Faster dialup access now available - 04/15/10
I've been offering dialup access to the electronic chicken bbs for some time
now, but so far because of the limitations of our VoIP hardware & service
dialup connections have been limited to 2400bps. After tweaking some settings
on the analog terminal adapter (a Linksys PAP2T-NA) I've been able to
consistently establish much faster (up to 31200bps) connections to other
boards. I've removed the 2400bps speed limit in the hopes that my dialup
users (yes, there are a few of those, believe it or not) can achieve more
usable connections to this board.
My ability to test dialup access to the BBS is fairly limited. I can call from
one of my two VoIP lines to the other, but given that they're on the same
connection and the VoIP service for each line is provided by the same company,
I can't consider the results that I experience to be typical of what a remote
user would see. If you're a dialup user, please drop me a line and let me know
some details about the connection you received to this board (speed, garbage
characters, whether your line is VoIP or POTS, etc.) If you're not normally a
dialup user but you've got a modem and a phone line and would like to help me
out, please give us a test call at 416-273-7230.
echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com - 416-273-7230
BBS-Scene Global Onelinerz Update - 02/24/10
My previous onelinerz scripts for Synchronet BBSes relied on an external
application (GNU wget) to communicate with the bbs-scene.org webserver when
fetching & posting oneliners. I've now written HTTP GET and POST functions in
javascript for Synchronet and rewritten my onelinerz scripts to use these
functions in place of wget. (The httpget() and httppost() functions that I
wrote will also be very useful to me in other places, and you're welcome to use
them for your own purposes if you're a Sync sysop.)
Eliminating the call to wget removes a tiny security risk. In the previous
version of the onelinerz scripts I tried to minimize the chances that someone
could craft a oneliner that could lead to execution of other shell commands,
but I don't know for a fact that I left it an impossibility. This is no longer
a concern.
A javascript running on Synchronet Win32 is unable to read the result of a
system.exec() call into a variable (however on Linux this apparently works.)
This required the use of temp files in previous versions of the script, which
slowed down the whole process slightly (probably hardly at all.) My new
httpget() function gets rid of this inefficiency, so now hopefully the fetching
of onelinerz will be a bit faster.
eclnrz16.zip is available in the Synchronet Mods section of the main file
library on this BBS.
echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com - 416-273-7230
Onelinerz (bbs-scene.org Global Oneliners) - 01/21/10
The Oneliners Wall is, in my rarely-humble opinion, a classic and integral part
of the BBS experience. Users passing by it during the login process post
one-line comments ranging from witty to annoying to simply confusing, the next
user to come along can respond, and after a while a sort of mini-conversation
happens. It's like a scaled-down message area, and it is in no small part
responsible for that much vaunted sense-of-community we BBSers prize (even if
it has faded significantly over the years.)
Your average oneliners setup is local to the particular BBS you're viewing it
upon. This is good, as I say above, for that sense of a local community on a
board, but there's no reason in this day and age why those same
mini-conversations can't also be taking place across multiple bulletin board
systems, encouraging that same sense of community across the entire scene. To
that end I am now running my own local oneliners wall as well as the new
Onelinerz service offered by Netsurge's bbs-scene.org.
A part of the growing bbs-scene.org family of services, and using the new
bbs-scene.org API, Onelinerz is a RESTful service that exposes oneliner data as
XML, and accepts new oneliner submissions via POST. BBSes and websites
everywhere can now share a common oneliners wall, adding a new dimension to the
communication that happens on bulletin boards every day.
Coincidentally enough, I had just started working on a networked oneliners wall
when I heard that Netsurge was adding such a service to bbs-scene.org. Instead
of having to figure out a way to implement such a service on my own, I decided
to scrap my half-written script and jump on the bbs-scene.org bandwagon. I've
produced scripts that will allow Synchronet BBSes to take advantage of this new
service both on the console and web sides, and they are available for download
in the Synchronet Mods file secton on this BBS as well as at
http://bbs-scene.org/download.php. If you're a Synchronet sysop, you'll find
my scripts easy to implement, configure, and modify to your liking, and you're
welcome to take them and do with them what you wish. If you're any other kind
of sysop, I encourage you to find some way to make your BBS participate in this
new venture.
echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com - 416-273-7230
Message Networks - 01/14/10
On almost every BBS I visit, the local message areas are dead quiet. This is
understandable given the state of BBSing today, when most boards have but a few
regular (daily or weekly) users and most callers are either new users just
visiting for a nostalgia trip or returning users who call once or twice a year
for the same reason. I'm not criticizing the nostalgia-trip as I do many
things on a once-in-a-while basis for the same reason, but it is a fact of life
in this scene that sysops should acknowledge.
