g00r00, I don't want to e-mail you, but check this out, and here's a chance
to get other sysops' input on this concept:

The main thing that people get out of a BBS is "Scanning for new messages." That's the best part of BBSing, in my opinion. Anyway, Suppose you're
scanning for new messages, and you reach a message base where there are new messages - you will read/reply them, and at the end, it will ask you "Do you want to post a message in "BBS Discussion?" Yes/No <- That's awesome, because it gives the user a chance to think about it for a sec: "Hmm, yea, I'll post
a new message in that base right now.."

But what about all those other bases, that ARE toggled to "YES" in their scan settings, but they don't contain any new messages? It would be productive to prompt the user on each base, regardless of whether or not there are new messages in that base.

Scanning "Agoranet: BBS Discussion" (No new messages)
"Do you want to post a new message in "Agoranet: BBS Discussion?" Yes/No
(NO)
Scanning "Agoranet: Art Discussion" (No new messages)
"Do you want to post a new message in "Agoranet: Art Discussion?" Yes/No
(NO)
Scanning "Agoranet: Cracking/Coding" (No new messages)
"Do you want to post a new message in "Agoranet: Cracking/Coding?" Yes/No
(NO)
Scanning "Agoranet: Metallica Discussion" (No new messages)
"Do you want to post a new message in "Agoranet: Metallica Discussion?" Yes/No (YES - Cuz you'd like to take this op to say how much they fucking suck)

See what I mean? It encourages message posting. As an occasional sysop throughout the years, I've always been psyched about people posting messages
on my BBS. It's what makes most of us tick (probably.)

What do you think? You're god of the BBS software world. All other softwares can fuck off. Just a suggestion from one of your many fans.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (46:1/166)

Hello metalhead,

On 23 Nov 16 22:50, metalhead wrote to g00r00:

g00r00, I don't want to e-mail you, but check this out, and here's a chance to get other sysops' input on this concept:

Emailing him may keep it logged a little longer. He's been on a hiatus for awhile now. Granted, this is also a good approach. :)

But what about all those other bases, that ARE toggled to "YES" in
their scan settings, but they don't contain any new messages? It would
be productive to prompt the user on each base, regardless of whether
or not there are new messages in that base.

While that may be "productive", I don't think that should be a requirement in a
newscan. When you newscan, you want to read the new messages. That is it. Adding the question after said base that you've read the new messages in is one
thing, but adding to every single message base that didn't have new messages in
doesn't really help one to get through a quick scan of new messages.

However, when manually joining a new area and reading messages in said areas, then yes, it should always ask you if you want to post in that area (which I believe it does). Newscanning is meant to be a quick process to bypass the areas that don't have new messages in them. That's why there are other methods to read areas as well, and usually end with asking if you want to post there.

See what I mean? It encourages message posting. As an occasional sysop throughout the years, I've always been psyched about people posting messages on my BBS. It's what makes most of us tick (probably.)

While it might encourage posting, it defeats the purpose of a quick new message
scan. If one were interested in posting in a certain area after reading it, then yes.. prompt them to post there. During a newscan, though.. which to some is an every day process.. asking them to post after every single area (some BBSs have over 200 message areas) can take an ungodly amount of time.

Someone interested enough to start a conversation in an area they're interested
in, will (and should) join the specific area, read old messages there, and get prompted to post something original. I guess the way it currently works has been around for so long I'm just used to it. But I definitely wouldn't want to be prompted to post in every single area on my system if there are no new messages posted. If I want to start a new post in a message area with no new messages, I would gladly do that manually.

Regards,
Nick

... "Не знаю. Я здесь только работаю."
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20160827
* Origin: thePharcyde_ distribution system (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

On 11/23/16, metalhead said the following...

scan settings, but they don't contain any new messages? It would be productive to prompt the user on each base, regardless of whether or not

Maybe in an mpl, or as an option. Personally I wouldn't want it. Between Fidonet, Agoranet, Dornet, Usenet, other networks and a bunch of crap that hasn't been posted in since 2009 I have close to 800 message bases. Wouldn't want to prompt users for all of that <G>

You could always implement a PCR instead or a contest for the top poster
maybe if you have enough users.

-=>Richard Miles<=-
-=>Captain Obvious<=-
-=>bbs.shadowscope.com<=-

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Windows)
* Origin: Shadowscope BBS | bbs.shadowscope.com | Temple, GA (46:1/120)

But I definitely wouldn't want to be prompted to post in every single

It would definitely be a disruption to the classic newscan. It's kind of a
rude way to get people to post more messages.

