Hi, everyone-

Seems that we non-Synchronet sysops are getting the shaft when it comes to
SyncTerm since its developer, Stephen Hurd, aka Deuce, has decided that
Synchronet is the only game in town.  No support for door games, nada.

From: http://tinyurl.com/yavb5yg

===
Ok, I'm back, at least for the next while.  If there's anything important
I've missed in the last few months, let me know.

The main reason I've been gone is that I'm having problems being interested
in an 80x25 fixed width CP437 screen anymore.  I still like BBSs, but the whole
telnet ANSI thing is grating.  It's not possible to improve things without
raising the ire of the guardians of BBS history, and it's not possible to
polish the old turd much further.

SyncTERM is approching "done" (or v1.0) status and after that, I'm going to
start moving it into my own wild world where things that have been invented
since 1992 will be allowed.  I'll be doing a 1.0 release and plan on
maintaining a 1.x branch for some time... I may even rename the project for
the new features.  My work on Synchronet will most likely be driving in the 
same direction as SyncTERM.

The 1.x and earlier releases of SyncTERM are intended to connect to BBSs...
all BBSs.  The new direction (either v2 or some new project) will be for
connecting to Synchronet systems running recent versions of the Synchronet 
software... most likely with some specific shell.  Door games WILL NOT WORK 
unless they are updated for whatever new hawtness I like... most likely a 
multiplexed SSH connection, but I haven't decided on anything.

I expect to ram UNICODE, UTF-8, and character set awareness into Synchronet. 
 I
have some even stranger ideas for modularization, but I don't know if I like
them yet or not.

In short, I will try to continue to support the old hidebound ugly limited
backwards-compatible crap, but my true love will be in a session based modern
community "thing" which I choose to call a BBS.  Things I expect to keep:

1: Messages.  Private, public, subs, groups.  All of that.  This is still the
   "killer app" of the internet.
2: Games with rankings (ladders) and multinode (deathmatch) support.
3: File indexes.  Mirrored?  Tracker?  P2P?  I dunno... but it won't be a
copy of a bunch of Night Owl CDs.  Images?  Yeah... part of the file areas?
   Dunno.  This is the bit that needs the most thought and exploration.  What
   We have now is old crufty useless crap... but people use the internet for
   files.  How do they use it is the question.

Almost anything else is subject to the axe IMHO... telnet, rlogin, CP437,
ANSI, dial-up, serial connections, it's all a holdover from the 70s.  If 
Synchronet can't grow up and move into the 90s pretty soon, it's too late.  
Reading three months of Dove and FIDO nets supports me on this.

So yeah, I'm back, but I'm not here for more of the same... we'll see how
much change can happen before you start wishing I would leave.
===

Hey, Stephen, pass the crack pipe when you're done!

ROTFLMAO.

A turd indeed.

Later,
Sean

... Inside every large problem is a small problem trying to get out.
-*- CheepEDIT v0.99d+

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