The 640 MEG Shareware Studio 2/The 640 Meg Shareware Studio CD-ROM Volume II (Data Express)(1993).ISO/info/rimeman.zip/RIMEMAN.TXT

Text File | 1992-10-02 | 32KB | 675 lines

                      RIME(tm) USERS GUIDE

                          INTRODUCTION

This manual deals with how you, as a user, can get the most from the
RIME(tm) network.  It was written in response to your requests and will
hopefully answer your questions on how to use the Relay to your best
advantage.

RIME(tm) has been in existence since early 1988. It was started by Bob
Shuck and was originally composed of a small group of 10 or so
Washington D.C. boards.  Dissatisfaction with the software that the then
"UpLink" network was using, a casual conversation with Kip Compton and
the addition of a board in New York gave birth to PCRelay Software and
the RIME(tm) Network.  In a quest for more excellence, we have just
changed our network software to the next generation, Postlink.

As you read this manual please remember that if there is a subject you
do not understand, the NewUsers conference is always available for all
questions.  If your sysop does not carry the NewUser conference, why not
ask him/her to do so. Never be embarrassed to ask a question on this
network.  We were all new users once too.  No question is ever
considered too dumb-- and really, we are a friendly lot!

WHAT IS RIME(tm)?

RIME(tm) is a world wide network of electronic bulletin board systems
(otherwise known as a BBS) that join hands to form an electronic mail
system.  Messages you enter on one BBS are sent (copied) to another BBS.
That BBS in turn copies your message along with it's own messages to yet
another BBS.  This is known as echoing or relaying.  When you leave a
message or "mail" on a participating board, that message is copied to
all other boards that participate in the network.  The fact that your
messages travel from bulletin board to bulletin board is the only thing
that makes your message different from entering a message on a purely
local bulletin board.

This network of bulletin boards has one common goal: To provide a
environment for the friendly exchange of messages with others all over
the world.

RIME(tm) is also a group of very committed professional sysops who have
made the resources of an international BBS network available to you.

RIME(tm) provides user support for a wide variety of special interest
groups and product support for a wide variety of products. In fact, if
you want to find a wider variety of subjects you'd have to join a pay
network like The Source or CompuServe.

From all parts of the US, Canada, Europe, Russia, South America and the
Far East you'll find members of RIME(tm).

WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE?

RIME(tm) consists of one governing body: the Steering Committee. The
Steering Committee consists of 5 members.  They are the glue that holds
the network together.  They are ultimately responsible for all decisions
of the network.  The Steering Committee consists of:

                         Bonnie Anthony
                           Rex Hankins
                         Howard Belasco
                         JThomas Howell
                           Mike Glenn

These people have put a lot of effort into making sure that when you
dial your local board, RIME(tm) is there. They are also in charge of the
network Hub, affectionately called the NETHUB. If you have a question
about policy, these are the right people to ask.  If you need to send
them a message, address one message to STEERCOM.  An individual message
to each member is unnecessary.  You may leave your question in either
the COMMON or NetUser conference.

To help you understand some of this terminology:

NODE: A bulletin board system (BBS) that calls another bulletin
      board system (called a Hub) in order to  transfer mail.  A
      node does not receive mail directly from any other BBS.
      (that is, no one calls it to transfer mail.)

HUB:  A bulletin board system (BBS) that calls another Hub to transfer
      mail, and is called by one or more nodes to transfer mail.

SITE:  A site is the same as a NODE, a bulletin board system.  Each site
      is designated by its own unique site number.  The site number
      appears in the tagline area of eveyr message that is exported from
      a board.

SUPER-REGIONAL HUB: One of several Hubs located in different
      geographic locations. These Hubs are appointed by the
      Steering Committee. Generally, Hubs call a Super-Regional Hub,
      which in turn, calls the NetHub.

NETHUB:The "home" of RIME(tm), operated in Bethesda, Maryland
      by Bonnie Anthony. All Super-Regional Hubs call the NetHub
      for their mail packets.

ID CODE:A one to twelve character string which contains letters or
      numbers. Each node has a unique IDCODE which is used to
      identify that node in the network.  The IDCODE appears at the
      bottom of every message that is "relayed" thruout the network.

Then there are the conference hosts.  A conference host is in charge of
a particular conference (defined later), just as the Steering Committee
is in charge of the network.

