Signing up to BBSes and BBS Listings

Finding BBSes to log on to used to be a big problem as there was no central dispository for where to find out what BBS systems are available in your area. Back in the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) days this was a particular problem due to long-distance charges, now most every BBS runs on top of The Internet and there are now centralised BBS Listings from projects in The Scene.

From Obscure to Centralised BBS Listings

The TelnetBBSGuide.com : Everything in One Place

There are around one thousand BBSes currently on the Telnet BBS Guide.  Everything from 300 baud systems to systems running off of very high bandwidth Internet connections.  Amiga and IBM Compatible systems are represented, even older systems such as 8-bit computer servers.  The Telnet BBS Guide is available interactively or as a file to download, released every month.

BBS System Internal BBS Listings: From One BBS to The Other

There are BBS Listing mods available for most BBS systems, which list BBSes that the sysop of those boards would like to promote.  This can be custom mods, freely usable mods, or part of the BBS system itself.  On more advanced packages, one can actually transport themselves right to the BBSes on that list, proxying through the initially called BBS on to the others BBSes on the list.

Recommendations

Go through the Telnet BBS Guide and look for systems with beautiful graphics in use.  If the sysops care enough about their BBSes to make them visually beautiful, then you can safely assume that their systems have a lot of hard work put into making them just right