PC User 1998 October/Image.iso/offline/bbs/BBSREAD.TXT

Text File | 1998-04-07 | 9.5 KB | 208 lines

BBSREAD.TXT -- Information regarding the completion of the
               registration form.

The Australian Bulletin Board System Registry was formed to
attempt to resolve the age old problem of obsolete Bulletin Board
lists.  Part of the philosophy of the registry is to make it
worthwhile for all operators to list their system with the
registry and to make use of the listings.

One method of making the listings attractive is that the issue of
the lists is totally regular, on the first monday of each month
the registry publishes a new version of the listing.  This
listing is clearly marked with the creation date and time and is
also given a release number (this release number is normally the
year and month of issue, the January 1987 list would be given a
release number of 8701).

Now let's get onto completing the form itself.  If you have the
file on disk complete it with your word processor, it is easier
to read. If you have it printed out remember to fill it in
legibly, you might be able to read it but some of the forms I
have been getting are pretty bad.  If possible use the computer
to complete the form, that is what they were intended for.

Delivery of the form, either send it as NetMail (not on the
public conference BBS_NEWS anyone can read it) to James Collins at
3:640/230 or post a copy of it to Australian BBS Registry, PO Box
64, Lowood, Qld, 4311. You can also supply the information to one
of the State Coordinators, listed in the "BBSCORD.TXT" file.  The
coordinators will also help you with registration if you logon to
their boards. The Internet site http://www.galaxy.ggcs.net.au is
Internet Option you can use to contact us also.

Right, now we will follow the form from the top, where else, the
first bit is the Add/Change selection if you are already on a
registry listing it is a change, otherwise you are an add. Please
date your application to assist registry processing of your data.

The date BBS established is to provide BBS age information eg:
Established: Jan 92 (1 Year 10 Months). If no BBS establishment
date is provided the date the BBS was added to the Australian BBS
Registry will be used.

The system name should be pretty obvious, the name of your board,
but just watch out, try and avoid having "The" at the front eg
"The Glory Board" will be listed under "T" NOT "G", unless you
are definitely know as THE whatever board drop the from the
title.  Another thing to avoid is putting the name of your BBS
software in the name, you may change software later.

Try and keep you name reasonably short, if it is a user group
type of system remember to add your region, we do have cases
where user groups are known by the same name in multiple places,
the Sydney thingo group might either add Sydney to the front or
back of their BBS name, the Melbourne one the same that then is
the end of the problem.

Please check the BBSDALL.TXT file to verify that your system name
is not already in use by someone else. 'Wars' have broken out
over duplicate system names and the Registry will not act as a
peace keeping force in these conflicts.

A system will only be listed once on the registry, regardless of
the number of lines or machines being used.  The number listed
should be the most accessible line (eg in the case of one line
being Public and the remainder Mem.Reg then the Public one would
be listed).

Operators who run multiple machines (not on a local area network)
may request individual listings as long as the names of the
boards are different enough to allow positive identification. In
cases of doubt the please contact the National BBS Registry
Coordinator.

SysOp name is the name you are generally know to your users by,
Charles Willy might like to be Chuck Willy on his system, get the
idea, it is your usual signature type name.

Board telephone number, easy, just check the number about 100
times, make sure you record it properly.  A few times wrong
number have got into the list, most of the times it is me, but
sometimes it is wrong on the form.

Multi-Line, a system with rotary group dial up access or
automatic call diversion, systems that have 2 or more separate
board telephone numbers will not be listed as a multi-line
system.

Primary (main) network address this is the primary/main network
as listed in your network 'front end' software.

If applicable Alias/Secondary network address is the prefered as
known as (AKA)/alias/secondary network as defined in your network
'front end' software.

Network, I am currently listing system that network in the
following, FidoNet, GTNet,  and Internet. If you belong to
another network not listed please let me know, I may just want to
list your network as well.

Network Address, this should include your zone, net & node. I
cross-referencing the various nodelists but this a very tedious
task so I ask for you assistance in keeping this information
accurate.

Hours of operation, yes 24 hours or the time (in military time
2200 style) that the system is available. If you are a networked
system it is assumed you observe the required 'Mail Only'
sessions. A minimum of 48 hours per week is required for listing
limited hours systems.

