History
Governed by, and named for the Iowa Student Computer Association (ISCA), ISCABBS was started in 1989. Previously a computer conferencing software program entitled "Participate" made by Unison (Iowa students referred to it as "Parti") resided on the University of Iowa's Prime mainframe computer (running the Primos operating system) and was accessible to all University students.
Precursors
Many of the Parti users had migrated over from a student created BBS called BBS1 (circa 1985) which was accessed from its creator's personal account "astran" on the University of Iowa mainframe computer PrimeA. BBS1 was created and administered by Randy Frank (Mr Nybble) and David Richards (The Oracle) after they realized the popularity of their games and the hidden messaging system that was available from within the games. The original message system was concealed inside their "Draw Poker" game and allowed the creators the ability to convey progress and leave notes regarding current projects. The board was promoted across campus on flyers placed in computer labs. Users took on handles and developed a culture of their own with socialization being the main use of the board. A BBS1 user group was started and held infrequent meetings and offered T-shirts with a mystical picture and the caption "BBS1: A meeting of the minds". The software eventually was altered and passed around by a rogue sysop in a version known as "STEALTH" which could be compiled and executed on a user's own personal account. The main message system files were no longer safe or private once the general user population learned the directory names. The anonymity of a handle was proven to be non-existent and the cracked software allowed anybody to read any file they chose and track users back to their originating personal accounts.
DOC creation
Several student programmers began to create an improved code using the Citadel framework. As several developers were named "Dave" - including two key developers of the early software - it was coined "Dave's own version of " or "DOC" (Note: Often, this has been written "Daves' own version..." to note the plurality of Daves involved in the project). The Daves include the project leader "Doctor Dave" Lacey, who is now an M.D., and Dave "Screaming Fist" Nelson. Originally ISCABBS was run on the University of Iowa's Engineering Departments Iowa Computer Aided Engineering Network "ICAEN" and accessible only by engineering students. However, ISCABBS was soon made available to all University of Iowa students and then to anyone with an internet connection. In addition to the BBS, a file sharing system was made available for freeware and shareware, and at one point was one of the most popular repositories in the Simtel file distribution network.
Peak of popularity
At its peak just before the rise of the World Wide Web, it supported more than a thousand users online simultaneously and a virtual velvet-roped queue in which hundreds more waited to log in when the system was very busy. The popularity of ISCA as a meeting place, hangout, and occasionally a virtual dive bar gives a glimpse of what modern day chat rooms would become. Between serious discussion on topics ranging from social issues and politics to computer and home repair, lighthearted babble about almost any topic can be found. In addition, instant messaging (called eXpress Messages - or simply Xes - in the lingo of DOC BBSes and other citadel-derived systems) provides a venue for private discussion and conversation.
Before the rise of the Web, ISCABBS was one of the largest free public bulletin board systems in the world. It continues on today as a likely candidate for the most active telnet-based BBS in the world.
Moving to new software
At one point the BBS was poised to cut over to a new platform called Gestalt. It was a project developed almost entirely by Lee Brintle (also known as "Tanj"), an ISCA member and former BBS Sysop. ISCA (the Iowa Student Computer Association) was offered free license to use this new BBS platform which offered not only integration with the old BBS platform but also enabled developers to construct instant messaging, email, and web-based interfaces to the BBS, much like many modern messageboards have today. The cutover was scheduled for "sometime in 1998" and would have enabled the BBS to very easily run on commodity hardware (Intel PCs) rather than expensive, proprietary, and increasingly hard-to-obtain HP workstations. Conflicts over licensing terms, ownership, and other interpersonal issues caused the cutover to Gestalt to never happen.
As of September 23, 2014, ISCA was permanently migrated over to a Linux-based virtual when the original system exhibited some issues. Most of the functionality remains identical with a few changes, such as adding eXpress message retention, and removing delays during registration and idle account deletions.