Now that I think about it more clearly, if anyone wanted to do this, I'm sure it could be whipped together with an MPL script, somehow. I should have
thought about that before throwing it at g00r00, like he's got nothing better to do! I will work on it on my own board & see how it feels.

I appreciate the stuff that people are doing to encourage more message
posting. People are adding new local message bases, which many of us have agreed that we like to see, and now we've got Reuters RSS feeds on Alcoholiday, which helps us think of topics to post about.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (46:1/166)

Maybe in an mpl, or as an option. Personally I wouldn't want it. Between Fidonet, Agoranet, Dornet, Usenet, other networks and a bunch of crap
that hasn't been posted in since 2009 I have close to 800 message bases.

Good point. I have a bad habit of thinking that everyone operates the same
way as me; it would be fine for me since I just have a few local message
bases, but for people with dozens, or hundreds, it would be way to much of a pain to get through a newscan.

You could always implement a PCR instead or a contest for the top poster maybe if you have enough users.

It would be cool to see that. I haven't seen a PCR implemented since the old days.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (46:1/166)

On 11/24/16, metalhead said the following...

It would be cool to see that. I haven't seen a PCR implemented since the old days.

I had this thing for Renegade BBS that I worked up that checked the user's
PCR and if it was crappy, it would give them a bitchy message and then shunt them off to the message bases, bypassing the main menu. I'm sure it annoyed
the crap out of people, but at least it got them thinking about posting
before they went to leech warez.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (46:1/166)

sure it annoyed the crap out of people, but at least it got them
thinking about posting before they went to leech warez.

That's a good trick! I wonder if it would work now, for people who are interested in art packs? (Warez are too much trouble, but you could still
make the art packs something they have to work for!)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (46:1/166)

Hello metalhead,

On 29 Nov 16 00:19, metalhead wrote to Zero Reader:

That's a good trick! I wonder if it would work now, for people who are interested in art packs? (Warez are too much trouble, but you could
still make the art packs something they have to work for!)

I'm sure it could be done on a very small scale. But more sysops would have to get involved with it at the same time. If I were to enforce a PC ratio for downloading artpacks here, someone would easily just see the message that they have to post a couple messages before they download, open up their FTP or web client and hit someone else's BBS (or hell, even any of the websites that offer
up the entire artpack collection) for the same exact file. That part of things definitely isn't like it used to be, so you're probably better off just letting
everything be free, but maybe just limiting how much can be downloaded at one time.. so they don't call once and leech your entire file base, and never call back.

Regards,
Nick

... "Не знаю. Я здесь только работаю."
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20160827
* Origin: thePharcyde_ distribution system (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

On 11/29/16, metalhead said the following...

That's a good trick! I wonder if it would work now, for people who are interested in art packs? (Warez are too much trouble, but you could still make the art packs something they have to work for!)

Man, I intended to just "turn off" file sections altogether. I hadn't shown
the file areas any love, but a few users here started uploading good stuff
and basically created the file section for me. (Thanks Griskokare!)

Every now and then we get some nice local discussion, but it's just me and a few other members. I think for local message bases to work, the sysop needs
to be a willing participant, or have a user who loves to stir up discussions. You can't just make the bases and expect people to use them. And people need
to call and support boards and contribute... something I'm guilty of not
doing enough of!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (46:1/166)

free, but maybe just limiting how much can be downloaded at one time..
so they don't call once and leech your entire file base, and never call back.

Now that I think of it that way, it would be only cool people who would leech art packs anyway.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (46:1/166)

On 11/29/16, Zero Reader said the following...

Man, I intended to just "turn off" file sections altogether. I hadn't shown the file areas any love, but a few users here started uploading
good stuff and basically created the file section for me. (Thanks Griskokare!)

I'm glad you didn't, because if you'd done that you couldn't have become an official impure distro board.

I have tons of files. Well over a thousand and two hundred DVD+R:s, in fact. Just trying to provide what I can. It's no biggie for me. You're welcome. :)

|08-- |15griskokare |08/ |11impure|07!|11ascii |031940

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Windows)
* Origin: ACiD Telnet HQ / blackflag.acid.org (46:1/104)

I'm glad you didn't, because if you'd done that you couldn't have become an official impure distro board.

