BBS in a Box 7/BBS in a Box - Macintosh - Volume VII (BBS in a Box) (January 1993).iso/Files/Tele/M/MatchMaker Plus RRH.cpt/MatchMaker Plus RRH/MatchMaker Docs (TEXT)

Text File | 1991-01-27 | 25KB | 546 lines

MatchMaker Plus version 1.0d and Documentation by Scott E. King




           MatchMaker Plus 1.0 Documentation

Created By Scott E. King
Version 1.0,  January 1991




I. Introduction

     I intend to look at MatchMaker Plus as an ongoing project. There are many
more features for this program on the drafting board, this release is intended to show
me exactly what kind of need there is for this software. Not only that, but through YOU
I expect to hear what needs to be added, changed or removed. The more response I get
from you the more time I will spend on improvements.I would like to make this
software compatible with other host systems (this can only happen when the format
for external applications of various host programs becomes available to me). There are
currently two versions of MatchMaker Plus, one for Mac WWIV, one for Red Ryder Host.
    Now on to the formalities. I wish there were some other way to do this, but I
think you underestimate the importance of registering. Many Mac users look at
shareware as a "free handout". I certainly did not spend the hundreds of hours
programming MatchMaker Plus for my own health. In fact, they tell me that all that
time I was actually damaging my health. I don't think 20 dollars is too much to ask for
registration, this fee even includes free copies of any minor upgrades. That is why I
have decided (against my better judgement) to only release a "crippled" version of
MatchMaker Plus into the public domain. Actually, the program has all of the functions
at the moment, it just won't let more than 15 users in. This should be sufficient for YOU
to decide whether you want the program, and wish to send in the registration fee. Since
this program provides a great service to your users (who may be paying some type of
subscription to your board) their money should be put to good use.
    MatchMaker Plus is a very versatile application which allows the SYSOP to
provide his or her users with a friendly and annonymous medium for finding other
users who share common interests. The SYSOP makes up the questionaires that the
users respond to (up to 250 questions for each questionaire with a maximum of ten
different questionaires). The availability of different questionaires allows users to
select a questionaire most appropriate to them. It is reccomended that a very
comprehensive "General Questionaire" be made to apply to all users. Since many users
are interested in finding a "mate", you should make these types of questionaires
available and I strongly reccommend that you not discriminate against other sexual
orientations.
    Users of MatchMaker Plus choose an alias, and for good reason. There should be
no attempt by the SYSOP to invade in another's privacy. The users have the ability to
send private messages to one another (each message can be up to 20 lines long).


    You can reach me at any of the following online accounts:

                America Online: Scott King
                GEnie: S.KING4
                Compuserve: 72711,1335



II. Applications & Documents

    There are two applications used for MatchMaker Plus, this was done so that the
online application could be as small as possible. The MatchMaker Plus application is
used to make the questionaires, and MatchMaker Plus Online is the external application
used with the Host BBS. In order for the program to work properly you must follow the
following instructions exactly.  First let me describe the different documents created by
each application.


    A.      MatchMaker Plus 1.0

        This application is used to create the various questionaire files and
    online preference file (all this to be explained later).


        1.        Questionaire Document for MatchMaker Plus

            Documents created with the NEW command in MatchMaker Plus
        have this icon. These documents may only be used with the MatchMaker
        Plus application. Double clicking on this icon from the Finder will
        launch MatchMaker Plus and open the corresponding document.


        2.       Questionaire Document for MatchMaker Plus Online

            After a questionaire has been completed you need to use the
        Make Questionaire command, a document with this icon is then
        created. You will put these documents in the same folder as MatchMaker
        Online.


        3.       Preference File for MatchMaker Plus Online

            When you select the Set Online Options command you are
        presented with a number of edit fields (to be described later). The sysop
        chooses which questionaires are to be made available to the users, and
        which serial port the BBS is on. You will put this document in the same
        folder as MatchMaker Plus Online (you can only use one preference file
        with MatchMaker Plus Online).






    B.       MatchMaker Plus Online

        This application is the actual external application used with the Host.
    This application must be in the same folder as the Host BBS application (or
    wherever the 'launch.bbs' file is located).


