Subj : Death Knell for the BBS Era To : andy103301@mentaldimensions.com (andya) From : "Time Warrior" Date : Sun Dec 21 2003 08:49 pm To: andy103301@mentaldimensions.com (andya) Re: Death Knell for the BBS Era By: andy103301@mentaldimensions.com (andya) to alt.bbs.allsysop on 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. Well, I do seem to think that asking for a street address is alittle outdated, but as a Sysop, when i see people logging in with bullshit info, it leads me to beleive that they might be up to no good.... here's pretty much how i run my BBS: Real first and last name: at least put your real first name, and a last initial. If i am willing to say my name is Dave Kelso, why can't you say it? Are you afraid that someone is gonna goto whitepages.com and look up every "Mike Jones" in the United States, and start booking massive airline tickets to hunt you down, and when they finally find you, ring your doorbell and say "Ya know, its been a week since you called my BBS, you really should telnet back sometime soon". City and state: If you think that if you tell someone your from Detriot, MI that they are gonna fly to detroit to hunt you down, and once they find you beg you to donate to their BBS, you are even more stupid than I first thought you were upon my original read of your post. Phone number: put a fake one for all i give a fuck. I aint gonna be calling you unless we become friends, and it ain't like i'm gonna voice validate you. Also seeing as alot of my users are my friends, both in person and online, it serves as a nice phone book directory. Also, ussually Sysops give eachother their real info, cause beleive it or not, we still do voice calls to eachother to help eachother out with errors, problems, technical questions, etc.... and theres alot of free LD packages out there now (i happen to have one) so as long as yer both in the same country it's free. Sex/Age: If you are gonna get pissed cause someone asked you for your sex, then you obviously are really pissed cause you arent getting any. If you are gonna be pissed that someone asks for your age, then shut the fuck up and start acting it, or don't call my BBS. Zip code: its 5 numbers. get over it. Put 66666 if you really dont want someone to have it that badly. And as for any new user questionairs like "Where did you hear about this BBS?" if you have your head stuck so far up your ass that you feel offended by the question being asked, i don't want you on my board anyways. And after all is said and done, you must REALLY piss and moan to the sysop about his audacity to ask you to write a new user application letter so that you can tell him alittle about yourself and why you called, etc.... So heres my advice to you: Grow up, lamer. ..------------------------------------------------------. | Time Warrior, Sysop: Malkavia BBS - malkaviabbs.com | | NC: Xpresit Net - Free Speech - www.xpresit.net | | NC: UNOFFICIAL SynchroSupport Net - synchsupport.net | | ICQ: 25055930 | AIM: Twar782 | YIM: twarxpresit | | Email: xpresitnet@juno.com | \____________________________________________________/ --- Synchronet 3.11a-Win32 NewsLink 1.71 * Malkavia - Chicago, IL - telnet://malkaviabbs.com .