Too bad most of the ones I know of don't take change anymore

there are still some payphonesand with those phone cups you could connect it to a USB modem and connect it to your modern laptop

@@michalnemecek3575 you in Seattle or somewhere else?!

@@nicktechnubyte1184 I'm not even American

There’s still one inside my local Staples

I dialed into BBSes in the 80s on a Commodore and it was a blast. Didn't use a payphone though. Now you don't see payphones much in fact, most people don't even have home phones anymore.

How would the phone work if they bought it?

@@mark.audacity I'm thinking if someone bought an old GTE or ATT/Western Electric payphone as pictured above off of eBay as something for their den or rec room, and connected it to their phone line, it would just function as a regular phone. Sticking coins in it would just get stuck in the top part of the phone and never fall to the box or returned, as the their would be no electrical signals from the network to do anything with them as it's not a pay phone line. Obviously the purchaser would also need to provided with keys to get inside to retrieve the coins and fix anything.

A Bulletin Board System. As the name implies, the concept was that every BBS would be a regional bulletin board, where you could post messages, chat with others, share files and even play text-based games. This was before the world wide web, and these were run by computer enthusiasts. The sysop (the person running the BBS) would have a computer connected to the phone line with a modem, to allow others to dial in with their modem-equipped computer. They fell largely out of use after the Internet took off, though some still exist. Some only over the Internet, through a program called Telnet, though others can still be reached over the landline.

Some modern message boards still use the BBS moniker. Which is the only reason I know what it means.

BBS's are Bullitin Board Systems. These were a way for people to exchange messages and chat online in the years prior to the World Wide Web. They are mostly niche now but are a popular aspect of vintage computing. Most BBS systems that are online will allow for connections made using telnet, ssh, landline or in browser emulation.

BBS is also one oft he first internet's first community Also provides communication people to people, just like some normal chat rooms in today's age

BBS' was software installed on run of the mill desktops of its time by ordinary people. i.e. no large corporate enterprises, which allowed for a primitive form of network connectivity. The operators dedicated a computer and paid for a dedicated phone line(s) out of their own pocket. Almost always it was local users in the same area code that connected, hence they were more popular in larger metro areas. The BBS software varied in options but almost always it included a message boarding type (forum), file library for compressed files to be housed, and some level of proprietary email. Multi-lines may have offered chat functions and some had online gaming options. While it was all text based and not point and click, there was a mode called ANSI graphics that allowed for colorful and amazing text based artwork to be utilized on PC based BBS'. BBS' got pretty sophisticated and massive multi-line systems become fairly common by the early 90s, albeit these were usually a pay per use type of systems. But once the commercialized internet took off in the mid to late 90s, these systems very quickly died off or simply transitioned into being internet-only type local providers, phasing out their BBS functionality. One major part of BBS'ing back in the day was the sense of community since it was almost always local people that connected. Meet-ups were fairly common since everyone lived relatively nearby. That's the one thing that is lacking in modern BBS replicas; they may replicate the environment but the sense of community is no where the same.

Well, back before the net this was the net. Lol. Also, few years ago in Egypt the gov there pulled the kill switch on the internet for the country. Through land lines is the only way people were able to communicate. Keep that in mind, we're heavily dependant on our conveniences.

Probably is now. Damn people doing things companies ought to be charging you for....like communicating!

If it wasn't a terminal type then the BBS wouldn't have accepted it. Maybe you should try it yourself and see that there's a difference between "vanilla" and "dumb".