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The "Bulletin" Section

Stelex took advantage of the way Steve Punter's software allowed a sysop to host libraries of text files. Beginning with an "opening bulletin' when you first logged on, lorem ipsum dolor. Ironically most sysops did not actually make use of this feature, and many didn't even bother with an opening bulletin. For purposes of illustration, this sample screen from the Stelex bulletin section may been seen as a representation of what on-line information looked like in the early 1980's.

CompuServe was a big system covering many topics. On smaller systems (eg. local bulletin boards) you could download and upload various files - there would be a some sort of "login" protocol, and user listings and logs.  Many systems offered games and text-based "chat" between users. "Help" files and downloadable user guides and other attempts at documentation explained what was available, and provided suggestions as to how you ought to proceed when you were in a particular "room", compartment or section of the the overall system.

BBS's were often associated with computer clubs or other groups-of-early-adopters of the technology, and the largest systems like CompuServe had areas that catered to (and were often run by) such groups.*

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