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NULL mag Issue 02 06 The Dont's for a BBS Sysop
Below you will find some old files, from textfiles.com, that are BBS and
specially SySop related ;) For some of you, will give you some good (or
bad memories) and for others, some good advices on how to manage a BBS
even today. Some things may changed, but not all... ;) Enjoy...
============================================================================
bbs_mnrs.txt
1. Thou shalt love thy BBS
with all thy heart and all
thy bytes.
2. Love thy hacker as thyself
3. Thou shalt not POST IN ALL
CAPS.
4. Honor thy Sysop and Co-sysop.
5. Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's password.
6. Thou shalt delete thy own mail.
7. Thou shalt keep thy foul
language to thyself.
8. Thou shalt not attempt to crash
thy BBS, for thou shalt be cast
out from the sanctuary of thy
hobby and must repent by doing
40 days and 40 nights of
penance on voice-only systems.
9. Thou shalt not occupy thy BBS
with thine silly arguments,
for verily I say unto thee that
thou shall maketh an electronic
fool of thyself.
10. Thou shalt not violate applic-
able state/federal laws that
doth affect BBS communications,
or thy will face the rath of
thy judicial system.
11. Thou shalt download at 1200 baud or faster so as not to tie up
the phone lines unnecessarily...
12. Thou shalt upload as thou downloadest...
============================================================================
howtobbs.txt
How to Become an Unsuccessful, Burned-Out SysOp
-----------------------------------------------
It seems as if everyone who gets a modem and calls bulletin
boards toys with the idea of running his own BBS at some time.
The plain truth is that bulletin boards come and go with alarming
regularity. A few stick around, but for every one that reaches
its second birthday, five will appear and vanish. Here are a few
simple tips to insure that your effort at running at bulletin
board places you in the majority.
PINCH PENNIES - You spent thousands on a computer. It's silly
to spend more than $1.98 for a BBS program. You might even find
one for free. After all, if cheap is good, free must be better.
Be sure to shop for a rock-bottom price on a modem, too. It
doesn't matter if no one ever heard of that brand before...they
will before you are through.
SCHIZOPHRENIA IS THE ORDER OF THE DAY - Keep 'em guessing. Try
at least a dozen different BBS program...after you officially
open your system. That will keep the callers on their toes. You
wouldn't want to be predictable. Change things around constant-
ly...menus, screens, the flow from section to section. You
really don't like it when callers use logon scripts anyway.
SPEAKING OF BEING PREDICTABLE - Make your board part time.
Change the hours frequently. Part of the adventure of calling a
BBS is finding out what hours it operates. Pick strange ones:
noon to 3 pm Tuesday and Thursday, 6 am to noon Monday, Wednesday
and Friday, Midnight to 6 am weekends, except national holidays
and the third Tuesday in September.
DON'T WASTE MONEY ON A SECOND PHONE LINE - You don't need it for
a part time board. You meet such interesting people who call at
3 a.m. looking for a modem tone. You did want to meet interest-
ing people, didn't you?
TAKE THE BBS DOWN WHENEVER THE NOTION STRIKES YOU - After all, it
is your computer. So what if you want to play Tetris at 8 pm.
The callers can just listen to a busy signal for a while.
BE RUDE TO YOUR CALLERS - They're all schmucks who don't know
anything. You don't have to be polite to them. Do your best Don
Rickles imitation when they ask questions. Call them names and
make fun of them because they don't know all about protocols and
modems and such. After all, you know everything about them...
don't you? Dump them in mid-call because they take too long to
read the menus and messages...or just because you want to use the
computer.
MAKE IT A DELIGHTFUL MAZE - Make your menus so complex that a PhD
couldn't find his way around your BBS. Hide the files in obscure
corners and give the commands strange names. While you're at it,
build in some "black holes" to really confound the users. Then
complain bitterly if people just hang up instead of logging off
properly.
Follow these simple rules and I can guarantee you will join the
vast majority of BBSs that fade into the sunset within months or
even weeks of starting up. Now, obviously, these are not serious
tips. Quite the opposite is true. There is much more to running
a BBS than just slapping a program and a modem on your computer
and waiting for the phone to ring. Let's look instead at some
positive suggestions to help make your efforts successful.
IT PAYS TO BUY QUALITY - Ever wondered why that free software is
free? Could it be because it is so bad the author couldn't get
anyone to pay for it? How about that generic, "bargain" modem.
Why is it so cheap? Old technology? Inferior parts? Poor
workmanship? Want to bet on how long it will last? Good soft-
ware can make the difference between a dream and a nightmare when
it comes to being a SysOp. Same thing for reliable hardware.
