Bulletin–board–system

a board for the posting of bulletins, notices, announcements, etc.
Also called bulletin board system. Digital Technology, BBS.

an online collection of electronic messages, posted by and accessible to any authorized user.
a system, facility, or computer server for collecting and relaying these messages.

See also message board.
noun
(US & Canadian) a board on which notices, advertisements, bulletins, etc, are displayed Also called (in Britain and certain other countries) notice board
(computing) a facility on a computer network allowing any user to leave messages that can be read by any other user, and to download software and information to the user’s own computer
noun
bulletin board
(bl’ĭ-tn)
An electronic communication system that allows users to send or read electronic messages, files, and other data that are of general interest and addressed to no particular person. Bulletin boards were widely used before the Internet became popular, and many of their functions are now served by websites and newsgroups for specific topics or groups.
communications, application
(BBS, bboard /bee’bord/, message board, forum; plural: BBSes) A computer and associated software which typically provides an electronic message database where people can log in and leave messages. Messages are typically split into topic groups similar to the newsgroups on Usenet (which is like a distributed BBS). Any user may submit or read any message in these public areas.
The term comes from physical pieces of board on which people can pin messages written on paper for general consumption – a “physical bulletin board”. Ward Christensen, the programmer and operator of the first BBS (on-line 1978-02-16) called it a CBBS for “computer bulletin board system”. Since the rise of the World-Wide Web, the term has become antiquated, though the concept is more popular than ever, with many web sites featuring discussion areas where users can post messages for public consumption.
Apart from public message areas, some BBSes provided archives of files, personal electronic mail and other services of interest to the system operator (sysop).
Thousands of BBSes around the world were run from amateurs’ homes on MS-DOS boxes with a single modem line each. Although BBSes were traditionally the domain of hobbyists, many connected directly to the Internet (accessed via telnet), others were operated by government, educational, and research institutions.
Fans of Usenet or the big commercial time-sharing bboards such as CompuServe, CIX and GEnie tended to consider local BBSes the low-rent district of the hacker culture, but they helped connect hackers and users in the personal-micro and let them exchange code.
Use of this term for a Usenet newsgroup generally marks one either as a newbie fresh in from the BBS world or as a real old-timer predating Usenet.
(2005-09-20)
Also, electronic bulletin board. A computer service that provides facilities for people to leave messages by phone or telecomputing. For example, The National Writers Union has a bulletin board through which members communicate via their modems. Both the device and the term, alluding to the older board for posting notices, date from the late 1970s.