Amiga Collections: MegaDisc/MegaDisc 43 (1995-03)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 2 of 2)[m bamcopy].zip/MegaDisc 43 (1995-03)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 2 of 2)[m bamcopy].adf/Reviews/500CC_F1_TBBS/500CC_Review/500CC_Review

Text File | 1995-03-09 | 14KB | 396 lines

                               500CC F1 TBBS

                           Comprehensive review

                              By Stephen Corry


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                                INTRODUCTION
    The 500CC TBBS (The Bread Board System), was voted as the second best
  BBS in Australasia last year, and when you log onto this system, you begin
  to see why!

    There are file areas, message bases and other areas of interest that
  will certainly suite everyone in one way or another.

    Too many BBS systems stick to the tried and tested, and their menu and
  presentation screens soon become out dated and ULTRA boring.

    But over recent months, Dean Mackin (the sysop), has given the 500CC
  TBBS a huge face lift.

    My review details how to log onto this BBS system, what to expect once
  you're fully established on the system, and how to find your way around
  the joint.


                                 LOGGING ON
    After the squeally sounds of handshakes and connection contact, you are
  asked if you want NORMAL terminal emulation, or RIP term.

    If you have a basic communications programs such as NCOMM, you need only
  select the NORMAL option.

    Though I'm unfamiliar with RIP term, I understand that this is a special
  communications package that allows you to select menu options via your
  little mouse.

    With that out of the way, you type in your name and password, or if
  you're a new user, you must spend the usual 5 minutes typing in your new
  user details.

    TIP - Have all your details defined as function key commands in your
  comms program.  I mean, lets face it, do you really want to spend ages
  typing your details by hand EVERY TIME you log into another system?


                           NOW THINGS ARE MOVING!
    With all the basic BBS rituals out of the way, you will be shown a small
  status chart containing information about the last time/date you called,
  and how many calls you've made to the board et cetra.

    You will also be informed about any mail that awaits you.

    Don't worry about mail for now, I will be covering that in more depth
  later.

    Next comes a little message informing you what caller number you are
  (from midnight), then you are presented with some latest bulletin
  information which you can opt to read.

    After this you are told the line you are connected to (500CC has 16 of
  the dangly things), and then ZOOOOOOOOOM!  it's finally off to the Main
  Menu.


             I'D LIKE TO ORDER SOME FISH PLEASE, MR WAITER MAN!
    The main menu is very well laid out, and you will find enclosed with
  this review, a screen shot of the 500CC main menu screen.

    It appears universal across the BBS networks now that, by pressing the
  "-" key, you shall return to the previously selected menu, while the "="
  key will take you back to the main menu.

    Dean has done a great deal of work in presenting his BBS in the easiest
  and best possible way.

    I hate joining a new BBS only to find you need a degree in "Total
  Confusion" just to gain simple access to the mail system, or some other
  area that you wish to travel to.

    500CC uses a simple WYSIWYG menu system, so all you need to do is press
  the corresponding letter to get straight to the area you require.


                              OPTIONAL OPTIONS
    As you can see from the screen shot, the main menu has quite a large
  number of options available to its users.

    I will now explain exactly what each option does:-


BULLETINS
    This takes you back to the bulletins menu (above), which you would have
  seen on your way into the system, after you logged on.


PRIVATE E-MAIL
    Electronic Mail (E-Mail) is basically an electronic message system.

    I'm sure everyone has at one stage or another, typed up a letter on a
  computer Word Processor.

    Although E-Mail is NOT a WP system as such, it works in a similar
  fashion where you type your letter inside a word editor, but instead of
  printing it off to mail out from the local Posty Office, you send it there
  and then over the BBS network that you are linked too.

    There are several categories of E-Mail that you can send, and we will
  look at them in a few moments.

    In the PRIVATE E-MAIL area, you can READ any private mail that has been
  sent to you; SCAN messages already inside your message base and delete
  them, or reply to your mail.

    You can also POST a message to Dean, the Sysop, or read any UNREAD mail
  that you may have waiting for you.


