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x/2 emag i i y,. ascii by black knight of anemia
title :
Welcome to x/2
author :
Horrid Nature
Well the long awaitedfor some of us coughfonebonecough first issue
of x/2 is finaly here. As you can tell by now, it is not codedmuch to my
dismay for a few reasons 1 I am to lazy to sit down and write it myself
2 the crash n burn source code just didnt do it for me, and 3 dragoon kain
has a life now, and didnt have time to code it. So until next month youll haveto live with textsome may like this, so i will release a coded an a text
version next month.
Now lets get down to, what exactly is x/2 you may ask, well it is a new
e-mag which deals with bbs software. It ranges from interviews with authors,
tutorials on setting up a bbs, to bitches about bbs. I hope x/2 grows and gets
some more support so that i can continue to release it, and get some helpful
info out to those sysops who need it.
As you will be able to tell when you are through reading this issue,
there isnt a whole lot to it, in fact the content pretty much suckswhy did
you release it then you may be wondering, well so many people said that they
wanted to see an issue before they wrote an article, i needed to do it, so if
you are intersted in helping out with an article, art, helping distribute
x/2, or becoming a distro site, you can reach me at the following places:
internet email: cnight@deltanet.com
internet telnet: send mail to horrid nature from hooptie.whc.net
my bbs: arkham asylum 1-909-247-2862, leave feedback from the matrix
title :
Setting up a bbs
author :
Horrid Nature
Setting up a bbs can be both fun and rewarding, but also takes a lot of work.
Before you go and jump head first into setting up a bbs, there are a few things
you must consider. The most important thing to consider is, do you have
enough time and motivation to run a successful bbs? Like I mentioned earlier
bbs can be fun and rewarding, but are not always so, in fact most of the time
they are time consuming and very frustrating. The second thing to look at is,
do you have the money? This is not always a problem if you have a 1 node
board, that doesnt do much but get local callers and local message basses
but realistically to run a decent bbs you will need some money, I will discuss
the costs later on. Once you figure out if you have the time, will and cash to
setup a bbs, you then need to determine the heart of your project, what are
you going to name your bbs? You maybe thinking to yourself, what does it
matter what my bbs is called? as long as its good people will call. This is nottrue, lets take as an example, you were scanning through a bbs list with
around 200 different bbs, how do you know which bbs are good? The answer
is you dont, so most likely you will look at the name, I mean come on would
you rather call a bbs name Generic Board or a bbs called something like
Biohazard? After you have come up with a name, the next important issue it
which software should I run? This is the most difficult question to answer,
because the software you choose depends on a lot of things such as what is
the main use of your board, files messages, or both also a lot depends on
personal opinion. From here on there are really two separate roads on which
you can journey, First and probably the most commonly traveled path is
putting as little money and time into the board, this works fine if you dont
really care about your bbs. The second and more rewarding choice is to put a
little money and a lot of time into your bbs so that you can make people want
to call, and make your bbs successful. Theres not really a lot to talk about ifyour taking the easy way out and putting up an un-configured and also ugly,
except that the least you could do is take care of your bbs, and check that it
is up and running, and is mainly error free in operation. On the other hand, thehard working road, requires just that, hard work. Hard work comes in to play
in the way your bbs looks, I mean face it most out of the box setups are not
a pretty site to look at, so the least you can do is go through changing the
colors, and anything else you see that isnt very pleasing to the eyes. This
goes on further, into such things as modifying your bbs. Moding as it is
commonly called, has become a very complex art, with many groups
striving to put out the best, and most original mods possible, which often push
the softwares to there limit. Again in modding there are two ways to go about
this, you can take mods by other people and install them on your system,
which I recommend to inexperienced sysops so you are able to get a feel of
what mods look like and how they work. Once you get the feel of how the
mods work, you can make mods yourself, so you can put a finer point on your
system. But the main thing to remember when modding your board is not to
over do it, and also take some feedback from your users on what they would
like to see, since they are the ones using the system. The last part of the workcomes into play in system attanince, you need to keep your system up and
running, but you also need to take a little extra time interacting with the
users, seeing if everything is good with them, and the system is error free.
