​How are these messages coming from?
by: cr1mson@phatstar.org
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There's something special about telecommunications.  We live in a world now
that more and more people communicate through a device such as a phone or
computer and such.  I feel we express more thoroughly when we communicate
this.  We're not distracted by facial expressions, uncertain words that may
be missed if we don't read it for ourselves.

But how are these messages transferred from one system to another?  One way
is using a FTN.  I don't mean free the nipple. <lolz>  I mean a network
with sending/receiving files from one system to another, spread from a hub,
or a main system, threaded down like a spider web to other systems then
routed back to the hub and so on.

This type of system has to be on-line to keep communication going and these
message packets (files) have to transferred continually, usually within
fifteen to and hour at a time, depending on how each system is setup.

Here we come to binkP, an internet protocol used by Bulletin Board Systems.
We've lightly covered what a BBS is and what it's used for.  One of the
most effective ways is through message networks (or FTNs).

binkP is commonly used with software such as Mystic or Synchronet, either
using BinkD (Linux, Windows(tm) and operating systems) or other software
such as Radius (Windows).  There's a variety out there.  If you run your
own BBS or plan to, it's good to prepare to allow binkP traffic running
through your system.

A message packet is encrypted using file compression to make the file of
a smaller size, copied to other systems then uncompressed and processed by
the mail tosser.  A mail tosser takes this information and translates it
to "post" messages on every system that is correctly setup with this
service.

People love to communicate either verbally, on the phone, the internet or
otherwise.  Get into checking out what's out there and what's available.
It'd be great to get involved with the BBS Scene (community) and help it
grow.  Although BBSes weren't as popular before the explosion of the
internet, we're still around and plan to be for quite awhile longer.  It's
up to us to keep telecommunication going.  Do your part and get involved
today!

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How to plan your BBS...
by: cr1mson@phatstar.org
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You've probably it's good to plan, to think ahead.  That's what we need to
do when we create a BBS.  Think of a theme, something original that's
different than everyone else.  Provide something unique that will bring
people back and calling again.

This task isn't easy.  It takes a lot of thought.  So, you have a thought
in mind.  Design off of that.  You'll also want to plan on which BBS
software you want to run.  Take a look around at other BBSes and see which
one you feel that would make you happy to have as your own, while keeping
your own ideas for your own system.

You've selected the BBS software to run.  Nowdays, a BBS usually runs on
a stock theme.  Some people like stock and some people want to get as far
from stock and make it custom as much as they can and maybe even a little
in between.

Do you want it to look cluttered on your menus?  Probably not.  You know,
like your home, the more space you have to move around, most likely you'll
feel comfortable.  That's how we want these users that call your system to
feel when they visit.  You don't want to make them feel overwhelmed.  For
each menu, make it fit the room in your house.  Such as a living room, you
might want that for entertainment and leisure, a place to hang out.  Then
on another room or menu, you might want to provide something like files
and another with messages.

The art you may have seen on BBSes is usually called ANSI (color coded text)
that is usually built with blocks and sometimes there's ASCII which is just
plain text using characters on your keyboard.  ANSI takes a special tool
called an editor.  There's several out there from TheDraw, ACiDDraw or even
a greater one call Moebius.  Try to create your own screens then take time
to put them in your system.

Always, always read the documentation of your system.  Nothing is more
irritating then asking SysOps so many questions because you're doing
something wrong.  BBS documentation is overfilled with information that
usually has everything you need to know to run a successful BBS.  Try thing
on your own.

Plan ahead, chose a design, a BBS name, your own SysOp alias (a nickname
usually related to the name or design of your BBS).

Also, you may want to add message networks which requires a little bit from
your end as well as the person providing a network.  There's a large variety
of networks out there, try to find a few that fit your taste and look well
and feel well on your system.  This also goes with file distribution
networks.  FDN that provide files as they come in that are hatched out to
everyone that is participating and having those FDNs linked to your system.

Don't get me wrong, it's not to ask questions.  No question is a bad
question.  It's one way to learn right?  Try your best to do as much on your
own as you can.  People notice you right away as being unique if you don't
take other peoples ideas and invent your own style.  Everyone loves a good
style.  The more user-friendly your system is, the more likely your people
that call your system will be able to navigate through your system to find
what they're looking for.  The best idea, is to have them stumble onto
something they haven't seen before and be like, this is awesome, I'll be
back to check this out.

Remember, your BBS is like your home.  Make them feel welcome, offer them
accomidations that is to their liking.  Remember to protect your system by
setting security levels and providing those levels from new user all the
way up to your best friends or other SysOps.  You own your BBS, have
confidence that it will do well.  Keep it fresh, keep things rolling.
People tend to like new content before things get stale.

