Although not identical to a direct-dial BBS, I'd say that Hotline/KDX/Carracho et al (there were a few commercial offerings focused more on being commercial groupware as well) are interesting specifically because they weren't text. It makes almost no sense at all to run an exclusively text-based BBS on a Classic Macintosh, because that's not how anything else on the platform (except, of course, remote access to other systems) worked.
By the time of the 1990s, it made sense to make use of the fact that with a Mac's graphical user interface and system software you could do more than one thing at a time, both on the server side and on the client side. I was frequently both transferring files and chatting with people on some of the 68kMLA-Adjacent hotline servers back in like 2000-2001/2002 and using local software for other tasks, checking my real e-mail, etc.
Text BBSs are neat and all, but hotline made the functionality accessible to Mac users, not all of whom (it's worth noting) had ever been Apple II/III/IIgs users, or even users of other 8-bit systems, or PCs.
I'd say today if you wanted to run a "BBS" on a Mac with Mac-like functionality, hotline/kdx/carracho or FirstClass (which was the aforementioned commercial solution whose name I couldn't remember.)
I guess it depends on what you're trying to simulate. Hotline et al are pretty representative of the 1990s, but if you're really into the idea of something the owner of a Mac Plus might have been doing, then accessing direct-dial systems like SDF or using a text BBS may be your best choice, although the other thing is the early days of Mac, you probably weren't online as often as you might have been as the 1990s wore on and line rates went down and second lines became more common.
I think "True BBS" is valuable, but I'm personally not interested, nor do I really think it's very Mac-like.
By the time of the 1990s, it made sense to make use of the fact that with a Mac's graphical user interface and system software you could do more than one thing at a time, both on the server side and on the client side. I was frequently both transferring files and chatting with people on some of the 68kMLA-Adjacent hotline servers back in like 2000-2001/2002 and using local software for other tasks, checking my real e-mail, etc.
Text BBSs are neat and all, but hotline made the functionality accessible to Mac users, not all of whom (it's worth noting) had ever been Apple II/III/IIgs users, or even users of other 8-bit systems, or PCs.
I'd say today if you wanted to run a "BBS" on a Mac with Mac-like functionality, hotline/kdx/carracho or FirstClass (which was the aforementioned commercial solution whose name I couldn't remember.)
I guess it depends on what you're trying to simulate. Hotline et al are pretty representative of the 1990s, but if you're really into the idea of something the owner of a Mac Plus might have been doing, then accessing direct-dial systems like SDF or using a text BBS may be your best choice, although the other thing is the early days of Mac, you probably weren't online as often as you might have been as the 1990s wore on and line rates went down and second lines became more common.
I think "True BBS" is valuable, but I'm personally not interested, nor do I really think it's very Mac-like.