BBS Messages

Textfiles, intended to be transferred from BBS to BBS and user to user, were the longer-lasting legacy of the 1980's, but a much more fluid portion of the boards was the true lifeblood of the culture: the messages. Every BBS has a number of message bases where users could post about whatever they thought to discuss; debates, rag wars, advertisements, and boasts all played out the same dramas all over the country and the world. When you logged onto a BBS, and started reading the bases you had access to, you could get a sense, almost immediately, of what the "character" of the board was. Some were dictatorships, some were insane asylums, some were office buildings.

In the files below, you will get a glimpse of these wonderous worlds that affected mine and others' lives, and the steady stream of mind-to-mind communication that shot out of a thousand nighttime modems.


Filename
 Size
 Description of the Textfile
ALANWESTONThe Alan Weston BBS Message Collection (1990-1996)
ALTERREALITYMessage Bases from the Alter Reality BBS (1989-1991)
BACKWATERMessage Bases from the Backwater BBS (Unsorted)
TBFILES
YABBSMessage Bases from Alex Wetmore's YABBS (1994)
 
acking.txt 2383
 Some BBS Messages about Hacking, December of 1984
anarchy.txt 53621
 Postings from an Anarchy Sub-Board, Telegard Conference, Late 1991
anonym.txt 5686
 Postings to the Anonymous Attic on the 1985 BBS, May, 1984
apples.txt 8960
 Messages from the Apple Pirate board on Sherwood Forest II, 1985
avatar.posts 44288
 The America Online Project Avatar Posts Archive (June 28, 1992)
bbs.txt 4302
 Message Base with Ads for BBS's, 1985
bice.txt 47412
 LODCOM: Selected Messages from Black Ice Private (April-May 1989)
black1.txt 64553
 LODCOM: Large Sampling of Messages for the LODCOM Project
bombs.ana 19444
 Postings to the Bombs Message Base from the South Pole BBS
brutal.txt 23411
 CAPTURE: Text Capture of Brutal, early Danish Hack/Phreak BBS by FIgaro (1992)
buldagr1.txt 13202
 BBS Messages: Johnny Dagger and friends build a story late one night (1993)
bullcreek86.txt 112306
 BBS MESSAGES: The Bull Creek BBS in Austin, TX (Sysop: Mark Bryant) Messages from 1986
bust_bbs.txt 4216
 Some Messages Preceeding a BBS Piracy Bust (September 27, 1991)
channl-1.txt 19120
 Discussion of the Modem Tax on the Channel 1 BBS (August, 1993)
chatter.asc 19662
 GodNet General Chatter Message base (February, 1993)
circlems.txt 12794
 Some Postings from The Inner Circle about Blue Boxing
citadel-story.txt 2472
 Citadel Explains the Citadel-TOPx Log Files from 1996 (2002)
citadel-top.log 173991
 Log Files of TOP BBS (January, 1996)
citadel-top2.log 41084
 Log Files of TOP BBS (January, 1996)
citadel-top3.log 101457
 Log Files of TOP BBS (January, 1996)
color$.txt 9824
 The Color Box, from the Aluminum Gerbil (40 Columns, Uppercase)
compcond.txt 4783
 CAPTURE: The Computer Connection BBS (1982)
compconna.txt 8228
 CAPTURE: The Computer Connection BBS (1982)
compconnb.txt 6395
 CAPTURE: The Computer Connection BBS (1982)
compconnc.txt 9698
 CAPTURE: The Computer Connection BBS (1982)
conspir.asc 11274
 The GodNet Conspiracy Theory Echo (June, 1993)
corruptc.txt 8116
 Extracts from the Corrupt Computing BBS
crash.txt 2507
 Submission for mod.telecom ("Crashing" a Central Office) (April 26, 1987)
crazy 5103
 How Someone Harassed Someone Else on FidoNet
crckin.msg 4274
 Messages from a "Cracking" BBS Conference, August, 1994
