A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users, either through electronic mail or in public message boards. Many BBSes also offer on-line games, in which users can compete with each other, and BBSes with multiple phone lines often provide chat rooms, allowing users to interact with each other.

Originally BBSes were accessed only over a phone line using a modem, but by the early 1990s some BBSes allowed access via a Telnet, packet switched network, or packet radio connection.

Ward Christensen coined the term "Bulletin Board System" as a reference to the traditional cork-and-pin bulletin board often found in entrances of supermarkets, schools, libraries or other public areas where people can post messages, advertisements, or community news. By "computerizing" this method of communications, the name of the first BBS system was born: CBBS - Computerized Bulletin Board System. During their heyday from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, most BBSes were run as a hobby free of charge by the system operator (or "SysOp"), while other BBSes charged their users a subscription fee for access, or were operated by a business as a means of supporting their customers. Bulletin board systems were in many ways a precursor to the modern form of the World Wide Web, social network services and other aspects of the Internet.

As the use of the Internet became more widespread in the mid to late 1990s, traditional BBSes rapidly faded in popularity. Today, Internet forums occupy much of the same social and technological space as BBSes did, and the term BBS is often used to refer to any online forum or message board. Although BBSing survives only as a niche hobby in most parts of the world, it is still an extremely popular form of communication for Taiwanese youth (see PTT Bulletin Board System). Most BBSes are now accessible over telnet and typically offer free email accounts, FTP services, IRC and all of the protocols commonly used on the Internet. Some offer access though packet switched networks, or packet radio connections.

Early BBSes were often a local phenomenon, as one had to dial into a BBS with a phone line and would have to pay additional long distance charges for a BBS out of the local calling area. Thus, many users of a given BBS usually lived in the same area, and activities such as BBS Meets or Get Togethers were common, where users of the board would gather at a local restaurant, the SysOp’s home or similar venue and meet face to face.

History[link]

Early examples[link]

A precursor to the public bulletin board system was Community Memory, started in August, 1973 in Berkeley, California, using hardwired terminals located in neighborhoods.^[1] Community Memory allowed the user to type messages into a terminal after inserting a coin, and offered a "pure" bulletin board experience with public messages only (no email or other features). It did offer the ability to tag messages with keywords, which the user could search on.

The first public dial-up BBS was developed by Ward Christensen. According to an early interview, while he was snowed in during the Great Blizzard of 1978 in Chicago, Christensen along with fellow hobbyist Randy Suess, began preliminary work on the Computerized Bulletin Board System, or CBBS. CBBS went online on February 16, 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.^[2] CBBS, which kept a count of callers, reportedly connected 253,301 callers before it was finally retired.^{[citation needed]}

BBS ANSI Login Screen example

Increasing speeds and practical use[link]

A key innovation required for the BBS was the Hayes Smartmodem. Prior to the Smartmodem, modems were almost entirely manual in operation, having developed from acoustic couplers that used a traditional telephone for dialling and hanging up. Such systems were largely useless for BBS systems, because they could not disconnect after the call completed without the user physically hanging up the phone. The Smartmodem included a small microcontroller that listened for key words in the data, allowing it to pick up the phone, dial numbers, and hang up again, all without any operator intervention. The Smartmodem was not necessary for BBS use, other modems could be left in "answer mode", but the Smartmodem made operation dramatically simpler on the user end by allowing the easy dialling of any number of BBS systems.

With the original 110 and 300 baud modems of the late 1970s, BBSes were particularly slow and file transfers were typically limited to text files (lists of BBS systems were a common example) and small software applications, typically terminal programs for accessing BBSes. Speed improved with the introduction of 1200 bit/s modems in the early 1980s, and this led to a substantial increase in popularity. The demand for complex ANSI and ASCII screens and larger file transfers taxed available channel capacity, which in turn propelled demand for faster modems. 1200 gave way to 2400 fairly rapidly, followed by a delay before 9,600 became common. 9,600 was not even established as a strong standard before 14.4 kbit/s took over. Another delay followed due to a long standards process before 28.8 was released, only to be quickly replaced by 56k.

Most of the information was displayed using ordinary ASCII text or ANSI art, though some BBSes experimented with higher resolution visual formats such as the innovative but obscure Remote Imaging Protocol. Many systems became quite sophisticated in graphic presentation, especially considering that the system was confined to ASCII codes. Several systems attempted to simulate the appearance of GUI displays which were just appearing as DOS add-ons or Apple systems. Probably the ultimate development of graphic presentations was the Dynamic page implementation of the University of Southern California BBS (USCBBS) by Susan Biddlecomb, which predated the implementation of the HTML Dynamic web page. A complete "Dynamic web page" implementation was accomplished using TBBS with a TDBS add-on presenting a complete menu system individually customized for each user.

Widespread use and rapid disappearance[link]

Towards the early 1990s, the BBS industry became so popular that it spawned three monthly magazines, Boardwatch, BBS Magazine, and in Asia and Australia, Chips 'n Bits Magazine which devoted extensive coverage of the software and technology innovations and people behind them, and listings to US and worldwide BBSes.^[3] In addition, in the USA, a major monthly magazine, Computer Shopper, carried a list of BBSes along with a brief abstract of each of their offerings.

According to the FidoNet Nodelist, BBSes reached their peak usage around 1996, which was the same period that the World Wide Web suddenly became mainstream. BBSes rapidly declined in popularity thereafter, and were replaced by systems using the Internet for connectivity. Some of the larger commercial BBSes, such as MaxMegabyte and ExecPC BBS, evolved into Internet Service Providers.

