I was too young to have experienced the era of BBS

I wasn't, but I didn't...beyond trying to connect a few times unsuccessfully and connecting once or twice and not knowing what to do.

Which is to say the era of BBS's was very much unlike the internet because only a very very small handful of people ever actively participated in BBS's in a meaningful way...remember the famous BBS's like The Well were a long distance phone call for most people...and there was no Google to tell you about BBS's you could call toll free...and long distance was expensive.

If a person was online, it was probably Compuserve or later AOL.

The commercial internet changed everything. For the better.