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.TOPIC: Subsystems/Miscellaneous Functions VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-D-1 ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ CHAPTER SIX ANNEX D SUBSYSTEMS/MISCELLANEOUS FUNCTIONS ║ ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ See also: Bulletins/Textfiles System Info Voting Booth Autoposts Teleconference Hypertext Help Quiz System Callback Verifier This particular area of a BBS is usually one of the more interesting areas, yet it's one of the most under-utilized. In the subsystems area, users can read a list of all the users on the BBS, vote on topics of current interest, read textfiles, and do several other Neat Things (caps still intended). Main Menu Commands and What They Do -- Subsystems ═════════════════════════════════════════════════ [T] File Transfers We just got through with this one. [B] Bulletins/Textfiles Display menu of general textfiles available for reading. [S] System Info Provides a display of the BBS' system statistics. [V] Voting Booth Users are allowed to vote on pol- ling questions posted by the sysop. [D] Defaults Allows user to set his or her de- fault settings; one of the most important features a new user can access. [O] Online Programs Displays menu for games and other online programs configured in VCONFIG. [A] Autoposts Displays autoposts. Main Menu Commands and What They Do -- Miscellaneous ════════════════════════════════════════════════════ [K] Today's Callers Displays a list of callers who have logged on today. [U] User Listing Displays a complete user listing; sysops also get SL, max time, and access flags. [I] System Info Shows system usage statistics. [C] Page Sysop If the console [ScrlLock] or [A] is set to ON, this will activate an audible page. [W] Who's Online Shows status of console and each modem port. [Z] Multiuser Teleconference On multiuser systems, allows the users to chat between nodes. [X] Network Info Displays network BBSLIST(s). [*] Sysop Menu Go to sysop function block (dis- played to 255 SL only). [G] Log Off Exit the BBS. VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-D-2 .TOPIC: Bulletins/Textfiles Bulletins/Textfiles ═══════════════════ The Bulletins section contains text files that users may read at their leisure. The types of files that are placed here are generally about the BBS' procedures and policies; other possibilities include system news files, virus information, game scoreboards and news files (a popular feature), or transcripts of articles dealing with topics of particular interest (please make sure to give proper credit to the author). To install a textfile, place the file in the directory you have indicated in VCONFIG, section E. Go into the textfile area and select the [A]dd option; follow the prompts from there. It's a good idea to keep your titles and descriptions brief; lengthy titles and descriptions are truncated. By the way, when a USER looks at the titles, he/she does NOT see the filename -- only the title. The filename is displayed to the sysop as a means of keeping track of filenames. .TOPIC: System Info System Info ═══════════ This is the screen produced by the line "sysinfo" in the default START.V. It shows today's statistics and the total cu- mulative statistics for your system. This screen differs from the WFC stats screen in that it also shows active/idle minutes and a graphical representation of usage by time of day and modem speed. The one statistic most sysops are usually concerned about is the "Duty Cycle" statistic; it's the ratio of active minutes to total minutes online. Naturally, you want to keep this num- ber as high as possible, since it's the quickest measure of how active your system is. A figure of 50% means that your system has been in use half the day -- not a bad total at all -- while a figure of 70% or better is cause for rejoicing. If your duty cycle is consistently less than 15-20%, you might want to re- examine the way you "do business" -- you may be doing something that discourages users from calling your board. ╔═╗ There is a VirtualNET sub in which sysops discuss ideas ╚═╝ for improving board usage: "BBS Success (Keeping Your Board Going)". .TOPIC: Voting Booth Voting Booth ════════════ Voting questions are an important way to keep your finger on the pulse of your user base. In VCONFIG, you can set VBBS to check whether there are new voting questions when a user logs on; this is generally a good idea. Typical voting questions might include: VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-D-3 ■ How did you hear about this BBS? ■ What's the MAIN reason you call <BBS name here>? ■ If you could change ONE thing at <BBS name>, what would it be? (Think this one through CAREFULLY -- don't suggest changes you aren't willing to implement!) ■ Which of the following subs would you MOST like to see added? Of course, you may tailor the questions to your specific needs. It should be noted that this multiple-choice format is not par- ticularly suited for "ranking"-type questions, as they allow only one answer per question. Another thing to consider when constructing voting ques- tions is that you may ask your users' opinion on something; the best format for "like/don't like" questions is 1 -- Really like it It's GREAT! 