Bulletin board system (BBS)

An electronic system in which users participate in discussions by leaving public messages for each other. Most BBS's are run on personal computers and are accessible only by dialup modem. Many have additional features, such as on-line games and a file repository.

Usenet News is not a BBS in the usual sense of the word, but it provides the messaging features of a BBS on a much grander scale than found on any existing BBS.

BBS's pretty much died once the internet took off in the early to mid 1990s.