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Text File | 1991-03-04 | 13.6 KB | 364 lines

U F N - ! L L E E V - Fun-Level - version 1.10 by Hugo Fortin Introduction ──────────── Back in early 1990, I used to enter on a board in Montreal named Micro-Bytes. That board carried an interesting feature: It used to rank its users according to their usage of the system. I found the idea quite interesting and decided to adapt it on my IBM (Micro-Bytes was running on a Mac). Using my recently owned Pascal skills, I managed to get something and installed it on our board, here, in Quebec City. Users quite liked it, so, it stayed there. After a while some guy asked me if I could give him a copy of the program, so he could install it on his own board. I had a problem then, Fun-Level, at that time, was written exclusively for PC-BBS (his home board) and wouldn't have run on another one. After some times, I decided to make it less dependant, more polyvalent. So, here it is. The program works with QuickBBS systems and those with a similar Users.BBS file. It scans the users file, calculate a number of points for each user, and then, give each of them a rank, according to their total of points. Finally, it creates an Ascii (and possibly an ANSI file)file that can be displayed in your statistics area, or the equivalent. Fun-Level v1.10 Monday, March 4, 1991 4:44 pm Page 2 How is it working? ────────────────── The method used is quite simple and is based on that equation: Points = Number of messages left * Pts/Msg + Number of visits on the board * Pts/Vis - (Number of downloads [in K]/Ratio - Number of Uploads) The Pts/Msg. parameter is the number of points allowed for each messages written. In the previous version, it was assumed that each messages counted as one point. You can now configure it as you wish. The Pts/Vis. parameter has the same effect as the Pts/Msg. one, but on the number of visits, this time. The ratio is how many K the users are allowed to Download after having uploaded 1K. Example: Ratio is 5, a message and a visit gives 1 point each and the user have the following stats-> Down.:5000k, Upl.:2500k, Mess.:150, Visits:50. Point = 150 * 1 + 50 * 1 - (5000/5 - 2500) = 1700 points After having calculated the number of points, Fun- Level consults his Data File and gives a rank to the user. Installation ──────────── Fun-Level is pretty easy to install, you just have to 'dump' the content of the archive in your QuickBBS directory (or the equivalent). But let's see each steps in details: If you run Fun-Level alone, without any parameters, an help screen will appears to remember you the proper use, wich is: Flevel <Config> [/A] Where: <Config> is the name of the configuration file. An example of such file is included in the original Fun-Level v1.10 Monday, March 4, 1991 4:44 pm Page 3 archive under the name of Flevel.Cfg. You can modify any of its lines, according to your specific needs. [/A] is the switch wich tells Fun-Level to create an ANSI file in addition to the Ascii file. The three colors used by this option can be configured in the configuration file, detailed below: * C O N F I G U R A T I O N F I L E * Line ──── 1 FlevHead.Asc -> Name of the Ascii heading file 2 FlevHead.Ans -> Name of the ANSI heading file 3 Flevel.Eng -> Name of the Data file 4 Output.Asc -> Name of the Ascii text file created 5 Output.Ans -> Name of the ANSI text file created 6 100 -> Level of the SysOp(s) on the board 7 SysOp -> Fun-Level's Rank for the SysOp(s) 8 10 -> Special level #1 9 75 -> Bonus #1 10 20 -> Special level #2 11 100 -> Bonus #2 12 5 -> Down/Uploads ratio 13 1 -> Pt(s) per message 14 1 -> Pt(s) per visit 15 9 -> Color of the User's name 16 10 -> Color of the rank given 17 15 -> Color for the number of points Explanations on Flevel.Cfg ────────────────────────── 1 - The heading file contains the lines that will be written before the Fun-Level's ranking. Therefore, you can use this facility to introduce the program to your users, explain what it is, or anything you wish. An example of such file is included (FlevHead.Asc). Please note that there are no limitations on the length of this file. 2 - Same as the above, except that this file will be attributed to the ANSI file created by Fun-Level (considering you enabled this function), Therefore, it should be an ANSI file (note that an Ascii file will work as well, but there wouldn't be any interest in using the ANSI feature in that case). 