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.TOPIC: New User Sign Up VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 5-1 ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ CHAPTER FIVE NEW USER SIGNUP ║ ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ When a user logs on as NEW on your system, he or she is first presented with the NEWUSER.TXT file (which you definitely should create before opening your BBS to the public) stored in the \TXT directory defined in your PATHS Configuration. The NEWUSER.TXT file should provide enough information to get new users started; it may also include anything else you wish. If you configured a "New User Password" in VCONFIG, the new user will be asked to provide the password before the system allows him or her to continue (for most "public-access" BBSs, this is generally not done). At the end of the NEWUSER.TXT screen, the new user is prompted to provide some basic information about himself or her- self. Depending on whether or not your system allows "aliases" or "handles", the user will be prompted to provide a "handle" or real name to use on the board. VBBS checks what the user types in against other entries in the USERFILE.DAT to make sure that duplicate names are not used. ╔═╗ If there are handles or names that you would prefer not ╚═╝ to allow on your system, you may include them in a text file called TRASHCAN.TXT in your \TXT directory. This file is created using an ASCII text editor and has one handle/name/word per line. Most sysops use this to pre- vent users from having profanities as handles. As the signup continues, the user is prompted for his ad- dress, voice and data phone numbers, birthdate, password, and other information pertaining to default settings used on the BBS. The information provided goes into the USERFILE.DAT file. If you have chosen to allow auto-validation of visiting sysops, VBBS will aske the user if he or she is a sysop. If the user answers "yes", he or she will be prompted for informa- tion concerning his or her BBS and will then be given the SL and time you have defined for visiting sysops in VCONFIG. ╔═╗ Again, there have been instances in which a user has ╚═╝ given false information in order to gain sysop access to a BBS; use caution when allowing auto-validation. If you have configured "yes" for automatic call-back verification, VBBS will prompt the user (according to the area code and prefix criteria you have established) to prepare to receive an incoming call from your board, at which point VBBS hangs up, calls the data phone number left by the user, and confirms its authenticity by prompting the user answering the callback to provide the password for the new account (see "The Call-back Verifier" for more information). VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 5-2 New users are assigned the SL and time allowed on the system according to what you have set up in VCONFIG. New User Feedback and Validation ════════════════════════════════ Generally, you do not want to give a new user too high an access level to your system until you are sure the informa- tion provided you is accurate. It is often desirable to have a new user leave a short introduction of himself or herself in addition to the information given in the basic signup process. To have the system prompt for such "new-user feedback", set the appropriate option in VCONFIG "on" and edit the file LEAVEFB.TXT in your \TXT directory to ask for the sorts of in- formation you'd like to have (of course, you don't want to get TOO personal here, because that tends to catch new users off- guard). ╔═╗ It should be noted that a new user may choose to abort ╚═╝ the feedback letter and go straight into the system without leaving any message to the sysop. There are several ways of combatting this rudeness: 1) Using an ASCII text editor, create a file in your \TXT directory called NEWUMAIL.TXT. It should in- clude some basic information about your system and its standard operating procedures (but should not be too long). It will appear as a message from the sysop in the new user's mailbox. If the new user reads the NEWUMAIL.TXT file, the system will send you "oneliner" indicating that the message was read; sometimes, this is the only way a sysop knows a new user has logged on, short of doing a complete user listing. If the user chooses to not read this E-mail, no "oneliner" is delivered. 2) Should you happen to notice that a new user has signed up but has not left you any message announ- cing his presence, send him an E-mail, asking if there was any particular reason the feedback was aborted. Many users are somewhat embarrassed to draw this kind of "negative attention" to themselves and will promptly reply the next time they log on. They may not leave the information you requested in LEAVEFB.TXT, but that's another story ... 3) Simply ignore the new account until you receive feedback from the user. If new users have only limited access to your system, the offending user will either tire of logging on and not being able to do anything (and then send feedback), or will simply not call any more. This is, of course, combatting rudeness with rudeness, and is one way your BBS can earn a bad reputation among users VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 5-3 (word-of-mouth is still a powerful positive or nega- tive advertising tool, even among BBS users). 4) Install one of the various script modifications avail- able that will truly FORCE the new user to leave feed- back or have the account deleted. These may, of course, be edited (with an ASCII editor) to convey exactly the tone you wish, and while it may seem a "brute-force" method of getting the information you ask for, it IS effective. If the new user DOES leave feedback (or even a regular E-mail), the sysop need only hit [V] from the E-mail submenu and then enter the user's account in the user editor. Once there, the sysop can assign the user an appropriate security level and time allowed on the system, set any access flags/ratio exemp- tions/other variables as needed. There are MANY options as to how you present your BBS to new users, even without the use of scripts and/or source-code modifications. Your login screen(s), LEAVEFB.TXT, NEWUMAIL.TXT, and other informational screens make that all-important first impression. First-time callers, and ESPECIALLY new BBSers, ap- preciate friendliness and courtesy from the sysop, and USUALLY respond in kind (of course, if you're running a "bash board" and they EXPECT abuse on the first call ...). :-) NEW USER DEFAULTS ═════════════════ One of the most important things a new user (including a new sysop) should do is set his or her defaults. Pressing [D] at the Main Menu brings up a list of settings, which are described below. New users are shown their default after registration also. 1) Video Mode The user may choose ASCII, ANSI, or En- hanced ANSI (which enables pull-down menus) as the default. If a user wishes to use Enhanced ANSI, he or she MUST select it here; otherwise, ANSI auto-de- tection determines default. 