These are just a few ideas so stylize your BBS.  Make it your own.  Own it.

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What your interest are?
by: cr1mson@phatstar.org
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Now that you know what BBSing is and some of the technology behind it, what
interest you the most when you call a new BBS?  What is it that attracts
you?  If you don't have any knowledge of what a BBS is, I'll keep it simple
and let you know that message areas are like social media, file transfers
are like downloading files (except, with BBS, you can upload and share
too!).  Sharing photos is like Instragram, netmail is like private e-mail.
That's just brushing the surface.  So, what is it that keeps you calling
back to BBS?  Is it the fancy graphics, how slick it looks... the amount
of files on a particular board... the SysOp and community... how reliable
a BBS might be, always be able to connect without much disappointment.  I
suppose you could wrap all this up and get a really nice BBS that could
have the potential to attact a lot of users.  One other thing, do you like
it complex or simple?  Personally, I find too much on one screen to be
overwhelming, but too simple doesn't quite have enough.  So, like every-
thing, we need a good balance.  Menus of different sorts spread out
through the whole board, with good hot-keys to make it easy to navigate
to the part of the BBS you're wanting to get to.  The easy the flow, the
better the experience IMHO.  Everyone is different though, that's what
makes it interesting.  Perhaps we could create themes for a handful of
different types of styles to fit everyones budget, or have one to try to
please everyone.  If you've ever been on a BBS and been a user, you
pretty know already what's available.  Don't forget the games, there's
games on about every BBS... everyone likes a little entertainment and
relaxation.  But don't overdue it.  Make sure you participate in the
messages and make some new friends, get to know each other as a
community... relate to other what they go through, don't be closed
minded to get a little advice or a light on how others do it
differently.  We all come from different parts of the ball park and
we all have special gifts and talents.  This is what makes a BBS
strong is when we come together and make the BBS whole.  A SysOp
can't do it all.  The SysOp runs the show while the users are the
actors you might say, putting on one good play.  Take that in good
like.  Think of it as your favorite film, everyone has a role and
the producer sets the stage.  When the curtains open, it's fair
game for everyone.  So don't hesitate to get on a BBS, take your
time, feel free like your visiting someones home and get involved.
Also, there are files, so don't forget to upload to share with others
so the well doesn't run dry.  Communicate in relay chat and talk
amongst the groups, interact.  BBSes are put here for you, the user
to love and enjoy.

So the question is, what do you like most about BBSing?  What
attracted you when you first started?  Is there anything missing
or is the fire still alive?  I hope whatever it is you're looking
for that you find it, but if you don't find it, create it!

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TextMode - A User's Point of View
by: cr1mson@phatstar.org

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What does a user expect from a BBS?  This might be a question that a SysOp
might want to know to get and keep users calling out to their system.

Let's face it, every user is different and expects something different.

To break it down.  Someone might want to see stock or a customized system.
One might want a complex system or something simple.  A SysOp has to have
the eye of their users.  What appeals to you when you call a system?  Do
you find something that you like especially more than the other in regards
to what to expect?  If you find something boring or uninteresting, would
you put that on your system?  It's likely that you wouldn't because it
doesn't appeal to you, but it might appeal to someone else.

A good option to have would be to have a multi-selection on what you, as
a user would like to see on a BBS.  Some are turned on by a lot of sexy
graphics, while others like it plain and simple black and white.  We could
make it customized which flavor we'd like and a multitude of options to
make it feel at home.  It's like a business, but a business turned inside
out just for the user.

Perhaps, we could say a SysOp owns an apartment complex and within it are
8 different custom furnished apartments.  A user could select which one to
pick, yet speaking electronically, we could have the same apartment look
and feel like another one as a neighbor.  I'm not talking about running
more than one BBS.  I'm speaking of themes.  Themes have been around
awhile, yet I've yet to see a lot of variety of themes available for one
particular BBS.

As a user, I expect quality over quantity.  I like things to look as perfect
as possible, I don't like a lot of clutter.  I can be turned off by a BBS
that's incomplete.  Like I've previously stated: Would you setup a BBS and
watch it flourish from the ground up or build it first, making sure
everything is working and running it properly before you decide to open it
for business.  Typically, with a business, the ground work is already done
and you have a showcase to present to customers.  On another hand, we have
a community, like family.  I love a good community-based system where there
are active members involved with peace and harmony.

What I like most is seeing participation as a community and on a common
goal to keep the BBS scene alive and kicking.  Passion will never be lost.
Once you find something you love and enjoy, it's going to be just that; love
and enjoyment.

