On 06 May 2024, AKAcastor said the following...

I think he still is. ;)

Do you know if Hector, of Silver Xpress, is still online these days? I recognize the name from using Silver Xpress long ago, but I've never run into him myself.

Chris/akacastor

The only Hector that II am aware of is Hector Santos and he created Platinum Express for Winserver. He is a hard man to contact.

Mike Dippel
Sun City Center, FL
HobbyNet Hub

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Mystic Hobbies BBS mystic-hobbies.com (21:2/125)

Discord started as another piece of software for commuinicating with people
who played games, but it's best to describe it as an odd amalgamation of
IRC, and AIM. It's veristle and does whatever you want to use it for.
It can be a benefit or a , honestly. It's around because it's the
easiest to get and easiest to use. It's strange to see things come and go. Skype was big before Discord, then one day nobody was uising Skype anymore.


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
---
* Origin: Shurato's Heavenly Sphere telnet://shsbbs.net (21:2/148)

Hello pF!

"That's my secret, Cap - I'm always Bitter and Angry"

<goes to re-image the PC for the dork in Accounting who deleted his system32 directory to make space for MP3s...>

People *did* that? :/



--- OpenXP 5.0.58
* Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)

Quoting AKAcastor to Tiny <=-

I must sheepishly admit it is a combination of Y2K stuff and my own
broken setup. The door not loading is my own fault, but even when it
did load it didn't seem to work properly because of Y2K stuff. I kind
of forgot about it and now it's 'there but not working at all'. :(

Today it loaded for me, but in ASCII only and without the message bases.
I'm keeping my eye on it... I don't know why. LOL

I wonder how hard it would be to patch Silver Xpress for Y2K
compliance - I've never done a patch like that before. But so many
other things have been successfully patched, it seems like it should
be possible.

Maybe someone will look, but with a total userbase (currently) of 0.....

Shawn

... "Oh, we use only the finest baby frogs."
--- Blue Wave/386 v2.30
* Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)

Quoting AKAcastor to Tiny <=-

Do you know if Hector, of Silver Xpress, is still online these days?
I recognize the name from using Silver Xpress long ago, but I've never
run into him myself.

I don't know. I think he left fightonet in a tantrum but my memory is
pretty much shot now.

Shawn

... Satan laughs as you eternally rot.
--- Blue Wave/386 v2.30
* Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)

BY: Mike Dippel (21:2/125)

|11MD|09> |10The only Hector that II am aware of is Hector Santos and he created|07
|11MD|09> |10Platinum Express for Winserver. He is a hard man to contact.|07 He is slightly unethical. He advertised for a build 13 or 14 of Winserver and shipped me build 12.


--- WWIV 5.9.0.3695[Windows]
* Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)

BY: Tiny (21:1/162)

|11T|09> |10I don't know. I think he left fightonet in a tantrum but my memory is|07
|11T|09> |10pretty much shot now.|07
Because not many of its members were buying his overpriced stuff.


--- WWIV 5.9.0.3695[Windows]
* Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)

It's around because it's the easiest to get and easiest to use. It's strange to see things come and go. Skype was big before Discord,
then one day nobody was uising Skype anymore.

Used to use skype before it got swallowed by Micro$loth... it all went to
shite after that. Had never really figured Discord out though.. or how you'd find anything to look at over there.

Spec


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
--- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
* Origin: Good Luck and drive offensively! (21:3/101)

<goes to re-image the PC for the dork in Accounting who deleted his system32 directory to make space for MP3s...>

People *did* that? :/

People are stoopid and do all sorts of weird things....


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
--- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
* Origin: Good Luck and drive offensively! (21:3/101)

Re: Local vs Network message boards
By: Ogg to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon May 06 2024 07:08 pm

<goes to re-image the PC for the dork in Accounting who deleted his
system32 directory to make space for MP3s...>

People *did* that? :/

In the early 90s, I also heard about someone who was familiar with Apple Macs and went to work at a place where they used IBM-compatible PCs, and one day he said he backed up a bunch of their tools to a single floppy disc.. It turns out he only backed up a set of batch files they used for various things.

Nightfox

SLMR was the first QWK Reader that I used after getting a 486 computer built. B4 the 486 I used a C=64 with a few Terminal programs, the last one was Bounty Bob (iirc).
Back then even though the PC had a 40column display I always set the terminal to 80 columns wheather on a CBM BBS or another system (Apple, DOS/Windows or Atari).

