I've read the wiki. Interesting oddity, though doesn't sound too great to me.
a) runs on Linux/BSD (ewww) b) so many tragedies/bullying c) it's a board system, a bit like the controversial 4chan?

Edit: Interesting that it uses Telnet, also.
I like it, but I wouldn't use it such a questionable country (Telnet has no encryption).
A country with a social rating system and constant supervision.

Edit: Technically, it's interesting to understand why it is the way it is, yes.
Why didn't they use Gopher as an alternative to an www browser, for example ?

On the other hand, BBBses aren't that long gone yet. I connected to one via CB radio (Packet Radio) in 2005 or so. Shortly before the iPhone came out in 2006.

Since this is far east, maybe the flood of people/users didn't allow an easy migration to another technology.
The use of their glyphs for writing is maybe also a reason. Telnet doesn't judge, it simply transfers any characters.

There are still more than 1000 BBS currently listed and operational, check the lists in this site: https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/

The catch is that almost all of them, mine included, exist as an exhibit and do not expect people to actually regularly log in to have discussions etc. So if PTT is really active and not just alive then it's remarkable.

konc wrote on 2023-10-02, 06:46:

There are still more than 1000 BBS currently listed and operational, check the lists in this site: https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/

The catch is that almost all of them, mine included, exist as an exhibit and do not expect people to actually regularly log in to have discussions etc. So if PTT is really active and not just alive then it's remarkable.

The thing I find most interesting is presumably a good percentage of users weren't even born yet, or too young to remember, the heyday of dial-up BBSs. Yet they are willingly using a telnet/SSH connection, something very different from the modern era of mouse-driven web pages and touch sensitive phone apps.

When I was in college, university-provided telnet email accounts were nearing the end of their life, and I saw at least a few people in a computer lab that apparently logged in for the first time, then simply abandoned it and walked away without even logging out. So even then it confused some (but not all).

Jo22 wrote on 2023-10-02, 05:34:

I've read the wiki. Interesting oddity, though doesn't sound too great to me.
a) runs on Linux/BSD (ewww)

What do you expect for a modern BBS hosting 1000s of users. 😀 I'm sure it's far more stable and scalable than about anything else doing the same job.

eesz34 wrote on 2023-10-02, 14:15:

Jo22 wrote on 2023-10-02, 05:34:

I've read the wiki. Interesting oddity, though doesn't sound too great to me.
a) runs on Linux/BSD (ewww)

What do you expect for a modern BBS hosting 1000s of users. 😀 I'm sure it's far more stable and scalable than about anything else doing the same job.

Oh, well I just think *nix is so limited.
On DOS platforms, BBSes could have used ANSI escape sequences, allowing for nice, colourful ANSI art.
Or, let's think of TradeWars and other sophisticated BBS games..

Edit: https://www.pcmag.com/news/the-forgotten-worl … -bbs-door-games

https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linu … n-linux-681031/

On Packet Radio, some programs like BayCom or Graphic Packet ('94) had add-ons that allowed to play graphical games, such as Chess or Battleship.
Picture's could be sent, too, which were being displayed in the terminal. That was with a humble 1200 Baud.

Likewise, CompuServe had HiRes (RLE) graphic support way back in the early 80s.
The humble TRS CoCo homecomputer served as a popular graphical terminal, I read.

Why the *nix community always lives by 1960s standards is beyond me. 😞
Them calling their creations "modern" and innovative, too.
They're acting as if a PDP-11 was state-of-the art.

Then there are these weirdos on hackaday, YouTube and other sites who're fascinated by a telex machine operating on Linux.
I mean, I often worried about me being strange sometimes, even, but that's on another level.

No offense, I do like Telnet. But more as virtual RS-232 connection, to execute programs/commands on a distant PC.
As a chat client it seems to be a bit limited, though. That's were ICQ did better (esp. ICQ5/6).

Edit: That being said, I don't know much about PTT, so I can't judge about the user experience.
Speaking of PTT, is it a reference to "Push To Talk" by any chance ?
That's what PTT stands for in the radio world.
I mean, CompuServe also had a "CB Simulator", which was a chatroom named after CB radio.

Jo22 wrote on 2023-10-02, 16:24:

Likewise, CompuServe had HiRes (RLE) graphic support way back in the early 80s. The humble TRS CoCo homecomputer served as a pop […]
Show full quote

Likewise, CompuServe had HiRes (RLE) graphic support way back in the early 80s.
The humble TRS CoCo homecomputer served as a popular graphical terminal, I read.

Why the *nix community always lives by 1960s standards is beyond me. 😞
Them calling their creations "modern" and innovative, too.
They're acting as if a PDP-11 was state-of-the art.

Then there are these weirdos on hackaday, YouTube and other sites who're fascinated by a telex machine operating on Linux.
I mean, I often worried about me being strange sometimes, even, but that's on another level.

No offense, I do like Telnet. But more as virtual RS-232 connection, to execute programs/commands on a distant PC.
As a chat client it seems to be a bit limited, though. That's were ICQ did better (esp. ICQ5/6).

Edit: That being said, I don't know much about PTT, so I can't judge about the user experience.
Speaking of PTT, is it a reference to "Push To Talk" by any chance ?
That's what PTT stands for in the radio world.
I mean, CompuServe also had a "CB Simulator", which was a chatroom named after CB radio.

I was just saying, in all reality, running a large BBS on DOS in 2023 isn't feasible. That might not be what you're suggesting, but does it matter if it runs on Linux/BSD as far as what it can do for a remote user? I'm not a computer programmer (but do understand small embedded systems quite well) but it seems to me the application running on, let's say Linux, can transmit any bytes it wants to the remote user. Linux is only the host OS, it's not limiting how the BBS can behave....does it? I don't know for sure.

I'd imagine it's much like a web server. You can't tell what the host OS is unless you go poking around, and even then it might not be easy to determine. Although I think in this era, it's safe to bet it's Linux if one has to guess.

I like Linux. I don't use it for the desktop, but have a server running that is my network drive and runs my security camera VMS. It runs headless in a mini-rack in my basement, console only, and in the 8 years I've been running it not a bit of trouble.

BTW it looks like PTT is "Phi-thek-thek".