HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: berger@atropa (Mike Berger)
Subject: BBS Trial
Summary: Want BBS software to evaluate.
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 17:20:00 GMT
Keywords: bbs new test evaluate

I have a "spare" PC that I use for testing network software,
miscellaneous boards and disks, etc.  It's a 8 MHz AT.  I
can equip it with a SCSI disk (100 - 200 MB) and 8-port
DigiBoard - I have those items on hand.  I'd like to evaluate
BBS software to see if it would be worthwhile to use the 
equipment for that purpose, but I don't want to invest any
money in it as a BBS at this time.

Is there any BBS software that is available for free or low 
cost that is worthwhile?  Networking in the future would be
desirable, and anything that can co-exist with my local ethernet
is a plus.
--
	Mike Berger
	Department of Statistics, University of Illinois
	AT&TNET     217-244-6067
	Internet    berger@atropa.stat.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
From: sandy@godzilla.quotron.com (Sanford Zelkovitz)
Subject: Re: TBBS/TDBS/UNIX - Price of a BBS
Organization: Quotron Systems, Inc.
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 13:13:20 GMT

In article <1992Sep10.223015.28143@unixland.natick.ma.us> bill@unixland.natick.ma.us (Bill Heiser) writes:
>larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes:
>
>>>Run up to 16 users
>>>Allow the use of a database system of some sort
>>>Be inexpensive to maintain
>>>Be inexpensive to set-up
>>>Be inexpensive to upgrade
>
>>The cost of the UNIX (as low as $495) and using free software.
>>The user also gets:
>>nfs, tcp-ip, support for unlimited users, support for the execution
>>of UNIX, XENIX and DOS applications by any user connected to the system
>>hmmm -- 1999.99 -- a tad bit expensive
>>check this out:
>>     o New Pricing -- A new price schedule is available for Dell UNIX 2.2, 
>>       complete system available for as little as $495 US.  (Reference the
>>       end of this document for complete pricing)
>
>Larry, that is misleading.  The $495 is no-doubt only a 2-user license.
>NOT 16 users!
>

Bill....

Actually, if I am not mistaken, the $495 price is when you buy it with a 
Dell computer! The actual price for Dell Unix is much more. It turns out that
Dell costs more than Esix, if you purchase it without a Dell computer.

>[LONG diatribe about dell stuff deleted]
>-- 
>bill@unixland.natick.ma.us                      ESIX Mailing List Moderator
>Public Access UNIX/USENET/E-MAIL!  UUCP Accounts Available!  (508) 655-3848
>5 lines  -  Located in Natick, MA   USA    Supporting V.32/PEP/V.42bis, etc.



Sanford <sandy> Zelkovitz


-- 
Sanford <sandy> Zelkovitz            XBBS
Voice: (714)821-9670   Data and FAX: (714)821-9671
....uunet!pride386!alphacm!sandy
sandy@smftst.Quotron.com (130.224.26.12)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold)
Subject: Re: TBBS limitations
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 17:28:43 GMT

11458747@eng2.eng.monash.edu.au (CHRISTIAN WILSON) writes:
>So does it really behave itself? i.e. can you give any sort of performance 
>examples? I think that that would be a definite plus because you obviously 
>don't have to run a copy of tbbs for every line and if it does behave itself 
>that's excellent!

Well, the big loss is that OS/2 requires a certain level of computer,
so that the big advantage of running 8 lines off of a turbo XT with
640K and a 32 meg hard drive goes away - now you need at least a 386
with 8 megs and 80 MB.  But if you want to, the best way to do it is
run OS/2 in a VDM, then highly tune the system settings so that the
BBS doesn't run jerkily.  You'll want to get the latest COM drivers
(commga.zip) which allow an application direct access to a comm port
if you're using a DigiBoard.  Modems that were using 16450s instead of
16550 loaded the system down too much when there were several of them.
I just did it to see if it could be done, I didn't run it long enough
to see how it performed over the long haul.
-- 
I expect that woman will be the last thing civilized by man.
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
From: randy@psg.com (Randy Bush)
Subject: Re: Fidonet sux, fee for access. (was Sad to say...)
Keywords: Fidonet
Organization: Pacific Systems Group, Portland Oregon, US
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 04:07:38 GMT

larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes:
>> That's because Larry charges for news and mail feeds, which most people give
>> away for free.
> does uunet give them away for free?  How about uupsi?  
> usually those who offer reliable feeds charge.  Those one want a reliable
> feed, usually don't mind paying

