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RIME(tm) USERS GUIDE INTRODUCTION This manual deals with how you, as a user, can get the most from the RIME(tm) network. It was written in response to your requests and will hopefully answer your questions on how to use the Relay to your best advantage. RIME(tm) has been in existence since early 1988. It was started by Bob Shuck and was originally composed of a small group of 10 or so Washington D.C. boards. Dissatisfaction with the software that the then "UpLink" network was using, a casual conversation with Kip Compton and the addition of a board in New York gave birth to PCRelay Software and the RIME(tm) Network. As you read this manual please remember that if there is a subject you do not understand, the NewUsers conference is always available for all questions. If your sysop does not carry the NewUser conference, why not ask him/her to do so. Never be embarrassed to ask a question on this network. We were all new users once too. No question is ever considered too dumb-- and really, we are a friendly lot! WHAT IS RIME(tm)? RIME(tm) is a world wide network of electronic bulletin board systems (otherwise known as a BBS) that join hands to form an electronic mail system. Messages you enter on one BBS are copied to another BBS. That BBS in turn copies your message along with it's own messages to yet another BBS. This is known as echoing or relaying. When you leave a message or "mail" on a participating board, that message is copied to all other boards that participate in the network. The fact that your messages travel from bulletin board to bulletin board is the only thing that makes your message different from entering a message on a purely local bulletin board. This network of bulletin boards has one common goal: To provide a environment for the friendly exchange of messages with others all over the world. RIME(tm) is also a group of very committed professional sysops who have made the resources of an international BBS network available to you. RIME(tm) provides user support for a wide variety of special interest groups and product support for a wide variety of products. In fact, if you want to find a wider variety of subjects you'd have to join a pay network like The Source or CompuServe. From all parts of the US, Canada, Europe, South America and the Far East you'll find members of RIME(tm). WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE? RIME(tm) consists of one governing body: the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee consists of 5 members. They are the glue that holds the network together. They are ultimately responsible for all decisions of the network. The Steering Committee consists of: Bonnie Anthony Rex Hankins Howard Belasco JThomas Howell Mike Glenn These people have put a lot of effort into making sure that when you dial your local board, RIME(tm) is there. They are also in charge of the network Hub, affectionately called the NETHUB. If you have a question about policy, these are the right people to ask. If you need to send them a message, address one message to STEERCOM. An individual message to each member is unnecessary. You may leave your question in either the COMMON or NetUser conference. To help you understand some of this terminology: NODE: A bulletin board system (BBS) that calls another bulletin board system (called a Hub) in order to transfer mail. A node does not receive mail directly from any other BBS. (that is, no one calls it to transfer mail.) HUB: A bulletin board system (BBS) that may or may not call another Hub to transfer mail, but is called by one or more nodes to transfer mail. REGIONAL HUB: A Hub that does call another Hub to transfer mail. It is called a Regional Hub because when the network was designed, a Hub was placed in each of the major regions to minimize long distance phone charges. SUPER-REGIONAL HUB: One of several Hubs located in different geographic locations. These Hubs are appointed by the Steering Committee. Generally, Regional Hubs call a Super-Regional Hub, which in turn, calls the NetHub. NETHUB:The "home" of RIME(tm), operated in Bethesda, Maryland by Bonnie Anthony. All Super-Regional Hubs call the NetHub for their mail packets. ID CODE:A one to eight character string which contains letters only. Each node has a unique IDCODE which is used to identify that node in the network. The IDCODE appears at the bottom of every message that is "relayed" thruout the network. HUBID:An ID for a HUB which always starts with the first three letters HUB. A HUB ID is not used to identify a node, but rather the Hub that a group of nodes call to transfer mail. Then there are the conference hosts. A conference host is in charge of a particular conference (defined later), just as the Steering Committee is in charge of the network. On our Network, coordinating the conferences is a big job, and is currently handled by several people. You should familiarize yourself with who does what: James Wall (IDCODE=DREAM) is the Conference Manager and responsible for adding new conferences, assigning