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Pure Bollocks Issue 22_044
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B B S * B U L L S H I T
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WHY I DO IT
P. L. Olympia
Sysop, SUGI SIG/M RBBS, 301-963-5249
02/08/85
PURPOSE
The purpose of this little piece is to explain to you who are users of my
RBBS why I operate the board and why the BBS has the "peculiarities" that it
has. I also want to let you know what it is like being on this end of the modem
line in the hope that once you understand what it is like to be a Sysop, you
will be more sensitive to the code of behavior expected of you as an RBBS user.
There is one other reason for this piece: I am increasingly forced to adopt
certain restrictions that are diametrically opposed to my "religion" of keeping
an open RBBS. I have always said, when I first started this, that I would
rather shut down the BBS than adopt certain policies that I find distasteful.
So, if one day you call, and find the phone just ringing, you will know why.
Let me say at the outset that in my experience, many RBBS callers observe
the ground rules and truly deserve the service. If you belong to that group
please ef not be offended by what I have to say here as any offensive remark
you find in this piece clearly is not meant for you.
WHY I DO IT
I operate the SUGI SIG/M RBBS as a free public service for several reasons:
o Computing, particularly DBMS and telecommunications, is my hobby. I run a
lot of experiments with the BBS for my own intellectual growth;
o As a forum of information exchange among SUGI SIG/Mmembers in particular,
and the public in general;
o To repay those Sysops and users who have shared with me (from the early
years when I operated a private CP/M BBS) some of the best public domain
programs in the world;
o To help responsible novices get started (I was a novice too at one time
[Noooooo! -EGBSS!]) so that they may later share their knowledge with
others;
o I have watched RBBS-PC grow over the years, and I lamented the fact that
unlike RCP/M, no one bothered to organize and maintain a comprehensive and
up-to-date list of RBBS's in the country. I knew that doing that is a lot
of work, but someone had to do it. I "volunteered" to be that one. Thus,
one of the important functions of the SUGI SIG/M RBBS is as a repository
of the most complete and up-to-date RBBS list as a service to the entire
RBBS community.
The SUGI SIG/M RBBS, like most boards in the country, is a professional BBS
intended solely for serious business users. It has an educational games
section only because most serious professionals have children who might use
those games to get started. Mine did at the age of four and is now doing
very well, thank you.
I like to think that my RBBS is one of the best in the country. If it is
not, it is NOT because I did not try. I am still trying. [Right, that's
quite enough of the ego-trip, thank you very much! -EGBSS]
WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING?
I am a firm believer of an open RBBS, that "registration" is totally
unnecessary. I was convinced that users who have been provided a useful and
free tool will, at the very least, observe certain ground rules laid out by the
Sysop. For more than six months, mine was probably the only RBBS-PC in the
country where no daily time limit was imposed - a user can log on any number of
times on a given day so long as she waits at least 20 minutes between calls to
give others a chance.
While 95% of the callers did just that, the rotten 5% spoiled things for
everyone and I was forced to impose the daily time limit you now labor under.
As if that were not enough some callers persisted in logging on under
fictitious names despite my plea right there on the Welcome screen that aliases
are not tolerated on the board. Some did it because they never matured; others
did it as a way to get around the daily time limit so that, to paraphrase Jim
Anderson in his REQUIEM.TXT (which is required reading for you), the "pigs can
feed some more at the trough".
Against my will, I was then forced to institute a policy that new users
cannot download files or perform most normal RBBS functions until they leave
their name, address and phone. The policy was meant to be temporary; I have
removed the restriction twice in two months only to institute it again, because
a very small minority of callers made life difficult for me and everybody else.
The day I adopt this policy on a permanent basis is the day I shut down this
BSw>R think that new callers owe it to the Sysop to leave the information as
a gesture of COURTESY even if the BBS does not have a registration policy. I
encourage my callers to tell me where they work only because I deal with a lot
of companies and just in case my business folds, I would like to have a place
to recommend to my staff. I look at that as a service to the companies because
my staff is very good.
Most BBS in the country now has a "registration" policy. And who can blame
Sysops for adopting that? I know for a fact that a Sysop would prefer not to
have that policy were it not for a very small minority of immature, delinquent
and inconsiderate callers. Just so you understand some of the reasons for that
policy, take heed of a Sysop's pet peeves below. I do not speak for anyone but
myself but I am willing to bet that my own pet peeves are also other Sysops'.
MY PET PEEVES
1. THE SYSTEM CRACKERS
Crackers (not "Hackers", the press has caused much confusion in
terminology) are the lowest form of life. They are a bunch of delinquent
nincompoops who find special delight in trying to break into BBS's to cause
irreversible damage in the hope of depriving people a free and useful service.
I am fortunate in that out of about 6000 calls thus far, I have been visited by
these slimes only 15 times and all attempts to break into the system have been
fruitless. These jokers have tried many times to download the RBBS secure files
including user passwords, commercial programs (a definite no-no) used to
operate the RBBS, and even my AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files which contain
nothing that will help them. Ninety percent of these delinquents call at 300
bps, one reason I will no longer support 300 bps in the very near future.
