THOUGHTS.DOC Latest thoughts off the top of my head on CBBS, as of 3/3/80. Ward Christensen Rev 11/28/81 I was looking for a technique to disseminate some of the newچ mods to CBBS. The BULLETIN seems the most logical place - butچ I wanted to keep that brief. Putting them in messages is OK,چ but people have to be relatively familiar with CBBS to findچ these things. Thus was born the NEWS file, which is like anچ extended bulletin. You can type either the "headlines",چ (1-line details) or the detailed items. New for Vers 3.5. It is my intent that the first 20 messages on "every" CBBS beچ essentially the same. We'd appreciate you keeping messagesچ 9-11 so more people might order CBBS based on seeing the "ad"چ for the software on YOUR system. Also, message 1 should beچ personalized to give the history of YOUR system. We'dچ appreciate you giving us credit for the base software, but makeچ everything else appropriate for your involvement. Call our system to get the latest entries for messages 12, 13,چ 14, which tell of other message systems. 12 is full timeچ CBBSs, 13 is full time other systems, and 14 is any non-fullچ time systems. It is my practice to try to keep these messagesچ up to date, and if someone has not reported the activity of aچ particular system for 6 months, then delete it. It just costsچ too much to keep calling systems to see if they are still up. The file FIRSTIME contains a hardware description. So does theچ help file. It is up to you to put similar info in both. Maybe,چ you want to delete the hardware question from the FIRSTIMEچ file, or just say, in FIRSTIME, to type: H;HARDWARE to get details on the hardware. The CBBS.COM on this disk is a 3.5 version with no modemچ dependencies. It allows you to "dink" with the system enteringچ messages, etc. You may run out of disk files if you use it tooچ much, as there are so many other files on the disk, and couldچ be up to 50 message files if you add enough messages. If you are converting an "old" CBBS to the new message fileچ format, our "convert" program is totally useless unless you areچ going to go to 50 message files. If you want fewer, thenچ you'll just have to pattern a new BASIC program after the one,چ but don't dink around as I did trying to "and" bits. The CBBSچ code uses the following algorithm to map from the decimal valueچ of the last two digits of a message number, to a file number: file#=divisor*int(msg#/divisor) Thus if you use 4 for a divisor, the program will use 25چ message files. Message numbers ending in 00, 01, 02, and 03چ will be written to file MESSAGE.X00, etc. It is my personal opinion that a CBBS which is up 24 hours aچ day 7 days a week, is many times better than one which is not.چ This is because if its up always, people don't have to thinkچ about when they may call it. They can just pick up the phoneچ at any time, and call in. I'd like to keep some semblance of consistency to CBBS چ commands. I would LOVE it if people would somewhat "clear"چ usage of new 1 letter commands with me. For example, "L" isچ now accepted as a "list" command by some CBBSers, specificallyچ Steve Vinokuroff of CBBS/Vancouver. He allows the user to typeچ any .ASM file (he forces the type to .ASM). L asks for aچ filename, then executes the operator TYPE command after forcingچ type .ASM - Others think about putting the "L" command forچ "linefeeds" because the half-ascii TRS-80 doesn't seem to wantچ them (double spaces) but lets face it, they really should goچ with a full "standard" terminal program. Back to Steveچ Vinokuroff: He is also thinking of using "F" for "Fileچ transfer". Hmm, I'd prefer to keep that open for a newچ "forward" command, i.e. "F;1234;CHI" means to "forward messageچ 1234 to Chicago". This is just blue sky at this time, but lotsچ of BBS operators (CBBS/ABBS/FORUM-80/PBBS) are interested inچ message forwarding. Thoughts for the future: I'd like to put all commands related to a particular user, (Iچ guess I mean their terminal) and put them into a singleچ command, as Bob Iannucci does with his homebrew BBS system. Thus "U" for user, is a single command, under which you access: A=Alter Baud rate C=Change Case D=Duplex (echo/no echo) N=Nulls P=Prompting bells on/off V=Video Backspaces Lewis Moseley, CBBS/Atlanta, has done this. Thus the number of options in the "primary" menu drops by 5چ (delete 6, add 1 (U)). I instead just grouped the commands together when you type "?",چ so you see the 6 major functions, then the other ones. A bitچ more clear than just presenting all commands in alphabeticalچ order. ------------- It is our policy, on a 2 disk, single density system, toچ maintain 280 - 320 active messages. Seems OK. Occasionally aچ caller says "get rid of your old messages". Ya, 320 is a lot. چ We "suffer" a lot to see someone at 110 baud doing S;1 - egadچ that takes what, almost a half hour? Some CBBS operators mayچ choose to not even allow 110 baud. Oh yes, special thanks to the S-100 modem companies (Hayes,چ IDS, and PMMI) for really making CBBS practical. We probablyچ wouldn't have tried it with an external modem. P.S. Please excuse redundancy between various .DOC files.