Now for the really hard part, putting cash into your bbs. Many may argue with methat you can run a bbs for free except for the costs of the phone line and such, but I disagree. The first thing is to make your bbs really nice looking you
need you need art that is customized for your board, and the artists that make
this art are going to charge you, now you may get lucky and get some art for
free, but more often then not your going to have to pay, not an
overwhelmingly lot but some. The next expense is going to come from
message networks, whether it be from long distance charges from calling the
network hub, or whether it is a network fee again some people may argue
that you can do fine with local only messages, but as you will find out, with
networks you get many more messages as well as a wider view of things. The
last real expense comes from files, face it people dont upload, as always
there are exceptions but the norm is people dont upload. There are a few
ways to combat this problem, some being easier and other being cheaper. The
first is to call a bbs whether it be local or not and downloading the files for
your users, the problem with this is that it is both time consuming and can get
to be rather costly. The way to avoid this is to go and buy a shareware CD-
ROM, lets face it, there cheap they usually run anywhere from 10-30, and
this takes you literally no time, just go buy the CD and install it I admit
some are a pain to setup. Shareware CD-ROMs are also good if you have minimal
storage space available, and also save a little ware and tear on your harddrive.Well after all of that your bbs should pretty much be ready to go, so now it is
time for the finishing touches - how to get users to call. Getting people to
call is a difficult thing for a variety of reasons, but the easiest way to
attract users is to advertise, this also can be done in a variety of ways such
as leaving ads in your message nets, advertising on others bbs, and also by
word of mouth of users. After all of this has gone down hopefully smoothly youare set, you have a bbs which is going to be fun and rewarding for you and your
users.
title :
Decent Looking Boards
author :
Fone Bone
one too many times have i called up a new board and found that there
was bile in my throat. too many kiddies are getting copies of renegade
or iniquity or whatever, getting a phone line, drawing a gross menuset,
changing most of the strings but not doing a good job, and putting
their board up like that. if you want to have a gross board, theres
nothing wrong with that. but if you want callers, theres some things
you should do first:
1. decide what kind of board you want to have. do you want your
board to be art, hack/phreak, or warez orientated? or, do you
want to have it completely message orientated? or do you want to
have a variety? you should keep this in mind before you start
your board, and make sure you stick with it. ie: if you want to
specialize in warez, you shouldnt have lots of 100 liner ansis.
2. make sure that youve changed all the strings, menu prompts,
and so on. i dont mean changing their colors, i mean really
change them to suit your board. dont have Press a key,
have something like ..pause... or be more creative.
3. try to have as few default ansis as possible. often what i
do when i put up a new board, is completely delete my misc
directory with the exception of a few files. if youre new,
then you might want to leave them there for reference, but be
sure you get to replacing them all.
4. when making message/file bases conferences, keep in mind that
people dont want to search through 100 bases to find a message
or file. keep the bases simple and fairly general. a base with
500 messages is better than 250 bases with 2 messages each.
also, be sparing with the conferences. have a local conference,
and one per net for message conferences, and no more than 2 or 3
file conferences.
now that you have some guidelines to follow, you can get started on making
your board. you should realize that nobody, not even the best sysops, can
put up a good board in a day. you should work at it for at least a week
before putting it up. typically, it takes me a full month to do a board but
thats working on it a bit every other day.. if you really rush things, which
i wouldnt suggest, you can probably do it in a week or two.
good luck, and happy sysoping. or whatever.
title :
Which Software?
author :
Fone Bone
so you want to run a board.. sounds easy enough, doesnt it? all you
have to do is choose a software, and youre ready to starting setting one
up.. now.. which one should you run?
if you call alot of board, youve probably noticed that theres about 4
types that are used alot.. of course, theres MBBS or WildCat or whatever,
and you could try them if you want, but ive never seen a good Spotlight
board.. heres a few and their pros and cons..
renegade - youve no doubt seen this one. a while ago, its was the
elite software of choice. then, lamers started getting
ahold of it, and everyone used it. ill admit, its probably
the easiest and simplest software. any amateur can get it
working fairly well, and experts can make it look like an
enite different program. id definetly suggest you check it
out if youre new to sysoping altogether..
oblivion/2 - this is a fairly popular program, especially among ansi
art boards.. its very similar to renegade from the users
point of view, except for its support for arrow key menus,
and that sort of thing.. i ran it for a while, and loved
it. unfortunately my users didnt.. they demanded renegade.
