ij> Upgraded to the current alpha and lost my message editor... bailed on
 ij> that and went back to my 1.11...
 ij> 
 ij> Should I just start rom scratch??  copied the "exe" files
over...ran
 ij> upgrade... it worked... as far as I could tell... went to write a
 ij> message and lost the full screed editor...

You didn't follow the upgrade instructions.  If you want to upgrade from 1.11
to 1.12 A35 you'll have a good amount of steps to perform because you're doing
a couple years of upgrades at once.

Your other option is to just start fresh with 1.12 A35 and the reconfigure
your BBS.

Here are the instructions to upgrade:

,----------------------.
| UPGRADING MYSTIC BBS |------------------------------------------------------
`----------------------'

 1. FIRST and ALWAYS create a backup of your BBS before upgrading.  Generally
    upgrading goes pretty smooth, but there is always the chance of something
    going wrong whether it is Mystic or operator error!

 2. There is no automatic upgrade process.  The process is to install the full
    installation to a temporary directory, so that you have access to the
    latest version of the files.  Then follow the upgrade instructions provided
    below for your specific version.  Usually this just means replacing new
    binary files contained in the new alpha.  DO NOT ATTEMPT TO INSTALL OVER
    YOUR EXISTING SETUP!

 3. REVIEW THE WHATSNEW.TXT for this alpha.  The WHATSNEW is structured to show
    what has been added/fixed between alphas, and also provides documentation
    for new or changed features.

 4. REMEMBER #1 TO BACKUP YOUR BBS DIRECTORY! :)

 .----------------------------.
 | UPGRADING FROM 1.11 TO A35 |-------------------------
 `----------------------------'

 - Replace existing binaries with the new alpha binaries:

      mystic.exe
      mis.exe
      mis2.exe
      fidopoll.exe
      mutil.exe
      mbbsutil.exe
      nodespy.exe
      qwkpoll.exe
      mplc.exe (in scripts directory)
      mide.exe (in scripts directory)
      upgrade.exe

 - Run upgrade.exe to upgrade data files

 - Perform the following in the DATA folder:

      - Copy protocol.dat from new alpha into DATA folder
      - Delete CFGROOT.AN1 from DATA folder
      - Copy CFGROOT1.ANS from the new alpha into your DATA folder
      - Copy mis_*.ans from the DATA directory to your DATA directory
      - Copy servers.dat from the DATA directory to your DATA directory

 - Perform the following steps in TEXT folder for themes:

      - Copy archive_view* from the new alpha into TEXT folders
      - Copy msg_editor* from the new alpha into TEXT folders
      - Copy file_index* from new alpha into TEXT folders
      - Copy ansimidx.ini from new alpha into TEXT folders
        (if you use a custom one then you'll have to update it)

 - Perform the following steps in SCRIPTS directories:

    - Copy menucmd.mps from new alpha scripts directory
    - Copy automessage.mps from new alpha scripts directory
    - Execute "mplc -all" to recompile MPL programs

 - Perform the following PROMPTS updating:
  
      If you use default prompts, you can simply copy default.txt from the
      new alpha DATA directory into yours.  If you have custom themes, then
      you'll need to update the following prompts in default.txt or any other
      custom themes you have:

        ; Press ENTER to start file transfer  &1=selected protocol
        ; First word is input chars, followed by display text
        065 SQ |CR|09Press |01[|15ENTER|01/|15S|01]|09tart or
|01[|15ESCAPE|01/|15Q|01]|09uit your |15|&1 |09transfer: |XX

        ; Message from another node footer. First word contains input keys,
followed by prompt
        145 RC |CR|09Node Message: |01[|10R|01]|09eply, |01[|10C|01]|09hat,
or |01[|10ENTER|01/|10Continue|01]|09: |15

        ; Select scanned file bases prompt
        202 Toggle: |09[|11#-#,#|09], Select [|11A|09]dd All, [|11R|09]emove
All, [|11?|09/|11List|09]: |XX

    ; Ask for character translation (DOS CP437 or UTF8)
    ; &1 = Detected terminal type (or Unknown)
    315 |CR|14[|150|14] MS-DOS CP437|CR[|151|14] UTF-8|CR|CRSelect Terminal
Codepage [|15Enter = CP437|14]: |XX

        ; TELNET/RLOGIN: Connecting prompt &1 = address &2 = port
        354 |CR|08> |07Escape sequence is |08|15CTRL+|15]|08.|CR|08>
|07Connecting to |15|&1 |07port |15|&2|08.|CR

        ; TELNET/RLOGIN: Connected successfully
        355 |08> |07Connected.

        ; TELNET/RLOGIN: Unable to connect
        356 |08> |12Unable to connect: Press a key|PN

        ; Login prompt: User enters a username found in trashcan.dat
        375 |CR|12That user name is unacceptible.

 - Perform the following final steps:

     - You must run MUTIL's file base packer in order to regenerate index
       files for your file areas.'

     - If you use QWK networking, go into your QWK networks in the
       configuration and set them to "Active" as they can now be
toggled off
       or on.

     - If you've configured a preset upload base in the File Base settings
make
       sure it matches the correct ID in the file base editor for the base you
       want uploads to be placed.

     - Similar to the above, if you use the MX menu command to post text
files,
       make sure the ID matches the ID in the message base editor for the base
       you want to post to.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A35 (Windows/32)