The equivalent of a public notice board accessible by electronic mail, where announcements, items for discussion or of general interest can be stored for access by others. This mail box has a name, like an E-mail address, which is relevant to the contents of the bulletin board. Bulletin boards are often used as an arena for public discussion and are open to comment from anyone who has access to them. Anyone can access the information on a write-protected bulletin board, but it is necessary to know the correct password to be able to post messages on it.
Users can only access read-protected bulletin boards if they know the correct password.
Read-protected bulletin boards usually contain private information or are a means of charging subscription rates to users who would like to access them.