Well in late 1980's and early 1990's, much same as today with rapidshare's, torrent's and tube's, the most time and priority was spent not into chatting, but into copy and trade games, apps and porn - well porn at the time being just 256 or less colors scans of paper magazines (color climax, hustler etc.). I remember an Horny Rob doing it circa 1992 but there was others well before that I forgot - one of them labeled the pics "MPC" = My Private Collection, anyone remembers those awesome MPC jpg's circulating in bbs's?
Basically the guys was copying floppy disks (the only media available) from school or work friends, of course this was not 0-day i.e. it was not very new stuff.
For newer stuff you had to call those guys who put adverts in the computer magazines, actually at the time the printed magazines was major as the only way to contact people from other cities really. Most of these was in the biz and so you could deal you pay something a month and you get every week the new releases via snail mail.
Then you was an hero in your city and everyone (including girls) will come to your home to get copying the latest games - since copy was long time, you could flirt the girl(s) if any, otherwise talk of very nerdy stuff with guys.
But where these bigger guys was getting all those new releases to send in snail mail to you? Actually, they had a modem, usually an HST US Robotic one 9600+, the only ones allowed to connect to the "Elite" boards. And they had a leech account they paid per month to the bbs. Or they was traders, which means they move stuff between boards and so, they upload not so less than download and their ratio was nice.
Even further, how these guys knew the BBS numbers? That was in the crack intros/loaders put before the games/apps, this started as static screens and evolved into a form of art that later spin-off from warez and was called demo scene.
Actually 99% of people had pirate stuff so 99% of people seen bbs numbers (or at least names when number is -PRIVATE shielded), as crack intros/loaders listed them.
I googled some and found one my 1993 crack intro, at youtube.com/watch?v=VJPKYwffoU4
This have a 3d glenz vector with star field, waving textscroller with mirror, bouncing logo with transparent copper bars, and music ripped from a game - quite classical
The elements are all there: Group Name presents: release name.
Actually no one acted alone, it was groups only, and this is due to what comes next:
Original supplied by: xxxx - as to crack a game or app before of anyone else in the world (as coming second was too late, other group's release was already around) you needed to have the original game also before than others, and this is a science on its own.
Actually not many know, that the most suggessful groups had the best original supplier(s) and not necessarily a faster or more wizard cracker.
A game or app could reach first a shop in a country or another, in a city or another, and groups had guys visiting the main shops of all cities daily or even shop guys was part of it.
When a new game or app, esp. major was hitting a shop of some city or country, the original supplier had to buy it (yes! needed lots $$, as the group purchased dozens of these monthly), then send it to the cracker, usually in other city or country.
Transfer of the original was made via modem, but some had protection including wrong disk format (different number of records in a few tracks), so the cracked even coded special disk readers used only internally, and in some cases the original supplied took the train and go with package in hands, no joke, we had to hurry or other group release it first.
Then it comes the next step in intro, "Cracked by: XXXX", the cracker had to remove the request what written in page X of manual, or the wrong sector tracks loader or whatever the protection it was, before that others done it.
Originals could be supplied at any time of day, like an emergency I was picked home by a guy who bring me to main bbs location by driving quite crazy speed (my mom was a little afraid let's say, but they was very understanding parents really). Then I had to crack the game and that was half luck half skill and could be few minutes or hours or days to do it, but days was too late. While I was bouncing head with hexadecimal assembly code, next to me the other guy running the bbs had our guys logged in major bbs of other groups and refreshing to see if the specific game was released by others. I was quite on pressure.
In majority of cases, others released it first - I remember a soccer game quite important release, I was done and putting the intro and it appeared in BBS's from a german group, damn just few minutes... well there was to upload too it was not to few minutes before.
The only hope in these cases it was that their crack was failing after some time you played, then we had some guys playing their version, if it crashed I continued my crack then we released the 101% version which, replacing their broken one, would have be distributed worldwide in its place. Actually contaminating million disks with our crack intro and BBS numbers. This is why these 0-day elite etc. BBS's in most cases was in a group (altough independent ones existed), as you could find a few minutes before of elsewhere, the releases of such specific group. Also BBS's was changing group while one group became more cool of another. I see from my crack intro's googled that MOZART's MANSION was actually our US HQ for a while and I personally managed to steal it from someone else group by chat the sysop, but I do not remember really any detail.
Of course this whole thing was not very nice to do and phone calls was also al little creative so altough this is 20 years ago and I was under age at the time, I am a little shy to talk of it, but well we was just kids, innocent ones, isn't it.