Your short time on the net is showing, Larry.  Take a look at Brian's
connectivity stats and notice how few of the top 100 charge.

randy (one who doesn't)
-- 
randy@psg.com   ...!uunet!m2xenix!randy
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
From: ST21519@VM.CC.LATECH.EDU
Subject: Re: Sad to say...
Organization: LOUISIANA TECH UNIVERSITY
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 92 21:14:53 CST

>That sort of answers my question above, but are some of the machines
>on these OtherNets have hard/soft links to FidoNet as well?
 
Some of the other Fidonet technology Domains have links to Fidonet.  Some of
the gates are on a local level and I know of a few by way of word of mouth.
The only Fidonet techology network that enjoys a position in the Fidonet
nodelist which is easy to find since it is at the top, is RBBSNet.  They enjoy
gateways in North America and Europe.
Xref: sparky alt.bbs:5726 comp.bbs.misc:879
From: davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
Subject: Re: Sad to say...
Date: 9 Sep 92 13:01:37 GMT
Organization: Aegis Society, Kyoto Japan

larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes:

>davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:

>>One of the reasons I got VPIX for my UNIX system was to allow the
>>possibility of running a Fidonode under its DOS emulation. I believe
>>Dave Hughes in Colorado a UNIX/Fido setup so I'm pretty sure it can
>>be done.... 

>or as pointed out earlier, you could run rfmail under UNIX
>to allow for direct support for fidonet under UNIX.  We at
>one time were running rfmail -- but after maybe 6 months decided
>fidonet wasn't worth the effort..

I never actually set it up as nobody in the local area was
interested in a link. There are quite a few Fido nodes in Tokyo,
though.

When you say it wasn't worth the effort, how come? Technical problems
like buggy programs? Network problems like uncooperative hosts?
Fight-o-Net social problems (like you often mention :-)

Inquiring minds want to know....

Dave

--
Dave McLane 
JUNET: davidg@aegis.or.jp (ONLY within Japan: post otherwise)
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
From: jpr@jpradley.jpr.com (Jean-Pierre Radley)
Subject: Re: Nixpub meaning
Organization: Unix in NYC
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 16:21:48 GMT

In article <Btz935.1Cv@gator.rn.com> larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes:
>kd1hz@anomaly.sbs.risc.net (Michael P. Deignan) writes:
>
>>"Open Access UNIX (*NIX) Sites [ Fee/No Fee] for mapped sites only"
>
>Right there answers the question --
>
>it doesn't say Minix
>it doesn't say Lunix
>it doesn't say Linux
>it doesn't say QNX
>it doesn't say Coherent
>it doesn't say DOS
>
>It says UNIX.  If it doesn't say UNIX, it should not be included
>in the list.   Real UNIX is UNIX, not some variation.  If it doesn't
>have the AT&T/USL Copyright, then I guess it isn't UNIX.

It also says (*NIX), but I guess that your neurons cannot do wildcard
expansion...

-- 
Jean-Pierre Radley   Unix in NYC   jpr@jpr.com   jpradley!jpr   CIS: 72160,1341
From: hermit@cats.UCSC.EDU (William R. Ward)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
Subject: Big Brother BBS policies
Date: 10 Sep 92 19:02:39
Organization: Computing and Telecommunications Services, UCSC
NNTP-Posting-Host: am.ucsc.edu


I've noticed that on a lot of BBS's, the sysops tend to go through a
lot of effort to identify users.  Things like auto-callback, extremely
limited access, requiring real names, etc. all strike me as overly
nosy.

