JB> I was a Max SysOp many moons ago, and loved the 
 JB> freedom to customize.
 JB> I have run Synchronet Win/32 and it's extremely 
 JB> configurable, plus has an STMP email server, news 
 JB> server, telnet server and web interface.... and it all 
 JB> costs -0-.  Plus the support is free and always 
 JB> available in the many Sync related echoes. The author, 
 JB> Rob Swindell, will respond to questions in 24 hrs, but 
 JB> of course, requires everyone to consult the docs and 
 JB> try before asking.

Rob Swindell's alright. I get the feeling he doesn't like me very much. :)

As of v3.14, there're a couple of things I don't like about Synchronet. 

Mainly its message reading functionality. Thus far this is my critique, 

* When quoting replies lines are prefixed with ">" which
eventually truncates the quoted line, which means each reply truncates more
of the original message text.  

* It lacks some of the user-customisable message searching functions that
Maximus has eg. Browse Msg -> All areas -> List messages (instead of
Read messages) etc.  

* As of v3.14 it only has 2 options when scanning messages: 1) list message
titles, or 2) display messages -- which effectively reads the message and
updates the message pointer, and I might prefer pointers unmodified since I
can refer to those messages later ie. after a scan.  

* When listing message titles it clutters the screen with all the subgroups.

* When listing message titles it also lists -OLD- / read messages which
clutters the screen even more.

* Where's the 'read original' message option ? I only saw some sorting by
thread / author options ...

* Currently a plugin is required for new-message-received notifications.
And these notifications are displayed and then deleted during the logon
process so the user can't review those new message notifications later eg.
subsequent logons, which is quite inconvenient.  

* I don't like the board/sub-board (RA-style group/subgroup) file/message
area categorising method. Traversing the Maximus Usenet style divisions are
a more logical/relational/intuitive breakdown of message groups &
areas. (imo). And  the heirarchies can be embedded deep.

Interestingly the author said he had never encountered such feature
requests, which bewildered me, and led me to believe that the majority of
Synchronet users are more caught up in its internet 'spectacularisms' than
messaging. 

But anyway, due to a revival of interest from the author on his dwindled
project; it took off. What makes Synchronet worthwhile, apart from its
internet capabilities and multiplatform support, is the active and
enthusiastic development community; which is how new features and bug fixes
get rapidly tested and implemented.  

Anything can be made "highly customisable" if you have source code. 

But Scott Dudley disappared off the face of the earth. I don't blame him.
So now there's only a half-arsed intermittently commited ragtag user group left. 

Hypothetically if I contracted dozens of dedicated Chinese/Indian/Russian
students AUD$5k pa to develop Maximus it would easily be better than
Synchronet. Money is a powerful catalyst. 

Oh well. Maybe one day :)

"I'm a die-hard Maximus fan and I ain't switch'n, ever." --
received quite a lot of flagrant replies in the (imo reproachable (at the
time)) Synchronet Discussion echo in contrast to the humble mild mannered
MUFFIN echo seemingly full of UN embassadors like Ryan de Laplante ...

--- Maximus/2 3.01