# Are there historical precursors to Internet message boards? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154 "2005-02-27T17:23:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/21 "2005-02-28T14:20:46Z")
> [@MrFantsyPants](#): > > Before the internet, there were many dial-in BBSs, I used to frequent one around 1983, using my commodore 64 and its blazing 300 baud modem. Just for historical accuracy, this doesn’t predate the Internet, it’s just before you were on the Internet. The Internet came into being on DARPANET circa 1973 and Usenet appeared in 1979. So, according to **astro** ’s links, the first BBSs came after the Internet but beat Usenet by a year. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/22 "2005-03-05T14:36:01Z")
Back at college (Brandeis, mid-80s), there were quite a few lively discussions on the public restroom walls. I get a nostalgic feeling every time I wander into MPSIMS. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/23 "2016-10-19T03:45:59Z")
I inherited a bunch of my family’s letter stashes. Many of my recent forebears would wrote letters that included a wad of clippings from newspapers and magazines. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/24 "2016-10-19T04:52:27Z")
A fair mention should also go to samizdat(?), the newsletters put out by Soviet dissidents. It’s hard to imagine a world where photocopiers were rare and closely monitored, where some countries typewriters had to be registered with the police and type samples were kept on file with the police. Dissidents would type up newsletters (blogs?) and then circulate them from hand to hand. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/25 "2016-10-19T05:52:26Z")
It’s pretty hard to get more historical than the cathedral doors in Wittenberg, Germany, 500 years ago. Most people today don’t realize that Martin Luther wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary by posting his 95 theses. > [@](#): > > In fact, the door of the Castle Church did serve as the official university bulletin board and was regularly used for exactly the kind of announcement Luther made when he called for a public disputation on indulgences. > **[Reformation Day: Did Martin Luther really nail 95 theses on the castle door?](https://www.al.com/living/2014/10/reformation_day_did_martin_lut.html)** > > Millions of Christians still celebrate Oct. 31 as the symbolic beginning of the Protestant Reformation. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/26 "2016-10-19T11:19:47Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > BTW–remember the Comittees of Correspondence? They functioned in a similar way to bring about the American Revolution. There were similarly Corresponding Societies in the UK. And anyone who’s ever had to see an institutionalor communal noticeboard (of the old analogue kind) will know they soon include a fair few “conversations” of added messages. Before Tienanmen and in other times of turmoil in China, there were noticeboard “newspapers” that also became the locus for written debates, and (I don’t doubt) in other countries too. And don’t forget graffiti… ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/27 "2016-10-19T12:32:50Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > And don’t forget graffiti… Yep, going way way back, the Graffiti found at Pompeii is strangely reminiscent of many internet forums only with more creative insults. [http://www.pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti%20from%20Pompeii.htm](http://www.pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti%20from%20Pompeii.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/28 "2016-10-19T18:21:43Z")
A “Circle Letter” was a fair approximation. A group of friends or family would send one package of letters from one to another according to a set list. When the circle letter arrived, you read all the letters from each participant, then replaced your old letter with a new one, bundled up the whole batch, and sent it on to the next person on the list. My parents used these to keep in touch with their siblings and parents. My cousins started one, but I am off the list because my mom gave them an obsolete address for me, and the circle letter went off to oblivion. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/29 "2016-10-19T19:02:33Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > It’s pretty hard to get more historical than the cathedral doors in Wittenberg, Germany, 500 years ago. Most people today don’t realize that Martin Luther wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary by posting his 95 theses. > > [Reformation Day: Did Martin Luther really nail 95 theses on the castle door? - al.com](http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2014/10/reformation_day_did_martin_lut.html) They’re still used that way; some of my local parishes have a corkboard outside as well as the doors, some don’t, but in any case board and doors are used to post funeral notices, wedding bans, church announcements, posters from NGOs ranging from the local Humane Society to the Scouts… ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/30 "2016-10-19T19:13:28Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Some background on BBS’s > > [Bulletin Board Systems](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system) Nice history from Wikipedia > > [1978: The First Computer Bulletin Board System, CBBS, Goes Online](http://www.historyoftheinternet.com/chap3.html) > > [Technology Timeline - Sysops Corner - History of BBSing](http://sysopscorner.thebbs.org/bbshist.html) From the first lined article. > [@](#): > > Similar functionality was available to most mainframe users, which might be considered a sort of ultra-local BBS when used in this fashion. Commercial systems, expressly intended to offer these features to the public, became available in the late 1970s and formed the online service market that lasted into the 1990s. One particularly influential example was PLATO, which had thousands of users by the late 1970s, many of whom used the messaging and chat room features of the system in the same way that would become common on BBSes. I used PLATO starting in 1974, and PAD was pretty much indistinguishable from the SDMB. Including quoting. When quoting was introduced, there was a long thread which consisted of “Don’t you get a feeling of deja vu reading Pad?” quoted and quoted and quoted 30 or 40 deep. A shared story which began “it was a dark and stormy night” broke the system as it got more responses than allowed. Pad quickly split into pads for specific topics - such as religion - long before UNIX news was developed. PLATO also had chat rooms, instant messaging (term-talk) and MUDs. And each PLATO terminal had a plasma panel with touch capabiloty used in TUTOR lessons (PLATO for programs.) It also had a newspaper where I had a Star Trek column. As far as deep history goes, I’ve not read at the Talmud, but my impression is that it has some message board like characteristics in that writers commented both on the text and on the responses of others. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/31 "2016-10-19T19:58:48Z")
[Amateur Press Associations.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_press_association) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/32 "2016-10-19T20:29:15Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > How about bathroom walls? That’s where the words of the prophets are written. In Jr High, we had what we called “slang books”. You took a note book, wrote each person’s name at the top of a given page, circulate and comment. Cruel beyond imagination… ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/33 "2016-10-19T21:25:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > How about, um, message boards? You know, those big slabs of cork where you could post a message using thumbtacks? The whole reason why the Internet version are called “boards”? This was the first thing that came to my mind, as well. (Although, as noted below, cork bulletin boards did not support comments). I remember one on my college campus, that was for ride-sharing “going to Santa Barbara Fri 10/21 – you pay for gas”. So in this way, it functioned like craigslist. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/34 "2016-10-19T22:00:07Z")
> [@RumMunkey](#): > > In grade school we used to write on desks and/or bathroom walls. Somebody would start with a comment of some sort, and other people would fill in their comments below the previous “post”. > > Almost exactly like MPSIMS. In college we had one in the locker room - but more like the. BBQ Pit - with pictures! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/35 "2016-10-20T01:59:51Z")
Cartoonacy writes: \> Amateur Press Associations. See post #12. John Mace writes: \> In Jr High, we had what we called “slang books”. Interesting. I’ve only heard them called slam books. That seems to be the more common name based on some online searches I’ve just done. It also makes more sense as the original name, since it implies that it’s about slamming people. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/36 "2016-10-20T04:34:40Z")
Cave paintings? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154/37 "2016-10-20T22:58:59Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > _Notes & Queries_ was and is a magazine dedicated to intellectual questions on all topics. This magazine was started in the mid-1800’s and it is still going strong. The oldest editions are currently being proofed for up-loading to project guttenberg at the Distributed Proofreading site [pgdp.net](http://pgdp.net). I love this little journal. It contains all of the snarkiness of the internet, but with oh, so much better grammar. While _Notes & Queries_ was one of the most popular of these English periodicals, there were others that also had little flame wars and grandiose pronouncements going on in the letters sections. _The Gentleman’s Magazine, Archaeologia_, and the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London_ are some of the larger ones, but many smaller journals also circulated, such as the _Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society_ and the _Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-historical-precursors-to-internet-message-boards/292154.md?page=1)