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Monster Media 1994 #1
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MAXIMUS
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1994-02-25
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211 lines
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| MaxAuteur v.001b (beta) |
| by Fais Nasir @ o1:25o/718 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Copyright 1994 by Independent Ick! All Rights Reserved. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Welcome to "MaxAuteur"!
This programme is my solution to the non-existent market of message-
writer's utilties! When I put my BBS back online in April of '93, I
had requested in various echos for someone to forward me a programme
that compiled a "Top 10" or "Best User's" listing etc. etc. The
sysops were great and sent me various programmes which would show
you who the top callers were, the best uploaders, the most notorious
leeches etc. etc., but not one (not a one!) would make a listing of
the top message-writers. Being the sysop of a conversations-only
system, I was rather appalled to find that this was the case. It
wasn't the programmers' fault, it was Maximus-- Max doesn't keep
a track of how many messages a user writes like it does the other
statistics. Bummer...!
In comes "MaxAuteur". MaxAuteur will read your Maximus logfile and
check it for messages-written by the various users on your system.
It also supports messages written by an alias, so no matter where
when or how the user writes, he or she are caught on record!
Great, so I wrote a programme to do this, but <ack>!!! When I
executed the programme, I didn't see the people that I *knew*
wrote tonnes of mail! Where were they? The answer was obvious--
they were using the offline mail-reader!
Here's a quick run-down of what MaxAuteur will do:
- Reads the Maximus log for messages left via a real name *or*
an alias.
- Reads the BlueWave log file for messages left by a user.
- Allows the exclusion of up to five users you don't want MaxAuteur
to recognise (making you one of them is recommended).
- Sorts the users and ranks them in a best to worst fashion.
- Writes the acquired data to a MaxAuteur data-file (viewable).
- Creates an .Mec file all ready for compile by Max's "MECCA" utility.
There are two reasons you may want to use MaxAuteur. One would be that
you simply want to keep a track of who writes how much mail (via the
"MxAuteur.Dat" file) or you want a displayable top-ten listing of those
that actually write on your board.
-------------------------------------
(1). Alright... The Intro is Over...
-------------------------------------
As you probably haven't guessed by now, this is a utility to help
you, a Maximus sysop, keep a track of the message-writer's on your
system, and of those who are not leaving any mail whatsoever
('cause they're probably playing some game or leeching a file some-
where)...
I am not going to go into vast details on how to use this programme
since it is relatively easy to understand <blah>, <blah> <blah>, and
after dedicating over fifteen-hundred lines of code on something like
this, writing a doc file is the least of my concerns! I admit, I
may have gotten a bit fancy in areas where it wasn't necessary, but
hey-- like a gun or a knife, if you `draw' your C-compiler, then you's
jes' gots t'a use it!
------------------------------------------------------------
(2). Executing MaxAuteur and its Control File (Respectively)
------------------------------------------------------------
After unarchiving it into a directory of its own, you can execute it
by typing "mxauteur <filename.ctl>". The control filename is entirely
up to you and is *not* optional. You may use the control file that
came with this archive and edit it to reflect your own system. Any
line beginning with a `;' (semi-colon) or a space will be ignored
by MxAuteur during runtime.
-------------------------------------------------
(3). REQUIRED Keywords in the MaxAuteur .CTL file
-------------------------------------------------
Sysop <sysopname> - Your name, e.g. "Sysop Fais Nasir".
System <system name> - Your system's name
(e.g. "System My Kuel Doodz BBS").
MaxAuteur [<d:><path>] - The full path to your MaxAuteur directory
(e.g. "MaxAuteur c:\misc\mxauteur). Trailing
backslashes are optional.
MaxLog [<d:><path><filename>] - The full path and name to your Maximus
log file. Don't forget to specify the
the name (e.g. "MaxLog C:\Max\Max.log").
BwLog [<d:><path><filename>] - The full path and name of your BlueWave
logfile. If you do not use the BlueWave
offline mail-reader, put "None" in the
place of the path (e.g. "BwLog None").
MeccaFile [<d:><path><filename>] - The full path and name to the MECCA
file you would like MaxAuteur to
create for you.
(e.g. "MeccaFile C:\Max\Top10.mec")
-------------------------------------------------
(4). Optional Keywords in the MaxAuteur .CTL file
-------------------------------------------------
In addition to the above keywords, you may also include up to five
occurrences of the "Exclude" keyword. You follow "Exclude" with the
name of a person on your BBS that you want MaxAuteur to ignore when
compiling the best message writer's listing. You would probably want
to exclude yourself since otherwise you would more than likely always
be in the number one position all of the time (who writes more messages
than the sysop???). You may also want to exclude your 'co or assistant
sysop for the same reason.
If you would like more information on the control file, please refer to
the file "MxAuteur.ctl" that was included in this archive. I recommend
that you simply edit that file and use it since it would be much easier
that way.
-----------------------------------------------------------
(5). Something that you MUST do BEFORE running MaxAuteur...
-----------------------------------------------------------
Simply put, you must set your "Log Mode" to "Verbose" in "Max.ctl".
Don't forget to "silt your Max" after doing this. If you don't do
this, MaxAuteur will NOT work for you.
-----------------------------------------------------------
(5-a). Something that you MUST do AFTER running MaxAuteur...
-----------------------------------------------------------
You must either rename, copy, or move your Max.log and Bw.log to a
temporary directory or file. If you don't do this, then the next time
you run MaxAuteur, it will read the names again! I run MaxAuteur
every night within my maintenance routines. After it runs, I have
the following lines in my batch file:
c:
cd\max
rename master.log temp.log
copy temp.log + max.log master.log
delete max.log
cd\bluewave
rename masterbw.log temp.log
copy temp.log + bw.log masterbw.log
delete bw.log
The above lines will append the *current* log file for Maximus and
BlueWave to the "master" file (you can decide upon the name). Every-
thing else in the above is pretty much self-explanatory.
Remember: If you aren't using BlueWave, be sure to set the "BwLog"
option to "None" (minus the quotes, of course).
If you don't understand the above lines, go buy a DOS manual...
----------------------------------------------------
(6). <BlaH>, <BlaH>, and just a bit more'o <BlaH>...
----------------------------------------------------
This programme is about many days of non-sleeping, googly-eyed work.
As it stands, this programme will only print out the top ten on your
board, and will only give you a data file for a maximum of two-hundred
users. It will still work if more than two-hundred people write on
your system and compile the best writers in a bulletin for you, but
it won't make a sysop report to you on those past two-hundred.
MaxAuteur represents a lot of work on my part and I am releasing this
version into the shareware market. If you find this programme of use,
please consider "registering" it. Registration costs only ten bucks,
and in return, I will send you a version that will allow you to configure
as large a bulletin as you like, and up to a thousand-user report.
Please send your registration fund to:
Fais Nasir c/o [ATRIBBS]
52 Princess Street
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA!
M5A 4G6
Please keep the SHAREWARE concept alive folks, and register this
piece of software!
Even if you can't register, I would still be interested on knowing your
thoughts on MaxAuteur. If you would like to see other features etc. etc.,
please feel free to drop me a line at the above address, or better yet,
netmail me at my Fido address (1:250/718).
Often a programmer writes something and doesn't know how well it is
received by the public (especially for BBS utilities). Don't leave me
in the dark, people! Tell me what you think!
-------------
7. That's It!
-------------
Anyway, that's about it. If you find any bugs, please let me know. If
this dang thang' breaks, please remember, you own both halves, but I will
try to make it more "sturdy" the next time around <g>.
Peace out.
-- Fais Nasir
[ATRIBBS]
1:250/718