        1.        'Users.MATCH' file for MatchMaker Plus Online

            MatchMaker Plus Online creates this data file which must remain
        in the same folder as MatchMaker Plus Online.


        2.       'Data.MATCH' file for MatchMaker Plus Online

            MatchMaker Plus Online creates this data file which must remain
        in the same folder as MatchMaker Plus Online.


        3.       'Messages.MATCH' file for MatchMaker Plus Online

            MatchMaker Plus Online creates this data file which must remain
        in the same folder as MatchMaker Plus Online.


        4.        'Matcher.Help' file for MatchMaker Plus Online

            This is a text file which is sent to the user when he selects the
        ONLINE HELP option. You can edit this file or create a new text file for
        use as online help, but it must be called 'Matcher.Help'. This file must
        be placed in the same folder as MatchMaker Plus Online.


III. Getting Started

    A. Plan Your Questionaires

        1. MatchMaker Plus is only as good as the questionaires made for it. This
        requires a great deal of thinking on your part. At the moment all
        questions for MatchMaker Plus are multiple choice (up to 10 choices).
        Future versions will incorporate different types of questions (see the
        section on future plans). The MatchMaker Plus package contains an
        example questionaire, it is intended to give you ideas for different types
        of questions, and is not intended for actual use. First you must decide
        what the purpose of a particular questionaire will be. For example, one
        that matches people who are seeking other friends. For this example you
        would probably want to concentrate more on questions reffering to
        particular hobbies, activities, sports, interests, music, and less on actual
        physical appearance. You can make up to 10 different questionaires, I
        thought this number would be sufficient enough, however, if you think
        there should be room for more questionaires than that let me know!


    B. Make Your Questionaires

        1. Now that you have an idea of what type of questionaire to make, you
        are ready to make it. Open the MatchMaker Plus application, read the
        start-up window and click OK.  Now select NEW from the FILE menu.
        Enter an appropriate name for your questionaire and click OPEN. You
        will now see a totally bogus screen which tells you that there are 0
        questions for your questionaire (obviously). In the future this screen
        will contain more pertanent information, but for now just get used to
        it. Go to the FUNCTIONS menu and select EDIT QUESTIONS. Here is
        where you will be entering your "awesome" questions. There are a
        number of edit fields shown.

        2. This is very important: YOU MUST PRESS RETURN AFTER
        MAKING AN EDIT FIELD ENTRY FOR IT TO BE RECOGNIZED. If you
        click on an edit field, make a change, and then click directly back to
        where you were, your change will not be recognized (try it out for
        yourself by clicking back to the field you "supposedly" changed, and you
        will find that it hasn't changed). Get used to this. When you press return
        you will be taken directly to the next edit field.

        3. The first edit field is for the question. Following that are ten fields for
        the answers. You don't have to use all ten answers, but you do have to
        enter them sequentially starting with number 1. After you have entered
        however many answers there are for that question skip the rest of the
        answer fields by pressing return until you get to the last field. This field
        is a short description for the question. When a user is looking at another
        users profile, the short description will be displayed followed by that
        users answer (this helps to speed things up). Click on the NEXT button
        and you will go to the next question. At any time you may click on the
        PREV button to go back and look at or edit previous answers. When you
        are finished (or just have to get some sleep) press the DONE button, this
        saves all your data. You can always open an existing questionaire file
        and add more questions later.


    C. It's Done, Now What Do I DO?

        1. When your questionaire is done, select MAKE QUESTIONAIRE from
        the FUNCTIONS menu (you have to have your questionaire open for
        this menu item to be enabled). This function writes a text file to the
        disk containing the questionaire information. The name of this file is
        the same name as the questionaire with a ".BBS" extension added. You
        will need to put these ".BBS" files in the same folder as MatchMaker
        Online (which should also be the same folder as the host BBS).


    D. Setting the Online Questionaires

        1. After you have made all the questionaires you want to use with
        MatchMaker Plus Online, select SET ONLINE OPTIONS from the
        FUNCTIONS menu (you have to close your questionaire for this menu
        item to be enabled). There isn't very much onscreen explanation for this
        part, so make sure you read and understand all of this. Remember that
        you can send me e-mail if you have any problems or questions.