Can someone please give me a good justification for such activities?
I just can't see why it's necessary.  If a user won't quit being
annoying, then just boot them.  If they make a new account, boot them
again.  Eventually they'll go somewhere else.  At least that's been my
experience, in the last six years or so of using free-access systems.

There is an alternative to this "big brother" way of doing things.
Several boards in my area (including my own) operate on the principle
that a person should be able to get full access as quickly as
possible, since the vast majority of users are *not* harrassing
callers or obnoxious twits.  It's the small minority that's the
problem, but most people are just fine.

I don't require real names, phone numbers, or anything like that.
Just enter the alias you want to use, your password, and the name you
use for UUCP mail (since the BBS allows long names that include spaces
and punctuation, while UUCP doesn't, you have two separate
"names"--the UUCP name is automatically generated from the BBS name,
and then you are asked to approve the default or enter your own).
That's it.  Two access levels: user and sysop.  No time limits (though
there is a ten-minute idleout), no restrictions on posting or email.

These boards do not have file uploads/downloads, so that does help
make the situation simpler, and there is no "porno section" or
whatever, so there's no need to make sure someone's over 18.

I don't understand why more BBS's don't follow this kind of guideline.
For one thing, it makes setting up an account so simple there's no
challenge in it, which is a deterrent in itself, I think.  In the last
six years, there have been two "annoying users" in this particular BBS
community--both were eventually kicked off or lost their posting
privileges.  One of them tried using another name, and after an overly
long (IMHO) time period, the sysop kicked them off.  [I'm talking
about XBBS, the tree-structured system in Santa Cruz CA here, and the
"repeat offender" now haunts alt.sex as rstevew@deeptht.armory.com]

I'm interested in what other sysops think of this policy.

One reason it might work for our BBS's is that the systems are
tree-structured, which is a little more complicated to learn than a
simple flat system such as is the norm in the BBS world, which means
that some people might just get intimidated and not bother making a
pain of themselves.

--
William R Ward                       Bay View Software
VoiceMail: +1 (408) 479-4072         Internet:  hermit@cats.ucsc.edu
SnailMail: 1803 Mission St. #339     BITNet:    hermit@cats.bitnet
           Santa Cruz CA 95060 USA
From: murph@buscard.fidonet.org (Brian Murphy)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
Subject: Re: Shame on Fidonet
Date: 12 Sep 92 14:59:44 GMT
Reply-To: murph@buscard.fidonet.org (Brian Murphy)
Organization: The Business Card (BBS), Lawrence, MA - Data: 508-682-5329

> cblaise@moose.uvm.edu.UUCP (Chris Blaise) writes:
> 
> >If we don't like what our admin
> >is doing, we tell him so and he doesn't "get back" at us.  A few weeks ago
> >someone very verbally complained that they had not received a node number
> >for about a month.  He probably said it more abusively than he needed to,
> >and because of that, had I been in our administator's shoes, I might not
> >have reacted as favorably and responsively as he did.

I can understand that but the problem is that administrators _are_ human and
_do_ have the power to not react as "favorably and responsively" as they
should.  Administrators have a responsibility to the nodes they serve and if
they can't handle it, they should step aside and let someone else do it.  The
administrator you mention did indeed screw up.  He got hit for it - hard,
unfortunately.  The administrator should have performed the appropriate
keystroke to delete the message or move on to the next one and then set about
the business of fixing the problem.

Being an administrator is nothing more than an ego trip.  It is, after all,
work.  If someone else thinks they can do the same work for the same pay, I
can't understand why someone would want to continue as an administrator and
take that kind of grief while not being paid for it.  Unless, of course, there
are other perks like power, glory, bossing people around...  get the pix?
Ego-massaging is a powerful reward where many aspire to it but fail to pay the
price in hard work and taking the occasional flame/hit graciously.