I have three, count them: three, local message areas, only two of which are
visible to my users, the other one serving as the backend for this bulletin
listing system that I wrote. I have a "General" sub board, in which visitors
can say "Hi, I'm Jimbo, just stopping by to check things out, gee I remember my
very first modem and boy was it slow, LOL." I have a Sysop Notices sub board
in which if I ever felt the need to post a notice that showed up in your new
message scan, I would do so. That is all that is required, probably more than
what's required, and even then my local message area sees few postings. I'm not
crying about that; I mean, why would you post stuff there if it's likely to be
months, if ever, before you see a reply?
That's why message networks are important to this BBS. While I do have other
things to offer that you don't find on every system (browseable online textfile
and ANSI art libraries, vintage computer downloads, dialup access, a nice slick
interface) it would all seem pretty static and stagnant if there wasn't
evidence of *some* kind of activity around here. Active message networks see
lots of new postings flying back and forth every day and engage people in
participation. Message networks will hopefully keep you coming back to read
what other people are saying and contribute your own thoughts to the
conversation.
There are probably one or two dozen BBS message networks left in the
English-speaking world, and from what I've seen many of them are just as dead
as the local message bases on your average board. I could join them all just
to have them, but that would be the equivalent of having fifty narrow-topic
local sub-boards that nobody ever posts on. Instead I'm trying to limit this
boards membership in message networks to those nets that actually see a lot of
posting (with one exception.)
Here's the breakdown:
DoveNet is both the lamest and most active BBS message network that I'm aware
of. This is because of the popularity of Synchronet as a BBS package and
because of its ease-of-setup and the ease by which one can join their Sync
board to the network. The network has tons of member boards with tons of users
among them, and so there are piles of messages being posted every day. At
least half of the people on DoveNet (and probably more) are completely
retarded, but I keep this network around because it is active, and because
there is the occasional attention-worthy conversation that takes place on
there.
FidoNet is the granddaddy of BBS message networks, generally regarded as the
first and largest BBS message net, and its technology is used on most other
networks. FidoNet is a mess, with about ten thousand message areas to choose
from, most of which are completely silent these days. Some boards carry all of
these areas, and it will take you a year to set your preferences so that you
only scan those bases that you're interested in. I have chosen to only carry
the vintage computer and BBS-related echoes, with a standing offer to add on
any other echoes that my users may request. Even the echoes that I do carry
only see occasional posts. I mostly keep FidoNet around as an exception to my
rule that a network on this board must be active, and I keep it because it is a
big part of this scene's history.
SciNet is a relatively new FTN, a part of the bbs-scene.org family of services.
It sees a decent amount of activity and has so far avoided being invaded by
retards. It's a free speech network where the use of real names is
more-or-less forbidden, and the conversation generally remains friendly and
casual. I highly recommend adding all of the SciNet echoes to your new message
scan.
Zeronet is a long-standing underground-style FTN, another free-speech network
where it would be shocking to see somebody post using their real name. It's
where you go to talk about the stupid things you've done, to rant about the
stupid things that you've seen and heard, and to abuse and be abused by the
other participants. This means, in short, that it's a lot of fun provided
you're not too sensitive.
These are the message networks that we currently belong to here. I encourage
all users to visit often and participate as it can be quite a lot of fun. If
you find that you are disallowed from posting on a certain message area, just
send me an email and I will upgrade your access level.
echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com - 416-273-7230
Zeronet - 01/14/10
We've joined Zeronet! Zeronet is an "underground-style" message network, where
the sub-boards include areas for the discussion of hacking, phreaking, warez,
and general anarchy. While there are also more typical sub-boards like what
you would see on other nets ("entertainment", "gaming", "chat") the tone of
this network remains one of free speech, and people there certainly do feel
free to speak their minds. I've been following and participating in
discussions on this network via the Diskshop BBS (bbs.diskshop.ca) and am happy
to have joined it here at home.
I call this network "underground-style" because, let's face it: if you can find
it via a Google search, or log onto some boards and just start posting to it
without needing to be validated up to some elite security level, it's not
exactly hidden. That said, membership is ostensibly limited to sysops who a)
have gone to the trouble of setting up a decent, unique bulletin board, and/or
b) can bring a decent level of conversation to the network. I'm told that my
occasionally hilarious, frequently abrasive, and often vulgar postings to this
and other nets scored in my favour when I applied to join this one.
Everyone here has read access to the Zeronet subs, but if anybody wants to be
able to post messages to this network they will have to send me an email
requesting this before that will happen. This applies to all new users as we
ll as all existing user accounts. If I think you're an idiot and that you
might embarass me on that network, I'll tell you so, but otherwise all requests
will be granted. Zeronet is as good as it is because quality-control measures
have been applied to it, and so I am carrying on that tradition in the small
way that I can.
Don't hesitate to contact me if you want access or anything else. I'm an
active sysop, I'm on the board several times each day, I'm always in #ecbbs on
the bbs-scene IRC network, and I love to hear from my users.
echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com - 416-273-7230