if you want to run an art-orientated board, or just want
to be a little bit different, or maybe just find renegade
too easy, id suggest you try it out.. it rules if you know
what youre doing..
iniquity - this is a really new software.. its still a little buggy,
but its pretty good. fiend the author found a way to mix
the user-friendliness of renegade with the customization
features of oblivion. fiend claims that you can change
everything the users see, and i havent been able to prove
him wrong. you might want to wait till he works out all the
bugs, but you should check it out anyway..
pcboard - i havent myself ever ran pcboard, so dont flip if i get
anything wrong. pcboard has something the other softwares
dont have, tho. ppp script language.. this allows for
unlimited customization.. if you know a bit about programing,
anyway. other than that, ive been told that its the most
customizable program. warez boards usually run it.. if you
know a bit about sysoping to begin with, it might be worth a
try.. i wouldnt suggest it to the beginner tho..
theres loads of others that i dont have any experience with, but are worth
checking out.. such as RA, Prophecy, Vision/X, or even Telegard.. older
programs dont neccessarily mean worse.. i suggest finding a program that
suits your needs, and taking your time to figure everything out.. and if you
get bored with one, move on to another.. thats the only way to get better..
title :
Interview With Nivenh
author :
Horrid Nature
whore-id ok im here with nivenh, writer of impulse bbs
software
nivenh i know that.. dont be telling me that shit. :
whore-id alright, what made you start writing impulse?
nivenh the fact that authors charged an arm leg for crap bbss
that dont even work properly. : and, i got really tired of
having the same look yah know? people made their rgs look like
obv.. and the people who ran obv said theyre boards didnt and
all that shit.. obv CANNOT look like anything but obv.
nivenh thats not all of the reasons, but its the biggest. :
whore-id i agree about charging too much, and yeah people always
claim they mod there board, when they do nothing but add
differnet art to it....
nivenh it becomes sickening after awhile. :
whore-id i hear you.....ok since other softwares have come up,
which is your favorite?
nivenh id have to say renegade. and the all powerful axis. :
whore-id renegade is real good, although it needs a boob job, as
you would put it
nivenh ehehe.. you read my nfo files to carefully.
nivenh axis isnt the best, but its got its own unique look..
and creativity on the authors part is foremost in my book.
whore-id im not to familiar with axis, i will have to take a
look.....yeah i try to read things well ....what do you
belive are some of the major things impulse has over the other
softwares out there?
nivenh you mean besides everything?
whore-id besides everything
nivenh hehe.. well, its speed has to be the best thing about it.
i am always looking to optimize code. : the simplest, most
straight forward approach is usually the best. the script
language is pretty killer too. even tho my docs on it are bad.
: Hopefully, IDF will catch on as well..
whore-id yeah speed is good.....and the isl rules, although i
havent seen anyone take much advantage of it......any other
little things that make impulse better?
nivenh well, other than being superior in every possible way,
no.. not really. :
nivenh i have a few other reasons, but those are as of v6..
which isnt out yet. :
whore-id heheeh....just a sorta off topic question, where did
you come up with the name impulse?
nivenh ahahah.. this is a GREAT story here..
nivenh well, one day, after being bitched at by a jew for the
name Genocide, i was looking for a new one.. and it just
happened to be the word at the top of the page in my favorite
dictionary.. you konw, the word thats up there that shows the
first word on the page, and the last word..
whore-id hehehe....i know the word....genocide rules as a name,
although its not fitting for a bbs software...imho...
nivenh i agree.. :
nivenh hopefully no one will remember genocide. :
whore-id hehe....ok how long did it take you to make the first
version of impulse?
nivenh the first version? erm.. about 4 months. i really
didnt work on it, as a matter of fact, i didnt even plan on
releasing it. :
whore-id what made you decide to relase it?
nivenh after being continuously harrassed to do so. :
whore-id .....looking back, do you think all the time youve
spent on it has been worth it?
nivenh depends on what goes on in the week.. sometimes i do,
sometimes i dont.. depends on my mood.. eheh.. kinda wierd.
whore-id what do you think ws the best part of writing impulse?
nivenh ehehe.. nothing. :
whore-id no good points of it? how about low points?
nivenh ld support sucks.
whore-id i would see how it would....but at least theres the
internet to help out on some of it...