                         Your friend in Lawrence, Massachusetts...
                                      - - - Murph

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   The Business Card (BBS), Lawrence, Massachusetts - Data: (508) 682-5329
   SysAdmin:  murph@buscard.fidonet.org / ...!ulowell!wizvax!buscard!murph
Xref: sparky alt.bbs:5754 comp.bbs.misc:889
From: leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs,comp.bbs.misc
Subject: Re: Is BBS the correct name?
Keywords: BBS jargon, semantics, growth, info systems
Date: 7 Sep 92 15:33:57 GMT
Reply-To: 70465.203@compuserve.com
Organization: SCN Research/Qic Laboratories of Tigard, Oregon.

elendil@mintir.new-orleans.la.us (Edward J. Branley) writes:

>sac@Apple.COM (Steve Cisler) writes:

>> I'd like to hear from BBS sysops and others about what
>> the limits are tothe definition or an electronic bulletin
>> board system.
>>
>> Is there a size limit? I am aware of huge systems that still
>> call themselves a BBS, irrespective of disk space or number
>> of lines coming in.

>Not to my knowledge.  I know folks who run large, multi-line systems who are
>quite proud of their 10-20 lines, and still think of their systems in the same
>manner as the one-line guys.  There was a time a few years ago that folks were
>getting into the 'I've got more disk space for files than you do' stuff, but I
>don't see as much of that as I used to.  With the proliferation of BBS nets,
>there's been a lot of specialization.  You've got the guy who runs the online
>games system, the guy with the multi-line chat board, the guy with the 1 gig
>hard drive and all the latest shareware, etc.  They're all tied in (more or
>less) nowadays through the nets, so they complement each other instead of
>compete with each other.

Also, a lot of "milestones" occured a *lot* earlier than generally supposed.
For instance, the first multiline BBS I know of was up in the Summer of 81!
It was running on a HP-3000 belonging to the county. It had been used for
teaching Basic at the community colleges (and lord only knows what else), but itwas going to be taken out of service that fall, and the "normal users" had
pretty much abandoned it. A high school student got permission to run a 
"homebrew" BBS program (written in HP's timesharing BASIC) on it.

So from June thru about October we had multiple lines and even a crude
"talk" program. 

I vote for "attitude" being the determining factor.
-- 
Leonard Erickson		      leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com
CIS: [70465,203]			 70465.203@compuserve.com
FIDO:   1:105/51	 Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org
(The CIS & Fido addresses are preferred)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
From: larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder)
Subject: Re: TBBS is very limited
Organization: The Gator Public Access Unix Site - 219-289-3745
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 20:18:24 GMT

rjus@uonline.com (ren_just) writes:

>base TBBS/TDBS product isn't the cheapest thing around.  But, let's start talking about the support down the road and how much it costs.  How much did you
>spend for you last UNIX upgrade?  Or better yet, how much are you paying

$100

>for technical support of your UNIX system?  All of those wonderful add-on

nothing

-- 
Larry Snyder                                    internet: larry@gator.rn.com
keeper of the Gator                                  uucp: uunet!gator!larry
From: rtravsky@news.uwyo.edu (Rich Travsky)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
Subject: FAQ List?
Date: 13 Sep 92 13:27:23 MST
Distribution: world
Organization: Banzai Institute

Is there an faq list for this group? If so, where my I locate it?