hosts to old conferences and keeping track of conference numbers - in other words, he is the man to see if you want to start a new conference, or become a host on RIME. Paul Hileman (IDCODE=BAYOU) is the Conference Liason, that person who handles all intra-conference problems. If you are experiencing some problem in a conference, he is the one to get in touch with. Rick Kingslan (IDCODE=OMAHANET) is our Marketing Coordinator, Last but not least are the unsung heros of the network, the sysop! These are the people who go to great expense providing equipment and phone lines so you can converse with the world. The sysop is always the first line of defense in case a problem arises. HOW DOES MY MAIL GET TO ME? Each day your local bulletin board calls its Regional Hub, usually in the middle of the night. At that time all new messages users have entered on the BBS are uploaded to the Regional Hub. Then, your board downloads a packet containing all the public messages from every other BBS on the network, plus the private, routed and encrypted messages for any user who has a private mailbox on the board. (The specialized types of messages are described below.) The Regional Hub takes this packet and adds it to packets from other boards connected to it and creates larger, more complete packets. These packets contain messages, files and requests from each board that calls the Regional Hub. At least once a day, usually twice, the Regional Hub calls the Super-Regional Hub which calls the NetHub. The NetHub takes the incoming packet of hub mail and returns to the Super-Regional Hub all the mail it received since that Hub last called. The Nethub then adds the new mail it received to the waiting mail for all other Hubs. This is all done automatically. The Regional Hub takes all the mail it received from the Super-Regional Hub and adds it to the packet for your board (and all the other boards connected to it.) Then you call your local board and either download the mail to read using your off-line reader or read and reply to the new mail on the board. FEATURES AVAILABLE TO USERS RIME(tm) uses PCRelay software written by Kip Compton. This is without question the most versatile network software ever written. Some of the features, such as file sends and requests are not normally directly available to users. However, if a unique file is mentioned in a conference message, you might ask your sysop if he could obtain that file for you. Please remember that most Hubs call long distance for their mail and files increase the time and therefore expense of file transfers. Do not request files that you could obtain from one of the local boards in your area. The important feature, for you, of PCRelay software is its ability to transfer messages within a conference area, between bulletin boards. A conference is a message area that is specific to one particular topic of interest. There are almost 300 conferences currently defined on RIME. Your BBS probably does not carry all of the conferences as the disk space required for this may be high. Your sysop may carry conferences that are both relayed and not relayed. If you have any questions about whether a particular conference is relayed, please ask your sysop. When you enter your message in a relayed conference you may be asked if you wish to "ECHO" the message. If you say "Yes" your message will be sent out to all other participating bulletin board Systems. If you answer "No" the message remains on your local bulletin board and is not transferred within the network. When you relay your message, please remember that it is being copied to over 850 boards. Although there will be reference numbers on the message, it is considered polite to quote a few lines from the message you are responding to. That helps the recipient remember the "conversation" even if he reads the message days later. Please be aware that every participating bulletin board system will have a different set of reference numbers for the same set of messages. This is due to the different times that each board started receiving the particular conference. Therefore you should not reference a message number unless you are talking with someone on the same bulletin board. TYPES OF MESSAGES In reading the messages on the RIME network, you have probably come across some relay terms that you are unfamiliar with. Phrases such as "R/O", "Routed", "Encrypted", etc. refer to the different ways of sending a message. While no message placed on the network can legally be considered private, you can direct a message to a single individual by making it R/O, i.e. Receiver Only. The BBS software in use on the BBS that you access RIME through will determine how you mark a message as R/O. On PCBoard systems, it is actually termed Receiver Only. On other systems, it may be called "private". By marking the message as private or R/O on the BBS, you are making the message R/O in respect to RIME as well. There is a consideration to be made before sending someone an R/O message. This is whether or not the receiver has a private mailbox