How can my system become an official impure distro board? :)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Windows)
* Origin: Necronomicon BBS - necrobbs.strangled.net:27 (46:1/122)

On 12/07/16, Necromaster said the following...

How can my system become an official impure distro board? :)

Get in touch with me outside of Agoranet and I'll go through the details.

|08-- |15griskokare |08/ |11impure|07!|11ascii |031940

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Windows)
* Origin: ACiD Telnet HQ / blackflag.acid.org (46:1/104)

On 12/07/16, griskokare said the following...

I'm glad you didn't, because if you'd done that you couldn't have become an official impure distro board.

I have tons of files. Well over a thousand and two hundred DVD+R:s, in fact. Just trying to provide what I can. It's no biggie for me. You're welcome. :)

I like a smaller, more "curated" collection of files, like what you've been sending me. Being that my system runs on a small 8 GB memory card, I don't
have a ton of space to host files! One day I need to move everything to a larger card. That was just an oversight on my part when I started playing
with the Raspberry Pi.

Funny to think when I started my first board back in the early 90s, that my
500 meg hard drive was "large" and I had tons of files on the board, plus the games I played on my hard drive, Borland C++ and all the other crap you
needed to hack source code, Norton utils, etc. Hehe

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (46:1/166)

Hello Zero,

On 08 Dec 16 23:59, Zero Reader wrote to griskokare:

I like a smaller, more "curated" collection of files, like what you've been sending me. Being that my system runs on a small 8 GB memory
card, I don't have a ton of space to host files! One day I need to
move everything to a larger card. That was just an oversight on my
part when I started playing with the Raspberry Pi.

FYI, I have two RPi3's here with 128gb SanDisk Ultra microSDXC cards and they work great. So as long as you get a supported microSD card, you can probably go
all the way up to 256gb (though the price seems to jump a bit more of a ridiculous amount from 128 to 256, which is why I went for the smaller of the two).

Regards,
Nick

... "Не знаю. Я здесь только работаю."
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20160827
* Origin: thePharcyde_ distribution system (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

On 12/08/16, Zero Reader said the following...

On 12/07/16, griskokare said the following...

I'm glad you didn't, because if you'd done that you couldn't have bec an official impure distro board.

I have tons of files. Well over a thousand and two hundred DVD+R:s, i fact. Just trying to provide what I can. It's no biggie for me. You'r welcome. :)

I like a smaller, more "curated" collection of files, like what you've been sending me. Being that my system runs on a small 8 GB memory card,
I don't have a ton of space to host files! One day I need to move everything to a larger card. That was just an oversight on my part when
I started playing with the Raspberry Pi.

Why don't you just add a large thumb drive and let that be your files
section. I mount an 8gb thumb drive as my "backup" file system drive. I then backup my BBS directory to it. The same thing can work for file storage.

"No matter where you go, there you are!" - Buckaroo Bonzai

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Cyberia BBS | Cyberia.Darktech.Org | Kingwood, TX (46:1/116)

Hello Gryphon,

On 09 Dec 16 09:01, Gryphon wrote to Zero Reader:

I like a smaller, more "curated" collection of files, like what
you've been sending me. Being that my system runs on a small 8 GB
memory card, I don't have a ton of space to host files! One day I
need to move everything to a larger card. That was just an
oversight on my part when I started playing with the Raspberry
Pi.

Why don't you just add a large thumb drive and let that be your files section. I mount an 8gb thumb drive as my "backup" file system drive.
I then backup my BBS directory to it. The same thing can work for file storage.

Good point. I completely forgot about this. My second Pi3 is a plex server, and
I connected a 1TB USB external Seagate hard drive to it which stores our collection. Works great.

So in that case, nothing would need to be done on his end except plugging in a USB drive for more storage. No need to re-do everything. Keep the OS and server(s) on the microSD, and use another means for file storage.

Regards,
Nick

... "Не знаю. Я здесь только работаю."
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20160827
* Origin: thePharcyde_ distribution system (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

On 12/08/16, Zero Reader said the following...

I like a smaller, more "curated" collection of files, like what you've been sending me. Being that my system runs on a small 8 GB memory card,
I don't have a ton of space to host files! One day I need to move everything to a larger card. That was just an oversight on my part when
I started playing with the Raspberry Pi.

