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1991-04-07
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SPONGE: v3.10 by Stephen de Plater
April 7, 1991 GT Network Address: 302/1
SPONGE
by Stephen de Plater
GT Network Address: 302/1
Voice Phone: +61 2 977-3075
Data Phone: +61 2 977-2013
======================================================================
0. REVISION LIST
======================================================================
VERSION: Release Date: Comments:
------- ------------ --------------------------------------
1.00 September 9, 1988 First Release.
2.10 April 20, 1990 GT15 version with new features. Warning
messages are now issued, logging is
changed, and three new substitution
characters are defined.
2.11 June 29, 1990 Minor bug fix: SPONGE was properly
handling numbers (for really BIG
downloaders!) greater than 16 bit signed
integers (32767), but was incorrectly
printing them! FIXED. Also, ported to
the new compiler (Turbo C++).
3.00 October 23, 1990 GT16 version *ONLY*. This version will
NOT run with versions of GT prior to
GT16. There are no other changes in
this version.
3.01 November 7, 1990 A small change to accomodate VERY long
lines in the SYSOP.BBS. The limit there
(for sponge anyway) is now 254
characters per line.
3.10 April 7, 1991 Now allows the two levels to be the
same! Why? So that a WARNING only may
be issued. Used when you don't want to
>> page 1 <<
SPONGE: v3.10 by Stephen de Plater
April 7, 1991 GT Network Address: 302/1
actually change anyone's access level,
but remind them that they are getting a
bit heavy handed with the downloads.
======================================================================
1. COPYRIGHT
======================================================================
SPONGE is not placed in the Public Domain. The copyright is retained
and the software is provided on licence:
You are free to use and make as many copies of this program as you
wish. You may also give it away to anyone who wants it, provided:
1. No fee is charged.
2. This archive is distributed intact.
3. You register the package with an OZNET registration centre.
======================================================================
2. REGISTRATION
======================================================================
A new registration scheme now applies to all OZNET software.
Regardless of any previous registration, this program now requires
individual installation for each BBS using it.
There is still NO fee involved at all. DO NOT send any money!
Registration simply involves obtaining from me a CRC code which
matches your BBS name. You may do this at any of the OZNET
registration centres:
Kangaroo Korner 302/001 Stephen de Plater
The Black Hole 302/003 Ken Thompson
Control Systems 071/001 Ed Cavender
Gidget's Domain 081/005 Jack Hazel
Fuzzy Logic 050/018 Phill Piddell
Geno's Place 044/003 Gene Newcomb
InfoStation 032/001 Perry Alexander
If you are in the GT nodelist then you will be able to register direct
online at any of those centres or via mail in the correct form to
OZRobot at any of those centres. See the included OZRobot document
for details. If you are not in the GT net you will need to apply via
>> page 2 <<
SPONGE: v3.10 by Stephen de Plater
April 7, 1991 GT Network Address: 302/1
private netmail or message to Sysop at any of the centres. Whatever
way you do it you will need to supply the full (case sensitive) name
to which you want the program registered.
You will also need to obtain the OZINSTAL program which performs the
actual installation. OZINSTAL is not included in this archive. You
should look for OZINST11.ZIP.
======================================================================
3. PURPOSE
======================================================================
(Or what does this thing do anyway?)
SPONGE is a companion program for GT Power BBS Systems. It monitors
the relative amounts of uploads and downloads by users of your board
and, as controlled by the SPONGE.BBS file, can automatically change
their access level when downloads become excessive. It will also (if
you do not inhibit it) automatically restore their old access levels
once the ratio has been achieved.
Version 2.10 and later will also warn users when they are getting
close.
======================================================================
4. USAGE
======================================================================
To use SPONGE simply install it in your GTLOGOFF.BAT file. Please
note that the usage for v2+ is totally different from that of v1.x.
GT v14 and below did not keep in the user file the count of files and
kilobytes uploaded and downloaded. GT15 does. There is therefore no
longer any need to generate these figures with the old RATIOGEN
program. You may consign that one to a NUL device!
When SPONGE runs it looks up the details for the last user (which is
why it is run in the logoff batch), and checks their upload/download
counts. If they have exceeded their limit (either in base amount or
in ratio) then they are downgraded. Optionally they may be warned
when they are approaching the limit and given a chance to upload
something before sponging takes place. Also optionally they may be
automatically upgraded when enough uploads have occurred to restore
their ratio to an acceptable level.
