__________________________________________Tips on Starting Your Own BBSWritten by Pazuzu - November 11, 1993(C) Copyright 1993 Digital News AssociatesALL RIGHTS RESERVED~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Most people, after they've been calling  out for a while, eventually come  tothe decision that  they should start  their own BBS.   The allure of  runningyour own board is very strong - you dream of the immense power you'll have todelete anyone on a whim, to  create your own virtual city on-line  for peopleto call into and live  for a few minutes (or  hours) each day.  However,  fewpeople realize the immense amount of time it takes to set up, configure,  andrun a BBS.  Having been a SysOp for a number of years, I feel I am  qualifiedto give a few tips on how to create a successful BBS. There are a  lot of things  one must consider  when starting a  system - whatsoftware to run,  what to name  the system, what  types of files  and messageareas to have and so  on and so on.   One of the most important  things aboutyour system is the name.  If you have a lame name, people are going to  thinkyour system  is lame  (unless you're  a CdC  site...).   Try to avoid genericnames. There  are probably  about 50,000  bulletin board  systems in the U.S.alone, and I think about 80% of them have very generic names.  You should  ofcourse choose a name that is reflective in some way of your system's  content- a good reason  why my system is  named "DnA Systems, Inc.".   Anything with"Dark" in it is OUT.   In my 11 or so years  of modeming I have seen so  many"Dark Realm"s, "Dark World"s,  etc, to make me  want to vomit.   BE ORIGINAL!Or at least try.  Also try to avoid using names of famous BBS's of the  past.Especially Cemetary  Gates.   Cemetary Gates  was a  HUGE board  back in  themid-80's to early-90's.   EVERYONE who has  been out here  for any length  oftime has heard of it and we're  all sick of everyone copying its name.   Thisalso includes adding a "II" to the end of the name like "The Drop Site II" or"Louder Than Bombs II" - this is even worse than just copying the name. Of course, you must  also decide what software  to run.  The  sheer number ofBBS packages available today is insane and  it can be very hard to pick  one.You must first  consider what features  you require and  then find out  whichsoftwares have those features.  Configurability is also a big issue. You wantto be able to make the BBS look and function the exact way you want it to andyou don't want to spend six  years doing so. Networking support is  also veryimportant - if you want to  join WWiVNet (goD forbid!), running a  forum hackwould  be  very  stupid.   It  would  be  totally impossible to go over everypackage available,  but I  shall try  to cover  the major  ones, at least forMS-DOS systems anyhow.There are basically  three "families" of  BBS software out  there - The  WWiVhacks  and  work-a-likes,  Forum  hacks   (1,000's  of  them),  and   PCBoard/ RBBS / Wildcat work-a-likes. The  WWiV  hacks/work-a-likes  are  quite  numerous.  There is of course WWiVitself (DO NOT  run WWiV), then  there's Telegard, TAG,  Renegade, Dominions,and Synchronet. NO, Synchronet IS NOT  a WWiV hack (I HAVE the  source.), butit looks a lot like it. Telegard and Renegade are quite similar (well,  sinceRenegade is a  Telegard hack I  wonder why?). They  add a menu  editor to thesystem so you can make the BBS do whatever you like whenever whatever key  ispressed. Dominions  is a  Telegard hack  with not  very much  changed. I  runRenegade  and  like  it  a  lot.  It  does  basically everything, and you canconfigure it to look like whatever you want. Synchronet costs quite a bit  ofmoney so you'll probably want to stay away from that unless you can pirate itfrom somewhere.The Forum hacks are extremely numerous and they all look the same in the end.Included are: Vision, Vision/2, VisionX, Liquid (bugs, bugs, bugs), Oblivion,Celerity (or CELERY as I like to call it), and about 100,000,000 more that  Ican't think of right now. There are LOTS. There isn't much to distinguish onefrom the other, except the bug level.  Liquid is by far the worst I've  seen.Stay away from it unless you  are a hardcore masochist. Setting up  Fido-typenets (such as CyberCrime and DnANeT) on forum hacks is notoriously tricky, soyou may want to avoid them if you plan on being in any fido-type nets.The PCBoard/Wildcat/RBBS/Etc  family are  utterly hideous  and most  people Iknow won't  even CALL  a board  running them.  The message  base operation onthese abominations is utterly horrid  and the person that invented  it shouldbe flogged. Avoid these softwares like the plague.After you pick a software, you've got to configure it to the way you want it.DO NOT  run a  BBS "out-of-the-box".  It looks  really lame,  and people willnotice right off that you haven't  spent any time setting up your  system andaren't likely to call very often. It  can be very difficult to set up  a BBS,but the time spent is well worth it. You've got to change prompts and  menus,set up  logon and  newuser info  files, create  message and  file areas,  andthings like that.You've also got to come up with  a "hook" - something that makes your  systemdifferent  from  the  billion  other  systems  out there. Mine is the unusualcombination  of  phreak/hack/virus/etc,  conspiracy/legal/political info, andthe occult. It's  an unusual combo  that many people  like, and keep  callingfor. It's also one  a lot of people  have imitated. One I've  never seen doneis pirated software  and good phreak/hack  stuff, without the  board becominginvolved in the  0.1 second warezzzzz  set. I'd like  to see someone  pull itoff. The issue of nets is a big one  these days - it seems EVERY system is  in onenet or the other. The big problem  with nets is that some systems get  onto anet, then become "a netnode". There's nothing to the system but the net. Thisis something you want  to avoid. If people  are calling your system  only forthe net, you've got some changes to  make. Now, I'm not knocking nets -  theycan be great - I'm on 4 of  'em myself. But choose them carefully and DO  NOTallow yourself to become a slave of the net. Most nets these days are of  theFido-standard variety - a complicated subject for most people. There isn't  asingle doc file in existence that attempts to help the fido novice understandhow to set up and run on a fido-type net. Until now, that is. Read my articleon the subject  in this issue  of DnA BEFORE  you set yourself  up on one  ofthese nets. I am SICK of SysOps who can't figure out how to run their mailer,who make the net coordinator set it up for them, then GO DOWN when  somethingweird happens with  their mailer or  echo processor. My  article will explainall you need to know. Once you get your board up, you've  got to advertise. This is usually in  theform of posts on boards you call, or  on a net. There is a great rule  that NSult once told me (you may know him as D-Tox of ACiD, he's long gone  now...)- NEVER ADVERTISE  YOUR SYSTEM ON  A SYSTEM OF  LESS QUALITY -  ELSE YOU WILL*BECOME*  THAT  QUALITY.  This  is  a  great  rule  to live by. Always try toadvertise your  system on  systems of  a quality  YOU'D like  your system  toachieve, then people will  think you are, and  hence your system will  becomethat quality. So, if you want your system to be the next big name in the  p/hworld, advertising it on your local clone of the "Streetfighter II BBS"  (WHYTHE FUCK  DOES EVERY  SINGLE GOD  DAMNED NPA  HAVE ONE  OF THESE???) is a badmove. Well, once you've got your system up, advertised it, and got people  calling,you're pretty much set. Running the system on a day-to-day basis isn't as badas most people make it out to be. Sure, you've got to validate new users (anddelete the idiots), make sure  posts are of sufficient quality  and on-topic,make sure files  get uploaded to  the right directories  (WHY THE HELL  DO SOMANY PEOPLE FIND IT SO DIFFICULT TO UPLOAD THINGS TO THE RIGHT SPOT???),  andso on. Good luck to you.<pazuzu@netcom.com>>> EOF <<