2) Expert Toggle Expert mode disables the menu-at-every- prompt mode. 3) Page Breaks Number of lines per page. A setting of 0 produces continuous screen scrolling; 24 is default. 4) Password Change password, if desired. 5) Autoposts Toggles Autopost display at login. 6) Ctrl-A User Macro User may create up to 2 macros, each con- 7) Ctrl-B User Macro taining up to 79 characters (including ANSI control characters). 8) ANSI Color Setup User may customize screen colors to suit to suit personal tastes. VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 5-4 9) Full Screen Editor Toggles between the full-screen editor (FSE) and a line editor; ASCII users get the line editor. A) Mailbox Forward E-mail to another user or network system, if desired. B) Security Displays a list of things the user has a high enough SL to do. C) Long Distance Cost Allows user to keep track of LD usage and billing by defining cost per minute and knowing the billing cycle. D) Sort File Lists Toggles between alphabetically- and nu- merically-sorted file listings. E) User Time Bank User may deposit unused time for later withdrawal. Maximum time is set in VCONFIG (q.v.). F) File List Display Toggles between single- and double-line file listing. Q) Quit Saves changes and quits to Main Menu. The sysop should encourage new users to take time to set their defaults early on; ANSI users should be encouraged to use the full-screen editor for its superior cursor control and edi- ting features. THE USER EDITOR ═══════════════ The user editor allows the sysop to view and edit users' information, validate and/or delete users. The user information is divided into several fields, each of which is described below. User Number User's account number. a) User Handle User's handle (if used/allowed). b) User Real Name User's real name. c) Address Street or P.O. box address d) City e) State f) Zip g) Security Level User's SL; acceptable values are 1-255 (255 is sysop access); new-user SLs are set in VCONFIG. h) Access Flags Flags used for specific database access, given as a letter A-Z. Certain data- bases (such as sysops-only databases) may be given an access flag; only those users with the corresponding flag in this field may access those databases. The sysop should toggle all of these flags ON for his or her account by pressing [H] and typing the alphabet; this ensures that he or she cannot accidentally be locked out of any database. VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 5-5 i) Flags General flags used outside of databases, given as a letter A-Z. VBBS currently uses four flags "out of the package": A -- Login autoposts on/off F -- If set, user uses full-screen editor N -- User has received new-user message X -- Menus in expert mode Flags may be set or reset manually in the user editor, or via scripts. j) Password User's password. k) Phone 1 User's voice phone number. l) Phone 2 User's data phone number m) MaxTime Maximum time allowed on per day. n) Credits User's credit total (see VSCRIPT.DOC for more information). o) Verify Birthday User's birthday. If toggled, will ask user to re-enter birthday at login. p) Ratio Exempt? Allows you to exempt the user from up- load/download ratio (if any). q) U/L Files/kilobytes uploaded. r) D/L Files/kilobytes downloaded. Ex1 - Ex8 User's $extra variables 1 through 8 (see VSCRIPT.DOC for more information). Page User's default page length. Vid User's default video mode. Calls Number of calls to your BBS the user has made to date. Time Total time the user has spent on your BBS to date. Last The date the user last called your BBS. Posts Number of public posts the user has left to date. Email Number of E-mails the user has sent to date. You may edit the information in fields a) through r) and Ex1 through Ex8; the rest is pretty much "read-only" user-selec- ted defaults or record-keeping information. There are several commands to help the sysop get around in the user editor: [/] Prompts for a user number, handle, or real name and searches on the information given. In case of duplicate information (e.g., two users with the first name "Mike"), it will ask if the user shown is the correct one. [Enter] Move to next record. [-] Move to previous record. VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 5-6 [!] Delete user's account. Sets SL to 0 and opens the account number for reassignment. If you open several slots, a new user will be given the lowest-numbered slot available; the user list is NOT "packed" (renumbered) after dele- tions. [Esc] Quit to sysop menu or WFC, whichever the editor was invoked from. The user editor is a powerful tool for managing your user base -- spotting bogus accounts, changing users' access to various areas of the BBS, verifying information, and so on. There are several utilities available that make use of the in- formation stored in USERFILE.DAT; see "Virtual Tools" for more information. ONLINE FUNCTION KEYS ════════════════════ When a user is online, the [F1] through [F10] keys func- tion differently from the way they do at the WFC screen. The list of functions available when a user is online is given be- low: [F1] Enter/exit Chat mode. [Shift-F1] Enter split-screen Chat mode; [Esc] exits. [F2] Call up user editor; user sees a <Wait> prompt on his or her screen. By exiting the [F2] user editor as another user, the sysop can "change into" that user. [F3] Add 1 minute to the user's session. [Shift-F3] Subtract 1 minute from the user's session. [F4] Increase user's SL by 5. [Shift-F4] Decrease user's SL by 5. It should be noted that the [F4] and [Shift-F4] changes appear to be permanent; if you wish to give a user a higher SL temporarily, your best bet would be to go into the user editor using the [F2] key. [F5] Drop to DOS (VBBS stays in memory). [Shift-F5] Drop to DOS (VBBS shrinks out as per a door pro- gram). [F6] Pseudo-DOS multitasker; allows sysop to run small DOS commands from the console while the user is online and using the BBS. One of the most un- derrated features of VBBS. [F8] Sysop alert; sets the computer to beep when the current user online logs off. [F9] Invoke the "Download Any File" convenience fea- ture. [F10] Boot user off the system, "cold". [Ctrl-F10] Display STORM.TXT (found in the \TXT directory), warning of inclement weather conditions, THEN VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 5-7 boot the user off the system. [Shift-F10] Spurt some simulated "line noise" at the user, and boot him or her off the system. Makes the user think a bad connection terminated the ses- sion. * * * * * * * * * That just about does it for the "introductory" section of the VBBS documentation. The next section deals with the various functions and features of VBBS.