A collection of article clippings about Bahá'í BBSes. ---- From: The American Bahá'í, Vol. 21, Issue 7 Date: October 1990 Source: https://bahai.works/The_American_Bah%C3%A1%E2%80%99%C3%AD/Volume_21/Issue_7/ No two ways about It: National Center’s Bulletin Board system a big success The National Spiritual Assembly was pleased to announce the implementation last August of its newly developed electronic bulletin board system, the Bahá'í National Center Bulletin Board System (BNCBBS). The system has been serving as a formal electronic communications tool between the various offices and agencies of the National Assembly and the U.S. Bahá'í community. The BNCBBS is based on a computer whose sole purpose is to receive calls from other personal computers throughout the country, displaying menus from which users can either collect or leave information and messages. The system is designed to disseminate news throughout, and to gather information from, the community. Its intent is also to help facilitate the achievement of the three main goals of the Six Year Plan: (1) a wider extension of Bahá'í education to children, youth and adults; (2) the maturation of local Spiritual Assemblies; and (3) entry by troops. * Deepening and educating individual Bahá'ís will be facilitated through the wealth of information available on the system. Matters that are not already addressed by the prepared textfiles on-line may be handled by users leaving messages for the offices and/or agencies on their menus. * Another aim of the BNCBBS is that local institutions and agencies of the Faith that are on-line (local Assemblies, DTCs, Groups) should be able to obtain information (guidance, Feast mailings, _The American Bahá'í_, etc.) and disseminate it to all Bahá'ís in their areas, eventually decentralizing some of the work done at the Bahá'í National Center. * Educating the public about the Faith and helping achieve entry by troops will be made possible through a public area on the BBS in the near future. The following is a summary of significant statistics about the use of the Baha’i National Center Bulletin Board System since its inception in August 1989 (figures as of June 10, 1990). Since its official implementation the BNCBBS has received 6,152 calls from Bahá'ís around the U.S. Its users-group has grown in size from its test-group of 100 users to 534 users to-date, a 434 percent increase in 10 months of operation. On-line surveys of many kinds are available on the system. (Typical surveys handle address changes, community officer changes, requests for Bahá'í I.D. cards, supply orders, etc.) More than 305 such surveys have been completed, allowing immediate and efficient handling of incoming information. Other BBS activities since August 1989: * A total of 2,462 textfiles have been downloaded by BBS users for reading and sharing with their Bahá'í communities. * Issues of the Bahá'í International News Service have been read or downloaded 1,370 times. * 701 copies of the monthly Feast mailings have been read or downloaded by users. * The compilation on Bahá'í Feasts has been read or downloaded 148 times. * The collective Ridván messages of B.E. 144-147 have been read or downloaded 389 times. To access the BNCBBS, users must have a personal computer, a communications software package, and a 300, 1200 or 2400 baud modem. The BBS phone number is 708-869-0389, and callers should set their software parameter settings for N/8/1 (no parity, 8 databits, 1 stop bit). The BNCBBS will accept calls 24 hours a day. ---- From: The American Bahá'í, Vol. 22, Issue 8 Date: August 1991 Source: https://bahai.works/The_American_Bah%C3%A1%E2%80%99%C3%AD/Volume_21/Issue_7/ National Center's Bulletin Board System serves community In August 1989 the National Spiritual Assembly introduced its newly developed electronic National Center Bulletin Board System. [...] Since its inception, the BNCBBS has received (as of March 25) 12,942 calls from Bahá'ís in the U.S. Its users group has grown from 100 to 980, an 880 percent increase in its one and one-half years of operation. Among those obtaining and exchanging information on the system are 365 members of local Spiritual Assemblies, 79 members of registered Groups, 40 members of District Teaching Committees, 150 Public Information Representatives, nine National Treasurer's Representatives, three members of the National Spiritual Assembly, one member of the Continental Board of Counselors, seven Auxiliary Board members and 32 assistants to the Auxiliary Boards. To access the BNCBBS, users must have a personal computer, a communications software package, and a 300, 1200 or 2400 baud modem. The BBS phone number is 708-869-0389, and callers should set their software parameter settings at N/8/1 (No Parity, 8 databits, 1 stop bit). The BNCBBS will accept calls 24 hours a day. ---- From: Computers in the Bahá'í Community through Ridván 1992 Date: 1992 Source: https://bahai-library.com/deamer_kolins_computers gemini://gem.bahai.fyi/wayback/computers-1992.txt "It seems that the first computer bulletin board system (now known by the common acronym, BBS), created by a Bahá’í was one set up by Frank Haendel of Colorado, USA. Roger Coe describes how "The other night I hooked my modem to the telephone, dialed a number, ... watched my computer screen and here is what I saw...... "WELCOME TO A UNIQUE BULLETIN BOARD FOR THINKERS, SEEKERS AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO CAN REALIZE THAT WE EXIST WITHIN THE MIDST OF AN INCREDIBLE WORKSHOP FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR HIGHER NATURE. YOU HAVE JUST CONNECTED WITH... ***THE BAHÁ’Í BULLETIN BOARD ***"(Bahá’í Computer and Telecommunications Association, newsletter, no. 4 October, 1983. p. 4.) ---- From: World Order, Series 2, Vol. 30, Issue 2 Date: Winter 1998-1999 Source: https://bahai.works/index.php?title=File:World_Order2_Vol30_Issue2.pdf&page=28 In 1996 “I, Daniel” was available online, Washington, D.C., Bahá’í BBS, (703) 471-6060, file . It is no longer available in this format. gemini://gem.bahai.fyi/wayback/bahai-bbs.txt

-- Leo's gemini proxy

-- Connecting to gem.bahai.fyi:1965...

-- Connected

-- Sending request

-- Meta line: 20 text/plain;lang=en-CA

-- Response ended

-- Page fetched on Sun May 12 20:30:37 2024