Hello g00r00!

I hope all is well with you!

As there have been no new public prereleases for a while (but I noticed that you're using a newer version than the one available for download), I'm not sure if/what of the following that might already have been fixed, but I thought I'd sum things up in one message instead of 20 netmails. :-D

The following are the things that I'm currently experiencing
with the 2022/04/03 A48 prerelease, and some minor things I'd wish for for future releases. It would be great if you could have a look at those whenever you find some time. =)

* FTP uploads appear to corrupt the file base. If I scroll down the listing
  (from the BBS) I see garbage like:

  routerasusco

  ...with strange characters in between router.asus.com, which would be
  the hostname that I FTPed from when uploading the files, and further down:

  HeÄÕ€eÀ¿?se             ?sež?se
                               tpbanner.txt

  The same thing happens even though I run maintenance (PackFileBases) on the
  file bases. (Uploads through the BBS work just fine.)

* When creating a new user from within the User Editor, the Taglines setting
  appears to always be set to Ask instead of following the Configuration -->
  New User Settings 2 --> Taglines setting.

* When a new user is created (from the User Editor or by the BBS), the Start
  Menu setting appears to be copied from the value given by Configuration -->
  General Settings Start Menu (prelogin in my case) instead of being empty
  (letting the current security level's Start Menu setting or the
  Configuration --> General Settings --> Start Menu value apply automatically
  on each login).

* When a user sends an e-mail to another user, a system notification is
  generated (prompts #179 + #465 + #180), i.e., Mystic will announce the fact
  that an e-mail has been received to the receiving user. However, if the
  receiving user has node message availability (user setting 18) turned off,
  prompt #395 is displayed to the sending user, which he/she probably doesn't
  expect (as the sending user doesn't know anything about system
  notifications). My suggestion would be that the system notification should
  not be sent if the receiving user has node message availability turned off.

* When a user launches a private chat (the NP command) and is prompted to
  select the node to chat with (prompt #479), hitting Enter to leave/cancel
  displays prompt #480. My suggestion would be that if the user enters an
  empty value (or a value containing whitespace only), Mystic should simply
  quit the command without displaying prompt #480.

* There appears to be a "leftover" in the SysOp menu; the "(V) Voting Booth
  Editor" option which attempts to call command "(*V) Unknown Command", which
  doesn't exist any longer. Probably the (V) option should be removed from the
  SysOp menu?

* When logging in with a QWK account and choosing (S) to select the bases to
  scan/include, i.e., (OS) with Data: /ALLGROUPS /QWKNET, the message base
  numbering in the list does not appear to match what it expects me to enter.
  I have Configuration --> Message Base Settings --> List Compression: Yes. It
  appears that the (OS) command does not obey this.

* Related to the List Compression/(OS)/QWK account issue above, if I
  choose to [A]dd/[R]emove all bases, I get 5 "Private Messages (PMs) is
  marked as mandatory reading!" error messages about the e-mail base (ID 1)
  *and* my 4 netmail areas, which all have New Scan: Forced and QWK Scan:
  Forced. I would have expected it to list the 5 different names here
  ("Private Messages (PMs)", "fsxNet Netmail", "FidoNet Netmail", "Micronet
  Netmail" and "SciNet Netmail"), or, even better, to not try to change the
  setting for those bases that have QWK Scan: Forced.

* For a normal account (not a QWK account), when selecting the message bases
  to scan from the message menu, i.e. (MZ) Toggle new scan bases with an empty
  Data field, Mystic appears to be selecting the wrong message base when I
  enter a number:

   1     Yes  Private Messages (PMs)
   2     No   Private Messages (PMs) (SysOp Access)
   Toggle: [#,#-#], [A]dd/[R]emove All, [?/List, Enter/Quit]:
  (entering 1)
   1     Yes  Private Messages (PMs)
   2     Yes  Private Messages (PMs) (SysOp Access)
   Toggle: [#,#-#], [A]dd/[R]emove All, [?/List, Enter/Quit]:
  (it has enabled number 2 instead of number 1)
  (entering 1 again)
   1     Yes  Private Messages (PMs)
   2     Yes  Private Messages (PMs) (SysOp Access)
   Toggle: [#,#-#], [A]dd/[R]emove All, [?/List, Enter/Quit]:
  (nothing happens; both number 1 and 2 remain selected)
  (entering 2)
   1     Yes  Private Messages (PMs)
   2     No   Private Messages (PMs) (SysOp Access)
   Toggle: [#,#-#], [A]dd/[R]emove All, [?/List, Enter/Quit]:
  (it correctly removed number 2)

  I'm not sure if this is because the first message base here is the e-mail
  base (ID 1), but still, it acts strange.

* Related to the (MZ) isue above, when I entered number 1 and it enabled
  number 2 instead, it also did so for the *QWK* scanned areas.
  That is, if I enter the QWK menu (qwk.mnu) afterwards and choose its (Z)
  menu option -- which is "(OS) Set QWK scanned bases" with "Data: /allgroups"
  -- I can see that the list there shows number 2 as Scan: Yes.

  Furthermore, it doesn't appear to revert this when I (from the message
  menu) enter "1" or "2" to deselect number 2 again.
  Maybe some of this attributes to that the e-mail base (ID 1) is somewhat
  special? But still unexpected.