MESSAGES
    Whereas the last option was for posting or reading private mail, this
  option allows you to post or read public messages that everyone on the BBS
  network can read.

    There are a number of different message areas within this option.

    The LOCAL message area consists of 14 topics that include Local Gossip,
  Amiga Talk, Entertainment and Online Game Talk.

    Another LOCAL area allows you to write anonymous letters.  This section
  consists of 4 topics which are Hackers Domain, Ask Suzie, Cars & Bikes,
  and What I Hate - where you can let off steam about anything that is
  currently bugging you.

    Local mail is confined only to the 500CC BBS.  But there are 2 other
  mail areas that can link you up across Australia, or the world.

    To my understanding, NETMAIL is a confidential mail link up area which
  spans the country.

    There are no individual categories in this area.

    FIDONET on the other hand, allows you to post public mail to users all
  over the country, and across the world.

    When you initially select FIDONET, a small menu is displayed with a
  number of message areas that are available to you.

    When you select one of these areas, a list of available topics are
  presented to you.

    If you select the Amiga Area, you will find 8 topics available -
  Australian Amiga; Amiga Video; Amiga Games; Amiga Music; Amiga Programs;
  Amiga Development; Amiga (General); and Amiga Talk.

    Messages inside the ADULTLINK are for 18yrs and over.  It is strongly
  advised to use an alias when your posting messages in this area.

    The ADULTLINK supports 42 adult related topics, some of which are pretty
  SICK to say the very least!

    The QWK OFFLINE MAILER is an off-line mail system where you can bundle
  all your mail and read it when you're offline.

    Then, you can type your replies and post them next time you log onto the
  system.

    The MESSAGE area also supports messages that you may like to post to the
  Sysop.

    NOTE - A link to the INTERNET is currently being planned for the 500CC
  TBBS.  I suspect though that financial members ONLY will have access to
  this.

    Now and again somebody will post a rather rude, silly, or just plain
  stupid message to you.  Just take no notice of such people, and don't
  lower yourself to their standards.

    If you are very new to using BBS text editors, I have written a small
  article to accompany this document which will explain this entire
  procedure in full.


PAMS (BBS LISTS)
    This gives you a lot of BBS related information.

    Lists of other BBS systems that you can call are also available here.


ANSI AREA
    Roll up roll up, come and visit the worlds greatest ANSI exhibits now on
  show at the 500CC TBBS!

    In this area you can view the great, and not so great ANSI drawings that
  users have painstakingly blocked together.

    If you have an ANSI drawing more worthy that that on a Teletext screen,
  then upload it here so that others may enjoy your handy work.


THE WAITING ROOM
    A comprehensive list of all users currently online is displayed, and you
  can see LIVE at-a-glance what actions every user on the BBS is currently
  involved with.

    This area in its own right is quite extensive, but there is a HELP
  command available which will take you through each and every option in the
  Waiting Room.


PAGE THE SYSOP
    Wanna speak to Dean about something?  This option allows you to annoy
  the busy sysop by paging him, and demanding that he come immediately to
  the keyboard for a chat.

    Dean's an extremely busy dude, so it's unlikely that you'll attract his
  immediate attention, but only page if you have a serious problem.

    If it's not that important, just leave him a private message.


FILE TRANSFER
    Time to grab those nice files!

    File supports here are for the Amiga, Atari, IBM, Mac, Queue Management,
  Over 18's, and Windows.

    The CD ROM files are available only to financial members.

    For a more in-depth look at this option, please read the accompanying
  document.



ONLINE GAMES
    500CC has an extensive list of online games that will keep you happy for
  endless hours.

    There are 2 seperate online game menus comprising of a total of 42
  seperate games.

    The games in menu 1 include Battleships, Chess, Roulette, Yahtzee, and
  Virtual Sysop.

    I have written a review of Virtual Sysop, so check out the Doors Intro
  file in this issue of Mega Disk, for more information.

    The games in menu 2 include Blackjack, Space Invaders, Tarot Reads, and
  heaps of trivia fun.

