bulletin board system (Internet) (BBS)

A bulletin board system (BBS) is an additional service of a mailbox and functionally corresponds to a bulletin board, which can be used by users to exchange opinions and experiences, but also to download files.

A BBS system is formed from the totality of thematically structured information, its management by means of a news server and access authorization via a news reader. Access can be public, but is usually restricted to defined user groups.

Typical bulletin board systems are, for example, information services of universities. The best known BBS is the newsgroup in Usenet.