Quote:
Originally posted by Bishop@Nov 15 2003, 10:21 PM
I'm searching the net and jogging my memory..
Wildcat
RBBS
TriBBS
So far these are the ones I remember..
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Off the top of my head, the two biggies you missed are TBBS and MajorBBS (Galacticomm).
If you start getting into other platforms and all of the little shareware and freeware BBS software that was out, there'd be dozens on the list.
In terms of $$$ there were really only 4 companies out there that really made a decent sized business out of their BBS software, and interestingly enough, none of them really managed to adapt to the internet and the web. There's likely a lesson to be learned there about keeping up with change as they all waited too late to try:
Wildcat -- Mustang Software -- These guys were the king in the hey day of the BBS in terms of financial success. They bought up the best of the shareware for all of the supporting programs (Qmodem, SLMR, etc) in addition to having one of the slickest BBSs out there. They pulled off an IPO successfully. But they never turned the corner onto the net. They focused on email and messaging eventually settling on a couple of vertical markets (I believe customer care was one) and then the company was sold and the remnants resold a couple of more times after the dotcom burst.
PCBoard -- Clark Development -- They were screwed when David Terry (lead developer) left. Lesson here is underestimating the value of a key player. They had a web project in development, Meta Worlds, but couldn't make it work without him and missed several ship dates. No one was buying the old shit because the new shit was promised to be just around the corner. So they ran out of cash, and the joint ended up padlocked and auctioned off.
MajorBBS -- Galacticomm -- They saw the future a bit with pay per minute peep shows and 1 on 1 chats with girls. But it was via dialup. The net squashed them like a bug once these same shows could be done within the browser directly via plug ins and what not. They were bought and sold several times as well, the bones of this one are scattered among several "community" solutions.
TBBS -- eSoft -- They're the last ones standing, but TBBS is long gone. They perhaps did the best job of evolving. They've abandoned the BBS as far as I know, but their internet adapter (IPAD) that they developed for the BBS evolved into a nice little internet appliance for small offices. They did an IPO as well. As far as I know they're still treading water at least.
What I find strange is that none of them transitioned the concept of a true BBS community to a web product. And in fact, I think there's still a market for that as you currently need multiple packages to emulate those same basic functions that were used to build those early online communities (message boards, chat, file sharing, interactive games, etc).
Someone was bitching about old timers shouldn't be proud in another thread. The value here is history, knowing it, learning from it. Those who do not know and understand history are doomed to repeat it.