crime.txt 23927
 Discussion of Credit Card Fraud on a BBS, with the Sysop Offering Help to the Secret Service (May, 1994)
cy-chat.txt 15924
 Cyberpunk BBS Message Base (Early 1991)
cyberadv.txt 12645
 Online Cyberpunk Role-Playing BBS (March 1991)
debate.txt 16545
 The Debate Den Message Board on the Safehouse BBS
diversibuffer.txt 24370
 BUFFER: Messages on a Diversi-Dial, Late 1980's
docwho.eko 61677
 Capture from a Dr. Who Converence, (May 1992)
docwho1.eko 36345
 Additional Captured Messages from a Dr. Who Conference (May 1992)
feather.txt 58449
 24 msgs on The Feather's Quill (A BBS Story Board)
frwrks.txt 6978
 Pyrotechnic BBS Message Base (May-July 1984)
fuckyouf.txt 155880
 Uncensored Transcripts from the MindVox "Fuck-You" Forum, Compiled and Moderated by Jim Felcher (1994)
grabbag.msg 8607
 All sorts of interesting snippets
hackers.msg 22918
 BBS Messages: The Compost Heap, Hacking Sub-Board, March 1986
hackshak.txt 19958
 LODCOM: Selected Messages from The Hack Shack BBS
hate-mod.txt 24613
 A Very Large Flamewar on a Usenet Message Base in West-Germany
The BBS Flamewar travels to USENET...
hpnumber.txt 23792
 Collection of Hacking and Phreaking Codes on a BBS Message Base (November-December, 1991)
indy3.txt 29560
 Capture of a Gaming BBS Message Base, Circa 1990
info4 6272
 Hacker Messages from PC-Pursuit NetExchange BBS (February 1988)
int_pyro.txt 8904
 Messages from the Pyromania Section of a Citadel BBS (June 1990)
iroc.txt 19355
 LODCOM: Selected Messages from the Inner Realm of Communications BBS (IROC)
jerky.txt 50126
 A Large Collection of Jerky-Related BBS Messages and Files (1994)
journal.txt 13081
 The Works BBS Endless Story File
junk.txt 6528
 Message Base about Luding on the 1985 BBS
kindbud.txt 242150
 BBS Messages from Kind Bud's Hemp Discussion Corner
letter.txt 2234
 A Great Message by The Slipped Disk
lodcom.hac 51395
 Lodcom Sample Messages Set #1, 4/20/93
lodstuph 60363
 LODCOM: Internal Release about the LODCOM Project, as well as LOD Messages
lotsames.msg 13507
 Complete Smattering of Messages, October
luding.txt 8526
 Posts on the Luding Message base from 1985 BBS, Feb.
messag.msg 14798
 Wares, Cracking and Pirating Messages, November
messy.msg 4096
 "General" to "Elite Phreak", November
meta01.txt 274645
 Messages from a Pagan Fidonet Echo, February 1988
meta02.txt 304084
 Messages from a Pagan Fidonet Echo, February 1988 (Part II)
mjunkdrw.txt 15268
 Collection of Messages from the Junk Drawer BBS
modemtest.txt 203772
 Messages from The Modem Test BBS (Sysop: Charles "Chuck" Hood) (1993)
morgue.cap 32000
 A Capture of Textfiles and Messages from The Morgue BBS (March, 1985)
movie.txt 17722
 The Movie Review Alcove Message Base of the 1985 BBS
nurses.hum 9789
 Messages from Nurses in Bondage
nurses2.hum 16506
 More Messages from Nurses in Bondage
nurses3.hum 12625
 And Yet More Nurses In Bondage
old_msgs 29590
 Explosives for Fun and Pleasure, Uploaded by Shadow Knight (May 17, 1987) (Has Anarchy Messages Around It)
os2news.txt 28908
 Messages about the IBM PS/2 1991 Forum (April 18, 1991)
p80-1.txt 23384
 LODCOM: Selected Messages from the P-80 BBS (January-March 1984)
p80-2.txt 9174
 LODCOM: Selected Messages from the P-80 BBS (March 1984)
peyote.txt 34536
 BBS Messages about the Supreme Court and Peyote
philosip.txt 44768
 The Philosophy Message Base of 1985 BBS, circa 1984
phoenix1.msg 163124