The website textfiles.com serves as an archive that documents the history of the BBS. The historical BBS list on textfiles.com contains over 105,000 BBSes that have existed over a span of 20 years in North America alone. The owner of textfiles.com, Jason Scott, also produced BBS: The Documentary, a DVD film that chronicles the history of the BBS and features interviews with well-known people (mostly from the United States) from the heyday BBS era.

Software and hardware[link]

Unlike modern websites and online services that are typically hosted by third-party companies in commercial data centers, BBS computers (especially for smaller boards) were typically operated from the SysOp's home. As such, access could be unreliable, and in many cases only one user could be on the system at a time. Only larger BBSs with multiple phone lines using specialized hardware, multitasking software, or a LAN connecting multiple computers, could host multiple simultaneous users.

The first BBSes used homebrew software,^{[nb 1]} quite often written or customized by the SysOps themselves, running on early S-100 microcomputer systems such as the Altair, IMSAI and Cromemco under the CP/M operating system. Soon after, BBS software was being written for all of the major home computer systems of the late 1970s era - the Apple II, Atari, Commodore and TRS-80 being some of the most popular.

A few years later, in 1981, IBM introduced the first DOS based IBM PC, and due to the overwhelming popularity of PCs and their clones, DOS soon became the operating system on which the majority of BBS programs were run. RBBS-PC, ported over from the CP/M world, and Fido BBS, created by Tom Jennings (who later founded FidoNet) were the first notable DOS BBS programs. There were many successful commercial BBS programs developed for DOS, such as PCBoard BBS, RemoteAccess BBS, and Wildcat! BBS which had early roots from the Colossus BBS started by the author of the popular shareware communications program Qmodem. Some popular freeware BBS programs for MS-DOS included Telegard BBS and Renegade BBS, which both had early origins from leaked WWIV BBS source code. There were several dozen other BBS programs developed over the DOS era, and many were released under the shareware concept, while some were released as freeware including iniquity.

During the mid-1980s, many sysops opted for the less expensive, ubiquitous Commodore 64 (introduced in 1982), which became popular among software pirate groups. Popular commercial BBS programs were Blue Board, Ivory BBS, Color64 and CNet 64. In the early 1990s a small number of BBSes were also running on the Commodore Amiga models 500, 1000 and 1200 (using external hard drives), and the Amiga 2000, Amiga 3000 and Amiga 4000 (which had built-in hard drives). Popular BBS software for the Amiga were ABBS, Amiexpress, C-Net, StormforceBBS, Infinity and Tempest. There was also a small faction of devoted Atari BBSes that used the Atari 800, then the 800XL, and eventually the 1040ST.

MS-DOS continued to be the most popular operating system for BBS use up until the mid-1990s, and in the early years most multi-node BBSes were running under a DOS based multitasker such as DesqView or consisted of multiple computers connected via a LAN. (Around 1990, OS/2 came out with "preemptive multitasking" of DOS, an alternative to DESQview for multi-node BBS.) In the late 1980s, a handful of BBS developers implemented multitasking communications routines which, although run under MS-DOS, allowed multiple phone lines and multiple users to connect to the same physical BBS computer. These included Galacticomm's MajorBBS (later WorldGroup), eSoft TBBS, and Falken. Though most BBS software had been written in BASIC or Pascal (with some low-level routines written in assembly language), the C language was starting to gain popularity.

By 1995, many of the DOS-based BBSes had begun switching to modern multitasking operating systems, such as OS/2, Windows 95, and Linux. TCP/IP networking allowed most of the remaining BBSes to evolve and include Internet hosting capabilities. Recent BBS software, such as Synchronet, Mystic BBS, EleBBS, DOC or Wildcat! BBS provide access using the Telnet protocol rather than dialup, or by using legacy MS-DOS based BBS software with a FOSSIL-to-Telnet redirector such as NetFoss.

Presentation[link]

Welcome screen of Neon#2 BBS (Tornado)

BBSes were generally text-based, rather than GUI-based, and early BBSes conversed using the simple ASCII character set. However, some home computer manufacturers extended the ASCII character set to take advantage of the advanced color and graphics capabilities of their systems. BBS software authors included these extended character sets in their software, and terminal program authors included the ability to display them when a compatible system was called. Atari's native character set was known as ATASCII, while most Commodore BBSes supported PETSCII. PETSCII was also supported by the nationwide online service Quantum Link.^{[nb 2]}

The use of these custom character sets was generally incompatible between manufacturers. Unless a caller was using terminal emulation software written for, and running on, the same type of system as the BBS, the session would simply fall back to simple ASCII output. For example, a Commodore 64 user calling an Atari BBS would use ASCII rather than the machine's native character set. As time progressed, most terminal programs began using the ANSI standard, but could use their native character set if it was available.

COCONET, a BBS system made by Coconut Computing, Inc., was released in 1988 and only supported a GUI interface (no text interface was available), and worked in EGA/VGA graphics mode, which made it stand out from the text-based BBS systems. COCONET's bitmap and vector graphics and support for multiple type fonts were inspired by the PLATO system, and the graphics capabilities were based on what was available in the Borland BGI graphics library. A number of companies wanted to license the COCONET GUI but Coconut Computing chose not to, and as a result, a competing approach called Remote Imaging Protocol (RIP) emerged and was promoted by Telegrafix in the early to mid 1990s but it never became widespread. A similar technology called NAPLPS was also considered, and although it became the underlying graphics technology behind the Prodigy service, it never gained popularity in the BBS market.