 Tia,

Richard Travsky
Division of Information Technology     RTRAVSKY @ CORRAL.UWYO.EDU
University of Wyoming                  (307) 766 - 3663 / 3668
Xref: sparky alt.bbs:5780 comp.bbs.misc:903 comp.misc:3623
From: pjlahaie@pinetree.org (Paul JY Lahaie)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs,comp.bbs.misc,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Coherent Re: The bogus Nixpub Posting
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 92 18:46:03 EDT
Organization: Gordon's Pinetree * Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

jwiegand@moe.eng.temple.edu () writes:

> *bzzzt!* AT&T/USL owns Unix- just ask MIT, CMU, and BSDI. What people
> *think* it is doesn't matter as long as someone owns a name and vigourously
> defends that ownership. Cannon doesn't sell xerox machines, they sell
> copiers. Linux must not be confused with a commercial product if it is to
> remain free.
> ps. It is a shame that IBM didn't trademark DOS, isn't it?
> 

   And if you also follow att.suit (or something like that) you'll notice 
that a trademark must be capatialized.  In other words, AT&T can 
trademark UNIX, but it's doubtful if Unix could be trademarked.  Also, 
many people have brought up the point of Unix now being used as a noun, 
if so, U.S. legislation cannot be used to trademark Unix.  And if you 
really want to get technical, you could say Linux is a Un[i-i]x clone.  
And CMU and BSDI have removed their code *in case* AT&T wins.  If AT&T 
can pull off their intellectual property bullshit is left to be seen.  
Also, I'm not too familiar with this aspect of the law, but what if it 
stated that UNIX is a trademark of AT&T?  Linux is a clone of UNIX.  It 
won't run UNIX binaries, but it looks and feels like it.  UNIX is a 
trademark of AT&T.
 
                                                   - Paul

--
  Internet: pjlahaie@pinetree.org (Paul JY Lahaie)
  UUCP: pinetree!pjlahaie
  Gordon's Pinetree -- Ottawa, ON, Canada -- +1 613 526 0702 -- v.32bis/v.42bis
From: 00cchall@bsu-ucs.uucp (NoWhere BBS (317) 285-7441)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
Subject: *** ChaelBoard 2.18 BBS Package ***
Date: 7 Sep 92 00:31:57 GMT



     I just mailed off all nine parts of CB218.ZIP to the moderator of
comp.binaries.ibm.pc.  It's the latest unregistered version of ChaelBoard,
a BBS package that I've written for MS-DOS based machines.  If you are
interested, please download it and try it out.  Any questions or problems
can be posted here or sent to one of the E-mail addresses below.  This is
a system written for the type of people who still believe in a small,
personalized system.  It will go multi-node and has all of the features of
popular systems.  The only differences are that it's pretty new and doesn't
have a wide installed base of customers.

     Thanks for trying it,

          Chael Hall

iuvax!bsu-cs!nowhere
00CCHALL@LEO.BSU.EDU
00CCHALL@BSUVAX1.BITNET
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
From: larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder)
Subject: Re: TBBS limitations
Organization: The Gator Public Access Unix Site - 219-289-3745
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1992 15:50:40 GMT

rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) writes:

>No editor, no quoting, and now this.  It does run under OS/2, I've
>done it.  There's no native OS/2 version, obviously, but TBBS most
>certainly runs under OS/2, meaning it doesn't monopolize the machine.

I called eSoft and was told no.  TBBS doesn't work under and isn't
supported under OS2.


-- 
Larry Snyder                                    internet: larry@gator.rn.com
keeper of the Gator                                  uucp: uunet!gator!larry
From: larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
Subject: Re: looking for a window or windows based Waffle usenet reader
Date: 14 Sep 92 12:07:06 GMT
Organization: The Gator Public Access Unix Site - 219-289-3745

bazelman@pcs.uucp (Rudy Bazelmans) writes:

>I just started using waffle and I love it but I am not at all thrilled
>with the news reader.  

>Does anyone know of any window-based or MS/Windows-based news
>reader that is compatible with waffle usenet groups?

what we (the world) needs is a full screen GNU like usenet news/email
interface for DOS (or OS2) -- with pop up windows, etc..  and supports
ethernet (TCP/IP).

