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.TOPIC: E-Mail Functions VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-B-1 ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ CHAPTER SIX ANNEX B E-MAIL FUNCTIONS ║ ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ See also: File Attachments E-Mail Forwarding Carbon Copies Multi-Mail DIRECTmail FREQing E-mail is the "private" version of messaging, and many of the functions within E-mail are very similar to their messaging counterparts. The VBBS mail functions are quite powerful. When a user logs onto your system, VBBS will do a mailbox scan. If the user has new mail waiting, he or she will be informed of the new mail and prompted to access the mailbox at that time. The VBBS E-mail prompt offers choices to present a queue of new and unread mail, ALL mail, or to search for mail from a specific user by name or partial name. Users may also access mail that has been sent and not yet read by a local addressee, or not yet bundled into an outgoing network packet for a network addressee. VBBS also offers the sysop a means for dealing with users who abuse E-mail privileges; all it requires is dropping the guilty user's SL below the minimum required to be able to send E-mail. Main Menu Commands and What They Do -- E-Mail ═════════════════════════════════════════════ [M] Mailbox Scan Manually check mailbox for mail -- new, ALL, or by author search [Y] Mail You've Sent Check mail you've sent BEFORE you log off; once you log off, network mail is bundled into the outgoing net packet. If the re- cipient is local and has not read it, you may still access it. [E] Write E-Mail Write an E-mail to another user, network or local. [F] Feedback to Automatically directs mail to the sysop. Sysop [G] Multi-Mail Users with an appropriate SL may store up to 9 separate "mailing lists" which may include a number of local, FidoNet, VirtualNET, and/or WWIVNet/WWIVLink ad- dresses. It is important that respon- sible network usage of this feature is maintained. Addressing E-mail ═════════════════ VBBS has several methods of addressing E-mail; even if you're not sure of the recipient's name, handle, or user number, there's usually a way to get E-mail to him/her. 1) If you're E-mailing a local user, you may send the mail to the user's handle, or user number. If you're not sure of any of this, you can type in a partial name; VBBS will prompt you VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-B-2 for additional information. If, for example, you were logged onto VirtualNET node @6160 and wanted to E-mail "John Some- thing-or-other", you could type in JOHN as the addressee; VBBS would prompt back John Bok (John Bok) User #1? (Yes/No/Enter=Yes) If the name rang a bell, you could simply press [Enter] and the E-mail process would be underway. If not, and there were any other users with the handle "John ______", you'd be prompted for each one until you either got the right one or ran out of users. Note that it DOES make a difference if the board you're on allows handles; if you type in a user's real name and that user uses an alias, you WON'T be prompted for the correct name. 2) If you're E-mailing over VirtualNET, you may address your E-mail to any user on any VirtualNET system, either by name or by user number. If, for example, you were E-mailing "The Mighty Quinn" at VirtualNET node @2057, but weren't sure of his user number on that system, you could address the mail to "The Mighty Quinn @2057", and it would get there. You could also mail "1 @2057" with equal success. Note that if the addressee doesn't have an account on the system you sent the mail to, it's lost; there's no way for you as a user to re-route the mail to its proper recipient. There IS a provision for mail forwarding -- that will be discussed shortly. Oneliners ═════════ Whenever an E-mail is received by the addressee (local or network), the user that sent the mail receives a one-line "return receipt" that informs the sender that his/her E-mail was read and when it was read. Oneliners are also sent to inform a user who has uploaded a file that the file has been downloaded by another user (local and network). On multi-user installations, if a user has written E-mail to another user who is on the system at the same time, that user will receive a real-time oneliner informing him/her that E-mail has just been sent to his/her mailbox. If the user sending the E-mail was unaware that the other user was online, VBBS will in- form him/her that the addressee was online and a oneliner has been sent. Prepared Text Uploading ═══════════════════════ As in the messaging functions, the VBBS full-screen edi- VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-B-3 tor [VFSE] will