On our Network, coordinating the conferences is a big job, and is
currently handled by several people.  You should familiarize yourself
with who does what:

        James Wall (IDCODE=DREAM) is the Conference
                Manager and responsible for adding new conferences,
                assigning hosts to old conferences and keeping track
                of conference numbers - in other words, he is the
                man to see if you want to start a new conference, or
                become a host on RIME.
        Right now the job of the Conference Liason, the person that
                handles all intra-conference problems is unfilled.  If
                you are experiencing some problem in a conference, this
                is the one to get in touch with.  A new person will be
                shortly announced.
        Rick Kingslan (IDCODE=OMAHANET) is our Marketing Coordinator,

Last but not least are the unsung heros of the network, the sysop! These
are the people who go to great expense providing equipment and phone
lines so you can converse with the world. The sysop is always the first
line of defense in case a problem arises.

HOW DOES MY MAIL GET TO ME?

Each day your local bulletin board calls its Regional Hub, usually in
the middle of the night.  At that time all new messages users have
entered on the BBS are uploaded to the Regional Hub.  Then, your board
downloads a packet which contains all the public and routed messages
from every other BBS on the network.

The Regional Hub takes this packet and adds it to packets from other
boards connected to it and creates larger, more complete packets.  These
packets contain messages, files and requests from each board that calls
the Regional Hub.  At least once a day, usually two or three times, the
Regional Hub calls the Super-Regional Hub which calls the NetHub.

The NetHub takes the incoming packet of hub mail and returns to the
Super-Regional Hub all the mail it received since that Hub last called.
The Nethub then adds the new mail it received to the waiting mail for
all other Hubs.  This is all done automatically.

The Regional Hub takes all the mail it received from the Super-Regional
Hub and adds it to the packet for your board (and all the other boards
connected to it.)  Then you call your local board and either download
the mail to read using your off-line reader or read and reply to the new
mail on the board.

FEATURES AVAILABLE TO USERS

RIME(tm) uses Postlink software written by Kip Compton. This is without
question the most versatile network software ever written.

Some of the features, such as file sends and requests are not normally
directly available to users.  However, if a unique file is mentioned in
a conference message, you might ask your sysop if he could obtain that
file for you.

Please remember that most Hubs call long distance for their mail and
files increase the time and therefore expense of file transfers.  Do not
request files that you could obtain from one of the local boards in your
area.

The important feature, for you, of Postlink software is its ability to
transfer messages within a conference area, between bulletin boards.
A conference is a message area that is specific to one particular topic
of interest.  There are over 300 conferences currently defined on
RIME. Your BBS probably does not carry all of the conferences as the
disk space required for this may be high.

Your sysop may carry conferences that are both relayed and not relayed.
If you have any questions about whether a particular conference is
relayed, please ask your sysop.

When you enter your message in a relayed conference you may be asked if
you wish to "ECHO" the message.  If you say "Yes" your message will be
sent out to all other participating bulletin board Systems.  If you
answer "No"  the message remains on your local bulletin board and is not
transferred within the network. When you relay your message, please
remember that it is being copied to over 900 boards.

Although there will be reference numbers on the message, it is
considered polite to quote a few lines from the message you are
responding to.  That helps the recipient remember the "conversation"
even if he reads the message days later.

Please be aware that every participating bulletin board system will have
a different set of reference numbers for the same set of messages.  This
is due to the different times that each board started receiving the
particular conference. Therefore you should not reference a message
number unless you are talking with someone on the same bulletin board.

TYPES OF MESSAGES

In reading the messages on the RIME network, you have probably come
across some relay terms that you are unfamiliar with. Phrases such as
"R/O", "Routed",  etc. refer to the different ways of sending a message.

While no message placed on the network can legally be considered
private, you can direct a message to a single individual by making it
R/O, i.e. Receiver Only. The BBS software in use on the BBS that you
access RIME through will determine how you mark a message as R/O. On
PCBoard systems, it is actually termed Receiver Only. On other systems,
it may be called "private". By marking the message as private or R/O on
the BBS, you are making the message R/O in respect to RIME as well.