There were several GUI-based BBSes on the Apple Macintosh platform, including TeleFinder and FirstClass, but these remained widely used only in the Mac market. The first BBS using the Apple Macintosh platform was the Austin Arts BBS, which was a dial-up system developed by Bill Hood of the School of Screenprinting in 1983. The Computerized Bulletin Board System supplied news to the arts and screen printing community not only in Austin, Texas where it was based, but to the world^[4]. The small BBS was the first to market to an industry - screen printing. It was also the first BBS to produce audio for its visitors, broadcasting news about screen printing and music in a pre-recorded method in what was the precursor to Internet Radio.^[5][6]

In the UK, the BBC Micro based OBBS software, available from Pace for use with their modems, optionally allowed for colour and graphics using the Teletext based graphics mode available on that platform. Other systems used the Viewdata protocols made popular in the UK by British Telecom's Prestel service, and the on-line magazine Micronet 800 whom were busy giving away modems with their subscriptions.

The most popular form of online graphics was ANSI art, which combined the IBM Extended ASCII character set's blocks and symbols with ANSI escape sequences to allow changing colors on demand, provide cursor control and screen formatting, and even basic musical tones. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, most BBSes used ANSI to make elaborate welcome screens, and colorized menus, and thus, ANSI support was a sought-after feature in terminal client programs. The development of ANSI art became so popular that it spawned an entire BBS "artscene" subculture devoted to it.

The Amiga Skyline BBS software was the first in 1987 featuring a script markup language communication protocol called Skypix which was capable to give the user a complete graphical interface, featuring rich graphic content, changeable fonts, mouse-controlled actions, animations and sound.^[7]

Today, most BBS software that is still actively supported, such as Worldgroup, Wildcat! BBS and Citadel/UX, is Web-enabled, and the traditional text interface has been replaced (or operates concurrently) with a Web-based user interface. For those more nostalgic for the true BBS experience, one can use NetSerial (Windows) or DOSBox (Windows/*nix) to redirect DOS COM port software to telnet, allowing them to connect to Telnet BBSes using 1980s and 1990s era modem terminal emulation software, like Telix, Terminate, Qmodem and Procomm Plus. Modern 32-bit terminal emulators such as mTelnet and SyncTerm include native telnet support.

Content and access[link]

Since early BBSes were frequently run by computer hobbyists, they were typically technical in nature with user communities revolving around hardware and software discussions. Many SysOps were transplants of the amateur radio community and thus amateur and packet radio were often popular topics.

As the BBS phenomenon grew, so did the popularity of special interest boards. Bulletin Board Systems could be found for almost every hobby and interest. Popular interests included politics, religion, music, dating, and alternative lifestyles. Many SysOps also adopted a theme in which they customized their entire BBS (welcome screens, prompts, menus, and so on) to reflect that theme. Common themes were based on fantasy, or were intended to give the user the illusion of being somewhere else, such as in a sanatorium, wizard's castle, or on a pirate ship.

In the early days, the file download library consisted of files that the SysOps obtained themselves from other BBSes and friends. Many BBSes inspected every file uploaded to their public file download library to ensure that the material did not violate copyright law. As time went on, shareware CD-ROMs were sold with up to thousands of files on each CD-ROM. Small BBSes copied each file individually to their hard drive. Some systems used a CD-ROM drive to make the files available. Advanced BBSes used Multiple CD-ROM disc changer units that switched 6 CD-ROM disks on demand for the caller(s). Large systems used all 26 DOS drive letters with multi-disk changers housing tens of thousands of copyright-free shareware or freeware files available to all callers. These BBSes were generally more family friendly, avoiding the seedier side of BBSes. Access to these systems varied from single to multiple modem lines with some requiring little or no confirmed registration.

Some BBSes, called elite, WaReZ or pirate boards, were exclusively used for distributing pirated software, phreaking, and other questionable or unlawful content. These BBSes often had multiple modems and phone lines, allowing several users to upload and download files at once. Most elite BBSes used some form of new user verification, where new users would have to apply for membership and attempt to prove that they were not a law enforcement officer or a lamer. The largest elite boards accepted users by invitation only. Elite boards also spawned their own subculture and gave rise to the slang known today as leetspeak.

Another common type of board was the "support BBS" run by a manufacturer of computer products or software. These boards were dedicated to supporting users of the company's products with question and answer forums, news and updates, and downloads. Most of them were not a free call. Today, these services have moved to the web.

Access group editor in a developer build of OpenTG BBS

Some general purpose Bulletin Board Systems had special levels of access that were given to those who paid extra money, uploaded useful files or knew the SysOp personally. These specialty and pay BBSes usually had something special to offer their users such as large file libraries, warez, pornography, chat rooms or Internet access.

Pay BBSes such as The WELL and Echo NYC (now Internet forums rather than dial-up), ExecPC, and MindVox (which folded in 1996) were admired for their tightly-knit communities and quality discussion forums. However, many "free" BBSes also maintained close knit communities, and some even had annual or bi-annual events where users would travel great distances to meet face-to-face with their on-line friends. These events were especially popular with BBSes that offered chat rooms.

Some of the BBSes that provided access to illegal content did wind up in trouble. On July 12, 1985, in conjunction with a credit card fraud investigation, the Middlesex County, NJ Sheriff's department raided and seized The Private Sector BBS, which was the official BBS for grey hat hacker quarterly 2600 Magazine at the time.^[8] The notorious Rusty n Edie's BBS, in Boardman, Ohio, was raided by the FBI in January 1993 for software piracy, and later sued by Playboy for copyright infringement in November 1997. In Flint, Michigan, a 21 year old man was charged with distributing child pornography through his BBS in March 1996.^[9]

Networks[link]

Most early BBSes operated as individual systems. Information contained on that BBS never left the system, and users would only interact with the information and user community on that BBS alone. However, as BBSes became more widespread, there evolved a desire to connect systems together to share messages and files with distant systems and users. The largest such network was FidoNet.