2 -- Like it I think it's okay. 3 -- Don't care Doesn't make any difference to me. 4 -- Don't like it I'm not real crazy about it. 5 -- Really don't like it I don't like it very much. You may "disguise" these choices as shown above, but it has been shown to be one of the most statistically reliable formats for opinion-type questions. Please see "The Voting Booth" for the "how-to" on setting up voting questions. Defaults ════════ This was addressed earlier in the section on VCONFIG, but having users set their own defaults is quite an important matter, and they are encouraged to do so automatically after they create their account. The most important default a new user can set is to enable the full-screen editor (if he/she has ANSI capability); other commonly-adjusted defaults include screen colors, user macros, and mail forwarding (if desired). .TOPIC: Autoposts Autoposts ═════════ Autoposts are like electronic Post-It Notes <tm> that may appear in a user's initial login (depending on his/her de- fault settings). Users who have the appropriate security level may post a one-, two-, or three-line message for display; the four most recent autoposts are displayed. These are useful for announcing upcoming system changes/downtime or alerting users to the existence of new/important files or posts. In addition, there are several VSCRIPT-based autopost programs (most notably GREMPOST.V) that allow networking of VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-D-4 autoposts over VirtualNET-networked BBSs; note that these ARE NOT included with the original VBBS archive. Sysop Paging and Chat Screens ═════════════════════════════ As stated earlier, either the [Scroll Lock] key or the [A] key from WFC will toggle sysop availability, depending on how you have things set up in VCONFIG. There are two ways to answer a chat-call; one is with the normal [F1] key. This allows you to converse with the on- line user -- your words show up in one color, the user's in another. To exit this chat method, press [F1] again. The fancier way to answer is with the [Shift-F1] key. This divides the screen into two halves, with your words at the top and the user's at the bottom. To exit this chat mode, press [Esc]. ╔═╗ Chatting, if done properly, can be a great PR builder. ╚═╝ Some helpful hints on chatting: 1) Try to be available for chat at least SOME of the time. It doesn't usually take TOO long. 2) Try NOT to "drop in" on a user when they're in the mid- dle of something, unless they're looking totally lost. Try not to startle your users. 3) As a way of indicating that you're through typing a sentence, it's usually a good idea to hit [Enter] twice to double space; that lets the user know you're through typing, kind of like "over" in a radio conversation. 4) When you leave the console, make sure sysop avail- ability is toggled where you want it. If you're tog- gled as available when you're really not, users can become frustrated. As with other functions of VBBS, there are a number of alternative chat and paging scripts available -- there is even an "emergency chat" script that allows users who know a special password to bypass the "sysop not available" message and page you anyway. A fully external chat utility called ISYCHAT10 also allows for the above, global capture of the chat, is configureable for multiple sysops, and is Soundblaster capable. .TOPIC: Teleconference Multi-user Teleconference ═════════════════════════ The multi-user teleconference is an inter-node chat fea- ture. From inside the teleconference, two or more users who are online simultaneously can page each other to the teleconference, send one-line messages to each other to whatever area the other user is active in, and broadcast short messages to ALL users on- line at the time. Also, if you send E-mail to a user who is on- VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-D-5 line, VBBS will notify that user that you have sent E-mail to him/her. Once inside of the teleconference, users can chat with each other within teleconferencing "rooms". If there were four users in the teleconference, for example, two users could decide to change rooms in order to have an exclusive conversation with each other. There are 99 such rooms within teleconference. Users have the option in teleconference to change their handles within the teleconference. The sysop may create a file called BADNAMES.TXT and place it in the TXT subdirectory. This file should contain, one per line, the handles that are not allowed to be used in the teleconference. Users who do not wish to be available for chatting may access the "hide" function within the teleconference in order to be invisible to other users while executing