You DID spend thousands for the computer...so spend a hundred or
so for decent, reliable software and protect that investment. It
won't do much for the reputation of a new BBS if it is constantly
off-line for various malfunctions.
CHANGE IS OK, BUT IT MUST BE FOR A REASON - Callers like change,
but they also like the familiar. Make changes slowly and delib-
erately. If radical changes are unavoidable, warn your callers
ahead of time. Make sure you are truly ready before you open
your system to the world. Callers get discouraged when they have
to log in as new users 4 times in 4 weeks because you keep exper-
imenting with new programs. Most of them won't complain,
they'll just quit calling.
KEEP IT SIMPLE - Incredibly complex BBSs appeal mostly to the
"hacker" types. Are these the people you want on your computer?
Most folks want a BBS that is simple and logical, with commands
that make sense and are easily remembered. That still leaves
plenty of room for creativity and originality.
BE ORIGINAL - OK, you have your brand new BBS up. It's plain,
vanilla RBBS software, right out of the distribution files. They
even had those neat screens and menus in there all ready to go.
Now you sit back and wait for the callers to ooh and aah over
your lovely system. Don't hold your breath. Everyone got tired
of those screens long ago. Come up with something fresh. Call
distant BBSs and get ideas. Don't steal whole screens intact
unless the SysOp has packaged them for distribution. Even then,
make a few changes to make them your very own. This is one of
the best ways to demonstrate to callers that there really is
something special about your BBS.
SHOULD YOUR BBS HAVE A "THEME?" - Maybe. That's the best answer
I can give. Some theme and special purpose BBSs are very suc-
cessful, but the world probably doesn't need another BBS based on
Dungeons & Dragons. If you are going to give your system a
theme, make sure it is one that will be interesting to most
callers.
GIVE THE CALLERS WHAT THEY WANT - within reason. Listen to what
your users have to say about the system. ASK them what they like
and don't like. If the majority of them hate a particular fea-
ture, get rid of it. If most of them want something you don't
have, try to get it. Remember, they have choices. There are
plenty of other modems out there waiting to answer the phone.
MAKE IT AVAILABLE AS ADVERTISED - part time boards rarely suc-
ceed. Some stay around through sheer inertia...just because it's
too much trouble to take them down. Hardly anyone calls these
boards for long...especially if the operating hours are bizarre
and irregular. If it must be part time, make it regular. 24
hours is always best. Frankly, if you can't make the commitment
to a separate phone line, you really aren't ready to run a BBS.
The same goes for using the computer yourself...you promised it
would be available at certain hours. Unless there is a real
emergency, you aren't living up to a commitment unless you have
it on-line for the promised hours.
TREAT YOUR CALLERS LIKE FRIENDS AND WELCOME GUESTS - After all,
YOU invited these people into your home! It's true, some callers
are brainless twits. There have always been people like that and
there always will be. But remember, for every jerk that calls,
there are 9 or 10 really nice, interesting people. Concentrate
on the good folks and ignore the clowns...sooner or later they
will get tired and go away.
THINK ABOUT THE KIND OF BBS YOU LIKE TO CALL - Your callers
probably like the same things. Analyze the other BBSs you call.
What do you like about each? What do you dislike? Do you feel
welcome on some and like an intruder on others? Why? How will
someone else feel after calling your board? Will they want to
call again?
HAVE PATIENCE - Be patient while your BBS builds a following with
the callers. It may take months before the traffic is at the
level you anticipated. Be patient too with inexperienced users.
Help them learn instead of harassing them. Did you appreciate
sarcasm and wisecracks when you asked "dumb" questions as a
beginner? Everyone is a beginner sometime.
Keep these tips in mind and you will find that your BBS grows and
succeeds while countless others come and go. Why? Because you
treat callers with respect and consideration! Because you make
them feel welcome. Because you really care about what they like
and dislike. Because you put yourself in their place and look at
the situation as they do.
Does all of this sound like a lot of work? You're right. It
takes a lot of effort to run a popular and successful BBS. But
the rewards of meeting new people, making new friends, seeing
other points of view, make it all worthwhile.
============================================================================
be-sysop.txt
SO YOU WANT TO BE A SYSOP?
by Wally Byczek
WallyWorld BBS 1989
To start a BBS, you first need a computer. No matter what computer
you currently have, it won't be large enough or powerful enough for what you
intend to do. And since you can't take the board down (unless you run a
kiddy board that bounces up and down or runs only between the time
school lets out and Daddy comes home) to do your own work, you will need
another computer that you can ill afford. Next you have to find a BBS
software package. This can take months, or you can write your own if you
are so inclined. This can take years. Next, unless you are starting a
kiddy board, you will need a phone line other than the one that you
normally converse on. Depending on the Telco's mood, personnel, and the
imminence of a strike, this could be done in as little as 2 weeks or it
may never happen. Next, if you plan to run doors on your board, you must
now spend long distance dollars in scouring other boards for evaluation and
aquisition of these games. Naturally, your external file protocols don't
come with your BBS software, so you have to again scour the countryside to
find them. Utilities for your BBS are also an after thought and have to
be obtained in a similar fashion. All of these external programs have to
be registered after a while, since most stop working after a while or have
an annoying feature about them until they are registered. All of the above
items take money! and plenty of it!
