Modern Amiga BBS

[Gary McCulloch]

Ok, I got a question for all of you that call Bulletin Board Systems...

I just placed up a new BBS, running the classic CNEt Pro v3.05c running on an Amiga emulator.  Everything runs great, but here is a question for the new users....

The old BBS's asked for home addresses and phone numbers.  Today with the internet, not to many people like filling out that sort of information.  Noticed that after getting 9 new users last night.  Is this something that needs to be changed as a modern BBS?

Here are the questions asked:

Handle:
First Name:
Last Name:
Address (City State & Zip):
Phone #:
Data #:
Age:

Now what info are you willing to give when calling a BBS today?  I would like to edit the program, and change things to make it a bit more modern.  What do you think?

[matt020]

I think leave it, because its how BBS where back in the day, and that is what youre trying to re-capture (the real feel).

90% of users wont give their real information, just like back in the day!

You won't find me at "21 Jump Street".

[pVC]

More like...
Required:
Handle
Group/Location

Optional:
First name
Last name
Email
Homepage
Age
Computer

[Ilwrath]

90% of users wont give their real information, just like back in the day!

+1 -- Leave it as is.  We never answered honestly back then, either.  :lol:

It's great to browse through the user info looking for the jokes.  
"21 Jump Street" was popular, though my usual choice was "555 No Way Pass" if I was being nice.  

If I wasn't, I'd pick a private joke identity like a teacher or neighbor I didn't happen to particularly like.  In fact, I'd often make the entire user as the teacher or neighbor I didn't like if I felt like stirring up trouble that call.   :lol:  

Also, (and this was advice for much more back in the day, rather than now) if you call to validate your users, make sure you sanity check phone numbers.  911-5105 isn't a number you want to automate dialing.  (911 is emergency in USA)  Trollin' in the 80's, yo.

[broken]

I agree with the others that you should just leave it as it is.


I been wondering something for a while; Does CNET or AmiExpress or any other Amiga BBS package support networked Amiga's for a multinode BBS?


I have had this crazy idea for a while to have like a 8 node BBS consisting of a bunch of networked Amigas.

I was thinking like a rack full of A600's, each with a 3Com PCMCIA card representing 1 node of the BBS. Perhaps 1 master machine to control most of the BBS functions, then 1 machine each separately controlling the nodes.

I could perhaps have like 6 Telnet nodes and 2 dial up nodes. Dial up would be courtesy of some external modems plugged into a telephone line ran from a couple MagicJack units hooked to a PC.

I think the A600 would be a suitable choice for something like this. Small footprint, PCMCIA slot for network. IDE connector for a CF hard drive. Perhaps pop in a fast ram board in each one to turbo charge them.


Largest pure Amiga hardware BBS on the Planet!

I would call it "16 Bits of DOOM!"

[Gary McCulloch]

I think I will leave it alone.  Looking forward on reading the New Users files.  But if you call, put the correct Area Code and City/State in.  So I can at least know about where everyone is calling from.

I do not call back to verify, I just grant access.  If there is trouble, I will just delete the account.  Been getting alot of callers... Its really nice.  I hope those of you that have not called yet will, and those that have... Call Often!!!

BTW, I have 5 nodes running and will add more if they seem to stay busy!

[illy5603]

@Spitfire TN, I left mine as is from 1995 but changed the first question to state "Have fun with these questions, these are what I would require of all new users back in the day!" I always had a disclaimer saying that I didn't want real full names or phone numbers.

@Broken, I know with Ami-Express you can do 8 nodes without the need to network additional computers with the telnetd.device. The biggest problem I have with the BBS is running it from an A1200, uploads tend to max the CPU making the other nodes useless during that time. Fortunately (or not) I don't get many uploads these days. I don't know of any Amiga BBS program that is built to work across multiple Amigas with the same user and message base. This same CPU pegging problem would be magnified on an A600 most likely.

[Gary McCulloch]

@Spitfire TN, I left mine as is from 1995 but changed the first question to state "Have fun with these questions, these are what I would require of all new users back in the day!" I always had a disclaimer saying that I didn't want real full names or phone numbers.

If they could mention the City and State, also leave their correct Area Code intact, that would be great.  I will leave the board as is.  Its a classic, and it looks it.  Glad to see a lot of you people from this website joined.  Hope to see all of you on there often!