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whiney.txt
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1995-04-25
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11KB
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263 lines
[this is somewhat lengthy, but some interesting things were said about
"whiney" members, and their "place" is our BBS world]
From: Sysop
To: Paul Tibbals
Okay, now that you've spent fifteen minutes answering my message in great
detail, explaining how and why HST modems are "far superior" to v32/42 ones, I
should recant a little bit and explain that yes, I very much would have liked
to buy a DS modem for the board, but my BBS budget last year was spent on the
gig drive, which I figured benefitted everyone, whereas the DS modem only
would have helped out you, Ofer, Milamber, maybe a few others. Actually, in
thinking about it, given the startup and operating costs a SysOp faces, it
might be construed that the burden of "dual standardship" falls on the caller,
not the BBS. I have a number of callers who have that supra-fraz Supra modem,
and while they kid me for not being 14.4k, at least they appreciate the 9600.
I suppose at this point that if I get many more complaints, the only
reasonable thing to do would be to slow the board back down to 1200 for a few
weeks, just to add a little perspective to the whole thing. Yep, a damn good
idea...
From: The Beastmaster
To: Sysop
I hear what you're saying. After the time and money you spent making this
one of the best Amiga boards around, I'd tell em' to kiss my behind.
Although I don't have a lot o paitence with whiney people.
From: Sysop
To: The Beastmaster
Unfortunately, part of a SysOp's job description is to put up with whiners and
complainers...at least it is unless you're Rich Bremer...and no board's gonna
please everybody. Spend a ton of money on a one-gig drive, what'ya get?
Complaints that your modem's not fast enough. Buy a new modem and what'ya
get? Complaints that you're only one-line. Put in fifty new lines and
what'ya get? Complaints that the menus are jerky when more than seventeen
people are on the board at once. Buy a 4000 and what'ya get? Complaints that
the menus are too jerky when more than forty people are on the board at one
time, and a suggestion that you buy a Cray!
Buy a Cray and what'ya get? Complaints about the software, the non-optic
phone line cable, the slow 38.4 baud rate, the wife's figure and your bad
breath. Buy the entire planet, give everyone a 76.8 baud modem, install optic
cable everywhere, hook up every phone line in the world to the board, hire
eight Nobel prize winners to design your new software and what'ya get? <FILL
IN BLANK!>
:)
From: Bob Cosby
To: Sysop
The way I look at it a BBS should have a message right at the beginning of
the log-on screen:
"A BBS is the last of the benevolent monarchies. This is *MY* BBS run at a
loss for my pleasure. If you have suggestions I will listen. I guarantee
nothing. There is always another BBS up the road and you can feel free to
start your own."
In fact, when I get my own off the ground that's what I *will* put up!
Coz
From: Sysop
To: Bob Cosby
Heh, damn straight advice, buck. It's just like a driver's license, "a
privilege, not a right". The mistake I made, if any, was to use the word
"BBS" in the board's name. Use that little word and people start to assume
all kinds of things. Lots of people out there believe that there is something
blasphemous about altering an original BBS file in the slightest, up to and
including leaving things like anim players in with the anim, if the original
author so packaged the file. Hurumph! Not here, buddy! I started the board
with 800 of my own downloaded files, and nothing used to burn my ass as much
as getting yet ANOTHER ShowAnim or Movie1.3 or MoviePlayer with my download.
I've also got some righteous moralists on the board who think it's wrong to
delete a meaningless 200k source code to some 20k worthless hack, or 20k worth
of idiotic German docs, but I figure blashemy or not, you've got to exercise
some common sense at SOME point. I also usually capitalize all the programs
and docs in the file, delete any zzenpads and .DISPLAYMEs, rename
"READ.ME!!.DOC!!" files to a more reserved, polite "ReadMe.doc", include icons
when they're needed, add countless ReadMeToo and mini.doc files, and in
general treat the whole file like it's going into my personal library, which
it is. As you suggested, if someone actually WANTS that ridiculous 200k
source code, they can always hoof it down the road and find it on a board run
by a more indiscriminatory SysOp. I also have the nerve to actually step in
and correct the spelling in someone's doc, and (hope you're sitting down) I
even have the unmitigated gall to actually filezap someone's program to fix a
spelling mixtake. Now this is blashemy, indeed! And hey, it gets worse! I
file-zapped an extremely popular file that's been running around the boards
for the last month or so, and it WASN'T a spelling error! It was...may I be
frank?...just downright fucking rude. I changed the "Puny Human" in UChess to
"Mere Human".
From: Bob Cosby
To: Sysop
It's the Socialist Disease: "I have access to it, therefore it's mine."