There is a consideration to be made before sending someone an R/O
message. Plain, unrouted R/O mail is usually not allowed to be exported
from a BBS that is on a Postlink network.  If you send an unrouted R/O
message, and your board does not allow the export of this type of mail,
you will receive a message from Postlink telling you that the message
was not sent into the network and that you should send the message
routed as well as private.

We strongly recommend that you do not leave UNROUTED private messages to
other users in the network. Private, unrouted mail is delivered to every
system in the network and is readable by any person with sufficient
security to read private mail.  We recommend that any message you wish
to be private be sent via ROUTED MAIL only.

Always remember, there is no mail in the network that cannot be read by
the sending and receiving sysops and while we do not guarantee real
private mail, the software facility for sending routed messages, which
limits the sending of messages to just the boards to which the message
is routed, helps save each and every sysop money and disk space.

                           Routed messages

A routed message is a message meant to be delivered to only specific
board(s) mentioned in the routing information of a message. It may be
either public or private.

To send a routed message you must know either the site number or the
IDCODE of the board you wish to reach. The site number appears
immediately after the words POSTLINK in every tagline and the site
number is immediately followed by the IDCODE which is a group of up to
12 letters.  Here is a typical tagline:

* Collector's EDITION, Dallas, TX [phone]/9871 14.4 <ASP>
* PostLink(tm) v1.02  EDITION (#79) : RelayNet(tm) : North Texas Hub
                      /^^^^^^^   ^^ \
                    /                 \
                  /                     \
         This is the IDCODE            This is the Site Number
            EDITION                               79

As you can see, the information you need in order to route appears after
the word "Postlink(tm) in the tagline area. The IDCODE immediately
follows the Postlink version number and the SITE number is preceeded by
the # symbol. Do NOT use the # symbol in your routing information.

The symbol for routing is -> that is a hyphen immediately followed by a
greater than symbol or arrow pointing to the right. This routing symbol
must then be immediately followed by the site number or the IDCODE.
This routing symbol must be placed in the extreme upper left hand corner
of the message, on the very first line.  Do not start the text of your
message immediately after your routing symbol.  Skip a line or at least
a few spaces before you start the body of your message. It would look
like this if you were trying to reach me at RUNNINGA or site #2.

Either

->RUNNINGA

or

->2

If you want to know when the routed message arrived and thereby receive
a "return receipt" - place a backward routing symbol <- immediately
after the site number or the IDCODE.

You may route a message to more than one site at the same time by
stacking the site number or IDCODE on the routing line, each route
separate by a space.  This is called multicasting.  You may mix site
numbers and IDCODES and you may mix upper and lower cases for the
IDCODES. The IDCODE does not need to be in upper case. You may also
request a return receipts when multicasting, but realize you will
receive a return receipt from every system you have on your routing
line.

Here is an example of a multicasted message asking for a return receipt:

->RUNNINGA 547 modemzone 1121 687 3 1421 Earthzone<-

Multicasted messages all are addressed to the same person and are
most useful when trying to reach sysops, a particular user that
frequents more boards than one, or ALL the users of a few select
boards.  You may multicast either public or private messages.

Routed messages may of course be either public or R/O.

NOTE:  The directional arrow is nothing more than a hyphen
       ("minus key") followed by a greater than key (>).  It is
       not the right arrow key on your keyboard.

NOTE:  There is no space between the arrow and the IDCODE or Site Number
       of the destination node.

NOTE:  Postlink will read the occurrence of the sumbol ->WORD if it is
       the first thing on the first line as an attempt on your part to
       route a message.  Do not use -> as a quoting symbol in your
       reader unless you leave a space between the '->' and the first
       letter of the following word. BE CAREFUL!

By using the Routing function, you can help decrease the traffic of
messages that clutter conferences and actually lower the operating cost
of many nodes.

More on ROUTED MAIL:

When new mail is brought into a conference on a BBS, the routed messages
are placed in each conference first.  Therefore if you leave a message
telling a recipient that a private message is to follow "this message",
more than likely it is not true and he/she has already read the private
message.

When you use the Receiver/Only (R/O;private) of specialized message
function on RelayNet(tm) you are agreeing:

      o  To hold the net blameless for the release of the message as a
public message.

      o  To allow people who normally have sufficient security to read
your message.

      o  NEVER to use a private message to speak of or conduct any
business that may be contrary to network policy or considered illegal
in the outside world.

      o  That the message you enter is not the same private message
described in the recent ECPA rulings.