nivenh ehehe.. not much.
whore-id who do you think has helped you out the most in the
deveolpment of impulse?
nivenh well.. id have to say my grandma. :
whore-id how did she help you?
nivenh ehehe.. she pressured me into charging so i could pay the
damn phone bill.
nivenh ehehe.. contrary to popular belief, I make *NO* money
offa impulse whatsoever.
whore-id ohhhh.....heheh....so she kinda like whooped you into
it...I see...ummm how far into the future do you see impulse
continuing?
nivenh hmm.. until I become so in debt that I cant afford to do
it anymore. :
whore-id you making no moneys, at least shows comitment, and
your not out to make a quck buck and relase carp
nivenh exactly.. i spend 2x on impulse than what i make from it.
nivenh 2x the money that is.
whore-id how do you spend on it? support and stuff?
nivenh ld charges. i do so much voice support it sometimes
interrupts my extravagant social life.
whore-id i bet.... hey at least when i bug you it doesnt cost
anything...hhehhe...
nivenh ehehe.. youre one of the few. :
whore-id ok well thats realy all the questions i have on
impulse...if i get more ill ask...but i have one thing, do you
belive bbss will survive the internet?
nivenh of course. ill let you in on a preview for the v6
release. :
nivenh imp v6 will come with a telnet program thatll operate
similar to vmodem for os/2.
whore-id cool....allow incoming telenet, tell all the obv/2
people to bite you 1 more question do you have any advice or
anything to someone who is going to start writing a bbs
software?
nivenh well, the best advice i can give is 1. dont make it
look like obv. and 2. start from scratch or a very bare-bone
base if possible.
nivenh ive considered a few times to do this.
whore-id start over basicly? why does it allow you more control?
nivenh very much so. impulse is mostly my own code, but still
about 20 of it is from good ole eric oman. If i had started
from scratch, im sure it wouldve worked mucho better, and been
more bug-free.
whore-id do you see your self starting over?
nivenh you never know.. it all depends on my mood.. everything
in my life depends on my mood.. if i dont feel like doing it,
it doesnt get done. :
nivenh thats a wierd and psycho thing to say, but its true. :
whore-id the way it should be......well im all done, anything
you want to add?
nivenh yeah, id just like to say a few things..
nivenh SiDS: Go somewhere and die. you code like a pregnant
rabbit.
whore-id shoot
nivenh Jazz: go lick the pregnant rabbits asshole.
nivenh tm: best beta tester award goes to you.
nivenh Zip Code: thanks for the inspiration.
nivenh thats about it..
whore-id cool.....welp this is barbra walters saying goodnight,
and id like to thank that wonderful coder of impulse, my here,
nivenh
nivenh ehehe.. thanks. :
title :
Bitch Bitch Bitch
author :
Dragoon Kain
hello all...dragoon kain here...horrid has been bothering the hell out of me
for the last month or so to write this article so here it is...im here to bitch
in general about the uncaringness of the typical bbs user. Now, of course the
scene is not to be taken too seriously, i mean, it is a hobby people...but it
really annoys the hell out of me when a user on a bbs just bitches and bitches
about the most stupid shit known to man...most sysops take good care of their
boards, to make them look nice, and put forth a lot of their time...and most
users just bitch and bitch about how you dont have this, and how you dont have
that...that annoys the hell out of me...or when the user bitches about something
on your board...that is another pain in the ass..for example...I have put some
good hours into making my board look good, as do many sysops...but do you think
anyone says hey. nice setup.? ... No. my usual mail is like Why lightbars?
or Why dont you have this file?.. Angers the hell out of me. But these are
the same people i see on the local WWIV boards saying Hey..nice modifications,
and other such happy bullshit. I guess when you live in an area code in which
95 of the boards run wwiv...its to be expected. oh well. im done bitching
for now at least until next issue...download the fire and punc packs for fun,
if you have any complaints or comments, email me at robinson@pluto.njcc.com.
title :
Contributers and sites
author :
Horrid Nature
Contributers :
Fone Bone - Articles
Dragoon Kain - Articles
Trip - Art
Rizzah - Art
Mung - Art
BlackKnight - art
Sites :
Arkham Asylum 1-909-247-2862 - World Headquarters
,i.