While we are on the subject of money, you must obtain a modem. Whatever
modem you currently have will not be supported by the BBS software. This
is some sort of unwritten law pertaining to writing communication software.
Be prepared to open your wallet wide. No, your old Hayes 300 won't be good
enough. People even hate 1200 baud these days, and the teenagers seem to
have USR HST's these days and will complain vociferously if they can't
access you at 14.4.
Now you pick a name for your BBS. Whatever you choose will be
ridiculed by 20% of those who see it. Another 50% will offer suggestions
that are worse than the one you chose. The remaining 30% won't care.
Next comes the wonderful task of installing your board. You have
your machine. If you just bought it, that means formatting your hard disk,
installing DOS, and ASNI drivers and Lord knows what else that you need
for your board. If you already have the machine, you may as well go ahead
and reformat it anyway. Something will guarantee that you will have to
do this before you are done.
The manual for the BBS software was most likely written by the author's 10
year old and was mimeographed. It got wet in the mail and smeared as well, so at
least 30% of the manual will be physically useless. The rest is just
procedurally useless.
Next comes the fun task of deciding on your board structure. Who can do
what and when can they do it. You must design your menus and opening screens.
You have to get a pretty good stock of files, because no one will upload to
you unless you have something there for them to take first. (not that it
matters, I suppose, since even if you DO have files, they won't upload
much anyway.)
Next comes the security aspect. You can leave your board wide open so that
users with the name of Benny Beanfart, Dr. Rape, Crack, Hack, File Attack,
DR DEATH, etc can come in and do anything they like. Or, you can lock it
up so tight that no one will call. There is no compromise on this.
Next you must build events or prepare to live at your keyboard. A BBS
HAS to be backed up. If you can't afford a high density backup medium such as
tape or cartridge, you will spend many many hours per week flipping
floppies. Events are designed to allow the sysop the luxury of having the
board do routine tasks at odd hours by itself- Backups, purges and so on.
These never work as they come and will have to be extensively modified by
you. And since they generally only run at 3 AM, you will have to be awake
to see just how they die and then try to fix it.
Alright... the big day is here. Your board is ready, your modem is
ready, Telco finally hooked you up, and then you start up. This is when after 2
days of no one calling, despite your ad in computer shopper and having
placed your number on every other BBS in existance, you discover that the
init strings for the modem are wrong. You discover this by calling yourself
from a friends' home. This takes calls to the author of the software, the
manufacturer of the modem and finally gets resolved by asking another sysop
how to do it.
Oh Boy! Now we're in business! During your first caller's visit, someone
will hit a telephone pole and you will lose power. Naturally, since the
board is new, you didn't back it up. The power surge when the electricity
was restored roached your hard disk. Go back to low level formating...
Finally, you're up and working. After about a week of gleefully seeing
someone call, you will encounter Benny Beanfart or his ilk. He will leave
public posts (always in caps and terribly mis-spelled) about what a really
lousey board this is and that the sysop is a three eyed twit. You
automaticly kill his account. But do you leave the message for the world
to see? hmmm... dilemma number 1. Killing Benny does no good because he
will be back with another account such as SYSOP SUX or some such thing.
Eventually he will tire of the game and go away, but he has given ideas to
of his friends who will also visit you sometime in the next week.
Then you will be visited by the "smart kid" who can tell you everything
that's wrong with your machine, your software, etc. It doesn't matter that
he's calling you on a Timex Sinclair. He knows more about your 386 than
Intel.
By now, your name has spread around. Probably, if you are in Worcester,
the college kids have your name and number. If it is Spetember or January
you are in trouble. You will probably be bombarded with file requests for
commercial software. Some will assist you by uploading Lotus 123 ver 3 that
has the copy-proofing removed. Whoever uploads this to you will then call
Lotus Development Corp and tell them that you have a pirated version on your
board (anonymously of course)
If you imposed an upload/download ratio such that users must upload one
file to get x numbers of files in return, then you will recieve 2K text files
from them. They will download 2Mb of Gif files in return.
By now, you are disappointed with your message bases. You perhaps have (if
you are fortunate) two or three users who post messages outside of private mail.