When transferring mail, Postlink software, by reading the routing
symbols, automatically decides on which boards routed messages to
another user should appear. This decision is made at the node level.

Remember, the sysop of the receiving system and of the sending system,
as well as all other users on each system who are qualified to read
private mail can read all routed messages.  There is no such thing as
a message that a SysOp cannot read and a user can read.

USING OFF-LINE READERS

Off-line readers are a method by which you may read messages from a BBS
while off-line (i.e. not logged on.)  You start by logging on to a
bulletin board, briefly, to download your messages. Then, by using one
of the off-line reader programs, you may spend all the time you need
reading messages, entering replies and any new messages you may come up
with.  When you are finished, you log back on to the BBS, briefly, in
order to upload your replies and any new messages you may have created.

The process of uploading and downloading messages may be done in one
phone call.  Log on to the BBS, upload your new replies, download the
new messages that have been entered since the last time you were on,
then log off the BBS. Those of you who call long distance may prefer
this approach as it helps to reduce long distance changes by doing the
whole process in one phone call.

The use of an off-line reader may save you telephone charges by also
shortening your daily total on-line time, and, at the same time, it
allows more users per day to access your local BBS.

GENERAL CONFERENCE RULES:

(for the specific rules please ask your sysop for the file called
confrule.zip)

1) No Aliases are permitted. You must use your real name in
every RIME(tm) conference (except certain conferences such as Recovery
where a reasonable alias is permitted.)  If you are unsure, do not use
an alias but ask the conference host if one is permissible.

2) No offensive or abusive language is allowed.  The use of any word,
group of words, expression, comment, suggestion, or proposal which is
profane, obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, is strictly
prohibited within the RIME(tm) Network and may result in the removal
of your user id from your BBS.  Please apply the standard rules of
courtesy to any conversation you have in the network.

Do not abuse the other users of any conference(s) by sending abusive,
foul, or insulting messages.  No abuse of other users on the basis of
character, physical characteristics, religion, gender, sexual
orientation, intelligence quotient, or ethnicity is allowed.  Messages
meant to harass or bully another user are never permitted.

3) No BBS ads permitted except in the BBS Ads or Ansi graphics
conference.

4) Since there are conferences for almost every subject, place your
message in the conference where it fits best. If you can't find a good
fit, consider using the UPLINK conference, which is our chit-chat
conference. Messages should remain to the topic of the conference.

5) No for-sale advertisements are permitted in any conference except
the ForSale conference or where specifically allowed by the network.
Ask the conference host of your particular conference if for-sale ads
are allowed in the conference before you place a for-sale ad.  Pyramid
schemes are not allowed anywhere on the network as they are illegal.

We here at Relaynet assume NO responsibility for any merchandise
purchased through our network.  There are no rules on this network
that have anything to do with the payment or receiving of goods.  That
is a private matter between the buyer and the seller and RIME assumes
absolutely no responsibility for any sales whatsoever.  It is strictly
a caveat emptor.

The rules of the network for forsale ads are as follows:

        a - Dealers are encouraged to participate but we do ask that
they identify themselves as dealers and not send the same ad more than
once a week.  They may send different ads daily if they so choose.
        b - personal ads are allowed every few days.
        c - all ads for software must include the words "includes all
orginal disks and manuals" and that is all - they do not have to
include orginal packaging if all disks and manuals are sold.

6) Uploading or transfer through the network of commercial software is
absolutely prohibited.

7) Messages in the Common conference are limited to 10 lines including
quoting but excluding software generated taglines.

    The Common conference should be considered as a starting place
on RIME(tm), a conference where you might greet each other, locate
boards in various geographically areas, post messages as you would on
a "live" bulletin board or make general announcements.

8) The Sysops conference is open to all sysops whether they are members
of RIME(tm) or not.  Also, at the discretion of the SysOp, any user may
be granted access to this conference.

9) RIME(tm) retains possession of all messages appearing in the network.
Do not transfer messages to other networks without express permission.

10) Messages from other networks may only be used on RIME(tm) with the
consent of the messages' author and the other network.

11) The Net administration conference is open only to Relaynet Sysops,
Co-Sysops and Conference Hosts.

