Got this from my brother today.
Nuff said.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
BBS - Blast From the Past - Showing My Age
This morning, my nephew Paul, asked me about the letter attached below on BBS etiquette. This was written by my father many years ago. Think late 1970's to early 1980's. Paul wanted to know among other things what the terms SYSOP and BBS stood for.
SYSOP is an old term for System Operator. The person that runs or owns the BBS was referred to as the SYSOP. He or she was lord and master of the BBS realm. As a rule, SYSOP’s ran their BBS’s completely out of pocket as a hobby. They purchased all of the hardware and software, as well as paying the phone bill, which could become very high.
BBS is an acronym for Bulletin Board Service. BBS's were the forerunners of today’s websites. You had to know a phone number to dial in with a conventional modem. Once connected to the BBS the user had to log in to an account. If the user did not have an account, they would be required to create one. On most BBS’s the system would do an automated call back to the new user to verify they were whom they claimed. This call back was done to reduce abuse.
Each BBS usually had a theme and offered among other things, some of the first online games ever available. This was LONG before the days of the Xbox or PlayStation. BBS’s were also the birthplace of the modern day MUDD sites, which still use technology very similar to the BBS of yesterday. Users still logon to MUDD’s with a plain text editor that uses in many cases old ASCII art as a rudimentary form of graphics.
Dad was the SYSOP for one of, if not the, oldest BBS in the Las Vegas, NV metro area. He ran it all on an old Radio Shack TRS-80 model IV computer with a whopping 4MB of Ram. I think he had two hard drives on that system, about 20MB each and two or four 5 1/4" floppy disk drives. He would rotate the floppies daily to load new or different programs for people to download. Each floppy had its own basic menu that listed and offered a brief description of the files on the disk. People would dial in to his BBS from around the country, paying long distance charges, just to use his files, play the games, or leave him a note. The messaging system on BBS's was the forerunner to today’s text messaging and email.
Among the people dad traded programs with was a much younger Steve Jobs.
Here is dad’s letter on BBS etiquette or “Netiquette.” Some of the terms are no longer used, but the principles are still largely the same.
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Computer Etiquette, By Mel North
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The following are a few points of general BBS etiquette. If you wish to maintain your welcome on whatever system you happen to call, it would be to your advantage to observe these few rules.
1. Don't habitually hang up on a system. Every Sysop is aware that accidental disconnections happen once in a while, but we do tend to get annoyed with people who hang up every single time they call because they are either too lazy to terminate properly or they labor under the mistaken assumption that the 10 seconds they save online is going to significantly alter their phone bill. "Call Waiting" is not an acceptable excuse for long. If you have it and intend
to use the line to call BBS systems, you should either have it disconnected or find some other way to circumvent it.
2. Don't do dumb things like leave yourself a message that says, "Just testing
to see if this thing works." Where do you think all those other messages came
from if it did not work? Also, don't leave whiney messages that say "Please leave me a message." If ever there was a person to ignore, it's the one who begs someone to leave him a message. If you want to get messages, start by reading the ones that are already online and getting involved in the conversations that exist.
3. Don't use the local equivalent of a chat command unless you really have some clear cut notion of what you want to say and why. Almost any Sysop is more than happy to answer questions or offer help concerning his system. Unfortunately, because about 85% of the people who call want to chat and about 99% of those people have absolutely nothing to say besides "How old are you?" or something equally irrelevant, fewer Sysops even bother answering their pagers every day.
4. When you are offered a place to leave comments when exiting a system, do not try to use this area to ask the Sysop questions. It is very rude to the other callers to expect the Sysop to carry on a half-visible conversation with someone. If you have a question or statement to make and expect the Sysop to respond to it, it should always be made in the section where all the other
messages are kept. This allows the Sysop to help many people with the same problem with the least amount of effort on his part.
5. Before you log on with your favorite pseudonym, make sure that handles are allowed. Most Sysops do not want people using handles on the system. There is not enough room for them, they get silly games of one-upmanship started, it is much nicer to deal with a person on a personal basis, and last, but not least, everyone should be willing to take full responsibility for his actions or comments instead of slinging mud from behind a phony name.
Also when signing on, why not sign on just like you would introduce yourself in your own society? How many of you usually introduce yourselves as Joe W Smutz the 3rd or 4th?
6. Take the time to log on properly. There is no such place as RIV, HB, ANA or any of a thousand other abbreviations people use instead of their proper city. You may think that everyone knows what RIV is supposed to mean, but every BBS has people calling from all around the country, and I assure you that someone from Podunk, Iowa has no idea what you're talking about.
7. Don't go out of your way to make rude observations like "Gee, this system is slow." Every BBS is a tradeoff of features. You can generally assume that if someone is running a particular brand of software, that, he is either happy with it or he'll decide to find another system he likes better. It does nobody any good when you make comments about something that you perceive to be a flaw when it is running the way the Sysop wants it to. Constructive criticism is somewhat more welcome. If you have an alternative, method that seems to make good sense
then run it up the flagpole.