   

-- 
Larry Snyder                                    internet: larry@gator.rn.com
keeper of the Gator                                  uucp: uunet!gator!larry
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
From: larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder)
Subject: Re: Fidonet sux, fee for access. (was Sad to say...)
Keywords: Fidonet
Organization: The Gator Public Access Unix Site - 219-289-3745
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 21:43:13 GMT

davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:

>larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes:

>IMHO this is kind of really irresponsible remark that lends to the
>bickering that's been raising the noise to signal ratio around here. 

that is the type of garbage that randy likes to start

>free, usenet and email site within my daughters local dialing area.
>I tested it out and found I could send mail to my home machine for
>nothing!  But, uuhhh, it only took about 10-20 calls to get through
>the busy signals and mail took 3 day to get there. I set her up with
>a TYMNET link and over which she calls Japan directly and it gets
>charged to my VISA card. 

Try that with Fidonet -- first off, you have to have netmail credit
posted to one machine, then you have to have enough machines set up
as a relay to answer the phones.   Internet is much more efficient
regardless of what Randy comes back with

Fidonet is operated out of garages and basements, while usenet for the most
part is operated by corporate america and universities.

Don't forget, Fidonet is called the amateur network for a reason!

-- 
Larry Snyder                                    internet: larry@gator.rn.com
keeper of the Gator                                  uucp: uunet!gator!larry
From: larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs.unixbbs
Subject: Re: Where can I try the UNIXBBS?
Date: 14 Sep 92 12:37:26 GMT
Organization: The Gator Public Access Unix Site - 219-289-3745

hch@NCTUCCCA.edu.tw (Huang Chih-Hsien) writes:

>I would like to have a try on UNIXBBS.  Is there any public access
>BBS available on Internet with UNIXBBS system?  I will appreciate
>any information.

You'll be able to get to us shortly (give it a week)

then try "telnet gator.com"

login as bbs for unixbbs
      or waffle for a hacked version of waffle


-- 
Larry Snyder                                    internet: larry@gator.rn.com
keeper of the Gator                                  uucp: uunet!gator!larry
Newsgroups: alt.bbs.unixbbs
From: marc@r-node.gts.org (Marc Fournier - Sys Admin)
Subject: Re: BBS software for Coherent
Organization: R-node Public Access UNIX System (416-249-5366) 24hrs.
Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1992 14:30:54 GMT

In article <1992Sep3.231021.27236@unixland.natick.ma.us> bill@unixland.natick.ma.us (Bill Heiser) writes:
>opus@pioneer.unm.edu (Colby Kraybill) writes:
>>Calling things "real unix" and not "real unix" is rather like entering the
>>"Your computer isn't a real computer" debate...
>
>Well, strictly speaking, not that this has anything to do with alt.bbs.unixbbs,
>but "real unix" is probably only AT&T code.  Maybe BSD too?

Strictly speaking, I will agree with this...except that 'real unix' 
probably does not include BSD even...pure, unstrained AT&T code
only...guess not many people are running 'real unix', eh?  How
about you Larry...are you running AT&T?

Marc
-- 
Marc G. Fournier      | R-node Public Access Unix running UnixBBS 1.03
Etobicoke, Ontario    | 416-249-5366   24hrs 7 days/week   network email
voice: 249-4230       | shell/feed accounts available   1800+ newsgroups
marc@r-node.pci.on.ca | Telebit T3000/SupraModem2400/Cardinal 2400  FREE
Newsgroups: alt.bbs.unixbbs
From: hch@NCTUCCCA.edu.tw (Huang Chih-Hsien)
Subject: Where can I try the UNIXBBS?
Organization: Campus Computer Communication Association(CCCA), NCTU, Taiwan
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 00:45:42 GMT

Hi:

I would like to have a try on UNIXBBS.  Is there any public access
BBS available on Internet with UNIXBBS system?  I will appreciate
any information.

Thanks.
----
Huang, Chih-Hsien
Campus Computer Communication Association Vice President
National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
hch@NCTUCCCA.edu.tw

Newsgroups: alt.bbs.unixbbs