These three users are symbionts who, if one of their number does not call
for 2 weeks, will not post because they miss their friend. Your message
bases will starve. You set up many areas for messages, all carefully listed
by topic. No public post will ever go into the area that it should be in.
You will find a raunchy joke posted in the Bible topics area, technical
questions asked in the political opinion area, and a message from one of
Benny Beanfart's croney's in the technical section.
You will next encounter the user who can't do anything right. He will make
you feel terribly guilty that you are running this system that seems to
rudely exclude him from enjoying it, because he cannot master the concept
that M means Message, F means Files, D means download etc. He DOES however
know how to leave comments to the sysop.
At first you will be responsive to all the user complaints and will make
a valiant effort to obtain the special game that was requested as a door.
You discover it on a board in the Fiji Islands and the off peak call cost
you 32 dollars to download it. You find then that the game was written for
a board other than the BBS that you run. You search the countryside for a
conversion interface. You find one in Omaha. add another 40 dollars in
phone bills from the search. You discover now that the game must be registere
with the author. This is another 69 dollars. You discovered this because
after the game was installed, you called from a friend's house to test it.
You find out that while the console looks wonderful while it is being run,
the user sees a screen that informs him that the sysop is a cheap bum who
didn't even bother to register this wonderful piece of software. Since the
sysop is such a creep, why do you call there? Naturally, you register it so
the annoyance screen goes away. After it has been on the board for 2 months
you discover that only 1 person ever used it and he only went in there once,
dropped carrier and hung up the board because you later discovered that this
"wonderful" piece of software doesn't monitor carrier. Do you now register
Watchdog so this won't happen again or do you just scrap the game?
The work load is getting heavy on the board. Wow! It takes at least 2 hours
per day to stay up with things. Answering mail, hunting down Benny Beanfart's
latest account, changing screens, moving messages back to the areas that
they truely belong in, adding new things, paying Telco, arguing with your
spouse etc. You decide to get a co-sysop to help out. He will pay little
attention to the needs of the board, but WILL experiment with things like
remote drop to dos. hehehehe! I think this needs little elaboration.
By now, you are conversant with the many user complaints. WHY aren't you
around to answer the sysop page at 2:45 AM? Why does your message editor
use A for abort instead of Q for quit? How come there aren't any nice ANSI
screens? How come these crummy ANSI screens slow down the board? Why can't
I stay online for 3 hours at a time? Why can't my C64 see your graphics.. It
must be your crummy board! I never post messages because no one else ever
does! What do you mean you killed my upload of Dbase IV? I did upload
something a year ago.. so how come I can't download more than 100 files now?
How come my friend has access level 50 and I only have level 40? Boy.. do you
have a bad attitude! I think the Silicon Sarcophagus is 100 times better than
this board! This is a free country.. I can say ANYTHING I want in public
messages. What are you.. Hitler or something? How come nobody ever send me
mail? I used a bit editor on Procomm and now it won't work.. tell me how to
fix it. That GIF file I downloaded didn't run... this stinks... you really
must be a lousey sysop if you don't check to see that it would work for me.
Then you will discover the wonders of sysop to user interactive chat. You
will find this to be a most opportune time to get things done. Since the
majority of users who will page you into chat type at about .000001 baud,
you can have a conversation with the user and get things done like mowing
the lawn, making a three course meal, and cleaning out the garage before
the user has stated his request. Generally, the chat request was for
something such as How do I get out of a file listing or something similar
that is well covered in the user manual that you have both as a file for
downloading and as a bulletin for online reading.
One admonition is to not get angry about carrier drop by the user. Remember
that the user is calling you through the telco. Chances are that no matter
how malicious or inept the user may be, the telco probably did it anyway.
Next comes BBS software upgrade time! Such fun! You will find that the
author no longer supports your version. You have to upgrade. This means
once again opening your wallet. The new version will not have the same
reserved file names, nor will the file structures be the same. The author
generously supplies you with a conversion program. This program is designed
to assist you in making all the little changes needed to perform the upgrade.
It will automatically convert your file names and structures. There are two
type of these programs. One that requires that you have 5Mb more free space
than you do, and the other that will abort half way through the conversion
because of a bad disk sector read and didn't have a corresponding error
trap. Of the two, the latter is the more catastrophic, because now your data
can't be read by either version of the software.
Since you successfully upgraded your software, you now discover what the
word Beta Site really means..
Now since you've done so well to this point, it's time for the hardware to
find something to compensate for all this good effort. Generally, the
hard drive controller is the most likely device to make this decision to
fail. It will not however abruptly die. It will instead, gradually mis-write
to disk over a period of several days before deciding not to work at all
anymore. This has the advantage that your last backups will be no good at
all once you replace the controller and reformat the drive.
HeHeHE Still want to be a sysop?
