Sure, there were those boards, but they were mainly for tech support or associated with a school or something like that. The boards I hung out on had far more relaxed rules.
No - they were just general purpose boards. They just had strict rules on behavior (well behaved flame wars, etc). I was on them before I was on USENET, and in comparison, USENET really sucked with its relative lawlessness.
The "enforce the rules or your whole BBS will be sanctioned" was extremely effective in producing a civil (but not boring) environment.
