Written March 2016
Last edited March 2025
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Since our inception in October 1997, we have gone through a lot of change
for the site itself and Bulletin Board systems as a whole. This is an
overview of our history and a timeline.

About Us

The Telnet & Dial-Up BBS Guide is the largest regularly maintained
Bulletin Board System (BBS) guide that lists both Telnet (Internet
based) and Dial-Up (modem based) BBS systems. This list does not
go and list every text based online system out there - we just
focus on BBS systems!

This guide is maintained by the SysOp of the Diamond Mine Online,
a Telnet BBS system located in Fredericksburg, Virginia USA. This site
is professionally hosted by EntirelyDigital in Toronto, ON Canada.

The current website uses WordPress and a number of plugins to make this
all work. The website was designed by Vincent Macaluso of Capital Shrill
BBS and Shooter Jennings of Wizard's Rainbow BBS. Without the help of these
two great people, this website would simply not exist!!

Background and History

Background

The Telnet & Dial-Up BBS Guide is a combination of two separate spinoffs
of The BBS Corner. The Telnet BBS Guide was created in October 1997,
while the US & Canada Dial-Up BBS Guide was created in October 2003.
Each were created for different reasons.

The Telnet BBS Guide was considered to be an extension of The BBS Corner.
While The BBS Corner is considered to be a site about BBS systems in
general, The Telnet BBS Guide was created solely for the purpose of
listing Telnet BBS systems.

It was no secret that by the mid-1990s that the future of BBS systems
involved the use of the Internet. Though the Internet actually predates
dial-up BBS systems, the Internet really didn't get a foothold until
about 1990.

This is about the time BBS systems also started to get popular. Computers
and analog modems were getting faster and faster. By late 1994 and early
1995, the technology started to merge together. Finally the Internet was
able to become available to the masses instead of government, large
businesses, and college campuses. The Internet already had the capability
of many transmission methods, and Telnet was the one of the more popular
and well established protocols.

Telnet was one of the first Internet protocols (even prior to the World
Wide Web) and the interaction between the user and computer was almost
identical to the method of the traditional dial-up (modem) Bulletin Board
System. By the mid-1990s, BBS systems were migrating to the Internet as a
means of interacting with those who were already on the Internet. Some BBS
software packages were being produced with Internet interface. Other BBS
systems were connected to the Internet using special interface software to
provide this additional access.

By the mid-1990s, the Internet with the World Wide Web had started to
enter the mainstream. Web sites were being created to let people know
about BBS systems. Sites like the original Sysop's Corner (by MaryLou
White) and BBS Corner (our main site) came on the scene. Another site that
appeared was called the Select BBSes on the Internet (SBI) Telnet BBS List,
maintained by Richard Scott Mark. This list ran from approximately July
1994 through July 1997. For some reason, the site was no longer being
updated. This was odd considering Richard had just published a book
discussing Internet based BBS systems. The original site went down in
July 1998 when the server crashed. However, copies of the site (as well
as this site) still exist on the Internet still exist to this day.

So by late September, I was wondering if the site was going to be
maintained ever again. In fear that the site would never be updated and
taken down, I took it upon myself to create my own Telnet BBS guide.
I took what Richard had, weeded out the dead systems, added a bunch of
new systems, and created my own site. By early October, the first
generation of the site was online.

First Generation

The first generation of the site existed from October 1997 through July
2001. The site was co-hosted with TheDirectory, which at that time listed
Internet Service Providers, Web Hosting Providers and even some dial-up
BBS systems. The site was maintained all by hand and was only updated once
per month. The addition of the text-based list came a couple of years after
the site was created.

Second Generation Part I

In 2001, it was becoming a hassle to have TheDirectory host The BBS Corner
and the Telnet BBS Guide. I decided to seek outside help in determining what
my next step was. Mat DeCourcy of DC Systems, Inc. answered my call for
some help. He provided a way to help automate the mundane tasks of updating
the database and web pages by using a Microsoft Access database system and
create pages on the fly using scripting. I obtained web server space from
a professional hosting company (Alentus of Edmonton, AB Canada) and
obtained a domain name. The automated system was installed and the second
generation came on line in August 2001. The two systems ran in parallel for
several months, with the first generation coming to an end around October
2001.

