From: max@west.darkside.com (Max Pandaemonium)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
Subject: Re: Universal Comment to the Sysop
Summary: Feh!
Date: 10 Apr 92 19:01:28 GMT
Organization: The Dark Side of the Moon +1 408 245 SPAM

> From: kudut@hamp.hampshire.edu
> Subject: Universal Comment To the Sysop
>
>         1) Please respond to each "Comment To Sysop".
>  
> I realize that you are quite busy at times, but I'd like it if you could
> do this for us.

I'm an operator on a BBS in Sunnyvale, CA with over 2000 users.  It's 
a simple fact of economics that we can't answer the twenty to thirty 
messages that we get in feedback to the detail that you'd like.  
Requests for validation, for instance, get honored, but we can't go 
thruogh and reply to each and every user.

> . . . We don't usually write a comment to you unless we feel
> that it is something you should know or can help us with.

This is basically a false statement.  A solid quarter of the messages 
we get in feedback are utter garbage.  They were either nothing more 
than "Hello" or blatant, BIFF-like "GIVE ME ACCESS!" demands.  I'm 
sorry.  We've just got too much to sort through.

> . . . When I write
> a comment to you and don't get a response, I feel worthless and cheated.
> Even a smily face ( a :) or :-) ) along with a piece of my comment is
> usually enough to make me happy.

Generally, users who express intelligence get validated quickly and 
get meaningful replies.  But if we replied to every single feedback 
message in any kind of detail, we'd still be sorting through the 
feedback from January.

>         2) Make your Login Screens, Bulletins and Menus abortable.
>         3) Keep your News and Bulletins up to date.

I agree with you completely on these points.

> Files that are in the New Uploads section for more than Four Months are
> no longer new, you know.  Every couple of days spend a half-hour moving
> the files to the right places.

As someone already pointed out, I believe, many new versions are 
crippled versions of the software -- and so the older versions are 
more useful.  Also, many new versions have major bugs; if you delete 
the older versions, you're stuck with having a program on your BBS 
that doesn't work.

When you've got thousands of files available for download, it's just 
plain too hard to find duplicates.  Yes, the program can check if they 
try to upload a file with a name similar to something already 
uploaded, but quite often the user ignores the warning and just 
renames it.  The sizes usually aren't exactly the same, and it takes a 
human being to sort through the _entire_ database one file at a time, 
looking at _all the other_ files, looking for suspect-sounding names 
or similar-sized files.  Manual n(n - 1) searches are no fun.

If I come across a duplicate file, or a user points it out to me and I 
confirm it, then I by all means will delete it.  But except for the 
real common ones, I can't spend that much more of my time doing 
something to add maybe 1% to the feel of the system.  Besides, I'd 
have to cut down on answering feedback.  :-)

>         5) Be more careful with ANSI color and IBM graphics (IBM BBS's)

I agree.  Not only that, but I plain find ANSI graphics in BBS menus 
annoying.  If you have, say, a game, which requires cursor 
relocations, that's one thing, but for the average BBS use, I find 
ANSI distasteful.  Our system does not support ANSI.

>         6) Don't forget about your 300 and 1200 bps friends.

Our system, as I pointed out before, has over 2000 users.  Almost all 
of them call at 2400 baud.  We still support 300 and 1200 baud 
callers, but are very reluctant to do so.  Look at it from our point 
of view:  Our system is very, very busy.  A person who logs on at 300 
takes roughly eight times longer to do the same things as someone at 
2400.  That's cutting into other peoples' time to.

Here's one way of looking at it:  If I'm willing to put up the capital 
to run _my_ system, then you can get a better modem to call _my_ 
system!

>         8) Post on your message boards/bases/discussion places.

I agree that operator interaction is very important to keep a BBS 
alive.

>        10) Try something UNIQUE!  Maybe write a newsletter!

This is _unique_?  Something went right past me, there . . .

>         12) Install an Offline Mail Reader Door.

Hard to do when one hasn't been written yet.

>         13) Have fun!

This, perhaps, is the most important of your points.

----------
Max Pandaemonium   Omnia quia sunt, lumina sunt.  Coming soon:  UNIVERSE _ | _
USmail:  1070 Oakmont Dr. #1 San Jose CA 95117  ICBM:  37 20 N  121 53 W _>|<_
UUCP:  ..!apple!uuwest!max   Usenet:  max@west.darkside.com   464E4F5244   |