As is it was prohibitively expensive for the hobbyist SysOp to have a dedicated connection to another system, FidoNet was developed as a store and forward network. Private email (Netmail), public message boards (Echomail) and eventually even file attachments on a FidoNet-capable BBS would be bundled into one or more archive files over a set time interval. These archive files were then compressed with ARC or ZIP and forwarded to (or polled by) another nearby node or hub via a dialup Xmodem session. Messages would be relayed around various FidoNet hubs until they were eventually delivered to their destination. The hierarchy of FidoNet BBS nodes, hubs, and zones was maintained in a routing table called a Nodelist. Some larger BBSes or regional FidoNet hubs would make several transfers per day, some even to multiple nodes or hubs, and as such, transfers usually occurred at night or early morning when toll rates were lowest. In Fido's heyday, sending a Netmail message to a user on a distant FidoNet node, or participating in an Echomail discussion could take days, especially if any FidoNet nodes or hubs in the message's route only made one transfer call per day.

FidoNet was platform-independent and would work with any BBS that was written to use it. BBSes that did not have integrated FidoNet capability could usually add it using an external FidoNet front-end mailer such as FrontDoor, BinkleyTerm, InterMail or D'Bridge, and a mail processor such as FastEcho or Squish. The front-end mailer would conduct the periodic FidoNet transfers, while the mail processor would usually run just before and just after the mailer ran. This program would scan for and pack up new outgoing messages, and then unpack, sort and "toss" the incoming messages into a BBS user's local email box or into the BBS's local message bases reserved for Echomail. As such, these mail processors were commonly called "scanner/tosser/packers."

Many other BBS networks followed the example of FidoNet, using the same standards and the same software. These were called FidoNet Technology Networks (FTNs). They were usually smaller and targeted at selected audiences. Some networks used QWK doors, and others such as RelayNet (RIME) and WWIVnet used non-Fido software and standards.

Before commercial Internet access became common, these networks of BBSes provided regional and international e-mail and message bases. Some even provided gateways, such as UFGATE, by which members could send/receive e-mail to/from the Internet via UUCP, and many FidoNet discussion groups were shared via Usenet. Elaborate schemes allowed users to download binary files, search gopherspace, and interact with distant programs, all using plain text e-mail.

As the volume of FidoNet Mail increased and newsgroups from the early days of the Internet became available, satellite data downstream services became viable for larger systems. The satellite service provided access to FidoNet and Usenet newsgroups in large volumes at a reasonable fee. By connecting a small dish & receiver, a constant downstream of thousands of FidoNet and Usenet newsgroups could be received. The local BBS only needed to upload new outgoing messages via the modem network back to the satellite service. This method drastically reduced phone data transfers while dramatically increasing the number of message forums.

FidoNet is still in use today, though in a much smaller form, and many Echomail groups are still shared with Usenet via FidoNet to Usenet gateways. Widespread abuse of Usenet with spam and pornography has led to many of these FidoNet gateways to cease operation completely.

Shareware and freeware[link]

Much of the shareware movement was started via user distribution of software through BBSes. A notable example was Phil Katz's PKARC (and later PKZIP, using the same ".zip" algorithm that WinZip and other popular archivers now use); also other concepts of software distribution like freeware, postcardware like JPEGview and donationware like Red Ryder for the Macintosh first appeared on BBS sites. Doom from id Software and many Apogee games were distributed as shareware. The Internet has largely erased the distinction of shareware - most users now download the software directly from the developer's website rather than receiving it from another BBS user 'sharing' it. Today shareware is commonly used to mean electronically-distributed software from a small developer.

Many commercial BBS software companies that continue to support their old BBS software products switched to the shareware model or made it entirely free. Some companies were able to make the move to the Internet and provide commercial products with BBS capabilities.

Features[link]

A classic BBS had:

• A computer
• One or more modems
• One or more phone lines
• A BBS software package
• A sysop - system operator
• A user community

The BBS software usually provides:

• Menu Systems
• One or more message bases
• File areas
• SysOp side, live viewing of all caller activity
• Voting - opinion booths
• Statistics on message posters, top uploaders / downloaders
• Online games (usually single player or only a single active player at a given time)
• A doorway to third-party online games
• Usage auditing capabilities
• Multi-user chat (only possible on multi-line BBSes)
• Internet email (more common in later Internet-connected BBSes)
• Networked message boards
• Most modern BBSes allow telnet access over the Internet using a telnet server and a virtual FOSSIL driver.
• A "yell for SysOp" page (The original chat, before multi-line systems) caller side menu item that sounded an audible alarm to the SysOp. If chosen, the SysOp could then initiate a text-to-text chat with the caller; similar to what commercial websites have used to sell and support products.

See also[link]

ANSI art BBS: The Documentary Internet forum KOM (BBS) List of BBS software List of bulletin board systems

internet portal Minitel PODSnet Terminal emulator Usenet Warez

Footnotes[link]

1. ^ CBBS Chicago (which Ward Christensen programmed) was about 20,000 lines of 8080 assembler.
2. ^ Quantum Link and parts of AppleLink went on to become America Online.