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. .,,,,.,y
y. ,, ,
x/2 emag i i y,. ascii by black knight of anemia
title :
Welcome to x/2
author :
Horrid Nature
Well the long awaitedfor some of us coughfonebonecough first issue
of x/2 is finaly here. As you can tell by now, it is not codedmuch to my
dismay for a few reasons 1 I am to lazy to sit down and write it myself
2 the crash n burn source code just didnt do it for me, and 3 dragoon kain
has a life now, and didnt have time to code it. So until next month youll haveto live with textsome may like this, so i will release a coded an a text
version next month.
Now lets get down to, what exactly is x/2 you may ask, well it is a new
e-mag which deals with bbs software. It ranges from interviews with authors,
tutorials on setting up a bbs, to bitches about bbs. I hope x/2 grows and gets
some more support so that i can continue to release it, and get some helpful
info out to those sysops who need it.
As you will be able to tell when you are through reading this issue,
there isnt a whole lot to it, in fact the content pretty much suckswhy did
you release it then you may be wondering, well so many people said that they
wanted to see an issue before they wrote an article, i needed to do it, so if
you are intersted in helping out with an article, art, helping distribute
x/2, or becoming a distro site, you can reach me at the following places:
internet email: cnight@deltanet.com
internet telnet: send mail to horrid nature from hooptie.whc.net
my bbs: arkham asylum 1-909-247-2862, leave feedback from the matrix
title :
Setting up a bbs
author :
Horrid Nature
Setting up a bbs can be both fun and rewarding, but also takes a lot of work.
Before you go and jump head first into setting up a bbs, there are a few things
you must consider. The most important thing to consider is, do you have
enough time and motivation to run a successful bbs? Like I mentioned earlier
bbs can be fun and rewarding, but are not always so, in fact most of the time
they are time consuming and very frustrating. The second thing to look at is,
do you have the money? This is not always a problem if you have a 1 node
board, that doesnt do much but get local callers and local message basses
but realistically to run a decent bbs you will need some money, I will discuss
the costs later on. Once you figure out if you have the time, will and cash to
setup a bbs, you then need to determine the heart of your project, what are
you going to name your bbs? You maybe thinking to yourself, what does it
matter what my bbs is called? as long as its good people will call. This is nottrue, lets take as an example, you were scanning through a bbs list with
around 200 different bbs, how do you know which bbs are good? The answer
is you dont, so most likely you will look at the name, I mean come on would
you rather call a bbs name Generic Board or a bbs called something like
Biohazard? After you have come up with a name, the next important issue it
which software should I run? This is the most difficult question to answer,
because the software you choose depends on a lot of things such as what is
the main use of your board, files messages, or both also a lot depends on
personal opinion. From here on there are really two separate roads on which
you can journey, First and probably the most commonly traveled path is
putting as little money and time into the board, this works fine if you dont
really care about your bbs. The second and more rewarding choice is to put a
little money and a lot of time into your bbs so that you can make people want
to call, and make your bbs successful. Theres not really a lot to talk about ifyour taking the easy way out and putting up an un-configured and also ugly,
except that the least you could do is take care of your bbs, and check that it
is up and running, and is mainly error free in operation. On the other hand, thehard working road, requires just that, hard work. Hard work comes in to play
in the way your bbs looks, I mean face it most out of the box setups are not
a pretty site to look at, so the least you can do is go through changing the
colors, and anything else you see that isnt very pleasing to the eyes. This
goes on further, into such things as modifying your bbs. Moding as it is
commonly called, has become a very complex art, with many groups
striving to put out the best, and most original mods possible, which often push
the softwares to there limit. Again in modding there are two ways to go about
this, you can take mods by other people and install them on your system,
which I recommend to inexperienced sysops so you are able to get a feel of
what mods look like and how they work. Once you get the feel of how the
mods work, you can make mods yourself, so you can put a finer point on your
system. But the main thing to remember when modding your board is not to
over do it, and also take some feedback from your users on what they would
like to see, since they are the ones using the system. The last part of the workcomes into play in system attanince, you need to keep your system up and
running, but you also need to take a little extra time interacting with the
users, seeing if everything is good with them, and the system is error free.
