BBSes were once the primary playground of the hacker. They are one of the oldest methods of electronic worldwide communication, where you can chat, send messages, and share files with others. Long ago in a network far, far away, people dialed into these bulletin board systems with their 9600 baud modems and established what was to become the legendary hacker communities of the 80s. This is where The Jargon File was born, this is where the Anarchist's Cookbook was first published, and this is where all the old schoolers got to know one another. Sadly, they are almost all gone.

Gladly, there are enough nostalgic geeks in the world to keep the tradition going, only the new generation of these BBSes are TCP/IP based, so you don't have to dial in with your phone line. Given, many of the people on these boards only visit once, check it out either for nostalgia or curiosity but its worth a look, especially if you never experienced this culture when it was in its prime.

Check out the Synchronet BBS List for some online BBSes that you can connect to. All you need is a telnet client and a few minutes of patience.