References[link]

1. ^ Crosby, Kip (November 1995). "CONVIVIAL CYBERNETIC DEVICES". The ANALYTICAL ENGINE (Computer History Association of California) 3 (1). ISSN 1071-6351. http://www.opencollector.org/history/homebrew/engv3n1.html. 
2. ^ Collection of Memories of writing and running the first BBS by Ward Christensen (Circa 1992), BBSDocumentary.com, retrieved June 30, 2007
3. ^ Chips 'n' Bits : the Northern Territory Computer Users' newsletter, catalogue.nla.gov.au, retrieved March 15, 2009
4. ^ L. A. Heberlein, L. A. "The Rough Guide to Internet Radio 1". Rough Guides. 2002-05-16. ISBN-10: 1858289610
5. ^ Michaels, David R. "Listening Benefits of Internet Radio Stations". Yahoo Voices. Retrieved 2007-10-28.
6. ^ L. A. Heberlein, L. A. "The Rough Guide to Internet Radio 1". Rough Guides. 2002-05-16. ISBN-10: 1858289610
7. ^ Scott Lee. "BBSDocumentary, An Overview of BBS Programs". Jason Scott for Wired Magazine (?). http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/expanded.html. Retrieved 2005. 
8. ^ This Day in Geek History: July12, thegreatgeekmanual.com, retrieved March 26, 2009
9. ^ Doran, Tim (1996-03-20). "Man Says Kiddie Porno Made Computer Site Popular". The Flint Journal. 

Sources[link]

• Encyclopedia of New Media: An Essential Reference to Communication and Technology. ISBN 0-7619-2382-9. 
• The Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics. ISBN 0-231-10446-4. 
• Modems for Dummies. ISBN 1-56884-001-2. 
• Haas, Lou (1984). Going On-Line with Your Micro. Tab Books. ISBN 0-8306-0746-3. 
• University of Michigan (October 1989 - Sep 1994). Compute. Compute! Publications. 
• Cane, Mike (1986). The Computer Phone Book. New American Library. 
• Christians in a .Com World: Getting Connected Without Being Consumed. ISBN 1-58134-218-7. 
• Pippen, Patrick. Beam Me Up Scottie. ISBN 1-4116-0987-5. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bulletin board systems

• The BBS organization (longest running bbs services site)
• The BBS Archives
• The BBS Documentary - (Video Collection)
• The BBS Corner
• BBSes.info BBS services EST. 2006
• BBS-Scene.org - BBS related services
• The Telnet BBS Guide
• BBSfinder real time bbs lister
• Bulletin Board Systems at the Open Directory Project

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007)

Look up bulletin board or notice board in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Well-used bulletin board on the Infinite Corridor at MIT, November 2004.

Cork, a common bulletin board material

A bulletin board (pinboard, pin board, noticeboard, or notice board in British English) is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise items wanted or for sale, announce events, or provide information. Bulletin boards are often made of a material such as cork to facilitate addition and removal of messages, or they can be placed on computer networks so people can leave and erase messages for other people to read and see.

Bulletin boards are particularly prevalent at universities. They are used by many sports groups and extracurricular groups and anything from local shops to official notices. Dormitory corridors, well-trafficked hallways, lobbies, and freestanding kiosks often have cork boards attached to facilitate the posting of notices. At some universities, lampposts, bollards, trees, and walls often become impromptu posting sites in areas where official boards are sparse in number.

Internet forums are becoming a global replacement for traditional bulletin boards. Online bulletin boards are sometimes referred to as message boards. The terms bulletin board, message board and even Internet forum are interchangeable, although often one bulletin board or message board can contain a number of Internet forums or discussion groups. An online board can serve the same purpose as a physical bulletin board.

Magnet boards, or magnetic bulletin boards, are a popular substitute for cork boards because they lack the problem of board deterioration from the insertion and removal of pins over time.

See also[link]

• Community bulletin board
• Digital signage

For the flowering plant, see Calla lily.

For the TV series, see Calla Lily (TV series).

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)

Callalily is an all OPM band from the Philippines, composed of Kean Cipriano, Tatsi Jamnague, Aaron Ricafrente and Lemuel Belaro.

Background[link]

They also entered the Philippine music scene with their singles Stars, Take My Hand, their breakthrough single Magbalik, Pasan, which was also included in the soundtrack of Lineage II, Insane and Sanctuary, all from their debut album Destination XYZ. Their second album Fisheye' followed not long after, which scored its first single Susundan dedicated to the death of their friend Jan Kevin Santos. A commercial jingle Eto na ang Summer ^[1] that was specially composed for Sony Ericsson, also ran into airplays.

Callalily Vocalist Kean Cipriano has a duet collaboration with Paraluman vocalist Madeline Ramboyong with their hit single "Tabi", from the Paraluman's debut album "In Lab!" launched in 2008.^[2]

Kean Cipriano has also taken a new responsibility in acting on a Top Rated Hit Sunday Noon Time Teen Television Series "BFGF" with leading lady TV Host and actress Alex Gonzaga on TV 5. Half of the band's songs and new ones are used on the TV series featuring Yakap as its theme song and features "Magbalik" as a background track. And also he's a co-host of Sunday Musical Variety Show "P.O.5". He's also former part of a sitcom Hapi Together and his magical comedy reality show, Magic Gimik. He's now currently seen on Magic Bagsik and his newest sitcom, Sugo Mga Kapatid were also both aired on TV5.

