KEEPING THE BBS EXCITING

KEEPING THE BBS EXCITING

When you first start, you should offer as many services and options

as possible. This will get you a good user-base, because they will

like what they see. If you can get 10 people at first who like the

system, then they will get to know the system, and you might

consider making them co- sysops. This will allow them more access,

and then people can ask them questions as well. They will be online

more, and they will help you reach people. If you start out with 10

people, and they tell 10 more people about your BBS, and they join,

then you have 100 people. If each of those people tell 5 people

about the BBS, and they join, then you already have 500 people.

And it just keeps adding up.

Be considerate, especially to those who don't know the system very

well. If they ask what is a "dumb" question, answer it; it is probably

the same type of question you asked at one point in time.

You should be in touch with your users. They most likely will like

you and your BBS if they are frequent users. You should quickly reply

to mail and messages, and you should join conferences and talk to

the people in them. You might consider sending a message to all

users asking them how they like the system, and if they have any

questions that you might answer for them.

You might want to have people who have obtained a high level of

access get together at the local pizza joint or park and have a get-

together.

To keep your BBS exciting, you might want to have a menu listing all

of the new items on your BBS. You should always be finding new

things to place on the BBS.

You should try to find things to offer on your BBS that other BBSes

don't offer. If you have a service or file that someone can't find on

other BBSes, you will have an endless number of calls. Check out

other BBSes and see what they don't offer, and then try to get those

files. You should be careful, though. If they don't have a certain file or

program or feature, it may be because the public doesn't want those

things. You can ask users what they would like to see you have on

the BBS in the near future.

Lastly, you need to remember that your success is not measured by

how many people DON'T use your BBS, but by how many people

DO use your BBS.

LEGALITIES

Even if you do not use your BBS for commercial purposes, you still

have to follow certain laws. YOU can be sued for slander if one user

says something hateful about another user. This is why it is important

for you to make sure that people use proper conduct when using

your BBS.

You can also be held accountable for credit card information given to

you by a user. You will be sued for copyrights if you are caught with

copyrighted material in your files.

To avoid these problems, you should make sure that your users are

the best in the world. You should scan the messages to find out what

the people are talking about, and you should review the uploaded

files to make sure that they are all shareware or public domain. If this

is too much for you to do on your own, then you can ask some of your

trusted co- sysops to help out when they can.

If you are concerned about the legalities of BBSing, there are

several books in print that go over all of the legal aspects of being a

BBS sysop. They are pretty cheap when you look at how much you

might pay if you break one of the laws presented in the books.

If you are going to make some changes, you should run them by your

users first. See what they think of the changes. If they do not want

anything changed, then you will want to keep the BBS the same.

When you are ready to make changes to your BBS, you should

make a couple of copies of your BBS. NEVER make changes to

your only copy of the BBS. After you have made copies, experiment

with the changes and see how they work. After that, go back through

and make sure that the BBS is still in working order, and that you

haven't messed it up.

If you are happy with the changes, then you will need to test the

security again. Make sure that it is as safe as it was before. Make

another copy of the working BBS. At this point, save that program in

the archives. This way, if the changes don't work out, you can just go

back to the original BBS.

After that, you can install the chages to the BBS. You should then

check the security again, just in case you make any changes in the

way you installed it this time. If you don't test the BBS's security, your

users will!

STOPPING BBS USE

If you are planning on shutting down your BBS, you should tell

people ahead of time. You should post notices in all the computer

stores, and try to let everybody who has ever used your BBS know of

the cancellation. You should post a notice on your own BBS letting

them know that you are sorry for the bad news, but they will survive. If

you give them advanced notice, they will be thankful that you didn't

just drop the BBS without notice. Give them a specific date and time

that the BBS will no longer be in service.

After the date and time passes, and the BBS is no longer in service,

you will need to tell the phone company to disconnect the phone line.

You should inform them that they shouldn't give out that phone

number for a least one year. BBS listings are sometimes distributed

months after the BBS has been cancelled. If the phone company

gives out that phone number while the phone number is listed as a

BBS number, then it will get calls at all times of the night.