12) If you are asked by a Conference Host or Steering Committee member
to cease a message thread, please comply as soon as you receive the
message. Do not debate the issue further.

13) Questions directed to the Administration should be placed in the
NetUsers conference.  Please use Steercom as the recipient of the
message if you mean it to be addressed to the Steering Committee as a
whole.

14) Don't Quote Excessively.  Most software and offline readers allow
you to quote parts of the message you are replying to.  It is a waste of
space in a message and is costly for our sysops to transfer messages
which have large quote areas in any message.  Usually a line or two will
suffice to remind the receiver of what you are replying to, which is the
purpose of quoting.  Never quote an entire message. The quote area
should be less than 20% of the message.  Never quote the tagline areas
unless you are discussing taglines!

While quote boxes can be nice looking, some computers cannot handle
them, special readers such as for the visually impaired often do not
handle them well, and they can lead to problems in general readers as
well as corrupt mail packets. We ask all users to reduce, if not
eliminate, the quote boxes in the interest of fairness to all the
other users of the network.

15) Signature lines are limited to two lines.  Ansi graphics are not
permitted in any signature lines except in the ANSI conference.

16) No one may copy, quote verbatim, or extensively quote from a message
from one issue-oriented conference to another without permission of the
originator of the message.  In addition retransmission of public/private
messages dealing with administrative matters to anyone other than the
user, Sysop, CH or SC member in order to harass, bully, bring other
users into the private administrative discussion or substantially
distort that administrative action is considered grounds for
disciplinary action and potential removal from the network.

17) Bombing the Network, or the practice of a user generating multiple
non-related messages for the purpose of disrupting a conference or the
Network is prohibited.

18) Messages that are specifically intended to mislead and deceive are
considered to be disruptive to a conference.  Messages meant to harass
or bully another user are not allowed.

19) Differences of opinion that are over these rules in a conference are
to be discussed in the NETADMIN or the USERS Conferences only. These
differences may be discussed with the Conference Host in the conference
by R/O and/or Routed message, or with STEERCOM in the COMMON Conference
by R/O message only.

20) Any user or sysop threatening to involve Relaynet in a law suit or
legal battle, at the discretion of the CC or SC, may be removed from the
network.

21) Of course, no illegal activity.

USER COURTESIES

Did you know that if you use all upper case letters, that other users
think you are shouting at them?  Remember to turn off your CAPS LOCK key
when you go to enter a message.

Some users think that the way to get started is to answer every message
they see.  That sometimes works but often it serves to annoy the other
users who are already engaged in some kind of dialog in the conference.
When you enter a conference for the first time, feel free to say hello
and introduce yourself.  Then sit back and read a few days worth of
mail.  In that time you will probably discover the trends of the
conference and that you have something substantial to add to the
discussion.

The conference host is a valuable asset in a conference.  The hosts run
the conference, introduce topics of general interest to the conference
members to enlarge discussions, oversees that the messages stay on
topic, provides information and acts as a liason between users and the
powers that be above him/her.

When a CH (conference host) asks you to end a thread, or move the
discussion along, please be aware that they can enforce the conference
rules in their conference.  If you feel that you are being treated
unfairly, there are recourses open to you.  But these do not involve
public discussion in the conference itself.

WHEN A PROBLEM ARISES

A problem arises?  You need some sort of help?  Here's how to get the
answers that solve your problem.

        If it is a system problem or a general question, ask your
sysop first!  Most times he/she will have the answer you need to solve
your problem.  Leave them a Comment.  This is a private message to
your sysop.  If you leave such a message in a relayed conference it will
usually not be transmitted across the network.  Your sysop may not read
every conference he relays, so leave him/her a comment on the main
board.  Most sysops read their main board.

        If it is a conference specific question leave a message to the
conference host of that particular conference.  If the conference
appears to have no host or you are unsure exactly who the host is, leave
a message to James Wall (IDCODE=DREAM, SITE #121) in the Common
conference - our "network bulletin board" and ask him who the conference
host is.

        If you are experiencing a problem with a conference host, or
feel that the problem you have needs resolution at a higher level,
leave a message for Bonnie Anthony (IDCODE=RUNNINGA, SITE #2) and tell
her what your problem is and see if she can help you out.  Again, she
hangs out in COMMON.