Kean Cipriano has also worked with 6 Cycle Mind in their redux of Kung Wala Na Nga with fellow members of the music industry Yeng Constantino and Tutti just this June 2010 they released the Music Video on Music Update Live on ABS CBN 2

In 2010 guitarist Alden Acosta parted ways with Callalily.^[3] Alden needed to focus on his studies and to become the drummer for the new band, Happy days ahead.^[4]

Discography[link]

2006 – Destination XYZ
2008 – Fisheye
2009 – Callalily^[5]

For a full, detailed list, see: Callalily Discography

Achievements[link]

Paja Awards:^[6]

• 2007: Paja Album of the Year: Destination XYZ
• 2007: Paja Song of the Year: Pasan
• 2007: Best Performance by A New Group of Recording Artists: Stars by Callalily
• 2007: Best Band: Callalily
• 2007: Song of the Year: Magbalik
• 2007: Destination XYZ — Certified Gold

OPM Songhits Music Awards:.^[7]

• 2007: Best Band of the Year: Callalily
• 2007: Song of The Year: Magbalik
• 2007: Kean Cipriano — Nominated for Favorite Male Vocalist
• 2007: Nominated for Best Performance by a New Recording Artist

38th Box Office Award:

• 2007: Most Promising Recording Group^[8]

MYX Music Awards:

• 2007: "Stars" -Nominated for Favorite Song-2006
• 2007: Nominated for Favorite New Artist-2006
• 2009: Nominated for Best Artist-2008^[9]

• 2009: Nominated for Best Group-2008

ASAP Pop Viewers Choice Awards

• 2007: Nominated Best Pop Band
• 2007: Nominated Best Pop Music- "Magbalik"
• 2008: Destination XYZ — Certified Platinum

SOP Pasiklaband:^[10]

• 2008: "Susundan" - Song of the Year
• 2008: Kean Cipriano — Best Vocalist of the Year
• 2006: Favorite Breakthrough Artist (group category)

MTV Pilipinas^[11]

MTV Gimme 10

• 2008: MTV Gimme 10 Year-Ender part 1 - "Sanctuary" at #5(Singles who did not reach #1 but hits the chart in multiple weeks)
• 2008: MTV Gimme 10 -"Susundan" (#1 song for 2 weeks)

Top OPM Songs 2008

• 2008^[12]: Susundan^[13]

External links[link]

• Callalilly at Sony Music

References[link]

This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (November 2010)

Tokio Hotel
Tokio Hotel, 2010. L-R: Georg Listing, Bill Kaulitz, Tom Kaulitz, and Gustav Schäfer
Background information
Origin	Magdeburg, Germany
Genres	Pop rock,[1][2] alternative rock,[3] emo,[4] glam rock,[5] power pop,[6][7][8][9]
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Universal Music Germany, Cherrytree, Interscope
Website	www.tokiohotel.com
Members
Bill Kaulitz Tom Kaulitz Georg Listing Gustav Schäfer

Tokio Hotel is a rock band from Germany, founded in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing.^[10] The quartet have scored four number one singles and have released three number one albums in their native country, selling nearly 5 million CDs and DVDs there.^[11] After recording an unreleased demo-CD under the name "Devilish" and having their contract with Sony BMG Germany terminated, the band released their first German-language album, Schrei, as Tokio Hotel on Universal Music Germany in 2005. Schrei sold more than half a million copies worldwide^[12] and spawned four top five singles in both Germany and Austria. In 2007, the band released their second German album Zimmer 483 and their first English album Scream which have combined album sales of over one million copies worldwide and helped win the band their first MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct. The former, Zimmer 483, spawned three top five singles in Germany while the latter, Scream, spawned two singles that reached the top twenty in new territories such as France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. In September 2008, they won in the US their first MTV Video Music Award (VMA) for Best New Artist. In October 2008, they won four awards including Best International Artist and Song of the year at Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica (MTV Video Music Awards Latin America) held in Mexico. Tokio Hotel became the first German band ever to win an award at the MTV VMAs and also at the MTV Latin America Awards. They also picked up the Headliner award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 held in Liverpool on November 6, 2008 and the Award for Best Group on November 5, 2009 at the MTV Europe Music Award (EMA) held in Berlin. They won an Award for Best World Stage Performance on November 7, 2010 at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Madrid. In July 2011, they became the first German band to win an MTV Video Music Awards Japan (VMAJ). And won MTV's 2012 Musical March Madness.

History[link]

[edit] Formation (2001 - 2004)

Tokio Hotel by vocalist Bill Kaulitz and guitarist Tom Kaulitz, who are identical twin brothers, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bass-guitarist Georg Listing. The four met in 2001 after a live show in a Magdeburg-Club, where Listing and Schäfer, who knew each other from music school, watched from the audience while Bill and Tom Kaulitz played on the stage.^[13][14] Under the name Devilish, the band soon began playing in talent shows and small concerts.^[15] After Bill Kaulitz's participation in a children's Star Search in 2003 at age thirteen (which he lost in the quarter-final), he was discovered by music producer Peter Hoffmann. Devilish changed their name to Tokio Hotel: "Tokio", the German spelling of the Japanese city Tokyo, due to a love of the city, and "Hotel" due to their constant touring and living in hotels.^[13] Soon after Sony BMG took them under contract, Hoffmann hired David Jost and Pat Benzner into the team of creators and authors, and had them give the teens instruction on songwriting and instrument playing; most of the songs of the first album were written by Hoffmann, Jost and Benzer (including the singles "Scream" and "Rescue me" which were completely written by them), only the single "Unendlichkeit" was written completely by Tokio Hotel themselves. Shortly before release of their first album, Sony terminated their contract. The band is now one of the biggest modern acts from Germany and the biggest in 20 years.

[edit] Schrei (2005 - 2006)

Bill Kaulitz performing in Hessisch-Lichtenau, Germany in 2006.

In 2005, Universal Music Group took Tokio Hotel under contract and developed a marketing plan. Their first single, "Durch den Monsun" ("Through the Monsoon"), quickly rose in the charts, appearing on the German official Media Control single chart at #15 on August 20, 2005 and eventually reaching #1 on August 26, 2005; it also reached #1 on the Austrian singles chart. Their second single, "Schrei" ("Scream"), climbed to the #5 position in the German charts. These two songs were written by singer Bill Kaulitz together with their group of producers Peter Hoffmann, David Jost, Pat Benzer and Dave Roth. Their debut album, Schrei, was released on September 19, 2005, and was certified triple gold by the BVMI in 2006 for selling over 300,000 copies in Germany.^[16] In 2006, a third and fourth single, "Rette mich" ("Rescue Me") and "Der letzte Tag" ("The Final Day"), were released; both reached #1 as well. "Der letzte Tag" contained a B-side called "Wir schließen uns ein", which was also accompanied by a music video.