Now for the really hard part, putting cash into your bbs. Many may argue with methat you can run a bbs for free except for the costs of the phone line and such, but I disagree. The first thing is to make your bbs really nice looking you
need you need art that is customized for your board, and the artists that make
this art are going to charge you, now you may get lucky and get some art for
free, but more often then not your going to have to pay, not an
overwhelmingly lot but some. The next expense is going to come from
message networks, whether it be from long distance charges from calling the
network hub, or whether it is a network fee again some people may argue
that you can do fine with local only messages, but as you will find out, with
networks you get many more messages as well as a wider view of things. The
last real expense comes from files, face it people dont upload, as always
there are exceptions but the norm is people dont upload. There are a few
ways to combat this problem, some being easier and other being cheaper. The
first is to call a bbs whether it be local or not and downloading the files for
your users, the problem with this is that it is both time consuming and can get
to be rather costly. The way to avoid this is to go and buy a shareware CD-
ROM, lets face it, there cheap they usually run anywhere from 10-30, and
this takes you literally no time, just go buy the CD and install it I admit
some are a pain to setup. Shareware CD-ROMs are also good if you have minimal
storage space available, and also save a little ware and tear on your harddrive.Well after all of that your bbs should pretty much be ready to go, so now it is
time for the finishing touches - how to get users to call. Getting people to
call is a difficult thing for a variety of reasons, but the easiest way to
attract users is to advertise, this also can be done in a variety of ways such
as leaving ads in your message nets, advertising on others bbs, and also by
word of mouth of users. After all of this has gone down hopefully smoothly youare set, you have a bbs which is going to be fun and rewarding for you and your
users.
title :
Decent Looking Boards
author :
Fone Bone
one too many times have i called up a new board and found that there
was bile in my throat. too many kiddies are getting copies of renegade
or iniquity or whatever, getting a phone line, drawing a gross menuset,
changing most of the strings but not doing a good job, and putting
their board up like that. if you want to have a gross board, theres
nothing wrong with that. but if you want callers, theres some things
you should do first:
1. decide what kind of board you want to have. do you want your
board to be art, hack/phreak, or warez orientated? or, do you
want to have it completely message orientated? or do you want to
have a variety? you should keep this in mind before you start
your board, and make sure you stick with it. ie: if you want to
specialize in warez, you shouldnt have lots of 100 liner ansis.
2. make sure that youve changed all the strings, menu prompts,
and so on. i dont mean changing their colors, i mean really
change them to suit your board. dont have Press a key,
have something like ..pause... or be more creative.
3. try to have as few default ansis as possible. often what i
do when i put up a new board, is completely delete my misc
directory with the exception of a few files. if youre new,
then you might want to leave them there for reference, but be
sure you get to replacing them all.
4. when making message/file bases conferences, keep in mind that
people dont want to search through 100 bases to find a message
or file. keep the bases simple and fairly general. a base with
500 messages is better than 250 bases with 2 messages each.
also, be sparing with the conferences. have a local conference,
and one per net for message conferences, and no more than 2 or 3
file conferences.
now that you have some guidelines to follow, you can get started on making
your board. you should realize that nobody, not even the best sysops, can
put up a good board in a day. you should work at it for at least a week
before putting it up. typically, it takes me a full month to do a board but
thats working on it a bit every other day.. if you really rush things, which
i wouldnt suggest, you can probably do it in a week or two.
good luck, and happy sysoping. or whatever.
title :
Which Software?
author :
Fone Bone
so you want to run a board.. sounds easy enough, doesnt it? all you
have to do is choose a software, and youre ready to starting setting one
up.. now.. which one should you run?
if you call alot of board, youve probably noticed that theres about 4
types that are used alot.. of course, theres MBBS or WildCat or whatever,
and you could try them if you want, but ive never seen a good Spotlight
board.. heres a few and their pros and cons..
renegade - youve no doubt seen this one. a while ago, its was the
elite software of choice. then, lamers started getting
ahold of it, and everyone used it. ill admit, its probably
the easiest and simplest software. any amateur can get it
working fairly well, and experts can make it look like an
enite different program. id definetly suggest you check it
out if youre new to sysoping altogether..
oblivion/2 - this is a fairly popular program, especially among ansi
art boards.. its very similar to renegade from the users
point of view, except for its support for arrow key menus,
and that sort of thing.. i ran it for a while, and loved
it. unfortunately my users didnt.. they demanded renegade.