A user is a person on the outside looking in.  They look through the windows
to see what's available.  If they don't like what they see, they're not
going to stick around for long; maybe a feedback at most.  So keep in
contact with the community and find out what's shying people away if that's
the case.

Another note, is what is the reputation of the SysOp?  Does he/she keep up
with things on their system; is the SysOp motivated, hard-working,
dependable, pleasant to be around, know how to treat their users?  We all
have different tastes and what appeals.  Get to know the SysOp given the
opportunity.  Time is short my friend.  My goal is to help out as much as I
can with my capabilities and time.

Keep all this in mind as a user.  It's a constant battle of BBSes.  Who
attracts more, has the very best content, supplies the majority of their
users what they want and what they enjoy.  My suggestion as a user is to let
the SysOp know what they're intending to see on the BBS.  What they would
like to see when they called back.  What you see on the BBS is what you get.
It's like a picture worth a thousand words.  You can already get a feel of
what's ahead when visiting.

Keep calling, having them return from time to time is a SysOp's dream; how
to run a successful BBS.  Remember, it takes, sweat, blood and tears to get
a really good BBS going.  Let them know how much they are appreciated.

That's my thought for this article.  I hope you enjoyed it.

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Tips For a Successful BBS
by: cr1mson@phatstar.org

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Before opening up a box of a popular BBS software you've been wanting to
run, keep in mind the responsibilities it takes to keep it going.  It's
difficult this day and age to keep users calling back.  It requires a lot of
time and determination.  It's best to put it on a dedicated machine.  It's
very important that the resources on that machine is solely being used by
the BBS.  You wouldn't believe running the BBS in the background while you
are doing other things might slow down the machine while a caller on-line.
It can be annoying to the user with a fluctuating connection, possibly
slowing things down drastically... it should be a steady, smooth sailing
cruise for them to get what their looking for and possibly increasing the
chance for them to find a little extra that they weren't expecting that
they might enjoy.

Don't let your BBS become stale.  Keep things very exciting and enjoyable
for the user.  I suggest creating a customized system and not one out of
the box.  Consider when buying your car, how you want it to run, how it
looks for others to look at, how fast it runs, all that...

You'll need to setup things like port forwarding for your BBS.  This might
sound complicated at first and might not understand it.  It really isn't
all that difficult.  You have ports inside your gateway or router.  I'm not
talking about the ports that you plug in, but internal customized ports
ranging anywhere around 1 to 65535 for modern equipment; also known as the
firmware.  Say you a user to connect to your BBS on port 1337, you go into
your gateway/router's configuration and look for port forwarding, sometimes
in the security area.  It's possible to forward ALL ports from your machine
for others outside your local network to connect to using DMZ, but it's
suggested that you only forward what you need.  Don't worry, depending on
the software you're running you might forward 1 port up to maybe 20 or 30.
These ports have to be hand programmed in.  Simply put, enter in your local
IP address and the port number to be forwarded.  If you don't know your
local IP address, you can check it using ipconfig or ifconfig.  Google is
your friend, there's plenty of answers out there about that.

Try not to overwhelm your users with a lot of nonsense networks (or dead
networks).  These networks can be messages/files and even door game servers.
There's plenty to explore.  You just basically have to get your feet wet and
jump right into it with both feet once you're serious about it.  Finding the
right BBS software for your users depends on your taste and style.  Look
around on other BBSes and see what they run; your favorites.  You might see
a lot of flashy ANSI graphics you wish you had on your BBS.  That'll come
with time and providing proof that your serious about the BBS scene and all
that it has to offer.  Think through what you'd like on your BBS and what
you want your users to see.  After all, it's like having guests in your
house, so you need to design your home and keep it clutter-free when you
have visits.  Think of things that are unique about your new BBS.  Something
you won't find a lot of on most BBSes.  Reach out to other BBS SysOps.
Also, spice things up a bit, alternate your screens around at random could
provide it being more interesting.  Some like change and some like things
the same as they are.  Like, if it's broke, don't try to fix it.

Don't to ask others too much for help as this is a distraction and an
indication that you're being lazy.  There's plenty of information on the
web about vintage and modern BBS software (whichever direction you want to
go).  Now days, software has pretty much all the foundation and ground work
already in place.  If you're up for a challenge, try using older software
on an older machine and see if you can get others to connect; such as Amiga
or Atari.  

It takes a serious person about their property (your BBS) to attract others.
Also, you want it to always be Have very limited amount of downtime.  Always
keep your system running.  If you need to, customize and configure your BBS
before going public with it.  It just depends on how quick you want to get
in the pool and starting to learn (if you haven't ever been a SysOp before).
Don't give up on your first, second, who knows how many tries.