3 - The Data file contains all the possible ranks. The format must be identical to the one observed in the two examples (Flevel.Eng and Flevel.Fra) included in the Fun-Level v1.10 Monday, March 4, 1991 4:44 pm Page 4 original archive, wich is, for example: 00006 00015 Student Wich means that the rank Student will be given for each user who have from 6 to 15 points. You can add as many as you want, just be sure that every possibilities are covered, that the numbers don't exceed five digits (four and the minus sign for the negative ones) and that the ranks don't exceed 35 letters. 4 - The following line shows the name of the final text file created by Fun-Level wich will contain the heading and the ranking stuff. 5 - Same as the above, but for its ANSI counterpart. * You can add a Path with the five filenames above, if necessary. Just be sure to respect the DOS limit, wich is 63 characters. 6 - This line contains the Level of the SysOp, so he won't have to be ranked by Fun-Level. 7 - This line contains the title you wish to have as SysOp. This one won't be affected by any of your behaviors on the board. SysOps, usually, are good users... -Smile- 8 and 10 - Those allow you to specify two levels wich are somehow special. Those users will benefit from a substantial bonus (if you want) defined in lines 9 and 11. Those bonus will be add to their total of points. This feature is useful when some of your users have paid a contribution, and therefore, are allowed to download more... By entering a negative bonus, though, you'll penalize those users. That can be useful with annoying visitors... -Grin- 9 and 11 - See above. 12 - This is the Down/Upload ratio. You enter here how many K a user is allowed to Download for each K uploaded. 13 - This is the number of points a user will receive for each message written. Fun-Level v1.10 Monday, March 4, 1991 4:44 pm Page 5 14 - This is the number of points a user will receive for each visit on your board. 15 - This is the color of the user names in the final ANSI file. 16 - This is the color of the rank given to each user in the final ANSI file. 17 - This is the color of the number of points in the final ANSI file. * The three lines above apply directly in the final ANSI file. They could be represented as following: Hugo Fortin SysOp 5000 ^ ^ ^ line: 15 16 17 For the color definition, I used numbers from 1 to 15 in their usual order, wich is: 1 - Blue 8 - Gray 15 - High-intensity 2 - Green 9 - Light blue white 3 - Cyan 10 - Light green 4 - Red 11 - Light cyan 5 - Magenta 12 - Light red 6 - Brown 13 - Light magenta 7 - White 14 - Yellow ** Note that lines 2, 5, 15, 16 and 17 are strictly for ANSI operations. However, they HAVE to be present even if you don't use this function. In that case, Fun-Level won't consider those datas, but they remain essential for the smooth running of the program. Usage ───── After having completed all the previous steps, you're now ready to see some action. Just install Fun- Level in your maintenance sequence (usually a Batch File executed at night) and allow your users to see the results via a Type 39 or a Type 45 menu, within QuickBBS, for example. Conclusion ────────── Fun-Level v1.10 Monday, March 4, 1991 4:44 pm Page 6 Fun-Level has been revealing itself to be pretty useful either to spot some abusive users, or to know about the good ones. It has been somehow a motivation for certain users to do well, just to have a better rank. Besides it's funny side, the program has a certain effect on the behavior of some users and that's certainly a positive thing. One of the two Data File example is written in French, wich is my mother tongue. I had far less imagination and inspiration to write its english counterpart and therefore, would appreciate a more complete version, if someone is willing to send me his own. Fun-Level was programmed in Turbo-Pascal 5.5, by Borland. This version was finished on March 4, 1991, in one of those rare free afternoons where College is cancelled because of a snow storm. I don't ask any money for it, therefore, it's FreeWare (not Public Domain, though). However, I'd like to hear from you, those who are using it. For comments or suggestions, you can reach me via FidoNet by NetMail at the following adresses: 1:240/504, 1:240/507 and 1:240/1 or via regular mail at: Hugo Fortin 846 du cap St-Nicolas east, PQ Canada G0S 3L0 You can always find the latest version of Fun-Level on: PC-BBS, 1:240/504 (418)842-6384 300/1200/2400 bauds Open every days from 9h PM to 8h AM. Thanks for having downloaded Fun-Level. Hugo Fortin -- March 4, 1991.