It was sometimes hard to get in (unless the BBS had multiple phone lines, and even then the popular ones were often busy), so there was always a bit of anticipation waiting for that modem connect tone, and you’d leave it on auto redial for ages sometimes.

Checking out what files other people had uploaded or what comments they had made was fun, and you could sort of have a real-time chat with the sysop when they were online. Downloading stuff took ages, sometimes overnight.

Warez was a big part of it, but so was all sorts of text files for making various stuff, tracker music, demos etc. It was a real DIY culture and a lot of fun.

If someone else in your household picked up the phone to make a call when you were online, the connection dropped (the modem used the main phone line). That was the worst! Luckily you could continue downloading where you left off usually after reconnecting. Many BBSs had leech ratios - you needed to upload stuff as well.

This was late 80s/early 90s… Beyond the PC and modem cost you’d pay for local calls, which was pretty expensive for a bunch of 12 year olds. International calls were out of the question