other BBS areas on a multi-line system. THE SYSOP MENU ══════════════ The sysop menu, available only to users with a 255 SL, is accessed by pressing the star [*] key at the Main Menu (although with a function-block modification, you could make it accessible at ANY menu (... you know where to look for info on this). The functions available at the sysop menu are: [M] Read All Mail Review all E-mail on the system. Use this with extreme discre- tion, if you use it at all. [E] Edit Any File Pulls a file into the VBBS FSE for editing; useful for colorizing system taglines, among other things. [U] User Editor Go into the user editor to check on/edit user information. [S] Security Displays users with SLs greater than 150 or who have one or more access flags set. [C] Force Cleanup Force a daily cleanup. Note that this isn't a "hit-and-forget" command; the screen will pause when it reaches your default page length. [V] Validate Network Presents the posts scheduled to go out over the network from your system; you will be promp- ted to [A]pprove or [D]isapprove each one. Not easy if you have a lot of active subs that re- quire network validation. This is also an easy thing to forget to do on a daily basis. [Q] Quit Return to main (or previous) menu. VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-D-6 QWK OFFLINE READERS ═══════════════════ VBBS features support for .QWK format offline readers. Offline readers are special programs that allow a user to down- load message packets from a BBS and read them at her leisure. They also allow users to construct packets containing their replies to messages and upload them in return. Some of the more popular offline readers include SLMR, JABBER, BlueWave, OFFLINE, and OLX; in addition, there are .QWK readers available for Windows. VBBS' auxiliary program, VQWK.EXE, prompts the user to up- load a .REP file that tells VBBS which messages have been pre- viously downloaded, as well as which message areas the user would like to read. This is configured either by making use of the [J]oin/Ignore Bases command in the Main Menu, or from within the QWK menu: [D]ownload new message packet (QWK) [U]pload reply message packet (REP) [A]lter maximum # of messages/packet [C]hange default compression type [P]ick # of days for new file scan [S]elect message bases for QWKing Show (W)ho's currently online [R]eturn to the BBS (exiting QWK) [G]oodbye/Log off from the BBS See the respective Appendix for VQWK setup instructions. .TOPIC: Hypertext Help THE VBBS HYPERTEXT HELP SYSTEM (Optional) ═════════════════════════════════════════ The VBBS help system is a fine hypertext help system. It can be configured in unlimited ways to meet a variety of needs. The calling sequence is VBBS-AUX %1 HELP <help system number> The <help system number> is used to form a filename of the "lookup" file, which should be placed in your VBBS \DATA direc- tory. For example, for help system number 1, the file name would be LOOKUP.1 (not LOOKUP.001). Help systems from 1 to 999 are available; system 0 is reserved for future internal use by VBBS. Lookup files have the format -- one entry per line -- <help filename> <keyword or key phrase> For example, you might have this as a lookup file: VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-D-7 HELP1 Main Screen HELP2 Primary Topics HELP3 Secondary Topics HELP4 General Information In the lookup file, do not put in an extension for the help filename; .HLP is assumed. The first entry in your lookup file is considered to be the starting point. The help filename speci- fied is displayed, and the user is prompted; continuing or going back to the main menu proceeds from there. Within each help file, you reference topics in the lookup file by bracketing them with [ and ]. Using the example LOOKUP file from above, help-file skele- tons might look like this: HELP1.HLP: ────────── Welcome to the Main Help Screen. [Primary Topics] [Secondary Topics] [General Information] HELP2.HLP ───────── Welcome to the Primary Topics Screen. [Secondary Topics] [General Information] [Main Screen] HELP3.HLP ───────── Welcome to the Secondary Topics Screen. [Primary Topics] [General Information] [Main Screen] HELP4.HLP ───────── Welcome to General Information. [Primary Topics] [Secondary Topics] [Main Screen] VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-D-8 --> IMPORTANT NOTE: Several complete hypertext help files are available from VBBS support boards for easy installation in standard VBBS systems. .TOPIC: Quiz Section THE VBBS QUIZ/TEST SYSTEM (Optional) ════════════════════════════════════ The VBBS quiz/test feature can be used to give users tests and quizzes online -- trivia quizzes (a great source of competi- tion among users), tests on the users' knowledge of the BBS, or even (if you can find the time to set it up) an actual test file for tests from the local high school, community college, or uni- versity (an extremely ambitious project, but unique!). The cal- ling sequence for the test feature