A better BBS?
18 messages in this thread
About every 6 months I go through the exercise of looking for new BBS
software. I began Viva! Amiga! (609-227-8278) in 1986 with BBS-PC! and
have been looking to replace it since 1987.
Everytime I go looking, I find a flock of new BBS software packages
available with lots of new exotic features and promising better this, that
and everything else. Whenever I look a little closer into each, I find
one gaping hole in the designs, NO THREADED MESSAGING. Now, we people on
CIS know the value of threaded messages, and most of my users, used to my
BBS, agree with us. Unfortunately, BBS software designers don't seem to
have a clue. One designer I spoke with said "what do you mean, threaded?"
Another said "of course messages are threaded, you read them all in the
order they are entered".
I'm looking again and hope that someone in the Amiga CIS community has
come across a system that both sports all of the latest features
(including 2.1 compatibility) AND threaded messaging. If there is such a
system, please share the info with me.
Thanks for helping me in my quest…
– Don
Don,
Well I don't know about threaded exactly but CNet BBS software which a
local sysop recently installed on his system strikes me as the most
powerfull BBS software I've encountered for the Amiga.
I honestly don't know if CNet supports threaded messaging as you
require it but I think it does…
I'll ask the sysop and get back to you with the CNet support BBS number
if your interested. I'll say that over the past 2 months I've been
continually impressed with it's abilities.
Scott
Don,
Back around '85 I use to frequent an Amiga bbs (on a 1000) that
supported threads so there must be something out there. I've never been
on the running side of a BBS though so I couldn't tell you what it was
called.
-Sean
Sean,
BBS-PC! is the software I use and it does support threads.
Unfortunately, MSS, the producers of BBS-PC! seem to have washed their
hands of it and haven't updated it for years. There is so much more I
want to do with the bbs, but I don't want to give up threading.
Thought you might like to know, Viva! Amiga! is STILL running on an
Amiga 1000 with 2.5 meg and 130MB hard drive. Great machine.
– Don
Don,
Glad to hear your A1000 is still kicking. I sold mine last year (I
should have hung on to it).
-Sean
Sean,
With the exception of 2 weeks in the shop for floppy drive repair, my
Viva! Amiga! A-1000 has been on and running continuously since December of
1986. I made the mistake of buying a backup A-1000 which has just sat
idle since I got a 2000.
– Don
Don,
I don't know what you use your Amigas for but it seems that if you did
a lot of intensive computing you might be able to share some of the tasks
between computers. Like having each of your A1000s rendering frames at
the same time or something.
-Sean
Don,
I have another BBS title for you to add to your list: Proteus with
ParaBIT. Proteus is a sophisticated "BBS engine" which is programmed via
ARexx, and comes with a default system already programmed in. Proteus is
freeware (formerly commercial), although the author, Rick Huebner, likes
to accept contributions. It internally supports organizing messages by
Thread or Msg#, and Threads are available in any programmed configuration.
Among other things, Proteus is a resident, multi-line system with no upper
limit on the number of lines (not everyone is impressed by this, but I
thought I'd throw it in).. and it runs fine on a 512K A1000 on up through
my A4000.
Also, I said Proteus with "ParaBIT", which is my baby. ParaBIT adds
bidirectional (multichannel) capability to Proteus, which just means you
can both upload & download at once (at full speed) and still be able to
use the menu/message system for anything from online games to
reading/entering messages. But in the course of adding ParaBIT, I've added
quite a bit of enhancement to the default Proteus programming (some of
what you would call "esoteric" goodies, but mainly I've worked on the look
and feel and made the usability better.. I guess in that respect you could
call me a "BBS software designer").
If you want to take a look, drop on by at Troy City BBS (508) 677-4535,
my own system.
-Chris
Chris,
Thanks for the info on Prodeus and ParaBIT. I'll see if I can find it
here and if so, give it a try. I like the idea of using an ARexx program
since I can easily change it if I need to, but I'm a bit wary of the speed
penalty.
– Don
I think you'll find the speed satisfactory with Proteus. Most of the intensive
logic is in Proteus, so it doesn't rely on ARexx too much. It also caches all
of its file I/O in a pretty sophisticated manner.
You'll probably need screenshare.library to run Proteus, and the original
scripts could use some improvement. If it's not online here, I'll upload
Proteus_Setup.lha which is just a memo and some files that are helpful in
setting up.
-Chris
Have you looked at DLG Pro?
Leslie,
Haven't ever heard of DLG Pro. Do you have any particulars?
– Don
I believe Black Belt Systems uses DLG Pro. I have a text file on it if
you like, I can E-Mail/upload it to you.
Thanks Leslie. I'd appreciate the text file.
– Don
By now you should have your text file. Hope this helps.