SLMR's 57 letter line length , to me, was noticeable when I couldn't save Taglines longer than 57 characters.
Also I noticed messages written with MultiMail lots of times were longer than the 50 or so lines a page SLMR could display, so I downloaded MultiMail 0.40 to be able to read the extra lines (sometimes several hundred lines ).

Oh, speaking of the C=64/Bounty Bob I used earlier, I would select the Read All New Messages option and watch the Buffer until it was about full and Pause the BBS, save Buffer to floppy, restart message sending -
Over and over until the BBS finished sending New Messages.

That worked for me until I got able to get QWK Packets w/ the 486.
Ed



S
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (21:1/175)

Discord started as another piece of software for commuinicating with people who played games, but it's best to describe it as an odd amalgamation of IRC, and AIM. It's veristle and does whatever you want
to use it for. It can be a benefit or a , honestly. It's around because it's the easiest to get and easiest to use. It's strange to see things come and go. Skype was big before Discord, then one day nobody
was uising Skype anymore.

I miss IRC and ICQ. :D

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Clutch BBS * telnet://clutchbbs.com (21:1/199)

Used to use skype before it got swallowed by Micro$loth... it all went to shite after that. Had never really figured Discord out though.. or how you'd find anything to look at over there.

Yeah, this is kind of silly they don't really have a good search. I usually use a website to search for discord channels.

Teams and Discord are somewhat a like.

Personally, I would love to just go back to IRC. But there is benefits such as copy/paste screenshots, videos, deleting messages you sent, emojii's (if that's a benefit), etc...

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Clutch BBS * telnet://clutchbbs.com (21:1/199)

Re: Local vs Network message boards
By: niter3 to Newtype Len on Tue May 07 2024 06:24 am

I miss IRC and ICQ. :D

I miss ICQ too. I first started to use ICQ in late 1995 or 1996, and back then, I liked that it had a little form you could fill out with some information about yourself and it could find a random person for you to chat with. I made some friends online that way.. And I also miss Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger - I had many of my in-person friends and people I had met on those. I thought they were a very convenient way to keep in touch with people.

Nightfox

I miss ICQ too. I first started to use ICQ in late 1995 or 1996, and
back then, I liked that it had a little form you could fill out with some information about yourself and it could find a random person for you to chat with. I made some friends online that way.. And I also miss Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger - I had many of my in-person friends and people I had met on those. I thought they were a very convenient way to keep in touch with people.

Yeah, it was a different time for sure.... ICQ was where all the girlfriends were. :D

Sharing mp3 files and chatting... Oh good times.. :/ Or was it? :D

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Clutch BBS * telnet://clutchbbs.com (21:1/199)

Nightfox wrote to niter3 <=-

I miss ICQ too. I first started to use ICQ in late 1995 or 1996, and
back then, I liked that it had a little form you could fill out with
some information about yourself and it could find a random person for
you to chat with. I made some friends online that way.. And I also
miss Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger - I had many of my in-person friends and people I had met on those. I thought they were a very convenient way to keep in touch with people.

TRILLIAN.

It's a multi-platform chat program, handled all of the commercial
platforms, Jabber, oddball platforms like SILC, and even IRC. Loved
having that open on my desktop, wondered what the infosec people thought
when they saw all of the outbound ports.

Early on, I worked at a company that had an AIM proxy - it could even
connect clients when the internet was down. We used AIM internally.

Later, the company bought a stake in Skype and we went all-in with it.



... Adding on
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Re: Re: Local vs Network message boards
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Nightfox on Wed May 08 2024 07:36 am

TRILLIAN.

It's a multi-platform chat program, handled all of the commercial platforms, Jabber, oddball platforms like SILC, and even IRC. Loved having that open on my desktop, wondered what the infosec people thought when they saw all of the outbound ports.

I had used Trillian and a couple others like that. I'd often had problems with those which seemed to stem from them not being fully compatible with the official chat clients. It would be sometimes little things like not showing the emojis properly, to sometimes missing messages. I tended to stick with the official chat client software.

Nightfox

I miss IRC and ICQ. :D

i still use IRC! :D

--mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

... Press any key to continue or any other key to quit...

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)

I miss IRC and ICQ. :D

i still use IRC! :D

You find there is much activity ?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Clutch BBS * telnet://clutchbbs.com (21:1/199)

i still use IRC! :D

Haven't use IRC much since P2P Chat went down. Apple II Aus mailing list has
a Friday session on I forget what server now... its usually pretty dead
though.