is VBBS-AUX %1 TEST <test filename> Test files (and the score files generated) should reside in your \DATA directory. Test files assume a .TST extension (be careful typing that extension), and score files have a .SCO extension. Score files are simple ASCII files; report generators can ana- lyze the score file to produce statistical information. A report generator specifically designed for VBBS (TREPORT.EXE) is avail- able for download from the author's BBS. Test files are simple ASCII files also. Each line of a test file begins with one of the following prefixes: b= e= a= q= p= The "b=" prefix spcifies information displayed to the user BEFORE they begin the test; you may have one or more of these at the beginning of your test. The "e=" prefix indicates information that is shown to the user AFTER they have finished the test; you may have one or more of these. The "a=" prefix specifies the correct answer to the ques- tion beginning on the next line; it also signals the test proces- sor that a new question is beginning. The "q=" prefix contains the actual question (known in educational circles as the "stem"). There may be one or more lines in a question stem. The "p=" prefix specifies one of up to 20 possible answers for the question (although 5 is generally a good number). A sample one-question test under the name INTRO.TST might look something like this: b=Welcome to this sample test; it only has b=one question. a=3 q=Where is the Statue of Liberty located? p=Washington, DC p=Paris, France p=New York City p=Los Angeles e=Thanks for taking this test! VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-D-9 You will have to experiment a little to get proper spacing and such, but a well-constructed fun quiz is another way of getting users online ... .TOPIC: Callback Verifier THE VBBS CALLBACK VERIFIER (Optional) ═════════════════════════════════════ The call-back verifier is a means of checking to see whe- ther a new user has left a valid phone humber in his/her logon information. It is implemented in VCONFIG; if you choose "yes" to the callback verifier, VBBS will look at the two ASCII .CBV files you've created in your \DATA directory and establish whe- ther the new user is calling from a telephone exchange (accor- ding to the sysop's criteria) that will allow callback verifi- cation. If the user is NOT within your defined callback area, or leaves a number that you have included in your RESTRICT.CBV file (such as 911), the board will not execute the dialout, and new-user login will continue normally. The user is allowed to complete callback validation successfully up to three times before the connection is dropped. --> IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to the callout nature of this feature, its use and proper configuration is the specific responsibility of the individual sysop. The callback verifier needs two files to work properly: ALLOWED.CBV and RESTRICT.CBV; as mentioned earlier, VBBS will look for these in the directory you have configured as your \DATA directory in VONFIG. The two files are discussed below. ALLOWED.CBV ─────────── ALLOWED.CBV specifies the list of ALLOWED area code/ prefix combinations. The format for the file is one entry per line, as follows: XXX-YYY Z where XXX is the area code, YYY is the prefix, and Z is a "specifier" that tells the callback verifier how to dial this area code/prefix combination. Possible specifiers are given below: Specifier Type of Call How Dialed ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── + Local YYY-???? - LD within area code 1-YYY-???? $ LD outside area code 1-XXX-YYY-???? / Local outside area code XXX-YYY-???? It should be noted that the wildcard character "?" is allowed when entering prefixes. For example, the line VBBS 6.12 Documentation -- 6-D-10 205-34? + in ALLOWED.CBV would enable the BBS to call back ANY phone num- ber local to the BBS that began with the digits "34"; in the example above, the callback verifier would call Tuscaloosa's 345, 348, and 349 exchanges as local. The surest way to han- dle proper exchanges is to enter each one manually; while this may necessitate a little more work on the sysop's part, it also ensures that long-distance numbers that fit the prefix criteria won't be called unnecessarily. RESTRICT.CBV ──────────── RESTRICT.CBV specifies the list of restricted phone num- bers that may not be dialed by the callback verifier, such as local police and/or fire departments, 911, "prank numbers" like 000-000-0000, or those of previously-known "bad users". Some final words on optional features: These are often the "something extra" that will keep your users calling back, as implementing these features reflects a strong measure of dedica- tion on your part. Sysops are strongly encouraged to make use of (and to encourage their users to use) the .QWK-format offline readers available; this can significantly reduce the amount of time users spend online reading messages, freeing them to explore and use other areas of the BBS.