Hi Kay,

 KS> Anyway, currently on hand I've got a copy of Maximus 
 KS> 3.01 I acquired early last year and haven't looked at 
 KS> since, and would like some advice before I start doing 
 KS> anything serious with it. Is there a later release that 
 KS> would probably be better (I can get at websites, but 
 KS> not easily, so prefer to know first if it's there or 
 KS> not)?  If so, which one?  

Maximus 3.01 it still the current release, AND it should work through Y2K
without failure. There are 2 areas you need to be aware of with this
release of Maximus, neither major, and 1 that is not really a Maximus
problem -

  1. If a date HAS to be manually entered anywhere (and there are almost
none of these from the users perspective), then it needs to be entered
using the following format -
  1999 - 99
  2000 - 100
  2001 - 101 etc...
This helps Maximus to work with its INTERNAL value of the date correctly.
To the user, the dates will display correctly, and they will not notice any
problems. 

  2. The other area under question is with QWK mail processing, however it
has been pointed out by many people that this is purely an issue with the
QWK data format, and is NOT something that Maximus can do anything about!
ALL systems that handle QWK mail will potentially run into problems with
dates used in QWK format messages.

Otherwise the current release of Maximus should work fine.

NOTE: Scott Dudley (the Author of Maximus) released a series of Y2K BETA
upgrade files for Maximus 3.01, these came out around 1-1-99, however a
currently installed and working version of Maximus 3.01 was required before
you can apply the BETA version. Some issues have been raised over this BETA
version, so it may pay to stay clear of it until you are happy with
Maximus.

 KS> Is there anything you wish someone had told you before 
 KS> you started using the system that isn't.. quite.. 
 KS> findable in the docs? 

Everything has something not mentioned, however I am sure that if you
install Maximus 3.01 using default settings, you will have a working
Maximus environment within 10 mins of starting the install. Its increadibly
easy to get a Maximus system up and running. I think it even includes a
utility to convert an Opus User base into Maximus format!

The only time you may run into problems, is when you start changing things
around from the defauljt settings, but that problem is the same with any
probuct........;-)


The other area you will need to cover is a MAIL PROCESSOR (importing and
exporting messsages from the Maximus Message bases). SQUISH is what most
Maximus Sysops use, and it DEFINATELY has a Y2K problem! However, a Y2K
BETA was also released for SQUISH on 1-1-99. It also has some reported
issues yet to be resolved.

Overall, Maximus/Squish make up a very good BBS package, and it has very
good support from within the BBS community. Being an old Opus user myself
(8+ years ago!), I am confident you will find the change rather painless.

I hope this helps.............pk.


--- Maximus/2 3.01