The messaging system that he and a friend created in 1978 was a forerunner of social media services like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. By Cade Metz Randy Suess, a computer hobbyist who helped build ...

Before we had always-available, fast connections to multiple servers, we had dial-up modems and bulletin board systems (BBS). And it wasn’t even that long ago. One weird little quirk about being human ...

Housebound during a 1978 blizzard, he and a friend began devising the first computer bulletin board, a forerunner of online services like Reddit, TikTok and Facebook. By Cade Metz Ward Christensen, a ...

When you think about how to communicate on today’s internet, places like Reddit, eBaum’s World, Facebook, Twitter, and online forums are key. Unlike social media, which is more free-for-all, online ...

Sue Jones turned on her computer one day recently to find an ugly image: Bart Simpson, cartoon figure and ne'er-do-well, middle finger fully extended. Mrs. Jones and her husband, Art, run a computer ...

Christensen and Suess dubbed the system “Ward and Randy’s Computerized Bulletin Board System,” or CBBS. It was, as the name suggested, an electronic version of the community bulletin boards that you ...

We received belated word this week of the passage of Ward Christensen, who died unexpectedly back in October at the age of 78. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, that’s understandable, because the man ...

Dr. Elizabeth Yuko is a bioethicist and adjunct professor of ethics at Fordham University. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, CNN & Playboy. June ...