[edit] Zimmer 483 (2007 - 2008)

The first single off their second album Zimmer 483 (Room 483), called "Übers Ende der Welt" (later re-released in English under the name "Ready, Set, Go!"), was released on January 26, 2007 and quickly reached #1 in Germany and Austria, and #2 in France. Zimmer 483 was released in Germany on February 23, 2007, along with a deluxe edition of the album containing a DVD. The album's second single, "Spring nicht" ("Don't Jump") was released on April 7. The tour accompanying the release of the album, The Zimmer 483 Tour, was scheduled to start in March 2007, but was delayed by two weeks because the band members wished to have a different stage design. A third single, "An deiner Seite (Ich bin da)" ("By Your Side"), was released on November 16. The single contains the B-side "1000 Meere" ("1000 Oceans"), for which a music video was also produced. On April 28, 2008 Tokio Hotel released their single "Heilig" but no music video for the single was released, because of the tight schedule they had.

[edit] Scream (2007 - 2008)

Tokio Hotel's first English language album, Scream, was released on June 4, 2007 throughout Europe. In Germany, the album was released as Room 483 in order to emphasize the continuity with their last German album Zimmer 483. Scream contains English versions of a selection of songs from their German-language albums Scream and Zimmer 483. "Monsoon", the English-language version of "Durch den Monsun", was the first single from the album. "Ready, Set, Go!" (the translation of "Übers Ende der Welt") was released as the album's second single and "Don't Jump" (the translation of "Spring nicht") as the third single. A video for "Scream", the English-language version of their 2005 hit "Schrei", was also recorded, and was released to the iTunes Store in early March 2008.

Tokio Hotel gave their first concert in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2007. "Ready, Set, Go!" was released in the UK as the band's first single on August 27, 2007. The song reached #77 in the UK Singles Chart.

Tokio Hotel won an MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct on November 1, 2007 and were also nominated for Best Band. They performed "Monsoon" at the event.

Tokio Hotel released their first US single, simply called "Tokio Hotel", in late 2007. The single contains the tracks "Scream" and "Ready, Set, Go!", and was available exclusively at Hot Topic stores. Their second US single, "Scream America", was released on December 11, 2007. The single contains the track "Scream" and a remix of "Ready, Set, Go!" by AFI's Jade Puget. In February 2008, the band toured North America for five dates starting in Canada and finishing up in New York.^[17] After appearing and performing live on MuchMusic, while touring in Canada, "Ready, Set, Go!" entered the MuchOnDemand Daily 10, a countdown of videos chosen by viewers. It remained there for over a week, then returned to the top of the MOD Daily 10 chart on April 8. "Scream" was released in Canada on March 25 and in the US on May 6. The "1000 Hotels" European Tour began on March 3, 2008 in Brussels and continued to locations including The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Scandinavia, and was scheduled to finish on April 9; during the concert in Marseille, France on March 14, Bill started to experience vocal problems.^[18] He let the audience sing more frequently than normal and instead of the original 21 songs that were on the set list, they only played 16 songs. Bill apologized, in German, for his bad singing and explained that he was sick. Two days later, the band canceled Lisbon, Portugal concert minutes before it was supposed to commence. The rest of the "1000 Hotels" Tour and a scheduled North American Tour were cancelled following an announcement in Bild by the band's manager that Bill Kaulitz had to undergo surgery to remove a cyst on his vocal cords.^[19][20]

Bill Kaulitz had been putting strain on his voice after playing 43 concerts in the 1000 Hotels tour without vacation.^[21] He had to undergo Larynx surgery on March 30 to remove a cyst that had formed on his vocal cords.^[22] The cyst was the result of a throat infection that went untreated.^[23] Following his surgery, Bill was unable to speak for twelve days, and had four weeks of vocal rehabilitation.^[24] If Bill had continued singing the rest of the tour, his voice would have eventually been permanently damaged.^[18][25] Tokio Hotel started performing again in May 2008^[26] and after that they embarked on a 2nd part of their 1000 Hotels European Tour adding many Open Air concerts and wrapping up the tour on July 13 in Werchter, Belgium.

[edit] North American Tours and Humanoid (2009 - 2010)

This section is outdated. Please update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (November 2010)

Tokio Hotel embarked on a second tour of North America in August 2008, which included a performance at the Bamboozled festival in New Jersey. The band's music video for "Ready Set Go!" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards,^[27] where they also won the award for Best New Artist.^[28] They returned to North America again in October 2008 for a month long tour of concerts and record store signings. In December 2008, a behind-the scenes DVD called Tokio Hotel TV – Caught on Camera was released. It contains footage from Tokio Hotel TV and backstage feature stories of the previous year on disc one entitled "History – The very best of Tokio Hotel TV!". A deluxe edition contains a second disc entitled "Future – The road to the new Album!" which features footage of the band on promotion tours and preparing for their third studio album.^[29]

In between the North American tours, the band returned to their record studio in Hamburg to record their third studio album, Humanoid, which, according to their producer David Jost, is currently set for release on October 2 in Germany & October 6, 2009 in the U.S.^[30][31][32] This is despite earlier statements predicting a March/April 2009 release or a May/June 2009 release.^[33][34][35] The album was recorded in both German and English with both versions were released simultaneously worldwide.^[34][35]

On August 10, it was announced on MTV news that the first German single would be "Automatisch" and its English counterpart, "Automatic", would also be released as a first single in the United States. On August 20, MTV Buzzworthy released a video which previewed "Automatic" and Cherrytree Records announced that the English version of the song would be released in the US on September 22.^[36][37] Nevertheless, the video for the single was released on September 3.