The goal here is one common purpose and that's to keep it alive.  You know
the most successful people have had the most failures because they kept at
what they were trying to accomplished until it clicked.  Once you get it,
you get it.  It might not happen overnight and you know that Rome wasn't
built in day.  Build and they will come they say.  Keep in mind, a business
has no business if it's closed.

I hope you find this article to your liking and gives you an idea of how to
start one.  I haven't covered everything.  There is so much more that you
can do for your new system.  Try learning a new programming such as MPL,
PHP, JavaScript among a lot other languages.

Talk to other users, find out what they like.  Don't be pushy on others as
they have just as many rights as you do.  If you don't get what you want
when you want, it's most likely whoever you're trying to contact is busy
and/or might not have the time for a quick response.  Please have patience
as this is a computer tech hobby.  Well, with that, it's a wrap. ;)

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​The Legion RPG Project
by: cr1mson@phatstar.org

The feeling I had when I first started with the Legion RPG wasn't expected to go live.

I started the project back around 2015 (maybe earlier); time fades like a vapor when
it comes to time with me.  Time flies, days, months, years go by just enjoying doing
what I do.  I don't care to keep track of time all that often.  I'm usually in a hurry to get
to work or to get home to do what I do.

I started learning C++ by a few books to look up for reference.  It took great
programs like Visual Studio (tm) and Code::Blocks (tm), debugging, running it,
getting an error and fix the error until I got something working.  A lot of
time and frustrations, but it didn't stop me.  As time went on, it didn't
matter what it took.  I take technology passionately with a serious/play time
mentality.  I feel like a kid in a candy store when I get something working.
I basically just winged it for the longest time, without any guide or layout
of what I was going to do with it.  I pieced it together like you would a
term paper.  Coding is like writing, just putting the write pieces in the
right places.

Now that I have a beta release, I sent it off to Door Party and was
immediately accepted for that server to host a beta test.  It feels
pretty good that I got so much attention with this project.  My wish
is to get feedback and bug reports to make it more fun, playable and
enjoyable (all with the same meaning?) for everyone.  Another server
is BBSLink; at the date of this article hasn't been fully hooked up yet.
I have great faith it will.  If it can be accomplished, I will get it done
by trial and error or from past experience.

I encourage anyone with a passion for BBS scene door games to start writing
one.  It's a long, long road to get it mastered (I've yet to even come to
expert?), but it's well worth it.  You've got to find a place where it has a
lot of publicity for those to enjoy it.  For the longest time, I've wanted
to run it as IBBSing, creating packets.  Now I feel that is just the old
method of doing it.  Why not just run it locally or on a game server.
Game packets the way are too complicated for new comers to the BBS scene and
 it's encouraged to get something off the ground without a lot of
procrastination and hesitation to get past this point.

If you haven't played Legion RPG v0.7.4a (at the date of this article, I
encourage you to visit a BBS that is hosting it.  It's an D&D (tm) type of
game where you fight mobs, wonder territory trying to survive.  The ultimate
goal is to find the demonic possessed Legion and free his spirit of evil
spirits.

Then, now and always will be...
by: cr1mson@phatstar.org

​When I started BBSing back in the early 90's on a TRS-80 I had no idea what
I was doing, much like how people that try to do new things.  It's a
learning process.  Without prior experience with technology I was on my way
to do something until this day.

Around 1996, I started Stepping Stone BBS on my parent's land-line running
only late at night; as I couldn't afford to run my own land-line as I was
an early teen just wanting to do something amazing.

Later on, I received an e-mail from someone I did not know requesting that
I setup a Tradewars 2002 server for her friends and herself.  So I set it
up; that was in December of 2009.  10 years later, I've switched between
Synchronet and Mystic as well as between Windows and Linux (Ubuntu
respectively).  Many times I had to start from scratch or pull old data
from one system to another.

It's been quite a journey from the beginning, the mid-times and until the
current date.  My hope is that BBSing won't become obsolete and will be
here for many decades to come.

During my journey I learned to develop my own door game Legion RPG written
in C++ that I ported myself between Windows, Linux and RPi in 32-bit and 64-
bit.  The door has come a long way and before long it may even appear on
game servers such as BBSLink and Door Party.

I encouraging anyone interested in the BBS scene to jump on BBSes and apply
for access before running one of your own.  If you find the desire and
motivation to build your own, I suggest you find a piece of software you
like the most, stick with it, design and customize it to its potential.
Also to mention to keep things active just as you would see in a store.
Don't hesistate to move around a few things, make new designs... keep the
audiences attention.  If you're up to the task and take it serious and can
provide time into this investment, you won't regret it.