    You can toggle between the 2 ONLINE games menu's by pressing ">" for
  next menu, or "<" for the previous menu.


USER OPTIONS
    This option allows you to reconfigure your system on the board.


USER CHAT, QUICK
    Conferences with other users currently online can be held, with each
  user talking to one-another via his/her keyboard.

    There was a recent Turbo Poll on this BBS concerning wether or not
  non-members should be allowed to use this option.

    Despite the majority of votes being to keep things as they were,
  non-members are NO LONGER permitted to use this option, which has
  basically been turned off.


SUS OUT THE WALL
    This is a general graffiti wall where users can basically be as abusive
  as they want to be, though for such a good BBS, it's a shame that the
  sysop has allowed great obscenities to exist in this area.

    You type your message inside a white box, and when you've finished you
  can add some sparkle to you message by changing the background and ink
  colours.

    Unfortunately, there is no option to REVERSE READ the wall, so you have
  to painstakingly page through all the old messages before you reach the
  most recent ones.


MEMBERSHIP INFO
    Wanna take out financial membership?  Here's all the info you'll need.

    Users gain a different status, depending upon wether or not they're a
  member, and depending upon how much dosh they splash out to use the board.

    The time on the BBS is also governed by your status level.

    The price ranges are from $50 (limited download), to $150 (unlimited
  download), and are subscribed to on a yearly bases.

    Also, depending on wether or not you're a member, decides upon the
  number of phone lines you have access to (500CC TBBS has 16 at the
  moment).


TRADING POST
    Got summin ta sell?  Wanna buy summin?  Here's the place to do it.

    Adds can be placed for up to a month here, and items to flog range from
  swap cards, right the way though to automobiles.

    I don't know how successful people have been with the trading post, but
  it's certainly a very good option to have added to this BBS.


DATABASE AREA
    Sadly, this option has not been utilised to its full potential.

    The only option here is a FILM database containing about 1000 movies.

    You can search though to find some of the films made by your favourite
  idols.

    The Film listing includes the movie title, rating, main
  actors/actresses, running time, and some brief info about the movie
  itself.

    If users had the option to add their own movies to the base, or even
  create their own options (such as Music or Computer Games for example),
  then this option would become quite popular.


USER REGISTRY
    Why anybody in their right mind would want tell everyone about their
  private details such as weight, height, hair colour, drinking/smoking
  habits, among heaps of other things - is TOTALLY beyond me.

    But here it is nonetheless, a place to tell everybody in the world about
  your personal habits!

    The database is quite hefty, so a number of people obviously seem
  interested in such a strange thing!


VOTING BOOTH
    This contains the TURBO POLL which I have recently written an exclusive
  review about.

    Read the Doors Intro file in this issue of Mega Disk, for more
  information.


CD AND MODEM SHOP
    An interesting area that allows you to do some online shopping.

    There are 15 categories where you can buy/order heaps of things
  including Books, Shareware, Subscriptions and Games.

    Payment appears to be via credit card or C.O.D.




                                   PHEW!
    On top of all those options, there are a few little sub-menus, which I
  will now briefly explain:-

WHO'S ONLINE?
    Displays a very brief info list of who is currently online.

BBS STATISTICS
    This gives you statistical information about the BBS itself, such as
  user lists, who called on what day, frequency of callers, and call ratios.

    Two down points here I'm afraid.  First, most of these options failed to
  work for Moi, and secondly, when you produce a long list of users, there
  is no STOP option, so you're pretty well stuck with having to page through
  millions of screens!

RECENT CALLERS
    Speaks for itself really.  Shows the most recent callers to the BBS.

HOW'S THE TIME?
    Another option that doesn't work too well, but its meant to show you the
  current time.

"."
    The MAGIC full-stop!  Press this wee key and away you go, offline and
  back to normality (or to whatever normality was before you logged on!).

    On your way out you have the chance to leave some comments to Dean,
  before you're bid farewell by some rather large friendly letters.


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