SH> 
SH>   Your thinking in the past man. :)  There are TONS of people logging into 
SH> BBS's, their called Web forums, and blogs, wikis, and interactive web pages
SH> All this new tech is still a BBS just with an updated interface.
SH> 

You make a good point.  Even the term BBS has been applied to web boards for 
ages and ages, way before the sophisticated forum software that's out now was 
ever written.  However, very few web boards and blogs offer even close to the 
range of services even a typical BBS still offers.  Messages, yes.  Now 
"private messages"/email has become common.  Chat is less common, but not 
unusual.  But multiplayer, sophisticated online games...?!  File transfer
areas?!  ANSI art galleries?!  I'm really not sure web boards will ever
diversify to the extent that BBSes have, because there are other corners of 
the Internet that can supposedly better serve those others
"needs."  Therein
will eternally lie the appeal of the BBS -- each one is an online world in
itself!  If it's an interesting world, it can be a refuge from the
massiveness of the Internet...and that's just a pompous way of saying it can 
be a fun place to spend time at.

From the user end of things, I somehow still much prefer the BBS experience
to the web board experience, even though web forum software continues to grow
more and more sophisticated, so I think another reason the BBS will endure
indefinitely is because there is already such an excellent library of quality
BBS software that continues to grow.  

--- Renegade v04-10.6/Alpha r1