Modem transmission modes (data modulation methods), not the modem
brand, modem speeds (in ITU-T) V.21  V.22  V.22bis  V.23  V.32
V.32bis  V.34  PEP  TurboPEP  HST  V.32terbo  V.FC. V.34+ Others
will be added once their becomes a demand.

User access, you have the choices of Member, Registered User,
Limited Visitor, Visitor and Public.  You can not be all of the
above!

Member (Mem) means you have a paid access level, it does not mean
members only just that, depending on the other access information
membership may be required.

Registered User (Reg), this means that to get a higher level
access you must register, this is generally assumed to mean by
online questionnaire, you can have a system that is Mem/Reg.

Limited Visitor Access (LVA), means that most functions are not
available unless the user is a member or registered user, if they
can not post a message then the are LVA.  VA and LVA are
exclusive.

Visitor (VA), means that either Registered and/or Member access
is required to get full access so Mem/Reg/VA is valid.

Public is exclusive of all others, it means you are TOTALLY
public, some sort of registration is OK but you are either public
or not.

Computer, Operating System and BBS Software are just for user
information, keep it short (very short).  For Computer just the
type/style (eg IBM XT, Apple IIe), operating system the same not
many people want to know you are using western wazoo changes to
the mongolian thing OS something like MS-DOS, OS/2, CP/M80 etc
are enough.  Now to the real clincher the BBS Software, I get
some that say "Opus / Seadog / Brinkers & Barf" YUK, what is it
the user sees? yep Opus, that is what I want, if you have extra
facilities tell people when they logon.

BBS software emulation, you have the choice of ASCII  ANSI
AVATAR  NAPLPS  ROBO  RIP  Telefinder. If you don't know what one
or more of emulation abbreviations mean you obviously are not
utilising it. Majority of systems support ASCII and ANSI by
default.

Location, Locality which your system is eg: Emu Plains Sydney
NSW, Lower Blue Mountains NSW, Brisbane Valley Qld.
Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland,
Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern
Territory are states or territories and are not locations!

System critical notes, These two lines are to inform users that
they may require a special modem data format, ringback logon
method etc to gain successful connection/access to your system.

System speciality and or topic information, These 6 lines are to
inform users of the speciality and or topics covered by your
system. A combination of system speciality and topic information
is available.

Any combination ("Info" space permitting) of the following
pre-defined topics is available:

Adlib, Adult, Alternate Religion, Amateur Radio, Amiga,
Anti-Virus, Apple, Archimedes, Astronomy, Atari, Aviation,
Buddhism, Business, C64/128, CAD/CAM, CD-ROM, CP/M, Chat, Cheats,
Christian, Commercial, Conspiracy, Cultish, Cyberpunk, DTP,
Demos, Dharma, E-Mail, EchoMail, Education, Electronics,
Engineering, Environment, FTP, Fantasy, Flight Simulation, Games,
Genealogy, General, Graphics, Gravis, IBM-PC, IRC, Information,
Internet, linux, Literature, MIDI, MOD, MS-DOS, Macintosh,
Medical, Multi-Line Chat, Multimedia, Music, Networking, News
Groups, Newton, OS/2, Occult, Off-Line Mail, On-Line Games,
On-Line Shopping, Pagan, Photography, PowerPC, Programming, Ray
Tracing, Recreation, Religion, Role Playing, Sci-Fi, Science,
Social, Software Support, Sound, SoundBlaster, Star Trek,
Technical Support, Telnet, Text, UFO, Unix, Utilities, Windows,
Windows 95, Windows NT, World Wide Web.

Other topics will be added as requested. (State coordinators are
able to add new topics).

Confidential Information, is just that for the registry to use.
Before we go on perhaps an explanation is in order. The reason
for getting most of this information is so that we (the
coordinators in each state or myself) can get in touch with you
if we get a report about problems with your system.

If we have contact information we will attempt to contact you,
otherwise, well if the system appears to be down, good night
Irene.

What we ask is you address and telephone number (the after hours
one is the most important). Do not forget your postcode it saves
looking it up.