>> page 3 <<
SPONGE: v3.10 by Stephen de Plater
April 7, 1991 GT Network Address: 302/1
The parameters are optional and function as follows:
1. /S The name of the sponge control file. This file must reside
in your GTPATH directory. The default filename is
"SPONGE.BBS." If you use this name then this parameter is
unnecessary.
This ASCII file contains one line for each access level
which is to be subject to sponge checking (only the levels
listed in this file will ever be checked). The vertical bar
character "|" is the field delimiter. The following fields
MUST be present in each record:
(a) Access Level to be monitored for changes (one
character),
(b) Access Level to to change users to (one character),
THESE LEVELS *MUST* BE UNIQUE PAIRS!
That is, you CANNOT have something like:
--------------------------------------
A|X|.....
B|X|.....
--------------------------------------
SPONGE will become totally confused and behave
irrationally if you do that kind of thing! You should
instead have something like:
--------------------------------------
A|X|.....
B|Y|.....
--------------------------------------
(c) The amount of downloads permitted before ratios begin
to apply (integer) in KBytes,
(d) The ratio (n.n:1) which applies to each user's whole
download:upload record after the amount in (c) above
has been passed. This is a SINGLE floating point number
and MUST contain a decimal point.
i.e: to set a ratio of 20:1 use "20.0" DO NOT use
"20:1" or "20.0:1"!!!
>> page 4 <<
SPONGE: v3.10 by Stephen de Plater
April 7, 1991 GT Network Address: 302/1
(e) The name of the file (which must be in the GTPATH
directory) which contains the message which will be
sent to each downgraded user by the program. Various
escaped characters will be substituted as shown below.
(f) The name of the file (which must be in the GTPATH
directory) which contains the message which will be
sent to each UPGRADED user by the program. The same set
of escaped characters will be used.
(g) The name of the file (which must be in the GTPATH
directory) which contains the warning message which
will be sent when a user is getting close to being
sponged.
(h) The level at which the warning message will be sent. I
use 90% (entered here as "0.90") but you can use any
amount you like. It obviously only makes sense to use
numbers between 0 and 1. You can have different
warning levels for each line in the SPONGE.BBS.
NOTE: fields (g) and (h) above are optional. If (g) is
present, then (h) MUST also be present. If (g) is not
present, then no warnings will be given.
For example, at Kangaroo Korner, Privileged users (access
level 'P') are allowed 2000 KBytes before ratios come into
effect and then are allowed a ratio of 30:1. Regular users
(access level 'R') are allowed 1000 KBytes before a ratio of
20:1 comes into effect. In both cases the access level will
be reduced: 'P' goes to 'Q' and 'R' to 'S' and the message
which will be placed in the default message area for
downgraded users will come from file DOWN.MSG.
When appropriate ratios have been restored, the message from
file UP.MSG will be issued and the access level will be
reset.
When users are within 90% of being sponged (that is: if a
regular user is below 1,000k but above 900k, with not enough
uploads to keep their ratio above 20:1, or when a regular
has some upload credits but their ratio is approaching 20:1
(in fact closer than 18:1), then a warning message will be
issued. No change of access level occurs with a warning,
>> page 5 <<
SPONGE: v3.10 by Stephen de Plater
April 7, 1991 GT Network Address: 302/1
the user is just reminded that they are getting close to
being sponged.
The SPONGE.BBS control file at Kangaroo Korner looks like
this:
--------------------------------------------------
P|Q|2000|30.0|down.msg|up.msg|warn.msg|0.90
R|S|1000|20.0|down.msg|up.msg|warn.msg|0.90
--------------------------------------------------
In addition, when any user's access level is changed by
SPONGE, the change is logged to the GT.LOG.
2. /I Not only will the program downgrade errant users, but it
will also automatically upgrade them again when they have
uploaded enough material to bring their ratio into line. If
you do not wish the program to do this (if you want to do it
all yourself) then the /I parameter will inhibit automatic
upgrades. Automatic downgrades will still be performed in
all cases however.
The command line options must be separated by white space, (i.e.:
"/Ssponge.bbs/Rratio.bbs" is not valid, but "/Ssponge.bbs /Rratio.bbs"
is). They may be in either upper or lower case, and supplied in any
order. Also, you may use the '-' character as the command line
parameter flag instead of '/'. In either case there must be NO space
between the /S (or /R) and the filename. (i.e.: "-Ssponge.bbs" is
fine.)