if you want to run an art-orientated board, or just want
to be a little bit different, or maybe just find renegade
too easy, id suggest you try it out.. it rules if you know
what youre doing..
iniquity - this is a really new software.. its still a little buggy,
but its pretty good. fiend the author found a way to mix
the user-friendliness of renegade with the customization
features of oblivion. fiend claims that you can change
everything the users see, and i havent been able to prove
him wrong. you might want to wait till he works out all the
bugs, but you should check it out anyway..
pcboard - i havent myself ever ran pcboard, so dont flip if i get
anything wrong. pcboard has something the other softwares
dont have, tho. ppp script language.. this allows for
unlimited customization.. if you know a bit about programing,
anyway. other than that, ive been told that its the most
customizable program. warez boards usually run it.. if you
know a bit about sysoping to begin with, it might be worth a
try.. i wouldnt suggest it to the beginner tho..
theres loads of others that i dont have any experience with, but are worth
checking out.. such as RA, Prophecy, Vision/X, or even Telegard.. older
programs dont neccessarily mean worse.. i suggest finding a program that
suits your needs, and taking your time to figure everything out.. and if you
get bored with one, move on to another.. thats the only way to get better..
title :
Interview With Nivenh
author :
Horrid Nature
whore-id ok im here with nivenh, writer of impulse bbs
software
nivenh i know that.. dont be telling me that shit. :
whore-id alright, what made you start writing impulse?
nivenh the fact that authors charged an arm leg for crap bbss
that dont even work properly. : and, i got really tired of
having the same look yah know? people made their rgs look like
obv.. and the people who ran obv said theyre boards didnt and
all that shit.. obv CANNOT look like anything but obv.
nivenh thats not all of the reasons, but its the biggest. :
whore-id i agree about charging too much, and yeah people always
claim they mod there board, when they do nothing but add
differnet art to it....
nivenh it becomes sickening after awhile. :
whore-id i hear you.....ok since other softwares have come up,
which is your favorite?
nivenh id have to say renegade. and the all powerful axis. :
whore-id renegade is real good, although it needs a boob job, as
you would put it
nivenh ehehe.. you read my nfo files to carefully.
nivenh axis isnt the best, but its got its own unique look..
and creativity on the authors part is foremost in my book.
whore-id im not to familiar with axis, i will have to take a
look.....yeah i try to read things well ....what do you
belive are some of the major things impulse has over the other
softwares out there?
nivenh you mean besides everything?
whore-id besides everything
nivenh hehe.. well, its speed has to be the best thing about it.
i am always looking to optimize code. : the simplest, most
straight forward approach is usually the best. the script
language is pretty killer too. even tho my docs on it are bad.
: Hopefully, IDF will catch on as well..
whore-id yeah speed is good.....and the isl rules, although i
havent seen anyone take much advantage of it......any other
little things that make impulse better?
nivenh well, other than being superior in every possible way,
no.. not really. :
nivenh i have a few other reasons, but those are as of v6..
which isnt out yet. :
whore-id heheeh....just a sorta off topic question, where did
you come up with the name impulse?
nivenh ahahah.. this is a GREAT story here..
nivenh well, one day, after being bitched at by a jew for the
name Genocide, i was looking for a new one.. and it just
happened to be the word at the top of the page in my favorite
dictionary.. you konw, the word thats up there that shows the
first word on the page, and the last word..
whore-id hehehe....i know the word....genocide rules as a name,
although its not fitting for a bbs software...imho...
nivenh i agree.. :
nivenh hopefully no one will remember genocide. :
whore-id hehe....ok how long did it take you to make the first
version of impulse?
nivenh the first version? erm.. about 4 months. i really
didnt work on it, as a matter of fact, i didnt even plan on
releasing it. :
whore-id what made you decide to relase it?
nivenh after being continuously harrassed to do so. :
whore-id .....looking back, do you think all the time youve
spent on it has been worth it?
nivenh depends on what goes on in the week.. sometimes i do,
sometimes i dont.. depends on my mood.. eheh.. kinda wierd.
whore-id what do you think ws the best part of writing impulse?
nivenh ehehe.. nothing. :
whore-id no good points of it? how about low points?
nivenh ld support sucks.