Moving away from the University of Iowa
The ISCA student group created a non-profit corporation (Iowa Student Computing Alumni) and separated from the University of Iowa on December 16, 2006.
The domain name has been changed to bbs.iscabbs.com from bbs.isca.uiowa.edu.
Infrastructure
ISCABBS originally supported over a thousand simultaneous users on a 50 MHz PA-RISC system with 64MB of RAM, which ran HP-UX. In later years, the system was upgraded to an 80 MHz processor and 128MB of RAM, though the active user base is much smaller. Connectivity was provided by the University of Iowa. Due to the popularity of the BBS and its limited resources, much effort went into shrinking the size of the BBS process in memory. Stripped-down versions of standard libraries were written that included only the handful of functions that the BBS required to operate.
When ISCA separated from the University of Iowa to become its own non-profit organization, the BBS was moved to a new co-location hosting facility in Iowa City, Iowa. ISCABBS ran on an HP Visualize model B132L workstation, with a 132 MHz processor, 192 MB of RAM, and two 2 GB SCSI disks. However, as noted above, it has now migrated to a Linux virtual hosted by user Chris Gauthier (Copper Lethe).
A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), was a computer server running software that allowed users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user could perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users through public message boards and sometimes via direct chatting. In the early 1980s, message networks such as FidoNet were developed to provide services such as NetMail, which is similar to internet-based email.
FidoNet is a worldwide computer network that is used for communication between bulletin board systems (BBSes). It uses a store-and-forward system to exchange private (email) and public (forum) messages between the BBSes in the network, as well as other files and protocols in some cases.
A sysop is an administrator of a multi-user computer system, such as a bulletin board system (BBS) or an online service virtual community. The phrase may also be used to refer to administrators of other Internet-based network services. Sysops typically do not earn money, but donate their activity to the community.
Telnet is a client/server application protocol that provides access to virtual terminals of remote systems on local area networks or the Internet. It is a protocol for bidirectional 8-bit communications. Its main goal was to connect terminal devices and terminal-oriented processes.
A talker is a chat system that people use to talk to each other over the Internet. Dating back to the 1980s, they were a predecessor of instant messaging. A talker is a communication system precursor to MMORPGs and other virtual worlds such as Second Life. Talkers are a form of online virtual worlds in which multiple users are connected at the same time to chat in real-time. People log in to the talkers remotely, and have a basic text interface with which to communicate with each other.
CBBS was a computer program created by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess to allow them and other computer hobbyists to exchange information between each other.
Telegard is an early bulletin board system (BBS) software program written for IBM PC-compatible computers running MS-DOS and OS/2. Telegard was written in Pascal with routines written in C++ and assembly language, based on a copy of the WWIV source code.
Diversi-Dial, or DDial was an online chat server that was popular during the mid-1980s. It was a specialized type of bulletin board system that allowed all callers to send lines of text to each other in real-time, often operating at 300 baud. In some ways, it was a sociological forerunner to IRC, and was a cheap, local alternative to CompuServe chat, which was expensive and billed by the minute. At its peak, at least 35 major DDial systems existed across the United States, many of them in large cities. During the evening when telephone rates were low, the biggest DDial systems would link together using Telenet or PC Pursuit connections, forming regional chat networks.
The Bread Board System (TBBS) is a multiline MS-DOS based commercial bulletin board system software package written in 1983 by Philip L. Becker. He originally created the software as the result of a poker game with friends that were praising the BBS software created by Ward Christensen. Becker said he could do better and founded eSoft, Inc. in 1984 based on the strength of TBBS sales.
WWIV was a brand of bulletin board system software popular from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s. The modifiable source code allowed a sysop to customize the main BBS program for their particular needs and aesthetics. WWIV also allowed tens of thousands of BBSes to link together, forming a worldwide proprietary computer network, the WWIVnet, similar to FidoNet.
