OldSezam.Net

SezamNet, the former Yugoslavia BBS

This site is a large trove of public forum messages exchanged on Sezam BBS and later SezamNet during the decade of conflict in ex Yugoslavia. This archive stands as a monument to the stormy 1990s in Yugoslavia.

Sezam BBS was founded on November 11, 1989 as one of many single-phone-line night-only Bulletin Board Systems in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Unlike many BBS systems dedicated to file download, Sezam focused on public forums (conferences). The original BBS software, specially developed by Sezam's founders, Zoran Životić and Dejan Ristanović, enabled users to share their comments on various topics, such as: computers, education, sports, politics etc.

Within months Sezam had several thousand users and evolved into a subscription-based system on 3 phone lines. During the following years the capacity grew to 15 phone lines used by tens of thousands of users from former Yugoslavia who used Sezam to communicate and exchange opinions on different topics. During the media blockade imposed by Milošević's regime, Sezam was one of the very few media in Serbia that was free from the government influence.

In 1995 Sezam BBS became SezamNet and continued operation under new leadership of Nenad Milenković and Dragan Zakić who wrote the software. The system was turned down at the dawn of the new millenium in December 1999.