Creating a BBS; How can I effectively edit and modify my BBS? reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 930492358243 · 2012-02-11 22:51 Hey guys. I'm interested in doing something new and I want to run a BBS. I'm not really old enough to have ever dialed into one back in the day, but something about it really appeals to me. I'm trying to run a Synchronet BBS. All I really want to do is modify it a little bit and change the way it looks. I downloaded PabloDraw and converted all the .asc menu files to .ans, but I'm a little stuck. Some files, for example, look like [this.](http://i.imgur.com/6EHeZ.png) I have a hard time editing things like this, and I was wondering if there's a better way. I definitely want to edit that one since I want it to display an ANSI logo for my BBS. [Here](http://i.imgur.com/IVhrz.png) is another example. I'm still not sure how I want my BBS to look, but I don't want it to be too close to the default menus. I've found several of the Synchronet documentation files ([This](http://www.synchro.net/docs/customization.html) one is probably the most helpful) but I'm stuck on this small part. I also can't seem to find the file for message headers, which I want to change. I know this board is pretty slow, so I'm not expecting a quick reply. I might even figure it out by then, but any help or tips would be appreciated. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2012-02-12 01:19 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 930492358243 · 2012-02-12 15:35 Thanks. I've only heard about things like DOVE Net and FIDO Net while learning about BBSes, so I don't even know what you mean by telling me to get into DOVE Net, but I can probably just do my own research and figure it out in a few minutes. I'll check it out soon. Also, I only realized yesterday that it might be useful to browse other BBSes and read some of their discussions. Some of them seem to be almost exclusively for door games, which is cool. I like looking at all the really different boards out there. I also looked at some of the .src files in the EXEC folder and found that it looks very simple to edit commands and restrict certain things, so I'm happy about that. One of the most annoying things right now is that apparently users have a 10 minute call limit, and I want to make it infinite. Edit: I just got into DOVE-Net and I'm really pleased to see that there are discussions going on in the General board to this day. I plan on making my BBS a somewhat private and closed-off community, so I'll have to remove QWK and DOVE-Net. But I might keep a separate BBS just for myself that I can run whenever I want to talk about Sysop stuff. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 930492358243 · 2012-02-14 05:57 I have a general question about BBSes. I've been connecting to a few through the list on synchronet's website, and I noticed that browsing through messages can be pretty confusing. I can see messages, who they're addressing, their topics, etc. if I type L in the message reading area. That's pretty nice, but I can see all of the topics and their replies in the same place. This means that sometimes I'll see replies to the same threads spread out over the entire message list. I was wondering if there's a way to display or read messages differently that I'm missing. It just seems really confusing when there's a thread that's been going on for literally years, given how slow BBSes normally are, and I can see hundreds of its replies spread out over the entire message list. I'd also like to know how a user would normally read through these messages. For example, when I scan for new messages, it just takes me to the newest message for me so I can read it. I mean, what if I didn't want to read about this guy's new car? I just don't seem to really get it. I'm too used to reading through a list of threads, clicking on them, and *then* reading the replies. Here, all the threads and replies are in one long list. I love the novelty and style of these boards, but being too young to have ever gotten into them when they were really popular, I'm confused on how to properly read the boards. So again, can someone explain how a person normally reads through messages? Edit: Never mind for the most part, I've been using BBSes more and more and honestly it's not that hard to get used to. I chatted with some guys on IRC and they told me that's how they are, and you can just move back and forth in a thread by using the < and > keys. I was doing that already, but some people wouldn't reply correctly and I had to read those messages manually. In the end though, it's not bad as long as people do things right, which isn't hard.