* If leaving the Packet ID field for my "local" QWK network empty, the
  resulting FTP file name is ".qwk" (".qwk"). The whatsnew.txt file
  mentions:
  "Changed QWK Networking HUBs to use the "Packet ID" configured in the QWK
  Network configuration instead of the BBS QWK packet ID."
  Perhaps Mystic should refuse to accept an empty Packet ID value for a QWK
  network when Member Type is set to HUB to prevent this from happening?
  Or revert to the BBS QWK packet ID if the Packet ID for a QWK network
  is left empty?

* Accounts which have "Locked Out: Yes" can still access Mystic via FTP,
  SMTP, POP3 and NNTP. I would have expected them not to be able to do that.

* OV in "FTP ACS" for a file base always returns false even though an account
  *is* correctly validated.

* baduser.txt mentions that "The list should contain a single name per line
  and can include a * wildcard", but I can't get wildcard to work.
  If I e.g. enter "adm*", it only refuses the username if one enters it
  verbatim (including the asterisk) at the login prompt.
  Maybe wildcards aren't supported in baduser.txt?

* In the multinode teleconference, if one uses ASCII, the cursor is
  positioned at the end of the line so that the text one writes always gets
  wrapped.
  An example with two users chatting with each other:

  - Zip-TEST-REGULAR has entered chat
  - Now chatting in channel 1

  - Zip has entered chat

  
  Fir(LINE WRAP)
  st line

   First line

   Second line

  
  Thi(LINE WRAP)
  rd line

   Third line

  - Zip has left chat

  
  /q 

  I believe this is because the cursor gets positioned at the end of the
  input field (whose background is not actually written when using ASCII).
  Would it be possible for Mystic to position the cursor at the beginning of
  the "invisible" input field if using ASCII? (Using backspaces?)

* In a private (user2user) chat, if one user hangs up, the chat continues and
  the remaining party does not get notified of this.
  Would it be possible for Mystic to end the chat when a remote hangup is
  detected (if it can be detected)?

* When using the snoop (*3) function, if the user on the selected node isn't
  available for node messages, one gets prompt #395. Shouldn't snooping be
  available regardless of the node messaging availability status? As one
  cannot interact with the user (as with NodeSpy). Despite prompt #395 being
  shown, one then gets "Snoop session active: ESCAPE to Quit", but no screen
  data.

* When using the snoop (*3) function, if the user disconnects, the snoop
  session continues but will never receive any more screen data. (If another
  user connects to that node later, the activity won't be shown either.)

* When using the snoop (*3) function, it is possible to snoop on a node to
  which no one is logged in, but if a user logs in to that node later, the
  screen activity won't be shown. I would have expected either the snoop
  command to refuse snooping on a node to which no user is logged on, or show
  the screen data once a user logs on to that node.

* On a fresh install, event ID 6 ([FTN] Toss incoming mail) references
  netmail.in in the Semaphore and Kill After fields, however mis does not
  create netmail.in on incoming netmail; instead it appears to create
  echomail.in for all incoming message types, i.e., echomail, netmail and
  news. Perhaps the netmail.in references should be dropped from the event, or
  netmail.in be "added" to mis (and perhaps some other binary such as
  qwkpoll)?

* On a fresh install, there appears to be a small typo in event ID 7 (Weekly
  maintanence); the Description should probably read "Weekly maintenance". =)

* The str8 variable in archive_view.ini would need an extra space to clear
  out the "Enter/View" text when searching.
  Before entering any search text:
  ³ Type to Search:    Esc/Previous Directory    Ctrl+D/Download     Enter/View ³
  When searching (notice the trailing "w" after "Reset"):
  ³ Searching: SEARCH           CTRL/A  Search Again   CTRL/Y or Move to Resetw ³

A small wishlist would also be:

* Read ACS checking for the POP3 server -- i.e. that it would return Access
  denied if a user does not fulfil the Read ACS -- would be much appreciated.
  It would make things consistent between the BBS interface and the POP3
  access method.
  In my case, it would be used for preventing a guest account from accessing
  the e-mail parts in Mystic altogether.

* If users.dat does not exist (e.g. on a completely fresh install where no
  users exist yet), mystic -newuser will simply output FALSE and refuse to add
  the user. Perhaps mystic -newuser could create users.dat in the Mystic data
  directory if it is missing?

* More detailed logging of scanning results for FTP upploads.
  Currently:

  + 2022.04.09 12:10:09  FTP 1-Testing upload: /usr/bin/clamscan --quiet --
  "/mnt/bbs/mystic/files/local/L_UPLOADS/a.txt" > /dev/null 2>&1 

  It would be great if it showed the results like:

  + 2022.04.09 12:10:10  FTP 1-Upload passed testing (RC=0):
  /mnt/bbs/mystic/files/local/L_UPLOADS/a.txt

  ...or:

  + 2022.04.09 12:10:10  FTP 1-Upload failed testing (RC=67):
  /mnt/bbs/mystic/files/local/L_UPLOADS/a.txt

* A newsmail.out semaphore is created by mis/mutil/mystic/qwkpoll when there
  is news to be exported. However, there is no corresponding newsmail.in.
  Perhaps something to add in the future? If so, it would have to be added to
  the stock event(s) as well, and probably needs a special mention in the
  whatsnew.txt file.

  Or maybe this is by design -- that all incoming mail always (and only)
  creates echomail.in, to simplify things?

As always, many thanks in advance!

Best regards
Bj”rn

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/04/26 (Linux/64)