-=> Jimmy Day wrote to All <=-

 JD> 1)  If I were to post a message to a fictitious name, say John Jacob
 JD> Jingleheimer Smith, would it still appear in the conference?

 JD> 2)  What determines the sender's name on the messages?  I notice some
 JD> people in other echoes have "aliases" - do they simply change the
 JD> "FROM" field in their OLR?

It depends on all the software involved -- the reader, the door or BBS, and
perhaps the tosser if you're considering what a message looks like outside
of the board where it was originally posted.

Most offline formats include the user's login name in the packet. More
advanced offline formats, like QWKE and Blue Wave, may also include an
alias name (as defined in the user's account on the BBS), along with flags
on each area to indicate where aliases should be used. These names are then
used as the suggested "From:" fields when composing messages. Some readers
won't let the users edit the "From:" field; some will. (Some will allow it
for some cases and not others.) Attempting to enforce the name in the
reader is an example of "client-side security". But it's foolish to rely on
this, because it's easy to go in and edit the name with a binary editor
before uploading the message.

_Server_-side security, in this case, means that the door or BBS checks the
name. Some do; some don't. Some that do will reject messages with
mismatched names, and some will just silently "correct" them. And
some will 
allow any name, but only in certain circumstances (e.g., QWK in network 
mode, or an anonymous conference).

BTW, "John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith" is too long for a QWK
"From:" field; 
the limit is 25 characters.

 JD> 3) How does the "private message" work?

Same answer -- some systems (like QWK networks) typically allow a mix of 
private and public messages in the same conference; some (like Fido) don't. 
The BBS software may or may not handle it properly. Find out the specific 
rules for the conferences and BBSes where you want to use it before you try 
it, lest you find your "private" flag stripped and the message exposed to 
the world. ;-)

In more advanced offline formats, like QWKE and Blue Wave, the conferences
can be flagged as to whether or not they have private message capability;  
basic QWK doesn't have this flag, so the reader has to assume that all
conferences can handle private messages. But most of the time, they really
can't.

BTW, CmpQWK is a QWK-only reader, is it not? As such, it's off-topic for 
this echo. (It would be appropriate in "OFFLINE".)

... What is mind? No matter! What is matter? Never mind! - Homer S.
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