enabled. An R/O message send will be successful only if the addressee of the message has a private mailbox established. You can set up your own private mailbox by doing the following. Enter an R/O message on the BBS where you wish to have a private mailbox (you can have such a mailbox on any number of BBSes) and address it to PCRELAY. Do this in any relayed conference. Do not enter this message in a conference that is not a relayed conference. On the first line of the message, simply enter the word ADD. Do not leave any other words in the message. You can also remove your mailbox from a system by following the same procedure for adding a mailbox, but type the word DELETE instead of ADD. PCRelay also supports encrypted messages. To enable you to read an encrypted message that is sent to you, you must instruct PCRelay to generate encryption keys for you. This is done in the same manner as creating a private mailbox except that the word KEY would replace the word ADD. If you would like to have an encryption key, then only type the word KEY. That instructs the software to also add a private mailbox. After three relays, you will be sent a message containing a public and private key (see below.) Unlike private mailboxes, you should enter your encryption key request message on only one BBS. ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║Date: 04-13-89 (20:00) Number: 1747 ║ ║To: BONNIE ANTHONY Refer#: NONE ║ ║From: PCRELAY Read: NO ║ ║Subj: WHATEVER Status: RECEIVER ONLY ║ ║ ║ ║->RUNNINGA ║ ║ ║ ║ PUBLIC KEY : 12345 ║ ║ PRIVATE KEY : 67890 ║ ║ Thank you for using PCRelay, (C) 1988,1989 by Kip Compton║ ║ ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ To send encrypted messages, you must know the recipient's public key. You encrypt messages by placing two tildes (~~) followed by the key in the first line and column of the message. For example, if the receiver's public key was 22222, you would enter ~~22222 on the first line and column of your message. Routed messages may be either public or R/O. Routing means sending the message to one, and only one, BBS. This is accomplished by placing a hyphen and the greater-than-sign on the first line and column of your message text immediately followed by the NODE ID of the BBS to which you wish to send the message. For example, if you wish to send a message to Randy's Basement, whose NODE ID is BASEMENT, you would enter this on the first line and column of your message: ->BASEMENT The message will only appear on the BBS with the IDCODE of BASEMENT in your network. NOTE: The directional arrow is nothing more than a hyphen ("minus key") followed by a greater than key (>). It is not the right arrow key on your keyboard. NOTE: There is no space between the arrow and the ID CODE of the destination node. NOTE: PCRelay will read any occurrence of the sumbol ->WORD as an attempt on your part to route a message. Do not use -> as a quoting symbol in your reader unless you leave a space between the '->' and the first letter of the following word. PCRelay reads the routing symbol anywhere in the first 128 bytes, or roughly the first two lines of the message. BE CAREFUL! By using the Routing function, you can help decrease the traffic of messages that clutter conferences and actually lower the operating cost of many nodes. You can also instruct RIME to notify you when the person receives your message by placing an asterisk (*) at the end of the NODE ID, e.g. ->BASEMENT* More on PRIVATE MAIL: When new mail is brought into a conference on a BBS, the private messages are placed in each conference first. Therefore if you leave a message telling a recipient that a private message is to follow "this message", more than likely it is not true and he/she has already read the private message. When you use the Receiver/Only (R/O;private) or specialized message function on RelayNet(tm) you are agreeing: o To hold the net blameless for the release of the message as a public message. o To allow people who normally have sufficient security to read your message. o NEVER to use a private message to speak of or conduct any business that may be contrary to network policy or considered illegal in the outside world. o That the message you enter is not the same private message described in the recent ECPA rulings. NOTE: To be able to receive private messages, first ask your sysop if s/he supports private messages on his/her board. If so, you must open a private mailbox in order to receive private mail. While transferring mail, PCRelay software automatically decides on which boards private messages to another user should appear, based on whether or not that user has a mailbox on a particular board. This decision is made at the Hub level. Each time the BBS you call relays with its Hub, the BBS informs the Hub which users have a mailbox on that system. If a user is not in the special PRIVATE file that PCRelay looks to, no private messages are sent to that system for that user. This helps to ensure the privacy of the mail but it does not guarantee it! Remember, the sysop of the receiving system and