PCBoard (PCB) was a bulletin board system (BBS) application first introduced for DOS in 1983 by Clark Development Company. Clark Development was founded by Fred Clark. PCBoard was one of the first commercial BBS packages for DOS systems, and was considered one of the "high end" packages during the rapid expansion of BBS systems in the early 1990s. Like many BBS companies, the rise of the Internet starting around 1994 led to serious downturns in fortunes, and Clark Development went bankrupt in 1997. Most PCB sales were of two-line licenses; additional line licenses were also available.
Citadel is the name of a bulletin board system (BBS) computer program, and of the genre of programs it inspired. Citadels were notable for their room-based structure and relatively heavy emphasis on messages and conversation as opposed to gaming and files. The first Citadel came online in 1980 with a single 300 baud modem; eventually many versions of the software, both clones and those descended from the original code base, became popular among BBS callers and sysops, particularly in areas such as the Pacific Northwest, Northern California and Upper Midwest of the United States, where development of the software was ongoing. Citadel BBSes were most popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but when the Internet became more accessible for online communication, Citadels began to decline. However, some versions of the software, from small community BBSes to large systems supporting thousands of simultaneous users, are still in use today. Citadel development has always been collaborative with a strong push to keep the source code in the public domain. This makes Citadel one of the oldest surviving FOSS projects.
Mystic BBS is a bulletin board system software program that began in 1995 and was first released to the public in December 1997 for MS-DOS. It has been ported to Microsoft Windows, OS/2, OS X, and Linux. Mystic was designed to be a spiritual successor to the Renegade (BBS) and Telegard bulletin board systems.
Pyroto Mountain is an online game based on answering trivia and skill-testing questions. It was originally developed to run as a stand-alone bulletin board system (BBS), later as a BBS door, and more recently as a web application.
The Atari Message Information System (AMIS) was one of the first BBS software packages available for the Atari 8-bit computers. It was known to crash pretty often and could not be left unattended for more than a few days. The autorun.sys file which contained the modem handler was at cause. Versions of the AMIS BBS were modified with the modem handler supplied with the Atari XM301 modem and was deemed much more stable.
OSUNY was a dial-up bulletin board that was run by two different sysops in the 1980s, "Sysop" while in Scarsdale, New York, and Frank Roberts in White Plains, New York. Named for the Ohio Scientific computer it originally ran on, it attracted a large group of hackers, phone phreaks, engineers, computer programmers, and other technophiles. It remained a haven almost exclusively for the hacker/phreaker community until gaining notoriety through mention in a Newsweek article, Hacking Through NASA: A threat- or only an embarrassment, and mention in the book The Hacker Crackdown as a favored hangout of the notorious hacker group The Legion of Doom, after which it was shuttered, and another board was brought up as a "replacement" known as The Crystal Palace, which was short-lived. OSUNY was restarted soon after, using an Altos 5-15D running MP/M and the continuously evolving Citadel/UX software. Also in the mid-1980s it became the first BBS to be associated with 2600 Magazine. It ran via dial-up until its closing around 1988.
GT Power is a bulletin board system (BBS) and dial-up telecommunications/terminal application for MS-DOS. It was first introduced in the 1980s by P & M Software, founded by Paul Meiners. GT Power can be used both to host a BBS as well as to connect to other BBS systems via its full-featured dial-up "terminal mode". GT Power was a shareware package that required a registration fee in order to access its proprietary network mail transport/handling software and, by default, the GT Power Network. The software is distributed in two "flavors": a terminal-only version, nicknamed GTO, and the full-featured host and terminal version.
StarDoc 134 is a Dos/Linux hybrid BBS running EleBBS maintained by Andrew Baker aka "RamMan, Dotel and Dotelpenguin".
Monochrome BBS, known to users as "Mono," is a text-based multi-user bulletin board system featuring thousands of discussion files, along with games, user messaging, and a talker. As of November 2023 it is one of the few BBS's still in operation and actively used on a daily basis by its community. Monochrome runs on custom software, making the platform and user experience distinct from other bulletin board systems.
