On the actual topic of this thread: I don't see many bbses from back in the 80's for central CA (209 area code). I wish I had my old bbs lists from then, as I'd add them. (Also lost in the mists of time are my hardcopy transcripts from when I bbs'd from a daisy-wheel teletype in my bedroom, which my mom HATED. 11 cps clatter going all night drove her insane :-)

I think I do however have some old printouts from the early 90s of the nixpub and pubnet lists, which have some bbs's on them. I'll be sure to add them if I can dig them out of the archives. (Interested in old Internet Services Lists from before the web? I know I've got hardcopy of at least one of Yanoff's List from 92-93 era).

Veering back to the boingboing discuss discussion:
You CAN get to old bb quicktopics, at least ones you've read in the past, by clicking on "My Topics" while signed into quicktopic.

Oh and if bb was run on the slashcode, users certainly could customize the front page to exclude topics or posters they didn't care for. In a fit of geek overkill, when I moved my personal blog off of blogspot, I installed the slashcode on a colo server an old friend is letting me use, so I've got current experience with it. You just need to make sure you've added ALL of the categories and topics you're gonna post (which you CAN of course add to, but it's a pain).