On 20/Jan/99 Gary Gilmore wrote to Chris Albertsen:

 CA> If Maximus has a HTTP server written in, and

 GG> Then it'd be a web server, not a BBS.  I see people thinking that 
 GG> BBSes can be "saved" by being on the internet, but unless you're 
 GG> still running it like a BBS (where you have real users, not just 
 GG> "hits"), your BBS is still dead.

I think it would help us if more of us were telnettable.  There are many
Internet users who don't know a BBS from Adam.  As for web pages, they can
be incorporated into the BBS, but I don't see much point in showing them to
the BBS caller.  Bob Juge's site is a nice example of a BBS incorporating
web pages for the FTP section, for example.


 GG> If you want to "go web", get a real webserver (like Linux or NT), 
 GG> and do it properly.  "Joe Average Sysop" can never
compete with the 
 GG> "big boys", since you'll never be able to afford the bandwidth, 
 GG> dialup ability or any of the things a "real" ISP can, unless you 
 GG> happen to be one really wealthy sysop. No user is going to pay you 
 GG> for access, since there's the "Either it's free
 GG> or I'm outta here" mindset on the Internet.  People that pay for 
 GG> access are going to expect no busy signals, and that means a lot of 
 GG> modems.  Can any of us afford all that?  I think not, at least not 
 GG> the majority.

This could get better with cable modems.  I've seen some rather high
bandwidth things on them, such as CUSeeMe reflectors.


 GG> If you want to really put "your BBS" on the internet,
then set up a 
 GG> box where people can telnet to your Maximus BBS, as is.  Anything 
 GG> more would be silly, since there's no way that Maximus could ever 
 GG> add enough features to make it really competitive with things like 
 GG> Apache, IIS and the like.

There's nothing stopping us from doing both, but I'd prefer BBS sysops to
KEEP IT SIMPLE in the web page department.  The main link should be
"Telnet to BBS".


 GG> Look at the "internet-able" Wildcat. 

Do we have to?  :(

 GG> Want to put your BBS "on the internet".  Do it.  Just set it up on 
 GG> a NT or OS/2 box, make it telnet-able, and there you go.  Don't 
 GG> expect to have the same sort of users as you used to "back in the 
 GG> day", however, cause it ain't going to happen.  You're going to get 
 GG> lots of "visit once, never again" type users.  That, to me, is not 
 GG> the kind of BBSing I want to be part of.

I'm getting mostly that type right now.

 GG> When my BBS dies, I'll have fond memories of it, and that'll be 
 GG> that.

 GG> I get all the "industry" magazines here.  I see what's up in the 
 GG> internet world, and trust me, there's NO way we, with our "regular 
 GG> guy" incomes, could ever hope to compete in any serious way.

Competition is out of the question.  If someone wants to use a computer to
make money, a BBS isn't a great thing to get into.  We're down to survival
right now.  I see the BBS as an oddball niche hobby for both the sysop and
the users.  Nothing is going to change that.  


                                Phil

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