4 definitions
for bbs
From WordNet (r) 2.0 :
bbs
n : a computer that is running software that allows users to
leave messages and access information of general interest
[syn: bulletin board system, bulletin board, electronic
bulletin board]
From Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) :
BBS
Bulletin Board System (telecommunication)
From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) :
BBS /B-B-S/ n. [common; abbreviation, `Bulletin Board System'] An
electronic bulletin board system; that is, a message database where
people can log in and leave broadcast messages for others grouped
(typically) into topic groups. The term was especially applied to the
thousands of local BBS systems that operated during the pre-Internet
microcomputer era of roughly 1980 to 1995, typically run by amateurs for
fun out of their homes on MS-DOS boxes with a single modem line each.
Fans of Usenet and Internet or the big commercial timesharing bboards
such as CompuServe and GEnie tended to consider local BBSes the low-rent
district of the hacker culture, but they served a valuable function by
knitting together lots of hackers and users in the personal-micro world
who would otherwise have been unable to exchange code at all.
Post-Internet, BBSs are likely to be local newsgroups on an ISP;
efficiency has increased but a certain flavor has been lost. See also
bboard.
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) :
BBS
bulletin board system