of the sending system, as well as all other users on each system who are qualified to read private mail can read all encrypted messages. There is no such thing as a message that a SysOp cannot read and a user can read. USING OFF-LINE READERS Off-line readers are a method by which you may read messages from a BBS while off-line (i.e. not logged on.) You start by logging on to a bulletin board, briefly, to download your messages. Then, by using one of the off-line reader programs, you may spend all the time you need reading messages, entering replies and any new messages you may come up with. When you are finished, you log back on to the BBS, briefly, in order to upload your replies and any new messages you may have created. The process of uploading and downloading messages may be done in one phone call. Log on to the BBS, upload your new replies, download the new messages that have been entered since the last time you were on, then log off the BBS. Those of you who call long distance may prefer this approach as it helps to reduce long distance changes by doing the whole process in one phone call. The use of an off-line reader may save you telephone charges by also shortening your daily total on-line time, and, at the same time, it allows more users per day to access your local BBS. GENERAL CONFERENCE RULES: (for the specific rules please ask your sysop for the file called confrule.zip) 1) No Aliases are permitted. You must use your real name in every RIME(tm) conference (except certain conferences such as Recovery where a reasonable alias is permitted.) If you are unsure, do not use an alias but ask the conference host if one is permissible. 2) No offensive or abusive language is allowed. The use of any word, group of words, expression, comment, suggestion, or proposal which is profane, obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, is strictly prohibited within the RIME(tm) Network and may result in the removal of your user id from your BBS. Please apply the standard rules of courtesy to any conversation you have in the network. Do not abuse the other users of any conference(s) by sending abusive, foul, or insulting messages. No abuse of other users on the basis of character, physical characteristics, religion, gender, sexual orientation, intelligence quotient, or ethnicity is allowed. Messages meant to harass or bully another user are never permitted. 3) No BBS ads permitted except in the BBS Ads or Ansi graphics conference. 4) Since there are conferences for almost every subject, place your message in the conference where it fits best. If you can't find a good fit, consider using the UPLINK conference, which is our chit-chat conference. Messages should remain to the topic of the conference. 5) No for-sale advertisements are permitted in any conference except the ForSale conference or where specifically allowed by the network. Ask the conference host of your particular conference if for-sale ads are allowed in the conference before you place a for-sale ad. Pyramid schemes are not allowed anywhere on the network as they are illegal. We here at Relaynet assume NO responsibility for any merchandise purchased through our network. There are no rules on this network that have anything to do with the payment or receiving of goods. That is a private matter between the buyer and the seller and RIME assumes absolutely no responsibility for any sales whatsoever. It is strictly a caveat emptor. The rules of the network for forsale ads are as follows: a - Dealers are encouraged to participate but we do ask that they identify themselves as dealers and not send the same ad more than once a week. They may send different ads daily if they so choose. b - personal ads are allowed every few days. c - all ads for software must include the words "includes all orginal disks and manuals" and that is all - they do not have to include orginal packaging if all disks and manuals are sold. 6) Uploading or transfer through the network of commercial software is absolutely prohibited. 7) Messages in the Common conference are limited to 10 lines including quoting but excluding software generated taglines. The Common conference should be considered as a starting place on RIME(tm), a conference where you might greet each other, locate boards in various geographically areas, post messages as you would on a "live" bulletin board or make general announcements. 8) The Sysops conference is open to all sysops whether they are members of RIME(tm) or not. Also, at the discretion of the SysOp, any user may be granted access to this conference. 9) RIME(tm) retains possession of all messages appearing in the network. Do not transfer messages to other networks without express permission. 10) Messages from other networks may only be used on RIME(tm) with the consent of the messages' author and the other network. 11) The Net administration conference is open only to Relaynet Sysops, Co-Sysops and Conference Hosts. 12) If you are asked by a Conference Host or Steering Committee member to cease a message thread, please comply as soon as you receive the message. Do not debate the issue further. 