Re: Online Apple BBS's

[The Wizard of Oz <wizard@emeraldcity.gov>]

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 23:52:36 +0000, Moll wrote:

> The Wizard of Oz wrote:
>> On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 19:44:08 -0600, John Van Winkle wrote:
>> 
>>>Anyone have any BBS's online we can telnet to?
>> 
>> 	Call-A.P.P.L.E. has a web accessible BBS. You can go to
>> http://www.callapple.org and select the BBS option from the left. It's
>> free, but if you register for an account (again free) you get access to
>> another section.
>> 
>> 				Later
>> 				Mike
> 
> That's no BBS.  As much as a lot of people call web forums BBSes 
> nowadays, they're no such thing.  A BBS runs off a terminal, so if one 
> connects to one over the Internet, it must be over Telnet or similar.
> 
> I believe the OP is thinking the same as myself.
> 
> Moll.

	It all depends on how it is setup and used. Think about the early BBS
programs. Apart from the simultaneous multi-user capability and graphics
they were pretty much the same. For the most part there was no threading
of replies. I remember I was using a QWK reader and sorted the messages by
subject and date to simulate threading.

	In terms of running something off a terminal, there is nothing sacred
about it. However it is the only way, for the moment, for an Apple// to
connect. I remember using offline readers such as the one I mentioned
earlier for a number of years. It was a matter of connect to the BBS,
download the new messages, disconnect, run the offline reader, load the
file with the new messages, read and maybe reply to them, save them as a
file, then upload the replies next time you connect to download new
messages. It saved a lot of connect time.

	There are cross-over systems. There was a local BBS which was running off
a Linux box about 15 years ago. The sysop had set up a mail server, ftp
server, an nntp server, and a dial-up server. We could even telnet into it
from our CS accounts at university. All the operations (apart from ftp)
were handled through pine. Now I think about it the users couldn't
actually ftp to and from the machine. The sysop was mirroring a free site
and let the users sz and rz files. Thanks to Bart for my inspiration, I
set up a machine with an ftp, ssh, and pseudo-nntp server (called
Newsplex). On an "install everything" installation of Fedora 2.0 (Linux)
99% of everything was preconfigured for me. As long as someone has access
to the net (with permission of their ISP) or a second phone line they
aren't using, they could probably spend a couple of hours and set up a
similar system on their own.

	In terms of functionality, an nntp server is similar to a BBS. You should
know, you are using one to read this message. Like the web, there are both
graphic and text clients. The strong point I find with nntp versus a BBS
is threading. We don't have to go hunting around to find replies. There
were BBS programs which did have an elementary form of threading, but they
behaved pretty much the same as the web forums you mentioned. If someone
really wanted they could set up their own server and offer *local*
newsgroups. In essence this would be the same as a BBS. Telnet in and use
nn or just use something like Netscape... It doesn't matter. Apart from a
bit of reading, it's all (as a friend once said) Mickey Duck.

				Later
				Mike