8. When leaving messages, stop and ask yourself, whether it is necessary to make it private. Unless there is some particular reason that everyone, should not know what you're saying, don't make it private. We don't call them PUBLIC bulletin boards for nothing, folks. It is very irritating to other callers when there are huge blank spots in the messages that they cannot read and it stifles interaction between callers.
9. If your favorite BBS has a time limit, observe it. If it does not, set a limit for yourself and abide by it instead. Do not tie up a system until it finally kicks you off and then call back with another name. This same rule applies to downloading or playing games. Only one person at a time can be logged on to a BBS and it is not fair to everyone else if you overstay your welcome. Remember, a BBS is best when it can be left wide open. If you try to cheat the rules, you just hurt everybody by forcing the Sysop to adopt more stringent policies. I cannot count the number of systems that are now locked tighter than a drum because of people who cheat and abuse.
10. Do not call a BBS just to look at the list of other BBS numbers. Most especially do not call a system as a new user and run right to the other numbers list. There is probably very little that is more annoying to any Sysop than to have his board completely passed over by you on your way to another board.
11. Have the common courtesy to pay attention to what passes in front of your face. When a BBS displays your name and asks, "Is this you?" do not say yes when you can see perfectly well that it is misspelled. Also, don't start asking questions about simple operation of a system until you have thoroughly read all of the instructions that are available to you. I assure you that it isn't any fun to answer a question for the thousandth time when the answer is prominently displayed in the system bulletins or instructions. Use some common sense when you ask your questions. The person who said "There's no such thing as a stupid question" obviously never operated a BBS.
12. Do not be personally abusive. It doesn't matter whether you like a Sysop or think he's a jerk. The fact remains that he has a large investment in making his computer available, usually out of the goodness of his heart. If you don't like a Sysop or his system, just remember that you can change the channel any time you want. Besides, whether you are aware of it or not, if you make
yourself enough of an annoyance to any Sysop, he can take the time to trace you down and make your life, or that of your parents, miserable.
13. Keep firmly in mind that you are a guest on any BBS you happen to call. Do not think of logging on as one of your basic human rights. Every person that has ever put a computer system online for the use of other people has spent a lot of time and money to do so. While he doesn't expect nonstop pats on the back, it seems reasonable that he should at least be able to expect fair
treatment the way he does. Your business is to either, abide by what he says, or call some other BBS where you feel that you can obey the rules.
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
SYSOP is an old term for System Operator. The person that runs or owns the BBS was referred to as the SYSOP. He or she was lord and master of the BBS realm. As a rule, SYSOP’s ran their BBS’s completely out of pocket as a hobby. They purchased all of the hardware and software, as well as paying the phone bill, which could become very high.
BBS is an acronym for Bulletin Board Service. BBS's were the forerunners of today’s websites. You had to know a phone number to dial in with a conventional modem. Once connected to the BBS the user had to log in to an account. If the user did not have an account, they would be required to create one. On most BBS’s the system would do an automated call back to the new user to verify they were whom they claimed. This call back was done to reduce abuse.
Each BBS usually had a theme and offered among other things, some of the first online games ever available. This was LONG before the days of the Xbox or PlayStation. BBS’s were also the birthplace of the modern day MUDD sites, which still use technology very similar to the BBS of yesterday. Users still logon to MUDD’s with a plain text editor that uses in many cases old ASCII art as a rudimentary form of graphics.
Dad was the SYSOP for one of, if not the, oldest BBS in the Las Vegas, NV metro area. He ran it all on an old Radio Shack TRS-80 model IV computer with a whopping 4MB of Ram. I think he had two hard drives on that system, about 20MB each and two or four 5 1/4" floppy disk drives. He would rotate the floppies daily to load new or different programs for people to download. Each floppy had its own basic menu that listed and offered a brief description of the files on the disk. People would dial in to his BBS from around the country, paying long distance charges, just to use his files, play the games, or leave him a note. The messaging system on BBS's was the forerunner to today’s text messaging and email.
Among the people dad traded programs with was a much younger Steve Jobs.
Here is dad’s letter on BBS etiquette or “Netiquette.” Some of the terms are no longer used, but the principles are still largely the same.
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Computer Etiquette, By Mel North
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
The following are a few points of general BBS etiquette. If you wish to maintain your welcome on whatever system you happen to call, it would be to your advantage to observe these few rules.
1. Don't habitually hang up on a system. Every Sysop is aware that accidental disconnections happen once in a while, but we do tend to get annoyed with people who hang up every single time they call because they are either too lazy to terminate properly or they labor under the mistaken assumption that the 10 seconds they save online is going to significantly alter their phone bill. "Call Waiting" is not an acceptable excuse for long. If you have it and intend
to use the line to call BBS systems, you should either have it disconnected or find some other way to circumvent it.