        2. You will again see a number of edit fields. The first two edit fields
        are for the sysop to write any  kind of message he or she wants. Here is
        an admittedly conceited example:

        "Welcome to MatchMaker Plus by SCOTT E. KING. All answers here are
        confidential, so be honest! Choose one of the following that best suits
        you."

        Next there are ten edit fields for the different questionaires. You can
        have any number of questionaires you want (you don't have to make all
        ten). You will enter some kind of description for each questionaire
        in the edit fields, this is what the user sees online. To set the questionaire
        corresponding to each choice click on the SET QUESTIONAIRE 1
        button. You will then see a dialog showing all "TEXT" files on disk. Choose
        the ".BBS" file that corresponds to choice #1. You will notice that the
        button now says SET QUESTIONAIRE 2. If there is a second
        questionaire click on the button again an choose the file from the
        dialog. You will notice that you have to make all your questionaires into
        ".BBS" files first before you can set all the online questionaires. You can
        also choose the serial port used (modem port is the default). When you
        are all finished press the DONE button, this information will be written
        to the "Matcher Prefs" file. This file should be put in the BBS folder
        along with all the ".BBS" files it uses. Once this is done you are ready
        to use MatchMaker Plus Online.


IV. Operation of MatchMaker Plus Online

    A. How it Works

        1. When MatchMaker Plus Online is launched it looks for the launch file
        to determine who the user is, if it is a new user (and there aren't 15
        users yet) then the user enters an alias (up to 25 characters). If there
        are already 15 users then obviously you should send the $20 so you
        can get the registered version. Each user has 20 minutes, after which
        time the Host BBS is launched.

        2. The user then sees the questionaires available (which you set with
        the Set Online Options command in MatchMaker Plus). After he
        selects the questionaire he wants he sees the main menu. Many of the
        functions here pertain to the questionaire he has chosen, for example
        when he chooses the LIST USERS option, it only shows him those users
        which have answers for that particular questionaire. If a user remains
        idle for about a minute he will be warned, and if he doesn't respond will
        be logged off the system. Here is the format for the main menu:

                MatchMaker Plus MAIN MENU
            ( User Alias & ID #  :  # of Letters Waiting)

        Current Questionaire

        1.) Describe Yourself
        2.) Describe Your Perfect Match
        3.) Match With Everyone
        4.) 50% Or Better Match
        5.) Describe A User
        6.) User List
        7.) Send A Message
        8.) Read Your Mail
        9.) Select Questionaire
        ?.) Online Help
        X.) Quit to BBS


        Describe Yourself:

        When you select this option you will then answer the questions for the
        current questionaire (you can press x to return to the main menu
        at any prompt when answering the questions, however if you do all
        of your answers will be erased). After each question choose the answer
        that best fits, or hit RETURN for NO RESPONSE to that question.

        Describe Your Perfect Match:

        After you choose this option, you will then be presented with the
        same questionaire, however this time you will select answers
        describing the person you are looking for (or hit RETURN if the
        question doesn't pertain). You should realize that you must describe
        who you are looking for before you can match with other users.

        Match With Everyone:

        After you choose this, MatchMaker Plus matches who you are looking
        for with the answers for all the other users in that questionaire. You
        will see a list of all the users (for that questionaire), their ID#, and
        followed by the score ... 100% being a perfect match, 0% a lousy one.

        50% Or Better Match:

        This option is the same as the previous one, however it only shows
        you the users who scored a 50% or better.



        Describe A User:

        This option asks you for the ID# of the person you want described. You
        will then see the short description for each question followed by that
        users answer (or NO RESPONSE). (The ID# of users is very important to
        remeber, you need it to describe a user or send messages to him or her).
        User List:

        This option gives you a list of all users who have answered the current
        questionaire, and their ID#.

