14, 1994)
| messag.msg | 14798 | Wares, Cracking and Pirating Messages, November
| messy.msg | 4096 | "General" to "Elite Phreak", November
| meta01.txt | 274645 | Messages from a Pagan Fidonet Echo, February 1988
| meta02.txt | 304084 | Messages from a Pagan Fidonet Echo, February 1988 (Part II)
| mjunkdrw.txt | 15268 | Collection of Messages from the Junk Drawer BBS
| modemtest.txt | 203772 | Messages from The Modem Test BBS (Sysop: Charles "Chuck" Hood) (1993)
| morgue.cap | 32000 | A Capture of Textfiles and Messages from The Morgue BBS (March, 1985)
| movie.txt | 17722 | The Movie Review Alcove Message Base of the 1985 BBS
| nurses.hum | 9789 | Messages from Nurses in Bondage
| nurses2.hum | 16506 | More Messages from Nurses in Bondage
| nurses3.hum | 12625 | And Yet More Nurses In Bondage
| old_msgs | 29590 | Explosives for Fun and Pleasure, Uploaded by Shadow Knight (May 17, 1987) (Has Anarchy Messages Around It)
| os2news.txt | |