Newsgroups: comp.bbs.waffle
Subject: Re: Offline Readers
From: mbm@pinn.nacjack.gen.nz (Bernadette Mooney)
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 93 15:58:45 +1200
Organization: The Pinnacle Club BBS, Auckland, New Zealand. +64-9-631-5382

stanley@skyking.OCE.ORST.EDU (John Stanley) writes:

> In article <PPwVwB2w165w@twiki.PDX.COM> dalew@twiki.PDX.COM (Dale Weber) writ
> >larry@Birdsong.Suvl.CA.US (Lawrence T. Hardiman) writes:
> >> Maybe I miss the point of what you had in mind for an "offline mail and ne
> >> reader". If it is not Waffle itself, then what is it?
> 
> >  It's something that *users* of a Waffle BBS can use to pack up and allow
> >them to download their current mail and news from newsgroups they subscribe
> >to.  A lot of people just don't want to go to the trouble of setting up
> >Waffle, 
> 
> It isn't that hard.
> 
It isn't THAT hard, but a many of (my) users are locked into their own
favourite systems - be it OS/2, Windows, games for ever, or whatever - 
and really don't have the interest or the time or the space for Waffle in 
their lives.  That may be why they use *my* Waffle?
 
> >finding a mail/news feed,
> 
> They already have a news/mail feed. If they don't, just who are they
> calling to read mail and news online? 
> 
We have a different situation here in Auckland.  There are well over 100 
BBSs, several of which offer Usenet news/mail facilities, more have 
Fidonet, INTLnet, other nets of choice, and each of which has their own 
particular atmosphere and 'target audience'.  There are at least three 
very active systems that have 'home-brew' software, the authors of which 
have made their own message bases .QWK compatible;  these three in 
particular have useful, varied and active local message areas.  The 
availablitity of an off-line reader compatible among systems, is seen as 
being such an advantage that it is listed by request in the regular BBS 
listings produced here.  
 
> > and polling their host site to pick stuff up.  
> 
> They have to call to pick up the offline stuff anyway, and they are
> already calling to get it online. Waffle has the capability to poll
> automatically, so they will actually have to do LESS "polling".
> 
> As additional benefits of running their own Waffle site, they get their
> own private address under which they can give accounts to others. They
> get their mail and news delivered automatically, preserved on their own
> system where they can do with it what they want. They can edit the
> headers of mail and news to perform whatever functions that the Waffle
> on someone else's system will not allow them to do as mere users.
> 
Not everybody who uses a bulletin board, or who reads Usenet news on 
line, has the hardware to set up their own Waffle system.  My own BBS 
serves dumb terminals, Amigas, C64's, Archimedes, and there's probably a 
few Ataris and Apples out there, too.  Many computer types support the 
.QWK format, for all its faults - it would be _extremely_ useful if there 
was a .QWK format reader available for Waffle.
 
> Offline mail and news readers are a subset of what Waffle already does.
> It makes no sense to go into the hardware store and refuse to buy a
> prepackaged set of 8 screwdrivers because you only want one when both
> cost the same amount.
> 
It makes no sense to go into a hardware store and buy a prepackaged set 
of 8 screwdrivers, when what you really want is a hammer, a screwdriver, 
a spanner and an axe - or even just the case to keep them in.  :-)
 
Forgive the verbosity... My users have had Waflinemail available to them 
for nearly a year - in spite of not being able to use Email with it, and 
in spite of having to secure the system against the holes in Wafmail.  
Yesterday, after Wafmail had locked up the whole system three times ina 
row, I reluctantly made it unavailable...  We miss it!   
 
Please, would somebody write something like Wafmail that is 
.QWK-compatible, and will work with Waffle V1.65?  

BCNU.....B.         Bernadette Mooney  at  IFNA 3:772/115
The Pinnacle Club BBS                  or  Demi-monde 199:310/50/0
Auckland  New Zealand +64 9 631-5382   or  mbm@pinn.nacjack.gen.nz