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500CC_F1_TBBS
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500CC_Review
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Text File
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1995-03-09
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14KB
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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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