Second Generation Part II

The largest Dial-Up BBS list that was continually maintained until recently
was the USBBS list. Since its inception since 1984, it has been the largest
list of its kind. It was maintained on a regular basis up until about 2002,
then sporadically after that until 2004. Since then, it has not been maintained.

By the fall of 2003, the list had gotten very out of date. I decided that it
needed to be replaced and added to the line of Telnet BBSes that I currently
list. Hence the US/Canada Dial-Up BBS List was created in October 2003. The
goal has always been to merge it into the Telnet BBS List but due to other
important things, it had been in the Beta Test Stage since its inception
until 2016.

Third Generation

The third generation has its origins back in 2004. Mat had offered to update
the database to include not only Telnet listings, but Dial-Up listings as
well. As many systems offer both Telnet and Dial-Up, this made sense. He set
up a test site with the new engine, but we never got around to finishing it.
By 2007, I felt that the site should have its own domain and not be an
offshoot of the Diamond Mine Online domain.

The work that was started in 2004 by Mat DeCourcy has been updated and
installed on a new domain www.TelnetBBSGuide.com. With the new engine, the
automation has improved to a new level. Instead of entering the data by hand,
it is entered automatically in to the database when people submit their
information (though it isn't displayed right away pending review). Also,
the downloadable list is now updated with the latest information straight
from the database instead of being updated just once a month (though the
monthly mailings will still be done at the first of each month).

Fourth Generation (current)

The Fourth Generation of this list is what you are seeing now. The graphics
of the former Telnet BBS Guide were created in 1996, and remained so for
nearly 20 years! Yes, the old site held on for nearly that long. Technology
had come and gone, but the site kept on trucking along from 2004 to 2016.

For the longest time, I wanted to update the look and feel of the website,
but keep the original engine behind the site intact since I really didn't
know too much about ASP programming and Microsoft Access databases. I just
didn't have the time to go through and work on the site anymore. So I kept
up the maintenance of the listings but didn't change the look or flavor of
the site one bit for many, many years.

My procrastination had finally bit me in the butt, BIG TIME! In late January
2016, the web hosting company that had been hosting the site since circa
2001 finally said that they will no longer be supporting neither Windows
2003 nor Microsoft Access Database (the engine behind it). In other words,
the site would cease to function! It was time I was forced to swallow a
bitter pill and finally upgrade the site. But how? What would be the best
way? And who could help me?

I had seen a website that sort of was doing close to the same thing that I
was doing using WordPress, but I couldn't find the guy who made it. I asked
a BBS Sysop group on Facebook and that led me to Shooter Jennings of Bit
Sunrise BBS and Vincent Macaluso of Capital Shrill BBS. Both of them know
WordPress, I don't! So they worked with me to create a whole new website
with as much functionality as the old website, while bringing things up to
modern technology in 2016.

Timeline

    1993 - Creation of the Diamond Mine BBS (now Diamond Mine Online)

    1996 - Creation of The BBS Corner

    1997 - Creation of the Telnet BBS Guide

    2001 - Moved from TheDirectory website to Diamond Mine Online website.
           Automation added.

    2003 - US/Canada Dial-Up BBS Guide started

    2007 - Site moved from Diamond Mine Online website to its own domain.
           Automation has been improved.

    2016 - Entire website was redone from scratch using WordPress as the
           engine.

    2017 - Moved again to a new host (much faster!)

    2019 - Moved Monthly Distribution List from Yahoo to Groups.io

    2022 - Conversion of BBS Corner to WordPress complete

    2024 - Development of replacement site (more streamlined, etc.)

If you have any questions please visit the Telnet FAQ page. If you need
further help you may contact us.