        If you still have a question and it has not been resolved by
the steps above, write a message to STEERCOM and leave it in the
Common conference or if it is available on your BBS join the NetUsers
conference.  The Steering Committee can be found monitoring both
conferences for any questions that users might have.

        ALL DECISIONS OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE ARE FINAL

THE RECENT ECPA RULINGS AND PRIVATE MAIL

        There is always lively discussion surrounding the issue
of private mail on a BBS network.  Below is the RIME(tm) policy
regarding private mail:

                    TO ALL USERS OF RIME(tm)

Messages that are posted in any and all conferences on any BBS
designated as a member of Postlink, RelayNet or RIME(tm) are relayed
("echoed") throughout the international network.

RIME(tm) maintains the capability and capacity to send and receive
routed messages that are flagged as "Receiver-Only". However, messages
so flagged are NOT to be considered by any user as actual "private"
messages.

The purpose of the Receiver-Only flag for such messages is intended
solely to provide for a means of limiting the possible number of BBS's
that may have access to the messages for display purposes. The following
is the official RIME(tm) policy regarding Receiver Only flagged
messages.

PURSUANT TO THE ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY ACT OF 1986,
18 USC 2510 et. seq., NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN TO ALL USERS OF
THIS NETWORK THAT THERE ARE NO FACILITIES PROVIDED BY THE
RIME(tm) INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR SENDING OR RECEIVING PRIVATE
OR CONFIDENTIAL ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS. ALL MESSAGES POSTED
IN RELAYED CONFERENCES SHALL BE DEEMED TO BE READILY ACCESSIBLE
TO ALL NETWORK HUBS, NODES, AND USERS.

Do NOT use RIME(tm) conferences for any communication for which you
intend only yourself and one or more specific recipients to read.
Consider that all node sysops have the capability, capacity and
potential to read all mail posted in this network, and, as a result, to
post said messages as public messages on their boards.

All participating Network Bulletin Board Systems shall deem all messages
posted within the RIME(tm) conferences to be readily accessible to the
general public at all times.

If you post a message within any RIME(tm) conference, your acceptance of
this policy is heretofore implied. The RIME(tm) International Network
and any participating bulletin board system assumes absolutely no
accountability or liability whatsoever for any violations of this policy
by any and all users of this network.

To reiterate: This network provides the capability and capacity to flag
messages as R/O.  However, messages so flagged will not and cannot be
considered or defined as "private communications" between two or more
people.

DUTIES OF A CONFERENCE HOST

The following are the general duties of a conference host. These may
vary from conference to conference.

o Defining the operating rules of the conference.

o Dealing with those users experiencing difficulty conforming to the
set rules.

o Encouraging discussion by either responding to messages or
initiating pertinent topics for discussion.

o Replying to ALL messages that, either explicitly or implicitly, call
for a reply from the host.

o  Convincing sysops not currently carrying your conference to do so.

o Getting people who are leaving messages in other conferences
appropriate to yours to join the discussions  in your conference.

o   Coordinating wih other conference hosts whose conference topics
overlap with yours.

If you think that you have a good idea for a conference, or would like
to host a conferences, please send a R/O message to James Wall
(IDCODE=DREAM, SITE #)in the COMMON conference. To start a conference
you need to have the topic clearly defined, a conference host available
that would be suitable for that conference, and 10 nodes and 5 hubs
willing to agree to carry that conference.  James will be more than
happy to help you get started in publisizing your idea and seeing if
there is interest on the network for that topic.

HOW TO BECOME A MEMBER BOARD IN THE RIME(tm) NETWORK

Some of you may decide you like this medium so well you would like to
join the network with your own board. To do this the Network requires
that:

o  You have legally Registered copies of the software involved in the
setup of your board.

o You download and familiarize yourself with the material contained in
a file called RELAYNET.ZIP.

o You allow no pirated or commercial software in your files sections.

o You read and agree to the Network Bylaws.

o You complete and return the RIME(tm) application form along with the
inital membership fee which is currently $25.00, but may change in the
future.

If you meet these conditions you may join the network on a temporary
basis until a probationary period has elapsed.  A decision on your
status will be made at the end of that probationary period.

Copyright 1992 (All right reserved) - Bonnie Anthony, Bethesda Md