Coz
From: Keith Remmes
To: Bob Cosby
nah...my bbs opening message will state:
"This bbs is a totally imperialistic society in which I am the Dictator
for Life and your suggestions will be ignored and if they are offending to me,
I will persecute you in a very creative and cruel manner in which you will
almost certainly be embarrassed in front of your peers. All rules and
regulations will be enforced with an iron claw and any breakage of these will
permit me to punish thou with extreme prejudice. From here on out, thou will
be known as a peasant and you will all kiss my butt to get any kind of access
on here. Have a nice day!"
How's that for an opening of a bbs? Preferably mine. Dictator for Life
From: Sysop
To: Keith Remmes
Ha! Thanks for the good laugh! The "claw" instead of "hand" was a nice
touch. Added that certain -tang- of unrealism, heh. Anyway, thanks, with the
nice response from you, Coz and Ed, I guess we won't being going back to 1200
baud THIS week...
;>
From: Gary Weir
To: Bob Cosby
I like that, that's good!
"....benevolent monarchies....." Well put!
From: Sysop
To: Gary Weir
I prefer "God's Realm", but sure, the "monarchies" thing works fine, too. :)
From: Bob Cosby
To: Gary Weir
It was meant not only jokingly but serious as well. How many times have we
seen a user sniveling because some minor detail was out of their standard?
It's one thing to suggest but these twits seem to think a SySop somehow OWES
them. It's the Socialist Disease I say again.
Coz
From: Gary Weir
To: Bob Cosby
I agree completely, as a former CoSysOp elsewhere, I know what a pain some
users can indeed be. And I concur wholeheartedly, it is "the Socialist
Disease".........or from what I've observed usually, the guy who hasn't had to
work for a living yet who thinks everyone should pay his own way......8-)
..and I phrased that to include some senior members who still think their
parents are taking care of them.....8-)
From: Sysop
To: Bob Cosby
Not playing Devil's Advocate or anything, but I do have a small counterpoint
to all of this. I've made a number of improvements to the board (including
making it do a few backflips that it's not supposed to do, like read contents
of archives), and I include in this category the entire message base and the
Quick Menus, as well as eliminating all the zzenpad.foo's on the board...and
all or most of that came from the snivelling of a few members (you know who
you are!). It's kind of like how the TV stations say "one letter represents a
1000 voices"...if I've got one guy hollering and nagging and whining because I
don't have Quick Menus, then I figure that there are others out there who want
them too, but just don't make the request or mention it. If it weren't for
Robbie and Max and Asher and the rest of those clowns, we'd probably be
discussing this on Mission. Remember, my original concept of the board was as
a "Library", none of this message base stuff to hog so much board time. But I
was wrong; it's proved invaluable in a number of ways, so, bless their whiney
little ways. On the other hand, if Asher takes one more poke at BBS-PC, I'm
gonna knock him on his can! :)
[Asher can be, at times, the classic BBS Brat. And gee, funny thing, here
he is now...]
From: Asher Feldman
To: Sysop
Dang, ya know the editor on BBS-PC is a real piece of............. :->
From: Sysop
To: Asher Feldman
What editor? You call that "erase line" business an "editor"? You sure got a
broader definition of the word than I do! Otherwise put, sorry to hear you
can't operate one of the clearest and easiest to use message base editors ever
written. Delete line? Edit line? Something about that a little, uh, shall
we say, "difficult" to comprehend? Perhaps expanded docs or a small primer on
the subject? Perhaps an interactive AmigaVision tutorial? I'll get to work
right away!
(actually, it might astound you how -quick- some people are at using this
"editor", myself included. And besides...this is a PD base, who the heck
cares about spelling, punctuation...CONTENT, for that matter, heh...)
(I read over my note to you, wanted to make one small change, I typed in
"e13", made my one quick change, hit S for save and was outta there. Total
elapsed time for editorial correction: 4.8 seconds. It's impossible for me to
see how any other editor could have done it faster, up to and including a
full-screen editor with cursor control. Moving the cursor up three lines and
over thirty-five spaces and x'ing out the word and re-typing it would have
taken longer) Hey, wait a minute...you took a dig at BBS-PC! It's a plot!!
The coup d' etat has started! Don your armor, men!
From: Asher Feldman
To: Sysop
I was wondering how long it would take you to notice. :-)
..........The troops slowly advance.....................
From: Bob Cosby
To: Sysop
Please remember I was differentiating between suggestions and sniveling.
This is just a suggestion, of course. 8^D
Coz
From: Sysop
To: Bob Cosby
And luckily, not a sniveling one! I guess, like usual, this breaks down
quickly into its various philosophical components. To wit: it's "okay" for
someone to make a sniveling suggestion, but not for them to make a suggestive
snivel. Conversely put, it's okay to snivelly differentiate, but not okay to
differentiate snivels. Okay, I think we've got things cleared up now...
[ and that was enough of THAT! ]
%Z