whore-id i would see how it would....but at least theres the
internet to help out on some of it...
nivenh ehehe.. not much.
whore-id who do you think has helped you out the most in the
deveolpment of impulse?
nivenh well.. id have to say my grandma. :
whore-id how did she help you?
nivenh ehehe.. she pressured me into charging so i could pay the
damn phone bill.
nivenh ehehe.. contrary to popular belief, I make *NO* money
offa impulse whatsoever.
whore-id ohhhh.....heheh....so she kinda like whooped you into
it...I see...ummm how far into the future do you see impulse
continuing?
nivenh hmm.. until I become so in debt that I cant afford to do
it anymore. :
whore-id you making no moneys, at least shows comitment, and
your not out to make a quck buck and relase carp
nivenh exactly.. i spend 2x on impulse than what i make from it.
nivenh 2x the money that is.
whore-id how do you spend on it? support and stuff?
nivenh ld charges. i do so much voice support it sometimes
interrupts my extravagant social life.
whore-id i bet.... hey at least when i bug you it doesnt cost
anything...hhehhe...
nivenh ehehe.. youre one of the few. :
whore-id ok well thats realy all the questions i have on
impulse...if i get more ill ask...but i have one thing, do you
belive bbss will survive the internet?
nivenh of course. ill let you in on a preview for the v6
release. :
nivenh imp v6 will come with a telnet program thatll operate
similar to vmodem for os/2.
whore-id cool....allow incoming telenet, tell all the obv/2
people to bite you 1 more question do you have any advice or
anything to someone who is going to start writing a bbs
software?
nivenh well, the best advice i can give is 1. dont make it
look like obv. and 2. start from scratch or a very bare-bone
base if possible.
nivenh ive considered a few times to do this.
whore-id start over basicly? why does it allow you more control?
nivenh very much so. impulse is mostly my own code, but still
about 20 of it is from good ole eric oman. If i had started
from scratch, im sure it wouldve worked mucho better, and been
more bug-free.
whore-id do you see your self starting over?
nivenh you never know.. it all depends on my mood.. everything
in my life depends on my mood.. if i dont feel like doing it,
it doesnt get done. :
nivenh thats a wierd and psycho thing to say, but its true. :
whore-id the way it should be......well im all done, anything
you want to add?
nivenh yeah, id just like to say a few things..
nivenh SiDS: Go somewhere and die. you code like a pregnant
rabbit.
whore-id shoot
nivenh Jazz: go lick the pregnant rabbits asshole.
nivenh tm: best beta tester award goes to you.
nivenh Zip Code: thanks for the inspiration.
nivenh thats about it..
whore-id cool.....welp this is barbra walters saying goodnight,
and id like to thank that wonderful coder of impulse, my here,
nivenh
nivenh ehehe.. thanks. :
title :
Bitch Bitch Bitch
author :
Dragoon Kain
hello all...dragoon kain here...horrid has been bothering the hell out of me
for the last month or so to write this article so here it is...im here to bitch
in general about the uncaringness of the typical bbs user. Now, of course the
scene is not to be taken too seriously, i mean, it is a hobby people...but it
really annoys the hell out of me when a user on a bbs just bitches and bitches
about the most stupid shit known to man...most sysops take good care of their
boards, to make them look nice, and put forth a lot of their time...and most
users just bitch and bitch about how you dont have this, and how you dont have
that...that annoys the hell out of me...or when the user bitches about something
on your board...that is another pain in the ass..for example...I have put some
good hours into making my board look good, as do many sysops...but do you think
anyone says hey. nice setup.? ... No. my usual mail is like Why lightbars?
or Why dont you have this file?.. Angers the hell out of me. But these are
the same people i see on the local WWIV boards saying Hey..nice modifications,
and other such happy bullshit. I guess when you live in an area code in which
95 of the boards run wwiv...its to be expected. oh well. im done bitching
for now at least until next issue...download the fire and punc packs for fun,
if you have any complaints or comments, email me at robinson@pluto.njcc.com.
title :
Contributers and sites
author :
Horrid Nature
Contributers :
Fone Bone - Articles
Dragoon Kain - Articles
Trip - Art
Rizzah - Art
Mung - Art
BlackKnight - art
Sites :
Arkham Asylum 1-909-247-2862 - World Headquarters
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