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CITADEL TUTORIAL by Marlene Abriel 1987 This tutorial is intended to make all of you users *expert* citadel users. Download it, read it, study it, commit it to memory and keep it at your fingertips.....just in case. I will attempt to take you through every step of a Citadel BBS, from a first time logon to a logoff. Now for a bit of background. The Citadel system is a public domain BBS program, but don't let that scare you. It is one of the best that I have seen, not that I'm a well travelled modemer. Citadel is made up of rooms, like SIGS. These rooms have names and you can travel from room to room quite easily. Some rooms are for messages only, while others are for messages plus uploading and downloading. Rooms can be Open to all users, Hidden to some and also have access by Invitation-Only. You can tell what type of room it is, but more on that later. You may leave messages in any room that you have access. Well, let's get started. You call up a BBS and.....Oh no! It's a Citadel! Fasten your seatbelt, take a firm grip of your keyboard and let's plow straight on in. After the banner scrolls by, if there is one, you will see something like this: [L]ogin read [E]nter etc. (for the sake of simplicity, anything you have to type will be contained in a set of brackets, like this < > and a carriage return is <CR>) Now type <L>ogin. You will be asked for a password or a <CR> if you are a new user. Type a <CR> and answer all the prompts. Easy so far, eh? Now you're logged on and your password has been saved for future use. On the screen you should now see: [G]oto read [N]ew [E]nter [H]elp and probably some room names (I'll refer to these as Rn) The [G]oto will take you from room to room to read/enter messages and u/l and d/l in directory rooms. Let's take a look at the rooms and learn how to tell what type of rooms they are. To call up a list of all Known rooms for your access, type a <K>nown. It might look something like this: Mail> Story>* Music]* Poetry] Notice the different brackets and the *. They all have meaning. The > means that it is an ordinary room with just the basic message options. The * tells us that the room is an Invitation-Only room. The only way to get access to these rooms is if a user with access to that room invites you and that user must be an AIDE (like a sysop). Usually these rooms are Hidden and you won't even see them on your Known Room list. These rooms are used for private conversations and/or games....the sysop can even be evicted and he/she won't have access to it! More about Hidden rooms....if a room is hidden and is not an Invitation-Only room and you know the Rn, you can go to it by typing <.><G>oto<Rn><CR>and it will appear in your Known Room list from then on. The ] means that the room is a directory room. Besides the usual messages, these rooms will allow u/l and d/l or just u/l or just d/l. The ]* means that the room is an Individual-Only directory room. You may at some point in time see others like a : after the Rn. This designates the room as a Shared room. Shared rooms network with other Citadel BBS's and you must have Net Privileges in order to leave a message that will Net. Don't worry about this for now. The Mail room is an Email room. It is *very* private. The mail can only be read by the sender and the receiver. The sysop can't even read it! A <?> will get you a menu from just about anywhere on a Citadel BBS. Use it often if need be. There are two ways to enter your commands: 1) single 1-key functions 2) commands preceded by a `.' I prefer to type <.> as the prefix because it gives you more control of where you're going and when reading messages you get a prompt for [N]ext or [R]eply. The <.> also allows more commands. Following is a list of the 1-key commands, for interest sake. STadel 1-KEY Functions ________/Reading rooms\________ [N]ew messages [O]ld messages [F]orward read [R]everse read _______/Getting around\_______ [G]oto a room with NEW messages [S]kip room [U]ngoto room [K]nown rooms [Z]forget room ______/Telecommunicating\______ [E]nter message [C]hat w/Sysop ________/Getting help\________ [H]elp [?]list options __________/In & Out\___________ [L]ogin [T]erminate (off) ------------------------------- [.] is a prefix for extended cmds (try .H EXTENDED) For more help, type .H? Let's move around Citadel with the <.> prefix. TO GOTO A ROOM -------------- Type <.><G>oto<Rn><CR> The Rn is the roomname and must be at least the 3 unique letters of the name of the room which you wish to visit. For example: there are two rooms named NSACUG General and NSACUG Sigs. If you picked 3 letters out of the NSACUG, which is common to the two roomnames, Citadel will go to the first one and you would probably not get to the other room at all. By choosing 3 unique, consecutive letters from General or Sigs, you will go to that room. The Rn prompt will change to the name of the new room. <.