So I can log in to BBS systems and have them display properly. What comes next? reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- poopootoad · 2015-04-29 08:36 I'm something of a fan of retrogaming / retrocomputing so I thought I'd try to use a BBS finally. After figuring out how to get color working on my system, which wasn't obvious ([see here](http://techtinkering.com/2010/02/14/getting-colour-ansi- emulation-to-work-properly-when-connecting-to-a-bbs-with-telnet-under- linux/); if anything I would have expected Linux to have this squared away already), I logged into a BBS that is near me geographically and started to look around. I found a number of bulletin boards, the largest of which appears to be FidoNet. Despite its size, it seems not to be immensely active, or is, but on topics that aren't terribly appealing to me. I'm looking at some of the door games here but the ones that are interesting seem to require a community of players not present. So I'm kind of stuck. I'm not trying to knock the BBS concept, I just don't know what niche it fills really well these days. Perhaps I'm just not looking at an especially interesting system? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2015-04-29 19:08 First: Welcome to the world of BBSing :) Next, I'll try to explain the whole fidonet thing.... fidoNet is a message base network. Its one of the oldest ones that are left, but its not very active as you've seen. It has a lot of legacy topics that were once popular/relevant but just aren't anymore. Most of the time sysops join fidonet because of its legacy, not because of any practical interest. There are some relatively active message networks out there - DOVEnet and Agoranet come to mind. You just have to call a board that is a member of them. Regarding games that are more fun with an active user base like you mentioned, I'd recommend boards that are members of BBS Link. BBSlink is a way that allows member boards to all connect to a central game server so they're a playing the same game. That way, you have a lot of people playing LORD or Usurper because they're logging in from different boards. There's another game server called Center of Awareness that's similar. You can see a list of BBSlink boards at the following URL: http://BBSlink.net Gratuitous plug for my board (which s a member of these message bases and game servers): capitolshrill.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- chairmanmow · 2015-04-30 02:55 you're right, if bbs's want to fill a niche, they need to adapt. for many they fill the nostalgia trip, but there are ones that do that admirably. i'd consider my bbs customizations to aspire to be more integrated with some of the amenities the 21st century offers that are within my grasp to comprehend and utilize, whether there's a mobilization on my part these to implement things is more a matter of whims than identifying an opportunity to capitalize on anything. The majority of boards haven't changed too much since the 20th century. I can't really talk though because I do use 2 digit years still, but I think it's kitschy. That being said, I can think of some niches however, if you want to be the glass is half full guy even when half-empty is an optimistic outlook: - Internet speed isn't consistent around the world, bandwidth capacities are real things. Tether your laptop to your phone and BBS away without worrying about exceeding your limits. Want to create a dynamic social network for people to interact in Nigeria? The average connection speed is like modem speed there and 100 million people are online. The youTube world people live in some places is not the infrastructure priority of others, but it doesn't mean they have to be left out of the information age. - If you actually work in the console, and no one knows better, you can always have it running in a terminal tav. Even if you don't, when I log into my BBS and I don't stare at it. But things happen on my BBS when you idle and there's usually people connected in the lobby via other boards. I don't feel like plugging it at this moment. It's in the sidebar (I think). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2015-04-30 15:40 Yep, in the sidebar! (For OP, /u/chairmanmow's board is Futureland ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2015-04-30 18:52 Another tip: use a proper terminal that supports ANSI graphics and colors. Usually, the linux Terminal doesn't cut it for a lot of the fancier stuff. Also, a terminal like syncterm or netrunner will have a dialing directory so you can save all your favorite board: syncterm: http://syncterm.bbsdev.net/ netrunner: http://mysticbbs.com/downloads.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2015-04-30 20:48 fidonet is a message network, not a bulletin board. anyways the past few years have been bad for bbses. they were popular with people who played the games usually. 4 years ago i would get 20 callers a day, and 4 years before that i was getting 40 per day. all the good bbses are shutting down. most of my users are hacker wannabees who want to exploit my servers. regarding bbslink, i looked into it and the games seem dead and the lord game is blah. no igms, no people playing. there's very little activity. regarding COA, that's another batch of sysops being eachother's users and i believe they have mostly javascript games that regular users dont really enjoy. a good bbs doesnt need to share its resources with other bbses to increase activity. bbses have already adapted. we have new technology and html5 clients for our websites. we have smpt, nntp, pop, telnet, ssh , rlogin servers. the problem is that bbses are not what people want anymore. we do not offer what people want. that whole 'niche' and 'retro' thing never worked. people call once. I'm a sysop of 4 bbses and i've been running bbses since 1992-93 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- poopootoad · 2015-04-30 20:51 rxvt does support ANSI colors. The article I linked in the OP shows how to get it to do that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2015-04-30 23:13 I tried it, it's OK but its not as good as syncterm or one of the others. The aspect ratio looked very weird. Plus, many BBSs use multiple fonts for graphics. My board has programs that use microknight and other amiga fonts that work better when using ASCII art as opposed to the regular IBM fonts. A proper terminal will use the correct fonts when needed. x/84 is a BBS software that uses Unicode fonts that work better with terminal - there's just not many of them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2015-05-01 19:24 Well, the sysop of BBSlink doesn't want to use any non- registered/cracked games or IGMs. I will talk to him about adding some more of the freeware IGMs - I thought he had more than Barak's House installed. I just looked, there 12 players on his LORD game right now - not dead, but not super active (only about half were above level 1 or 2). If you have any suggestions, let him know instead of slagging on him behind his back. He's very receptive to ideas. You know, mro, maybe more people would still call your board(s) if you weren't so negative to everyone that has a question? :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2015-05-03 01:57 I'm not negative to everyone that has a question. i was just stating the current state of bbsing. and i probably get more callers on my systems than you and all of bbslink and COA. and i'm not 'slagging' on the bbslink guy behind his back. i didnt say it sucked. i looked at the bbslink games a few times (one time when i was invited) and i saw no activity from the users and bbses. his lord game DOES suck though. i'm pretty sure i sent him an email or two about the bbslink stuff yes i am rude to people on dovenet, but dovenet is the showcase of bottom feeding sysops. YOU know personally that i went out of my way to help you with shit, even when i was busy, and i was always friendly to you. sometimes despite the fact that you wouldnt follow through a lot on troubleshooting (ssh). i dont appreciate these accusations, especially the behind the back shit. i talk about anybody behind their back. I'd rather tell the truth about shit than be a blind dumbass and pretend things are something they are not. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2015-05-03 02:20 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2015-05-03 02:21 I've always said you were helpful, but that you come off very negative. After your other comment to me I realize you really are just a troll who has nothing better to do than take personal stabs at everyone, every chance you can. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2015-05-03 02:26 you're just a big baby and you take this shit too seriously. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2015-05-03 02:33 Yes, I take people calling me that word seriously. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShooterJennings · 2015-05-05 18:23 I'm with /u/nolageek ... My BBS is pretty new, but I was averaging about 15 calls a day, it's gotten down to about 8-10 a day right now, but we're developing a new game. I'm all about the positivity, and there is a lot of great new BBS folks out there doing new things with it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShooterJennings · 2015-05-05 18:24 I agree with adapting. We have developed a lot of Twitter/Facebook integration with my BBS and we just started this year! This one project we are working on is definitely bigger than anything I've ever tried to take on, but so far it's going really well and will be for BBS' only. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- chairmanmow · 2015-05-06 00:49 Exactly. There's so many API's out there to tap these days and things that can be done with them, you just need to look. I think someone might be working on some reddit integration with synchronet, but I couldn't tell you for sure. I want to make a restful backend powered by nodejs and some libraries for my board when I get some free time of my own to program some stuff. But basically your BBS has the power to issue commands on the internet and get response data... if you're one of those people who think everything has been done in BBS'ing: think again, there is plenty of stuff to do! Here's another idea I had, streaming video, and if I weren't on a Mac and trying to pass my video camera through Ubuntu I think I could get it to work. But it didn't recognize my camera. So I'll tell everyone here how it would work, and we'll see if someone one does it. http://ascii.dyne.org/ <--- Check that out someone and stream your ugly mug or whatever. Saves to a text file at intervals, you refresh the file on your bbs. Voila. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShooterJennings · 2015-05-06 16:27 Totally... My first major goal was to get out to the internet beyond just tweeting login information. Now I literally issue commands via ssh to a Linux server. Anything I can do in a console command my bbs can do and read. My first integration I wanted to make was using ChangeTip and Bitcoin to send and receive real money via the BBS. Haven't implemented it yet but already have it programmed. Another thing I've been working on is a piece to accompany this game I've been working on. Technically if you downloaded an app for your smartphone and ran it during gameplay, your cell phone would play music with each area of the game. I know I started a thread about reddit integration. I thought you could almost build it into an FTD style network... I also had brought up the concept of backing up the Bitcoin blockchain via fidonet and making it accessible to countries whose internet is censored.. I believe that BBS communication still has a major role to play.