These frustrated crackers vent their frustration by leaving nasty messages.
And I thought I already have a wide vocabulary!
I have lost my patience with these moral eunuchs, and hereby issuing fair
warning. If you are a twit, start growing up. The next time you try to download
a forbidden file from me, the system will give it to you, but if you try to use
it ... bingo!
2. THE GIMMES
Jim was right on target in his condemnation of callers who labor under the
illusion that an RBBS is a one-way street that exists only for the enrichment
of their software collection. It is sad but true - the majority of callers fall
under this category. I have entertained the idea of modifying PC-TALK so that
it only has a DOWNLOAD function. Might as well. The upload function has never
been used by these callers. I was going to re-issue the program under the name
... you guessed it ... PC-GIMME.EXE.
If you are a novice, no one is blaming you if all you do is download. One
of the reasons for an RBBS is to help novices get started. It seems to me,
though, that once you have downloaded 40 or so files, you should have benefited
from those files and stopped being a novice. It is time to repay some of those
folks who helped you. I have two callers on my system who have downloaded 230+
files and uploaded NONE. I hope those fellows download this file - their last.
Not everyone is born to be a programmer. Even if you do not have an
original program to contribute to the public domain, there are many things you
can do to help your Sysop.
I am still naive and believe that most people would like to contribute and
may not know how. Well, here's how for a start.
One, if you see a message on the board (you do know that there is a message
section on the BBS, right?) from someone asking a question or asking for help,
and you think you have the answer, by all means respond to the message. Don't
just depend on the Sysop to provide a free consulting service to everybody.
Two, if you discover something useful either in the course of your work or
as a result of reading an article or whatever, don't keep it to yourself.
Either post a message on the BBS or write a little text file and upload it.
Three, a Sysop should not have to call all over the country so that you may
have files to download. If you run across a new and useful file on another BBS
(particularly if it is long distance from your favorite Sysop's BBS), upload
the file. Some callers think that Sysops do not want their files sent to other
boards. Nothing can be farther from the truth. All public domain programs are
meant to be shared and all boards exist for that purpose if nothing else. Just
the other day I sent one of my original programs to my favorite board in the
South, and later that afternoon a Sysop from NJ sent me the same file that I
had just released a few hours earlier!
There are two severe forms of "gimmes". One is called "vulturitis" and
afflicts a very few (thankfully) who logs on every single night - at prime time
at that - and picks off the files as soon as the Sysop puts them up. Another
form is called "author-gimmes" and afflicts two "locals" on my BBS who have
authored one or two useful programs that somehow found themselves on other
local boards but mine. These fellows are regular "gimmes" on my board. I don't
get it. Pun intended.
3. THE INCONSIDERATES
The inconsiderates (1) download a file then go to Peoria [Huh? You mean
bed? -EGBSS] while the file transfer is in progress and let the system time out
and log them off, (2) just drop carrier when they're done without the decency
of issuing G(oodbye), (3) calls to see the color screen and hear the Welcome
music, drops carrier then calls again for another round of color and music, (4)
sign on with multiple aliases for more time at the "pig trough".
4. THE CONTROL-S'ERS
These callers like to do a CTRL-S to prevent the screen from scrolling
without realizing that unless they caused the system to do otherwise, the
system will pause per screenful of lines. If you belong to this group you
should know that (at least on my system) whenever you do a CTRL-S, both
partitions of Multilink freeze and I am not able to continue whatever I am
doing in the foreground. I promise you that I will only tolerate so many CTRL-S
in one session particularly during daytime when I am at the office using the
machine in the foreground. I will always drop carrier on CTRL-S users who call
in at 300 bps during the day as that compounds the problem. You should know
that extensive screen listing at 300 bps slows me down in the foreground. Thus,
if you have a choice of ASCII or XMODEM download, pick XMODEM.
If you are an incurable CTRL-S'er, call at night - very late at night.
5. THE INGRATES
These hopeless creatures do not bother to read the bulletins and become
very upset because their access level is low. One even left a message saying "I
demand a high access level". Demand? Have I got news for you, buddy! You use
this BBS because I say so. You don't use it for the same reason. This is not
your birthright. I think Jim said much the same thing.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO RUN AN RBBS?
By now, you should have an idea of what a Sysop's job is like. If you are
thinking of starting A first-class RBBS, you should know that it takes infinite
patience and a lot of time. I spend an average of two and a half hours a day on
the RBBS doing such things as responding to comments and messages, uploading
files from home, changing new users access level, organizing file directories,
deleting useless files, looking new files over and updating bulletins
particularly the RBBS list.
You must love computing to be a Sysop. You also have to be crazy.
PARTING NOTE
I would like to end this piece with a note of thanks to those callers who
have made running the RBBS worth all the heartburn. I am privileged to have a
community of 25-30 callers (out of almost a thousand) who know what RBBSing is
all about. What makes the SUGI SIG/M RBBS unique is not that it has far more
out-of-town callers than local callers, but that it has this small community of
users who have gone out of their way to help the system grow and who think of
the RBBS as their own.
Which, of course, it is.
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