13) Questions directed to the Administration should be placed in the NetUsers conference. Please use Steercom as the recipient of the message if you mean it to be addressed to the Steering Committee as a whole. 14) Don't Quote Excessively. Most software and offline readers allow you to quote parts of the message you are replying to. It is a waste of space in a message and is costly for our sysops to transfer messages which have large quote areas in any message. Usually a line or two will suffice to remind the receiver of what you are replying to, which is the purpose of quoting. Never quote an entire message. The quote area should be less than 20% of the message. Never quote the tagline areas unless you are discussing taglines! While quote boxes can be nice looking, some computers cannot handle them, special readers such as for the visually impaired often do not handle them well, and they can lead to problems in general readers as well as corrupt mail packets. We ask all users to reduce, if not eliminate, the quote boxes in the interest of fairness to all the other users of the network. 15) Signature lines are limited to two lines. Ansi graphics are not permitted in any signature lines except in the ANSI conference. 16) No one may copy, quote verbatim, or extensively quote from a message from one issue-oriented conference to another without permission of the originator of the message. In addition retransmission of public/private messages dealing with administrative matters to anyone other than the user, Sysop, CH or SC member in order to harass, bully, bring other users into the private administrative discussion or substantially distort that administrative action is considered grounds for disciplinary action and potential removal from the network. 17) Bombing the Network, or the practice of a user generating multiple non-related messages for the purpose of disrupting a conference or the Network is prohibited. 18) Messages that are specifically intended to mislead and deceive are considered to be disruptive to a conference. Messages meant to harass or bully another user are not allowed. 19) Differences of opinion that are over these rules in a conference are to be discussed in the NETADMIN or the USERS Conferences only. These differences may be discussed with the Conference Host in the conference by R/O and/or Routed message, or with STEERCOM in the COMMON Conference by R/O message only. 20) Any user or sysop threatening to involve Relaynet in a law suit or legal battle, at the discretion of the CC or SC, may be removed from the network. 21) Of course no illegal activity. USER COURTESIES Did you know that if you use all upper case letters, that other users think you are shouting at them? Remember to turn off your CAPS LOCK key when you go to enter a message. Some users think that the way to get started is to answer every message they see. That sometimes works but often it serves to annoy the other users who are already engaged in some kind of dialog in the conference. When you enter a conference for the first time, feel free to say hello and introduce yourself. Then sit back and read a few days worth of mail. In that time you will probably discover the trends of the conference and that you have something substantial to add to the discussion. The conference host is a valuable asset in a conference. The hosts run the conference, introduce topics of general interest to the conference members to enlarge discussions, oversees that the messages stay on topic, provides information and acts as a liason between users and the powers that be above him/her. When a CH (conference host) asks you to end a thread, or move the discussion along, please be aware that they can enforce the conference rules in their conference. If you feel that you are being treated unfairly, there are recourses open to you. But these do not involve public discussion in the conference itself. WHEN A PROBLEM ARISES A problem arises? You need some sort of help? Here's how to get the answers that solve your problem. If it is a system problem or a general question, ask your sysop first! Most times he/she will have the answer you need to solve your problem. Leave them a Comment. This is a private message to your sysop. Don't forget if you leave such a message in a relayed conference it may be transmitted across the network. Your sysop may not read every conference he relays, so leave him/her a comment on the main board. Most sysops read their main board. If it is a conference specific question leave a message to the conference host of that particular conference. If the conference appears to have no host or you are unsure exactly who the host is, leave a message to James Wall (IDCODE=DREAM) in the Common conference - our "network bulletin board" and ask him who the conference host is. If you are experiencing a problem with a conference host, or feel that the problem you have needs resolution at a higher level, leave a message for Paul Hileman (IDCODE=BAYOU) and tell him what your problem