2. Don't do dumb things like leave yourself a message that says, "Just testing
to see if this thing works." Where do you think all those other messages came
from if it did not work? Also, don't leave whiney messages that say "Please leave me a message." If ever there was a person to ignore, it's the one who begs someone to leave him a message. If you want to get messages, start by reading the ones that are already online and getting involved in the conversations that exist.
3. Don't use the local equivalent of a chat command unless you really have some clear cut notion of what you want to say and why. Almost any Sysop is more than happy to answer questions or offer help concerning his system. Unfortunately, because about 85% of the people who call want to chat and about 99% of those people have absolutely nothing to say besides "How old are you?" or something equally irrelevant, fewer Sysops even bother answering their pagers every day.
4. When you are offered a place to leave comments when exiting a system, do not try to use this area to ask the Sysop questions. It is very rude to the other callers to expect the Sysop to carry on a half-visible conversation with someone. If you have a question or statement to make and expect the Sysop to respond to it, it should always be made in the section where all the other
messages are kept. This allows the Sysop to help many people with the same problem with the least amount of effort on his part.
5. Before you log on with your favorite pseudonym, make sure that handles are allowed. Most Sysops do not want people using handles on the system. There is not enough room for them, they get silly games of one-upmanship started, it is much nicer to deal with a person on a personal basis, and last, but not least, everyone should be willing to take full responsibility for his actions or comments instead of slinging mud from behind a phony name.
Also when signing on, why not sign on just like you would introduce yourself in your own society? How many of you usually introduce yourselves as Joe W Smutz the 3rd or 4th?
6. Take the time to log on properly. There is no such place as RIV, HB, ANA or any of a thousand other abbreviations people use instead of their proper city. You may think that everyone knows what RIV is supposed to mean, but every BBS has people calling from all around the country, and I assure you that someone from Podunk, Iowa has no idea what you're talking about.
7. Don't go out of your way to make rude observations like "Gee, this system is slow." Every BBS is a tradeoff of features. You can generally assume that if someone is running a particular brand of software, that, he is either happy with it or he'll decide to find another system he likes better. It does nobody any good when you make comments about something that you perceive to be a flaw when it is running the way the Sysop wants it to. Constructive criticism is somewhat more welcome. If you have an alternative, method that seems to make good sense
then run it up the flagpole.
8. When leaving messages, stop and ask yourself, whether it is necessary to make it private. Unless there is some particular reason that everyone, should not know what you're saying, don't make it private. We don't call them PUBLIC bulletin boards for nothing, folks. It is very irritating to other callers when there are huge blank spots in the messages that they cannot read and it stifles interaction between callers.
9. If your favorite BBS has a time limit, observe it. If it does not, set a limit for yourself and abide by it instead. Do not tie up a system until it finally kicks you off and then call back with another name. This same rule applies to downloading or playing games. Only one person at a time can be logged on to a BBS and it is not fair to everyone else if you overstay your welcome. Remember, a BBS is best when it can be left wide open. If you try to cheat the rules, you just hurt everybody by forcing the Sysop to adopt more stringent policies. I cannot count the number of systems that are now locked tighter than a drum because of people who cheat and abuse.
10. Do not call a BBS just to look at the list of other BBS numbers. Most especially do not call a system as a new user and run right to the other numbers list. There is probably very little that is more annoying to any Sysop than to have his board completely passed over by you on your way to another board.
11. Have the common courtesy to pay attention to what passes in front of your face. When a BBS displays your name and asks, "Is this you?" do not say yes when you can see perfectly well that it is misspelled. Also, don't start asking questions about simple operation of a system until you have thoroughly read all of the instructions that are available to you. I assure you that it isn't any fun to answer a question for the thousandth time when the answer is prominently displayed in the system bulletins or instructions. Use some common sense when you ask your questions. The person who said "There's no such thing as a stupid question" obviously never operated a BBS.
12. Do not be personally abusive. It doesn't matter whether you like a Sysop or think he's a jerk. The fact remains that he has a large investment in making his computer available, usually out of the goodness of his heart. If you don't like a Sysop or his system, just remember that you can change the channel any time you want. Besides, whether you are aware of it or not, if you make
yourself enough of an annoyance to any Sysop, he can take the time to trace you down and make your life, or that of your parents, miserable.
13. Keep firmly in mind that you are a guest on any BBS you happen to call. Do not think of logging on as one of your basic human rights. Every person that has ever put a computer system online for the use of other people has spent a lot of time and money to do so. While he doesn't expect nonstop pats on the back, it seems reasonable that he should at least be able to expect fair
treatment the way he does. Your business is to either, abide by what he says, or call some other BBS where you feel that you can obey the rules.
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