Subj : Death Knell for the BBS Era
To   : alt.bbs.allsysop
From : andy103301@mentaldimensions.com (andya)
Date : Sun Dec 21 2003 08:34 am

This message is to all of you BBS Sysops out there. At first I was
really disappointed that dial-up BBS'es were dying out, but then later
found that telnet boards were coming into being. Yet they are still
dying out. This should not be the case. BBS'es running Wildcat! and
Synchronet plus all the others still have a lot to offer that web
surfing and java cames cannot compare to. But I now understand why
even the telnet boards are dying out left and right. What in God's
name is the point of asking for a person's full name, street address,
and phone number??? Hey, this was fine when everyone was dialing a
local number to get into your BBS, but let's step into the Internet
age for a moment, shall we? Disable those options in your config...
That's just incomprehensible. Get a telnet verifier and ask me for an
alias and password or don't bitch about the death of Bulletin Board
Systems. Look at the advantages of having a telnet board; you don't
have to worry about maintaining a files section since if a person is
telnetting in would mean they are on the Internet and would have easy
access to downloadable files. But keep the door games and even the
message areas. QWK is great for offline mail; it's not commonly known
how to read mail offline in newsgroups, and it's not even convenient
for an advanced user to do so. I'm done ranting.

For anybody that would like to try, here is a link to the Main Page of
the BBS Corner, which I'm not sure is updated anymore, but the
majority of the boards here seem to be live. Though 9 out of ten still
ask for your full real name, street address, city, state, zip code and
phone number. I've found one so far that didn't ask too much intrusive
information at
telnet://tmm.d2g.com
Also the BBS Corner has a list of dial-up BBS'es but I haven't tried
any of them, but you may find one that's local to your area. They have
quite a comprehensive list.

Also be sure to check out http://www.textfiles.com/ which will be a
valuable resource for ancient history of text files and Bulletin Board
Systems if sysops don't change a few settings in their new user
questionnaires.

.