is and see if he can help you out. Again, Paul hangs out in COMMON. If you still have a question and it has not been resolved by the steps above, write a message to STEERCOM and leave it in the Common conference or if it is available on your BBS join the NetUsers conference. The Steering Committee can be found monitoring both conferences for any questions that users might have. ALL DECISIONS OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE ARE FINAL THE RECENT ECPA RULINGS AND PRIVATE MAIL There is always lively discussion surrounding the issue of private mail on a BBS network. Below is the RIME(tm) policy regarding private mail: TO ALL USERS OF RIME(tm) Messages that are posted in any and all conferences on any BBS designated as a member of PCRelay, RelayNet or RIME(tm) are relayed ("echoed") throughout the international network. RIME(tm) maintains the capability and capacity to send and receive messages that are flagged as "Receiver-Only". However, messages so flagged are NOT to be considered by any user as actual "private" messages. The purpose of the Receiver-Only flag for such messages is intended solely to provide for a means of limiting the possible number of BBS's that may have access to the messages for display purposes. The following is the official RIME(tm) policy regarding Receiver Only flagged messages. PURSUANT TO THE ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY ACT OF 1986, 18 USC 2510 et. seq., NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN TO ALL USERS OF THIS NETWORK THAT THERE ARE NO FACILITIES PROVIDED BY THE RIME(tm) INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR SENDING OR RECEIVING PRIVATE OR CONFIDENTIAL ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS. ALL MESSAGES POSTED IN RELAYED CONFERENCES SHALL BE DEEMED TO BE READILY ACCESSIBLE TO ALL NETWORK HUBS, NODES, AND USERS. Do NOT use RIME(tm) conferences for any communication for which you intend only yourself and one or more specific recipients to read. Consider that all node sysops have the capability, capacity and potential to read all mail posted in this network, and, as a result, to post said messages as public messages on their boards. All participating Network Bulletin Board Systems shall deem all messages posted within the RIME(tm) conferences to be readily accessible to the general public at all times. If you post a message within any RIME(tm) conference, your acceptance of this policy is heretofore implied. The RIME(tm) International Network and any participating bulletin board system assumes absolutely no accountability or liability whatsoever for any violations of this policy by any and all users of this network. To reiterate: This network provides the capability and capacity to flag messages as R/O. However, messages so flagged will not and cannot be considered or defined as "private communications" between two or more people. DUTIES OF A CONFERENCE HOST The following are the general duties of a conference host. These may vary from conference to conference. o Defining the operating rules of the conference. o Dealing with those users experiencing difficulty conforming to the set rules. o Encouraging discussion by either responding to messages or initiating pertinent topics for discussion. o Replying to ALL messages that, either explicitly or implicitly, call for a reply from the host. o Convincing sysops not currently carrying your conference to do so. o Getting people who are leaving messages in other conferences appropriate to yours to join the discussions in your conference. o Coordinating wih other conference hosts whose conference topics overlap with yours. If you think that you have a good idea for a conference, or would like to host a conferences, please send a R/O message to James Wall (IDCODE=DREAM)in the COMMON conference. To start a conference you need to have the topic clearly defined, a conference host available that would be suitable for that conference, and 10 nodes and 5 hubs willing to agree to carry that conference. James will be more than happy to help you get started in publisizing your idea and seeing if there is interest on the network for that topic. HOW TO BECOME A MEMBER BOARD IN THE RIME(tm) NETWORK Some of you may decide you like this medium so well you would like to join the network with your own board. To do this the Network requires that: o You have legally Registered copies of the software involved in the setup of your board. o You download and familiarize yourself with the material contained in a file called RELAYNET.ZIP. o You allow no pirated or commercial software in your files sections. o You read and agree to the Network Bylaws. o You complete and return the RIME(tm) application form along with the inital membership fee which is currently $25.00, but may change in the future. If you meet these conditions you may join the network on a temporary basis until a probationary period has elapsed. A decision on your status will be made at the end of that probationary period. Copyright 1992 (All right reserved) - Bonnie Anthony, Bethesda Md