        Send A Message:

        After you select this option, you enter the ID# of the user to send a
        message to. You then have 20 lines of 75 characters each to enter your
        message. At the end of each line press return to go to the next line.
        When you are done, press return at the beginning of a line. To skip
        a line in your message just enter a space and press return. When you
        are done, you have the following options:

            Abort:      Aborts your message.
            Continue:    Continues on next line.
            Delete line:    Deletes the line number you enter.
            Enter line:    Replaces the line number you enter with
                 again         a new line that you enter.
            List message:    Lists the message.
            Replace:    This command lets you edit your messages easily
                 string         by first entering the line # that needs editing
                         then you enter the exact string to replace
                         then the string which replaces it.
            Save:        Saves your message and returns to Main Menu.

        Read Your Mail:

        This option lets you look at your mail if you have letters waiting. Once
        you have read a message it gets automatically deleted.

        Select Questionaire:

        This option lets you change the current questionaire to one of the
        other questionaires.
        Online Help:
        This option sends the text file 'Matcher.Help' to the user and pauses
        at the end of each screen. The SYSOP can edit this file to his liking or
        create a new one.


        Quit To BBS:

        This option takes you back to the Host BBS.


    B. Housekeeping

        1. If you want to completely reset MatchMaker Plus, delete the
        following documents:
            a. "Users.MATCH"
            b. "Data.MATCH"
            c. "Messages.MATCH"


        MatchMaker Plus will create these files over again when the next
        user launches it, and that user will become user #1. You may want to
        do this to let other users get a chance to use MatchMaker Plus, just
        remember that you should warn users before you do this, since all
        messages, etc. will be lost. If the messages file is getting too big
        you may just want to delete that file, informing users before you do that
        of course.


V. A Sample Session

    A. Let's Set It Up, Step by Step

        1. Open the MatchMaker Plus application and click on the OK button.
        Go to the FILE menu and select NEW. For this example session will
        will call the new document "General Questionaire". Type the name in
        and press RETURN (or click on the SAVE button). You will now see a
        window with the same name as the document you just made (General
        Questionaire). You will also see an edit field which tells you how many
        questions there are for "General Questionaire" (which is 0). Now you
        are ready to start entering the questions.

    2. Select EDIT QUESTIONS from the FUNCTIONS menu. You will see the
    following screen:



        In the first edit field type your question: "What is your sex? " then press
        return. You are now at answer #1, type in "Male" and press return, then
        at answer #2 type "Female" and press return. Enter any other answers
        for this question or just press return until you get the the last edit field.
        This is just a short description for this question, so type "Sex:" then press
        the NEXT button (you don't have to press return in the last edit field, your
        question is saved only after you press the NEXT or DONE buttons. If you
        press cancel now the info won't be saved).

        2. OK, now that you have pressed the NEXT button, you are at question #2.
        Enter another question like "What is your age?". In the answers use
        something like the following:





        3. Keep entering questions (the more questions, the more accurate the
        matches will be). After you have entered the last question, click on
        DONE. You will now see how many questions long the questionaire is.
        Since the questionsire is done, you are ready to make the online
        questionaire document. Go to the FUNCTIONS menu and select
        MAKE QUESTIONAIRE. You will see a window which tells you how many
        records are left to write to the file. When this reaches zero, the online
        file is done. Now all you have to do is select CLOSE from the FILE menu.
        Then select new again for a new questionaire and repeat the previous
        steps. Remember, you can make 10 different questionaires for use by
        your users. As I said, you should make your GENERAL QUESTIONAIRE
        a questionaire that applies to everyone. Now you may want to make a
        questionaire for guys who are looking for friends. Obviously you
        would ask questions like what is their favorite sport (or sports). Use
        your imagination.