><G>oto<Gen><CR> - goto to NSACUG General <.><G>oto<igs><CR> - goto to NSACUG Sigs Just remeber that if you don't get where you intended, that the 3 letters you have choosen might be found in another roomname. TO READ MESSAGES ---------------- Type <.><R>ead<A>ll<CR> - read all messages in the room <.><R>ead<N>ew<CR> - read only new messages in the room <.><R>ead<O>ld<CR> - read old messages in the room <.><R>ead<R>everse<CR> - read all messages in reverse order <.><R>ead<F>orward<CR> - read all messages in forward order The last two are useful if you're searching for a particular message. While you're reading messages there are 4 commands that are available to you. <J>ump <N>ext ause <S>top <J>ump will skip to the next paragraph of the current message. <N>ext will stop the current message and skip to the next message. ause will pause the printing of the current message until another key is pressed. <S>top will return you immediately to the room prompt. These 4 commands will work anytime the system is printing messages or you are reading a text file online. There may be time that you just want to log on and read the messages in a certain room. With Citadel it is possible to read only one room and retain the messages in other rooms as "new" for the next time you call. All you have to do is log on, type <.><G>oto<Rn><CR> and read the room and then log off. If you're online and decide that you don't want to read a room, do the same thing, or if you are already in the room, type <S>kip. This will cause you to skip the room and the contents will be "new" the next time you log on. If you have skipped a room and before you log off you want to read the messages, just type <.><G>oto<Rn><CR> and voila, you're there. TO ENTER MESSAGES ----------------- Type <.><E>nter<?><CR> - will give you a menu <.><E>nter<M>essage<CR> - enter the message Typing a <?> will give a menu of all the available message entry and saving commands: <A>bort entry <C>ontinue <H>old Message for later <N>et Save (must have net privileges - explained later) rint formatted (view message) <R>eplace string (edit) <S>ave message After typing in the message a blank line and <CR> will get you the "Enter cmd:" prompt. Select one of the above. Citadel formats all messages to the screen width of the caller. Carriage returns are treated as blanks unless preceeded by a space, so if you want paragraphs (and not a mess) indent a couple of spaces. The <H>old Message for later, is a unique feature of the Citadel systems. This option allows you to put the message you are entering into a temporary buffer and returns you to the Rn prompt. You may continue to use the BBS normally, reading/entering more messages. Usual use of this is to read more message and update the message you re leaving or to move into another room because you think that the text of the message is more appropriate there. Only *one* message can be held at a time. To continue a message in the Hold buffer type: <.><E>nter<H>eld message<CR> The message wil print across the screen and then you can continue with it, hold it again, save it or abort. Whatever your little heart desires. Well, that about covers it for messages. DIRECTORY ROOMS: Rn] --------------- Remember the ] bracket? To read the directory of files in a directory room type: <.><R>ead<D>irectory<CR> This will list the files names and sizes. The sysop, if he's a good one, will have prepared a brief description of the files for you. To read them and the filenames type: <.><R>ead<E>xtended<D>irectory<CR> You may specify certain file types. For example, if you want to view all the available .DOC files in this room, type: <.><R>ead<D>irectory<*.DOC><CR> You can read files while online one of 3 commands: <.><R>ead<T>extfile<CR> - this formats to screen width *<.><R>ead<F>ile<CR> - just reads *<.><R>ead<F>ile<fn><CR> - this reads a specific file The last two are unique to the ST version of Citadel and will not work on other versions. How are you making out so far? Now that you've got the message system figured out and can move around the BBS, let's go for a file transfer. FILE TRANSFERS -------------- File transfer a very easy on a Citadel BBS. You must be in a directory room. There is a WC protocol (Ward Christensen protocol), which I don't know anything about. I don't use it......maybe someone can fill us in this. The other protocol which is used is the standard Xmodem protocol. Downloads --------- There are two commands which are self explanatory: <.><R>ead<X>modeminary<CR> <.