Funny to think when I started my first board back in the early 90s, that my 500 meg hard drive was "large" and I had tons of files on the board, plus the games I played on my hard drive, Borland C++ and all the other crap you needed to hack source code, Norton utils, etc. Hehe

Yeah. Haha. Times change. I'm not going to dump off all of it on your board,
I make sure the uploads are relevant and of quality, of course. :)

|08-- |15griskokare |08/ |11impure|07!|11ascii |031940

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Windows)
* Origin: ACiD Telnet HQ / blackflag.acid.org (46:1/104)

On 12/09/16, Accession said the following...

FYI, I have two RPi3's here with 128gb SanDisk Ultra microSDXC cards and they work great. So as long as you get a supported microSD card, you can probably go all the way up to 256gb (though the price seems to jump a

I need to figure out a good way to move from the 8 gig card to something larger. Do you think it would be as simple as using an imaging util to create an image of the smaller card, then image that to a larger card and use Raspi Config to "expand the file system" ... Maybe I need to google this or ask the guys over at PiNet.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (46:1/166)

Hello Zero,

On 09 Dec 16 09:28, Zero Reader wrote to Accession:

FYI, I have two RPi3's here with 128gb SanDisk Ultra microSDXC
cards and they work great. So as long as you get a supported
microSD card, you can probably go all the way up to 256gb (though
the price seems to jump a

I need to figure out a good way to move from the 8 gig card to
something larger. Do you think it would be as simple as using an
imaging util to create an image of the smaller card, then image that
to a larger card and use Raspi Config to "expand the file system" ... Maybe I need to google this or ask the guys over at PiNet.

Or as I mentioned in another message, an external USB hard drive would be a good place for storage.

Regards,
Nick

... "Не знаю. Я здесь только работаю."
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20160827
* Origin: thePharcyde_ distribution system (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

On 12/09/16, Gryphon said the following...

Why don't you just add a large thumb drive and let that be your files section. I mount an 8gb thumb drive as my "backup" file system drive.
I then backup my BBS directory to it. The same thing can work for file storage.

Eh yeah, I suppose that would work also! I like the idea of using it for the backup job as well.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (46:1/166)

On 12/09/16, Accession said the following...

Hello Gryphon,

On 09 Dec 16 09:01, Gryphon wrote to Zero Reader:

I like a smaller, more "curated" collection of files, like what
you've been sending me. Being that my system runs on a small 8 GB
memory card, I don't have a ton of space to host files! One day I
need to move everything to a larger card. That was just an
oversight on my part when I started playing with the Raspberry
Pi.

Why don't you just add a large thumb drive and let that be your files section. I mount an 8gb thumb drive as my "backup" file system drive I then backup my BBS directory to it. The same thing can work for fil storage.

Good point. I completely forgot about this. My second Pi3 is a plex server, and I connected a 1TB USB external Seagate hard drive to it
which stores our collection. Works great.

So in that case, nothing would need to be done on his end except
plugging in a USB drive for more storage. No need to re-do everything. Keep the OS and server(s) on the microSD, and use another means for file storage.

Exactly. And for what it's worth, it could be increased by adding a powered USB hub and adding as many drives as the hub will hold. I only suggest the powered hub because I know that there are only so many USB ports on a PI.

"No matter where you go, there you are!" - Buckaroo Bonzai

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Cyberia BBS | Cyberia.Darktech.Org | Kingwood, TX (46:1/116)

On 12/09/16, Zero Reader said the following...

On 12/09/16, Accession said the following...

FYI, I have two RPi3's here with 128gb SanDisk Ultra microSDXC cards they work great. So as long as you get a supported microSD card, you probably go all the way up to 256gb (though the price seems to jump a

I need to figure out a good way to move from the 8 gig card to something larger. Do you think it would be as simple as using an imaging util to create an image of the smaller card, then image that to a larger card
and use Raspi Config to "expand the file system" ... Maybe I need to google this or ask the guys over at PiNet.

How hard would it be to experiment? If it fails, you've lost nothing.
You'll still have the original drive.

"No matter where you go, there you are!" - Buckaroo Bonzai

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Cyberia BBS | Cyberia.Darktech.Org | Kingwood, TX (46:1/116)

my 500 meg hard drive was "large" and I had tons of files on the board,

Holy fuck dude! Where'd you get the money for such a huge HD? LOL

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (46:1/166)

On 12/10/16, metalhead said the following...

my 500 meg hard drive was "large" and I had tons of files on the boar

Holy fuck dude! Where'd you get the money for such a huge HD? LOL

Hahahah I don't remember. I also had a Conner tape backup drive too! That was some high-tech shit.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Raspberry Pi)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (46:1/166)