allow the insertion of prepared text through up- loading. To upload text remotely, press "/U" or "[Esc][Esc] U" after positioning the cursor at the desired insertion point with- in the E-mail or post. Local uploads are simply pathed to the directory and file you would like to include. .TOPIC: File Attachments Attached Files to E-Mail ════════════════════════ VBBS features the ability to attach a file to an E-mail. The sysop may choose to make this feature available to users by defining its minimum security level in VCONFIG. If a user has been given an appropriate security level, VBBS will ask whether he/she would like to attach a file to the current mail before saving. If the user selects "yes", then the upload prompt appears and the user may attach a file of any size. ╔═╗ This feature works across VirtualNET, as well; currently, ╚═╝ the generally accepted size limit for network attached files is around 30K. Anything larger than that definitely nitely raises a few eyebrows on the systems through which the E-mail must pass, and may even be stopped in transit. When an attached file is "received" by a user in E-mail, the existence of the file is shown at the bottom of the message header giving the name of the file and file size; the user is prompted to press [T] to transfer (download) the file from the BBS. The local sysop may attach a file from anywhere on the system by simply providing the path and filename at the prompt after choosing "yes". The default path is the main VBBS directory if a full path is not supplied. .TOPIC: E-Mail Forwarding E-Mail Forwarding ═════════════════ According to security level, a user may forward a piece of mail he or she has either sent or received to another user. Mail forwarding may be done both locally and through any net- work in which the BBS participates. If a piece of mail is mis- directed to the correct system but the wrong user, the sysop (or the user himself, if allowed) may forward the mail to the correct user, if the correct address is known. .TOPIC: Carbon Copies Carbon Copies ═════════════ According to SL, a user may send carbon copies (CC:s) of an unsaved E-mail to other users, both locally and across the network. When that E-mail is received by each CC:d user, it shows each network address that received a carbon-copy. If the sysop allows users carbon copies but not multi- VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-B-4 mail functions (see below), this feature may be used as a "poor man's multi-mail"; the primary difference is that the mailing list for carbon copies is not saveable. .TOPIC: Multi-Mail Multi-Mail and Mailing Lists ════════════════════════════ According to SL (and generally restricted to higher se- curity levels), a user can maintain up to 9 separate "mailing lists", which can include an unlimited number of entries, both local and on any networks in which the BBS participates. This feature can be quite useful if you're involved in a project involving many users, such as an online role-playing game, political activity, or writers' roundtable; once again, the importance of responsible use of this feature CANNOT be overstated. Using multi-mail for networked "junk mail" will be brought to the Network Coordinator's attention; he will take whatever action he deems appropriate. Account Forwarding ══════════════════ If you have a network address that you write to regularly, you might decide to create a local account for that user and then configure that user's mailbox (in [D]efaults) to forward mail sent to it to the proper network address. That way, you can use "Mike" or "24" (or whatever the local ID is) in place of entering the whole network address each time you initiate E-mail. Automatic New-User E-Mail ═════════════════════════ Each time a new user logs onto your system, VBBS sends him a "welcome" E-mail that automatically appears in his mailbox. The name of this file is NEWUMAIL.TXT, and it should be placed in your \TXT directory. You may edit this file according to your needs. Form Letters ════════════ Form letters can be used anywhere you are sending mail -- from feedback, from regular E-mail, from replying to E-mail, and also from multi-mail. When prompted for the title, the sysop enters "\" (a back- slash, without the quotes), followed by a number from 1 to 99. An example would be \31 In the above example, VBBS would then look for a file named VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-B-5 FORM.31 in your \TXT directory. The real message title is pul- led from the first line of the file; the rest of the file becomes the message text. It should be noted that the filename should NOT have any leading zeroes in the extension (e.g., FORM.4 is okay, but FORM.004 is not); this is similar to