On November 2, it was announced on Tom's Blog that the second English single would be "World Behind My Wall" and its German counterpart, "Lass uns laufen", would be the second German single.^[38] The music videos for both versions were released on December 14 and December 15.

On June 24, the live music video for their single, "Dark Side of the Sun" was released on the band website.

On July 20, 2010 they released their second live album Humanoid City Live from Milan, Italy On November 22, 2010, their new song "Hurricanes and Suns," premiered on the Greek radio station Mad Radio. It was included in the bonus track on all versions of "Tokio Hotel: Best Of," a compilation album of their most successful songs. As well as the single for the 'Best of' release. The album will also include "Mädchen aus dem All", the first song the band recorded in a studio.

On December 14, 2010 their 'Best of' was released. December 2 was the World Premiere of the video for "Hurricanes and Suns" on their Official Website. On April 28, 2011 they received the "Fan Army FTW" award at the MTV O Music Awards, the networks first online award show. A clip of Bill and Tom thanking their fans was played after the winner was announced.

Tokio Hotel performed their first concert in Asia (excluding their concert in Israel) at the Audi Showcase in Singapore, followed shortly by the TM Connects With Tokio Hotel event in Malaysia, promoting the sales of their album Humanoid. They concluded the series of mini-concerts with Taiwan. They returned to Malaysia a couple of months later to perform at MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia 2010. They performed in Tokyo on December 15, 2010, after their South American Tour concluded in Distrito Federal, Mexico on December 2, 2010. In February, 2011 Tokio Hotel travelled to Japan to complete a second promo tour. A number of TV appearances and media interviews took place between February 8 and February 11.

On June 24, 2011 Tokio Hotel performed in Japan at “The Next Premium Night Tokio Hotel in Tokyo". The event was presented by Audi A1 and 150 fans were chosen to win tickets to attend the show. The event was the band's first acoustic performance in Japan. On June 25, 2011 the band performed live at the MTV Video Music Aid Japan in Tokyo. The show, which was formerly called the Video Music Awards Japan, was used as a music benefit to raise money for the Japanese Red Cross in order to help those who were affected by the recent earthquake.

Modeling and commercials[link]

This section is outdated. Please update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (January 2010)

On January 19, 2010, lead singer Bill Kaulitz teamed up with twins Dean and Dan Caten of DSquared to walk the runway at a fashion event in Milan.^[39] Kaulitz made two appearances, as he opened and closed DSquared's Menswear Autumn/Winter 2010 show to Tokio Hotel song "Screamin".^[40]

Car maker Audi hired the two frontmen to star in their new advertising campaign to attract the younger generation. They were featured in an episode of Tokio Hotel TV (on Tokio Hotel's website) and also in a commercial.^[41]

On August 4, 2010, Tom Kaulitz got his own Reebok shoe commercial.^[42] Reebok signed the 20-year-old Tokio Hotel guitarist and sneaker addict to model shoes for the company. "At home, I created a little room like a little storage room," he said of his sneakers. He also said that he gets 10 new pairs a week.^[42]

Best Of Tokio Hotel (2010)[link]

At 13th December in Germany and 14th December internationally Tokio Hotel released their first compilation album named "Best Of". It comes in two languages: english and german. It contains the most popular songs from all the previous albums and two new songs: "Hurricanes and Suns" (was recorded for Humanoid but not included in it) and "Mädchen aus dem All" (was recorded for Schrei but not included in it).There is a deluxe edition too which comes with both german and english versions of album and a bonus DVD with all Tokio Hotel's music videos and "making of" scenes.

[edit] New album and duet with Far East Movement (2011 - present)

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After finishing "Welcome To Humanoid City Tour" Bill and Tom with their manager David Jost moved to Los Angeles and still are living there. They said they are working on the new album, which will be released in the late 2012. Paparazzies caught Bill, Tom and Gustav in a shop in Los Angeles. MTV said the new album will be named "Dark Anthem".^[43]. Bill and Tom released an app named "BTK Twins" for iOS (16 January 2012),^[44] and Android(19 December 2011),^[45] for keeping in touch with their fans. Here Bill and Tom post their photos, videos and text messages, and fans can leave messages for posts. Bill and Tom answer to these comments very often. The app costs 2.99$, and if a user wants to leave comments besides watching only he must pay 0.99$ a month. Tokio Hotel launched a service named "VIP Call".^[46] Fans may pay 4.99 Euros for a month or 3.49 Euros for 3 months and Tokio Hotel call them and leave audio messages. Fans can even ask them questions and Tokio Hotel will answer to them. On 18 May 2012 Far East Movement released an album named "Dirty Bass". In it there is a song named "If I Die Tomorrow" which is a duet with Bill. Far East Movement accepted there will be a music video released for "If I Die Tomorrow" soon. Bill Kaulitz will take part in shootings too.

Band members[link]

• Bill Kaulitz - lead vocals
• Tom Kaulitz - guitar, piano, backing vocals
• Georg Listing - bass, keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals
• Gustav Schäfer - drums, percussion, backing vocals

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• Schrei (2005)
• Zimmer 483 (2007)
• Scream (2007)
• Humanoid (2009)
• Best Of (2010)

Awards[link]

Since the release of the "Durch den Monsun" single in 2005, Tokio Hotel have gone on to win 104 awards in various categories and countries.

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

References[link]

External links[link]