======================================================================
5. ESCAPED SUBSTITUTIONS
======================================================================
In the message files which is named in fields (e), (f), and (g) on
each line of the SPONGE.BBS file, the following characters will be
replaced according to the list below when they follow (immediately) a
percent character. Case is irrelevant.
%N is replaced with the full name of the current user.
%F is replaced with the first name only of the current
user.
%U is replaced with the level of Uploads for the current
user.
>> page 6 <<
SPONGE: v3.10 by Stephen de Plater
April 7, 1991 GT Network Address: 302/1
%D is replaced with the level of Downloads.
%R is replaced with the download:upload ratio for the
current user.
%K is replaced with the amount of downloads at which
ratios begin to apply for the current user,
%T is replaced with the ratio which must be maintained for
the access level of the current user.
%H is replaced by the access level which the current user
is being downgraded from.
%L is replaced by the access level which the current user
is being downgraded to.
%I is replaced by the number of files uploaded.
%O (the letter not the number) is replaced by the number
of files downloaded.
%W is replaced by the warning percentage level. For
instance, here I use 90%, entered into field (h) in the
SPONGE.BBS line as "0.90". In this case %W is replaced
by "90%".
%% is replaced by a single percent sign ('%').
A sample downgrade message file is shown below
--------------------------------------------------------------------
%F
Records kept at Kangaroo Korner show that your downloads are becoming
excessive! So far you have downloaded %D kbytes in %O files
and only uploaded %U kbytes in %I files.
That gives a dl:ul ratio of %R.
For your level of access you are allowed %K kbytes before ratios
come into effect. After that the maximum ratio allowed is %T.
You have therefore been downgraded from level %H to %L and your
download privileges have been withdrawn. This has been an automatic
process initiated by the BBS itself.
When your uploads reach an acceptable level your access will be
restored.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE that the substitution process is quite unsophisticated. If a
substitution would take any line of the message beyond 80 characters
>> page 7 <<
SPONGE: v3.10 by Stephen de Plater
April 7, 1991 GT Network Address: 302/1
NO word wrap will be performed -- it is up to you to design your
message in such a way that it should not happen.
NOTE ALSO: For the automatic upgrades to work, the two levels on each
line in the SPONGE.BBS file should be in unique matched pairs. That
is, do not have two different levels downgrading users to the same
lower level. I downgrade from two levels, P=Privilege down to Q, and
R=Regular down to S. As upgrades are only performed from the second
level in each line of the SPONGE.BBS file to the first level, there is
no ambiguity. Those at level S can only be upgraded to R, and those at
level Q can only be upgraded to P. Only one line in the SPONGE.BBS
file is required for each pair. On this system the Q and S levels have
exactly the same times and privileges as P and R respectively, with
the one exception that download permission has been witheld from them.
WARNING ONLY
============
If the two levels are identical, then no change of access level will
be performed. However, if a warning is appropriate, then a warning
message will be issued. This is useful for those who want to give
users a gentle reminder that perhaps they are abusing the friendship
somewhat, but not actually change their access level. One application
is for boards which have a paid "membership" level, where users are
not subject to ratios, but who still want to automatically warn people
who only ever take without giving. Perhaps an extra line like the top
one in the control file below might be appropriate in those
circumstances. Notice that you still need to specify ALL the message
files, even though you only ever want to warn people. In this example
they are all the same file.
--------------------------------------------------
M|M|5000|30.0|memb.msg|memb.msg|memb.msg|1.00
P|Q|2000|30.0|down.msg|up.msg|warn.msg|0.90
R|S|1000|20.0|down.msg|up.msg|warn.msg|0.90
--------------------------------------------------
>> page 8 <<
SPONGE: v3.10 by Stephen de Plater
April 7, 1991 GT Network Address: 302/1
======================================================================
6. DISCLAIMER
======================================================================
Q: What kind of guarantee comes with this software?
A: *** ABSOLUTELY NONE!!! ***
If you break it, you get to keep both parts.
I take no responsibility at all for what this software may do on any
computer other than my own. If you use it you do so at your own risk.
All that I am prepared to say about it is that it works fine here (and
I can see no good reason why it should not also work fine everywhere
else also -- but ....)
By using this program you accept these conditions.
======================================================================
7. ENJOY!
======================================================================
At least, I hope you do!
Stephen
>> page 9 <<