 The Incredible LOD Phoenix Project #1
phoenix2.msg 234933
 The Incredible LOD Phoenix Project #2
phoenix3.msg 258465
 The Incredible LOD Phoenix Project #3
phreaks.txt 5946
 General Phreaking Message Base
pod_rule.txt 7209
 Posting of Mesages on Pagan/Occult BBS (Rules for the Conference)
qbbs_mess.txt 152034
 MESSAGES: Capture of messages from the QBBS Support Board (April 12, 1988)
randomne.hum 13169
 The Slipped Disk's Ramblings
slippe.hum 7638
 More weird writings by the Slipped Disk
snurgle.txt 8173
 What the Hell is a Snurgle? (BBS Postings)
softrev1.txt 25468
 Software Reviews Message Base (July, 1991)
strek.txt 121379
 Inter-WWIV Posting about Star Trek
stuff3.txt 1929
 Goodbye Message from the Off the Wall BBS
sysopsue.hum 31743
 Message Base: Can Sysops Sue Their Users?
tardis2.msg 5888
 Pretty bleak Dr. Who BBS Conference ..15 Minute Time limit...
telec.txt 15250
 Basic Telecommunications Message Base by The Videosmith
telnetfe.txt 6001
 Message Captured from the Telenet PC Pursuit Net Exchange BBS (February 1988)
trekkie.txt 25156
 Star Trek Message Board from The Safehouse, 1984
tt900507 11416
 MESSAGES: Messages from the Tender Trap BBS Circa May, 1990, by Dream Hunter Rem (1990)
udgbbs.txt 7552
 Large BBS Ad Message Base List (January 1991)
vi900906.vir 187667
 Messages about Viruses on a FidoNet board
vi901029.vir 181138
 Messages about Viruses on a FidoNet board
virdisc2.txt 23128
 Messages: Virus Discussion, 1991
vmb.txt 11833
 Mish-Mash Collection of Various Phreaking Textfiles, 1990
wopr.txt 37938
 LODCOM: Selected Messages from WOPR BBS (December 1984)
wotchlst.txt 89917
 MESSAGES: Selection of Science Fiction BBS Messages
wotmisc.txt 255091
 MESSAGES: Selection of Science Fiction BBS Messages (Prodigy)
wotproph.txt 139825
 MESSAGES: Selection of Science Fiction BBS Messages (Prophecy)
wowie!!.msg 20632
 Messages from October
zachman1.msg 175524
 MESSAGE BASE: William F. Zachmann Quits the Ziff Davis Publishing Company (Compuserve) (1992)
zachman2.msg 52190
 MESSAGE BASE: William F. Zachmann Quits the Ziff Davis Publishing Company (Compuserve) (1992)
zachman4.msg 30109
 MESSAGE BASE: William F. Zachmann Quits the Ziff Davis Publishing Company (Compuserve) (1992)

There are 106 files for a total of 5,252,325 bytes.
There are 5 directories.

It is very important to give credit where it's due; in 1993-1994, the remaining members of the Legion of Doom, now called LOD Communications, decided to take on a vast project of bringing the past to the BBS users of the present. They would do this by transcribing BBS messages from all the most popular and active phreaking and hacking boards of the 1980s and presenting them in their original 40 or 80 column format, all the spelling and grammatical errors intact, and giving a profile of the boards the messages came from. In many ways, textfiles.com had the same idea, 6 years later. The project got underway, but never really achieved the nationwide/mass acceptance it was supposed to, and these important files were in danger of being lost a second time.

I'm pleased to be a part of bringing many of these files back to you, and give a bow to these pioneers of BBS nostalgia/history.

If you wish to have the entire directory conveniently archived and compressed into one file, please download either messages.tar.gz (23731597 bytes) or messages.zip (25243775 bytes) instead of all the files separately.