The next-generation BBS software

  • No outside costs your power, your Wi-Fi
  • No cloud nobody else's server
  • Old and new a 1980s computer can join
  • Real hardware a chip on your shelf
  • Free software GPL v3 or later
  • No internet needed a local network is enough
  • You write the rules and you are the appeal
  • No ads no one sells your time
  • No platforms nobody in the middle
  • No hosting fees it runs at your place

A board of your own

Run one. You pick who is on it.

If you have ever run a game server for your friends, you already know what this is. You own the machine. Your friends connect to it. You decide who gets in, what it is called, and what the rules are. Nobody you did not invite is in the room.

The difference is that this one fits in your hand, costs about $15, about as much as lunch, and you can read every line of the program that runs it.

The chat room is the reason to run one. Your friends, connected at the same time, typing to each other, in a room that belongs to you. No feed. No algorithm. No company in the middle deciding what you see.

What even is this?

A board is a computer that answers when another computer calls it. You type, it types back. That is the whole thing.

You join one with a free app, and there is no company account to make. People called these bulletin boards, or BBSes, and they were how you talked to strangers before the web existed.

Try one right now

You do not have to build anything first. You can join a board that somebody else is already running, in about two minutes, on a computer you already have.

Pick one from the list and here is how to join it.

What if nothing happens when I click an address?

That is normal and it is fixable. This page explains it.

What you need to build one

  • A small computer called an ESP32. It is about the size of a stick of gum. Not every ESP32 works, so check the list before you buy one.
  • A USB cable.
  • A computer to set it up from.
  • A memory card, only if you want to share files or run forums.

The real steps are on the build page.

How long does it take?

An afternoon. Most of that is deciding what to call it.

Who can get in

This is the part to decide on purpose, because the two options are different.

Only your house. The board sits on your home Wi-Fi and nobody outside can reach it. Your family, and friends who come round. This is a complete board and most people should stop here.

Open to the internet. Anybody in the world can find it and join it. Somebody has to change a setting on your home internet box to do that, and that is a real decision about your whole family's network. That decision belongs to the adult, not to you.

A board that never leaves your house is finished work. It is not practice for a real one.

What that setting does.

Nothing you type is private

Most boards send what you type as plain text. Nothing is scrambled on the way, so this is more like talking out loud than passing a note.

The person who runs a board can read everything typed on it. On your board that is you. On somebody else's, it is somebody you have never met.

So type the sort of thing you would say out loud in a room full of people you do not know. The long version is here.

Never reuse a password

If a board asks you to pick a password, invent a brand new one that you use nowhere else. Not your school password, not your game one, not any of them.

Because the board sends it as plain text, a password you use somewhere else is a password you have just read out loud.

Keep yourself out of it

Pick a made up name. That is what they have always been for, and it is all you need.

Never type any of this into a board, yours or anybody else's:

  • Your real name
  • Your school
  • Your address
  • Your phone number
  • Your age
  • Anything that shows where you live
Somebody asked me for that stuff anyway

Sometimes people ask. Sometimes they want to move the chat somewhere else, or tell you to keep it secret from your family.

Stop typing and tell an adult. You will not be in trouble.

Calling other people's boards

Running your own board and calling somebody else's are two different things.

Your own board is your room and you know everybody in it. Other boards have people on them you have never met. That is genuinely fun, and it is most of what a BBS ever was. It is not a private room, though, so do that part with an adult until you are used to it.

Build it with a grown-up

Not because you need permission. Because of how it gets done.

  • It runs on hardware in their house, on their internet.
  • Anything that opens a door to the internet is their call.
  • They know where the tools are, and probably how to solder.
  • Projects are better with two people.

Plenty of adults are waiting for an excuse to build something.

Make it yours

You are the sysop, which is short for system operator. It means the board belongs to you.

You pick the name. You write the screen people see when they connect. You decide what it is for and who is welcome.

And you can change the program. All of it is written down where anybody can read it, so if you do not like how something works, go and fix it. That also makes it a good school project, because you can explain every part yourself.

Forums

A board does chat, mail between people, files and forums.

Forums are topics that the sysop sets up, with conversations inside each one. You read them at the same prompt as everything else. They need a memory card, and the sysop has to switch them on, so not every board has them yet.

Where to go next