In case anyone is curious, although the www.tbbs.org fansite is still running, it is notorious for going off-line randomly, for sometimes
months at a time.
I have archived all of the files from that site, including full installations of TBBS, TIMS, Flame, etc.
TBBS at one time was "the" software for running a commercial BBS; and
was only one of two packages I know of, that internally multi-tasked up
to 96 nodes on a single computer without using a multi-tasking operating system. The other I think was MajorBBS/Worldgroup? Sean am I right?
Nick Andre wrote to All <=-
TBBS at one time was "the" software for running a commercial BBS; and
was only one of two packages I know of, that internally multi-tasked up
to 96 nodes on a single computer without using a multi-tasking
operating system. The other I think was MajorBBS/Worldgroup? Sean am I right?
Nick Andre wrote to All <=-
Yeah, MBBS/WG boards were the shiznet. Used to hang out on a 16-(phone) line one back in the day in Killeen, Texas.
The best incarnation of my BBS was with TBBS...
The message areas never seemed easy to use to me either... Too bad
there isn't one left running anywhere that had been configured.
The best incarnation of my BBS was with TBBS...
I always saw TBBS boards as those corporte ones hardware companies ran to update your drivers. I never saw a TBBS that was configured more then the stock out of the box setup. :(
The message areas never seemed easy to use to me either... Too bad there isn't one left running anywhere that had been configured.
I connected to one the other day to see what TBBS was all about,
because I can't recall ever seeing one in my area back in the 90s.
I feel like one of the main purposes of a BBS is the exchange of
messages, and I've always felt like so many packages just get that fundamental aspect wrong, mainly with a poorly designed browsing/reading/writing interface.
TBBS was an amazing system... Every message conference on my system
had it's own menu. It was quite easy to use if the sysop took time
Unfortunately, I had over 500 360kb floppies they were all low
density then the high density ones were not developed yet. I tried
to restore from backup but one critical disk would not load so it
wrote Toped and a lot of RA utilites. They talked me into changing
to RA which I ran for many years before I went to wildcat version 3
then to PCBoard... which had issues for me. I went back to Wildcat
4 to get UUCP back... users were revolting since they lost access to
TBBS was, by far, the best that I ever ran hands down period! But
it was customized to the n'th degree and when it crashed I did not
have a means to restore it to it's full glory without months of
downtime.
I feel like one of the main purposes of a BBS is the exchange of messages, and I've always felt like so many packages just get that fundamental aspect wrong, mainly with a poorly designed browsing/reading/writing interface.
I feel like one of the main purposes of a BBS is the exchange of messages, and I've always felt like so many packages just get that fundamental aspect wrong, mainly with a poorly designed browsing/reading/writing interface.
When I got back into BBSing in 2007, I decided on running Synchronet for my BBS software. When I started reading messages with it, I was surprised at Synchronet's message reader interface - Namely, that it seemed to want you to read through every single message in a message area. When you start reading messages, it drops you right into your first unread message, and then you can go
"next" through each message. I used BBSes quite a bit in the 90s, though I don't
remember if most BBS packages worked like that; however, Synchronet's reader interface seemed odd to me. I tend to like to see a list of messages and choose
which ones I want to read based on the subject (although I do know that message threads tend to drift off the subject after a while). I ended up making my own message lister/reader mod for Synchronet where I could bring up a list of messages and choose the ones I want to read, rather than being (pretty much) forced to read through every single one.
One of these days, I plan to replace the "built-in" message reading interface with one written in JS (though it will likely function much
the same, since that's what I'm used to) and that should facilitate simpler replacement of that functionality with 3rd party modules, like yours.
On 05/12/16, Rob Swindell said the following...
One of these days, I plan to replace the "built-in" message reading interface with one written in JS (though it will likely function much the same, since that's what I'm used to) and that should facilitate simpler replacement of that functionality with 3rd party modules, like yours.
I've always like like the built-in message reading system of synchronet, once
I figured out how it works.. :)
There are times I'd like to be able to use the up arrow key but only the down key works AFAIK.
"next" through each message. I used BBSes quite a bit in the 90s,
though I don't remember if most BBS packages worked like that; however, Synchronet's
"next" through each message. I used BBSes quite a bit in the 90s,
though I don't remember if most BBS packages worked like that;
however, Synchronet's
It is pretty much the standard way to read messages, used by just about every BBS not just Synchronet. I think Mystic and one called WME were the only software I ever saw back in the 90s that provided an alternative to the traditional message reading, like you're describing.
There were hardware and bandwidth limitations that made it much trickier to do back then, but I also think people creating these interfaces maybe just didn't have the vision to make something different either.
surprised at Synchronet's message reader interface - Namely, that it seemed to want you to read through every single message in a message
area. When you start reading messages, it drops you right into your
first unread message, and then you can go
"next" through each message. I used BBSes quite a bit in the 90s,
though I don't
Synchronet's built-in message reading interface was heavily influenced
by WWIV. So if you're used to WWIV or one of its spin-offs (RG, Tag), it would seem familiar to you (e.g. use 'T' to list the next 10 messages,
'L' to list them all).
Allen Prunty wrote in a message to Shawn Highfield:
TBBS was an amazing system... Every message conference on my system
had it's own menu. It was quite easy to use if the sysop took time
You could do that with RA and PCB which I'm sure you know. :)
I ran RAUUCP at that time. It worked. ;)
Still a shame man, I'd have loved to see a configured one. :)
My inspiration for having a message list and choosing a message to read mainly came from newsgroup and email readers (such as Forte Agent, etc.).
Mystic has great message listing and selection. I think SBBS is quite good with messages too, as it was sort of based on WWIV, which I generally like quite a bit just for reading.
Nice work on your mod too BTW!
Did the ANSI messages come from Forte too? Or the kludge toggle, or or or... ;)
Sysop: | digital man |
---|---|
Location: | Riverside County, California |
Users: | 1,036 |
Nodes: | 15 (1 / 14) |
Uptime: | 61:59:22 |
Calls: | 808 |
Calls today: | 14 |
Files: | 95,174 |
D/L today: |
2,114 files (209M bytes) |
Messages: | 297,894 |
Posted today: | 2 |