Many left the local BBS for the internet at this time. Then colleges and highschools began to hook their students up to the internet for education and this turned most of the next BBS generation onto the internet instead of onto the BBS where they were needed to replace those who were leaving it for various other reasons. If you effectively kill off a whole generation of BBS users, then there will be no one left to carry on the legacy. And that is just exactly what we have done to the BBS generation with the internet. Many people defend this as a natural and necessary part of electronic and social evolution, but that implies that the change is for the better.
Many people are overwhelmed and frightened by the huge vastness of the internet.
I contend that it is not. The local community BBS still has a great deal to offer to the online community. In the great ocean of the internet, we can be islands of tranquility, a safe resort to hide in from the turbulence of cyberspace. However if the local BBS is to survive into the next century we will have to do a few things to see that it doesn't disappear into the annals of computer history. The internet has gotten so much attention that no one ever seems to mention the BBS anymore.