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BBS the Documentary [Full HD]

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Documentaries
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2 HN users recommended this documentary2 months2018–2026 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN recommends it as a definitive, nostalgic history of BBS culture whenever people ask what the pre-internet online world was like.

Jason Scott's multi-episode documentary on the bulletin board system scene of the 1980s and 1990s, built from over 200 interviews. It captures how hobbyists ran dial-up systems before the internet went mainstream.

“BBS: The Documentary is covers a lot of what you’re asking about.” (HN, 2019)

2 recommendations · 2 citations · Documentaries

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@aspenmayer Oct 2019 Recommends
on HN thread The Life, Death and Resurrection of Computer Art Group Mistigris
Not a write up but BBS: The Documentary is covers a lot of what you’re asking about. BBS: The Documentary (commonly referred to as BBS Documentary) is a 3-disc, 8-episode documentary about the subculture born from the creation of the bulletin board system (BBS) filmed by computer historian Jason Scott of textfiles.com. [link] [this video]
Jason Scott's 8-episode documentary on BBS subculture

Citations, criticism and jokes

@toomuchtodo Mar 2026 Cites it
on HN thread Ask HN: What was it like in the era of BBS before the internet?
Related: [link] [link] [link] [link] [this video] [link] BBS: The Documentary (2005) - [link] - December 2023 (65 comments) Enjoyed Jason Scott’s BBS documentary - [link] - June 2022 (39 comments) Ask HN: What was it like to use BBS? - [link] - November 2021 (230 comments) The Full BBS Documentary Interviews Are Going Online - [link] - Jan 2018 (1 comment) BBS the Documentary (2013) [video] - [link] - May 2015 (23 comments) Others?

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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