Editing Bulletin board system (section)

===The first BBSes===
[[Image:Ward Christensen and the First BBS.jpg|right|thumb|[[Ward Christensen]] holds an expansion card from the original [[CBBS]] S-100 host machine.]]
Early modems were generally either expensive or very simple devices using [[acoustic coupler]]s to handle telephone operation. The user would pick up the phone, dial a number, then press the handset into rubber cups on the top of the modem. Disconnecting at the end of a call required the user to pick up the handset and return it to the phone. Examples of direct-connecting modems did exist, and these often allowed the host computer to send it commands to answer or hang up calls, but these were very expensive devices used by large banks and similar companies.

With the introduction of [[microcomputer]]s with expansion slots, like the [[S-100 bus]] machines and [[Apple II]], it became possible for the modem to communicate instructions and data on separate lines. These machines typically only supported asynchronous communications, and [[Synchronous serial communication|synchronous]] modems were much more expensive than asynchronous modems. A number of modems of this sort were available by the late 1970s. This made the BBS possible for the first time, as it allowed software on the computer to pick up an incoming call, communicate with the user, and then hang up the call when the user logged off.

The first public [[dial-up]] BBS was developed by [[Ward Christensen]] and [[Randy Suess]], members of the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists' Exchange (CACHE). According to an early interview, when Chicago was snowed under during the [[Great Blizzard of 1978]], the two began preliminary work on the [[Computerized Bulletin Board System]], or [[CBBS]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Zelchenko |first=Peter |date=30 October 1998 |title=Jack Rickard, editor of Boardwatch magazine, saw it coming |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-10-30-9901080059-story.html |access-date=8 October 2022}}</ref> The system came into existence largely through a fortuitous combination of Christensen having a spare S-100 bus computer and an early Hayes internal modem, and Suess's insistence that the machine be placed at his house in [[Chicago]] where it would be a local phone call for more users. Christensen patterned the system after the [[cork board]] his local computer club used to post information like "need a ride". CBBS officially went online on 16 February 1978.<ref name=byte_christensen_suess>{{cite magazine |last1=Christensen |first1=Ward |last2=Suess |first2=Randy |title= Hobbyist Computerized Bulletin Board System|url=http://vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/byte%20nov%201978%20computerized%20BBS%20-%20ward%20christensen.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180128141504/http://vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/byte%20nov%201978%20computerized%20BBS%20-%20ward%20christensen.pdf |archive-date= January 28, 2018|access-date=February 16, 2019|url-status=live |quote=The Computerized Hobbyist Bulletin Board System ... was conceived, designed, built, programmed, tested, and installed in a 30 day period (January 16, 1978 to February 16, 1978) by the two of us. | magazine = Byte | volume = 3 | issue = 11 | pages = 150–157 | publisher = Byte Publications | location = Peterborough, NH | date = November 1978 }} [https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1978-11 Alt URL]</ref><ref name=ward>[http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/AAA/AAA/CBBS/memories.txt Collection of Memories of writing and running the first BBS by Ward Christensen (Circa 1992)], ''BBSDocumentary.com'', retrieved June 30, 2007</ref> CBBS, which kept a count of callers, reportedly connected 253,301 callers before it was finally retired.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}