><R>ead<X>modem<T>extfile<CR> CRC is supported in both cases. Uploads ------- These are self explanatory as well: <.><E>nter<X>modeminary<CR> <.><E>nter<X>modem<F>ile<CR> <.><E>nter<X>modem<M>essage<CR> The last one is used to u/l a message that you have prepared before you called the BBS; ideal if you have a review or short article. I'm not sure, but when you initiate a <.><E>nter<X>modem<M>essage, I think the prompt you get is: "Ready for WC transfer? (Y/N)"......answer <Y> and don't worry about the WC part (only if you're ready, of course). I think just about covers the basics. Following is a little more detail. FORGET ROOMS ------------ <Z> when in a room will cause you to forget the room. It removes the name from your list and you will not go be able to go there unless you Unforget the room. Why would you want to forget a room? Well, there might a room created for the discussion of Chippendale men.......now, if you're a *man* you wouldn't want to be bothered...I hope!......so type <.><G>oto<C>hippendale and type <Z>. Zap! it's gone. To get a list of all the rooms that you have forgotten just type <.><Z> and there they are. If you want to Unforget a room and get it back on your list, type <.><G>oto<the ENTIRE Rn>. A partial name will not work. Now for a couple of rules. You can forget any room, except the Mail and what is called the Lobby. The lobby is the first room that you are in when you log on. The <.><Z> will only list the public rooms that you have forgotten. If you have forgotten a private room, better jot the Rn down. You can return to a forgotten private room with the Unforget command. NETWORKING ---------- All of you have probably heard that a Citadel BBS can network with others. This feature is only made possible if the sysops of two or more boards have made previous arrangements. Let's pretend that, that has been done. A room which has networking capabilities will have a : after the Rn to designate that its is a Shared room (one with net cap.). What will happen if you enter a net message with the following command? <.><E>nter<N>et-message This message will be sent to the other nodes (BBS's which share this room). The sysops sent up certain times to do this and Citadel takes over and will do the networking automatically. This feature is handy, especially if you want to leave a message on a BBS and it's busy (and it networks with another BBS). If you have already typed the message using the <.><E>nter<M>essage and before you save it, you decide that you would like it to net with another node, you can do a Netsave by typing: <.><S>ave<N>et-message LOGGING OFF THE SYSTEM ---------------------- You're all done and now you want to go home, right? It's simple. Type: <.><T>erminate<Q>uit-also Bye, bye! You're gone. FINALE ------ There are usually help files available to be read online if you need them. Type: <.><H>elp<help> will get you a list of them. To read the help files type: <.><H>elp<name of the help file>. A LIST OF ALL THE AVAILABLE EXTENDED COMMANDS --------------------------------------------- (note periods: "." and the letters to type in caps.) **** These commands are for AIDES only .Aide ? .Aide Delete-empty-rooms .Aide Edit-room .Aide Insert-pulled-message .Aide Kill-room .Aide Settime **** These commands are for everyone else .Enter ? .Enter Configuration (change your config setup) .Enter File .Enter Message .Enter WC-protocol Message .Enter Xmodem-protocol Message (Synonym for .EWM) .Enter Xmodem-protocol BinaryFile FILENAME.EXT .Enter Xmodem-protocol File FILENAME.EXT .Enter Password (change password) .Enter Room (users can create a room for specific topic discussions) .Enter Held-Message .Goto ? .Goto ANYROOM (type in the Rn) .Goto PARTIALROOMNAME (a unique 3 letter combo) .Help ? .Help ANYFILE (name of the help file you want to read) .Known MATCH STRING <search room list for matching room name> .Login PASSWORD .Read All (messages) .Read Forward (messages) .Read Global (messages) .Read New (messages) .Read Old (messages) .Read Reverse (messages) (NORA == New, All, Reverse, or Old) .Read WC-Protocol [NORA] <Network format> <CRC supported> .Read Xmodem Protocol[NORA] <Normal format> <CRC supported> .Read Status (status of the BBS) .Read Directory .Read Directory *.DOC .Read Extended Directory .Read Binaryfile PROGRAM.COM .Read File ANYFILE.EXT .Read Text File ANYFILE.EXT .Read Text File *.DOC .Read WC-Protocol BatchFile *.* <CRC supported> .Read WC-Protocol Textfile ANYFILE.EXT <CRC supported> .Read Xmodem BatchFile *.* <CRC supported> .Read Xmodem Textfile ANYFILE.EXT <CRC supported> .Skip ? .Skip ANYROOM .Skip PARTIALROOMNAME .Terminate Stay .Terminate Quit-also .Ungoto ANYROOM .Ungoto PARTIALROOMNAME .Z <Lists public forgotten rooms> See Also Help Files