        4. Now that you have finished a few questionaires (and have made them
        into online questionaire files using the MAKE QUESTIONAIRE command)
        you can make these available to MatchMaker Plus Online by setting
        up the preference file. Select SET ONLINE OPTIONS from the
        FUNCTIONS menu. Shown below is an example screen with info:


        5. After you type in the two info lines, enter a description for each
        questionaire. Questionaire #1 is the GENERAL QUESTIONAIRE that we
        just made (you didn't have to use the same name in the edit field). After
        you enter a desciption for all the questionaires you are now ready to
        link the desciption of the questionaire to the actual questionaire file.
        Click on the Set Questionaire 1 button. You will see a dialog that asks
        you to select a file. For #1 we want to select the GENERAL QUESTIONAIRE-
        .BBS file. (You should only select files that have the .BBS extension) After
        we double click on the GENERAL QUESTIONAIRE.BBS file, the dialog box
        will go away, and the middle bottom button will now say Set
        Questionaire 2. Click on the button again, and select the file for the
        second questionaire. Remeber when you use the MAKE QUESTIONAIRE
        command another file is written with the same name as the file you
        were working on with the .BBS extension, this is the file you are looking
        for to select.

        Note: When you use MAKE QUESTIONAIRE, it makes a text file with the
        questionaire information. If you need to make a change to your
        questionaire, you can use the EDIT QUESTIONS function to go to the
        question and make the change, then use the MAKE QUESTIONAIRE
        function to make a corrected version of your questionaire. It does not
        neccessarily replace the old file, you may need to keep track of which
        file is the corrected file. Another method which is quicker for a small
        change is to open the ".BBS" file using EDIT. Be careful not to add or
        delete any lines or else the questionaire won't work properly, just
        replace the mistake with the correction.


        6. After you set the questionaire files, set the port you are using (the
        default is the modem port) then click on DONE. Now there will be a
        file called "MATCHER PREFS" in the default folder. You are ready to
        set up MatchMaker Plus Online.

        7. Put the MATCHER PREFS file in the Host BBS folder (WWIV or RRH),
        put all the "questionaire.bbs" files that were selected into the Host BBS
        folder, and of course put the MatchMaker Plus Online application
        in the Host folder. Refer to your Host documentation on how to setup
        MatchMaker Plus Online  as an external application.

        Note for WWIV users: If you are running WWIV under multifinder
        there may be some problems involved in launching. If your
        system is using sub-launching and multifinder is on, then you
        obviously want to still be able to use your computer while the host is
        running, but if you are using a word processer and a user launches
        an external application, and during which you quit from the word
        processer, WWIV may be re-launched (even though the user didn't
        want it to). To avoid these kinds of problem, you should always have
        sub-launching turned off if you are running multifinder    (consult
        your WWIV docs). If there are launching problems even with
        multifinder off, send me a message (online for fastest response).

        Note for RRH users: You must leave the RRH application the way it
        was named when you got it: "Red Ryder Host". Assuming this, you
        shouldn't have any launching problems.


VI. Looking To The Future

    A. More Features

        1. This demo version barely shows off the features which are planned
        to be added, here is a list of some new features being added:

            a. More questionaires? If 10 aren't enough, how about 20?

            b. Two way matching. This feature will give an even better
            match by matching other users against what you are looking
            for, and also match them against you to see if you are what
            they are looking for.

            c. Who's looking for me? This feature will give you a score
            for each user based on who is looking for you. Currently when
            you match, it scores based on who you are looking for.

            d. Read your mail will have more features, such as auto-reply,
            and the ability to save and delete messages.

            e. The questionaires will have many more features. At present,
            each question has 10 multiple choices. You will be able to add
            different types of questions to the questionaire such as free
            answer questions. Free answer questions lets the user repond
            to a question by typing a couple lines. Another type of question
            would let you rank answers in order of importance, or may let
            you choose more than one answer as a good match.

            f. Any other features? Let me know!


    B. More Expensive

        1. When MatchMaker Plus incorporates most of these new features it
        will be raised to $30 or $35. Those that register now for $20 will get
        free upgrades (except for cost of shipping) to some of the updated
        versions. More information on that will be sent to you when you
        register.


VII. Registration Information

    To register, print out the order form from the MatchMaker Plus application. If
    you want to make any comments write them down on the back of the order form.
    If you can't print out the form, just copy down the same information on a piece
    of paper. Send the order form with $20 US check or MO payable to me, to

            Scott E. King
            PO Box 42789
            Philadelphia, PA 19101

    Make sure if you have an account with AO, CIS, or GEnie that you write down
    your accounts on the order form!