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1991-03-04
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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.