What did they do before the Internet?

These are for the "old school geeks," and operate like this: A computer is designate to serve as the Bulletin Board System. It generally has its own phone line, which people dial on their computers to create a connection to the BBS. Once connected, a user can participate in online discussion boards, send and receive messages with to and from other users and upload or download files and programs.

This is much like Internet services of today, except since it is done over the phone, generally only one person can log into a bulletin board system at once. Also, these BBSs were (and are) generally run by enthuiasts who must dedicate a whole computer system and second phone line to this cause. This, along with the lesser state of technology of the day, meant BBSs operated on a much smaller scale than today's Internet.

But it was something, and it set the stage for later developements. There still are many BBSs, mainly because they're cool and fun to tinker with. Many BBSs are available via the Internet and not just phone lines, meaning they can have multiple users logged in simulatenously. (In the "old days," there was generally a time limit on how long you could be logged in so that other users could get in.) Also, many a porn picture has been sold by BBS operators and continue to be to this day.