the filename ex- tension rule for taglines (see "System Taglines" for details). When you've given the form letter a filename, follow the prompts for attached file and CC:s, and it is saved. Quick, clean, and a minimum of keystrokes. .TOPIC: DIRECTmail VBBS DIRECTmail Interface ═════════════════════════ Using the VBBS DIRECTmail interface, any VBBS sysop may send E-mail, with or without attached file, to another VBBS sysop. When you want to use this feature, select [D]IRECTmail at the E-mail prompt; then enter the full data phone number of the system you wish to send mail to. You will get an "Unknown System" message back; ignore it and go on with the process. Multiple DIRECTmail to different destinations may be sent during the same session. Once you've written the DIRECTmail, drop to WFC and use the [N] command to force a callout to that system by selecting option 0. If the line is busy, VBBS will retry as many times as you have specified in VCONFIG. The beauty of this system is that when the other system answers, your computer sends the DIRECTmail and hangs up imme- diately. Again, it's quick and clean. --> IMPORTANT NOTE: To use DIRECTmail, BOTH sysops must have this feature enabled in VCONFIG. Directmail functions are handled by the VDM.EXE executeable. VDM.EXE is automatically called as needed by VBBS/VME. VDM has the following command line switches: VDM <ch> /DIRECTIN Handle Incoming Call in Progress VDM <ch> /DIRECTOUT:x Call System x=Mail Slot # Up to 99 direct mail slots are available, and slots are auto- matically assigned as needed. If DIRECTmail is pending to be sent to a node, for example, any subsequent DIRECTmail to that same node are automatically processed together. VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-B-6 .TOPIC: FREQing File Requesting - FREQing ═════════════════════════ VBBS also has the ability to request files in conjunction with the DIRECTmail function. To request files, simply enter the appropriate information on the title line of e-mail sent by DIRECTmail using the following format: Title: FREQ <filename.ext> <filename.ext> <filename.ext> FREQ must be the first word entered on the line, followed by one space, and then the complete name of the file requested, including the extension. Multiple files may be requested as long as there is one space between each of the filenames. For FREQing to be successful, the board you call must have its file databases flagged as FREQable and DIRECTmail must be turned on in VConfig. VBBS 6.12 Documentation --6-B-7 E-Mail Sub-Menu ═══════════════ Below is the hard-coded E-mail sub-menu; again, altering this menu requires a source-code modification. [Enter] Next E-Mail Advances to next E-mail. [R] Reply to E-Mail Reply to the E-mail you're cur- rently reading. [A] Re-Read E-Mail Redisplays the current E-mail. [D] Delete E-Mail Delete the current E-mail. It's a good idea to encourage users to delete their E-mail once they've read and/or replied to it, because old E-mail DOES take up hard-drive space. [Q] Quit Reading E-mail Quits to communications menu. [T] Download Attached If a file is attached, this will File allow the remote user to down- load the attached file. [###] Read Mail Number ### Jump to E-mail number entered. ──────── Sysop ───────── [X] Extract Text Allows sysop to save message as a text file. Again, it's a good idea to NOT use the .TXT exten- sion on E-mail. [F] Forward Forward E-mail to another user, either locally or across any networks in which the BBS par- ticipates. [V] Validate User Jumps to the author's account in- ormation in the user editor. Useful when reading new-user feedback. Just a few parting words about E-mail -- sysops should encourage their users to take advantage of this feature of VBBS (or any networked BBS system, for that matter), especially if the BBS does not charge for its services. The communications potential here is enormous but, sadly, is one of the most under- utilized features of BBS software. VBBS 6.12 Documentation --6-B-8 ╔═╗ Another important use of E-mail that is seldom addressed ╚═╝ in reference manuals (until now) is in resolving "flame wars". On occasion, discussions in local and networked message bases will deteriorate into name-calling and "bashing"; on such occasions, the issue is best resolved in E-mail, rather than on public message bases. Please encourage your users to not engage in flaming, and if they happen to become involved in a flame war, please instruct them to take it into E-mail, rather than con- tinuing to spew vitriolic garbage across the network, where it can have detrimental effects on the message subs (these are strong words, but having seen the effects of flaming on more than one message base, I wanted to get your attention).