Spec


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
--- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
* Origin: Good Luck and drive offensively! (21:3/101)

BY: mary4 (21:1/166)

|11m|09> |10ni> I miss IRC and ICQ. :D|07
|11m|09> |10ni> |07
|11m|09> |10i still use IRC! :D|07
I also wished I still had my old icq number

--- WWIV 5.9.0.3695[Windows]
* Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)

Re: Local vs Network message boards
By: niter3 to mary4 on Sat May 11 2024 02:38 pm

i still use IRC! :D

You find there is much activity ?

It depends where you're chatting. I believe there are still some active networks and channels using IRC.

Nightfox

You find there is much activity ?

nope...... only in FOSS projects like debian and freedos channels

--mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

... DOS=HIGH? I knew it was on something...

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)

Utopian Galt wrote to Mary4 <=-

I also wished I still had my old icq number

86103423 here. Last time I was on looks to be 2020.



... Only a part, not the whole
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Re: Local vs Network message boards
By: niter3 to mary4 on Sat May 11 2024 02:38 pm

i still use IRC! :D

You find there is much activity ?

IRC still has its bunch of users.

I2P's official i2p network is quite active around the time Americans connect. Then there are a number of active channels in Canternet.

I find the best IRC networks are the ones operated by a small group of people for friends and family.
--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (21:2/138)

Arelor wrote to niter3 <=-

I find the best IRC networks are the ones operated by a small group of people for friends and family. --

Not IRC, but I still have a Jabber server at my web host. They
discontinued support for new servers, but grandfathered in the existing
ones. I always wanted to set up a F&F server, back in the
Trillian/Pidgin/IM days.



... Overtly resist change
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Re: Local vs Network message boards
By: Accession to Blue White on Sun May 05 2024 08:36 am

Hello Blue,

On Sun, 5 May 2024 13:07:18 -0500, you wrote:

This post got me thinking, though, so I fired up MM on a QWK packet.
It truncates the subjects to ~24 on replies also. I wonder if that is a *QWK* standard and all QWK readers do it when processing QWK packages?

That's definitely possible. I haven't kept up with (or even looked at) QWK standards. But even taking a look at Synchronet's wiki about QWK it does seem to show the length of 25 bytes (with the last byte reserved for an ascii 32 character = 24 bytes). So good call on that, as that would explain it.

Original/standard QWK message subjects can be a full 25 characters. The last byte is not reserved for a space (ASCII 32).

QWKE (QWK extended) extends the subject length to > 25 characters (no max length specified).
--
digital man (rob)

Breaking Bad quote #43:
Congratulations! You're now officially the cute one of the group.
Norco, CA WX: 64.1°F, 69.0% humidity, 11 mph WNW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (21:1/183)

Re: Local vs Network message boards
By: AKAcastor to Blue White on Sun May 05 2024 11:05 am

This post got me thinking, though, so I fired up MM on a QWK packet.
It truncates the subjects to ~24 on replies also. I wonder if that is a *QWK* standard and all QWK readers do it when processing QWK packages?

You are correct - 24 characters is the limit for subject lines in QWK packets.

The specs are a 25-byte ASCII string for the subject line - the last character must be NULL, so 24 printable characters. http://wiki.synchro.net/ref:qwk

I assume the above site is considered a reputable source. ;)

It is. :-) But you're misreading it: there's no subject string termination needed (space or NULL), so the full 25 characters can be used in a standard/original QWK message. QWKE extends the subject lengths beyond 25 chars.

I don't know the history behind it, whether the limit was arbitrarily chosen for QWK packets or if it was a pre-existing limit enforced by some BBS software.

PCBoard limit, maybe. QWK was originally for PCBoard, iirc.
--
digital man (rob)

This Is Spinal Tap quote #26:
David St. Hubbins: They were still booing him when we came on stage.
Norco, CA WX: 63.0°F, 70.0% humidity, 9 mph WSW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (21:1/183)

The specs are a 25-byte ASCII string for the subject line - the last character must be NULL, so 24 printable characters. http://wiki.synchro.net/ref:qwk

I assume the above site is considered a reputable source. ;)

It is. :-) But you're misreading it: there's no subject
string termination needed (space or NULL), so the full
25 characters can be used in a standard/original QWK
message. QWKE extends the subject lengths beyond 25
chars.

Thanks for the clarification!


Chris/akacastor


--- Maximus 3.01
* Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)