🚀 go-pugleaf

In article 92Jul23155001@bike.rad.washington.edu, mcglk@bike.rad.washington.edu (Ken McGlothlen) writes:
>You know, I've seen a lot of BBS lists out there that give the name, the phone
>number, the line settings, and *maybe* a word or two of the subject matter,
>flavor, or what have you.  But I have *never* seen a competent list out there
>which actually discusses the board at all, or reviews it, or critiques it, or
>competently lists anything about it.
>
>I am willing to compile such a catalog, as long as *I* don't have to pay any
>long-distance charges.  I can write up reviews for the Seattle area, but I'm
>willing to collect them from any area, neaten up the reviews, and stick them in
>an FTP directory somewhere.  I'd prefer to do this with as little actual work
>(i.e., dialing out) as I can possibly get away with.  :)
>
>Does this sound good to anyone, or does it seem unnecessary?  Personally, I'd
>love to see one out there, but. . . .

The idea of having a Internet accesible place to d/l information about BBSes all
accross the country does sound promising.  However, maintaining reviews and the
like could prove to be a monster task - no matter how much you could manage to 
streamline the process.

You may be able to get something going by simply collecting regional BBS lists
and making them available for ftp.  I know of very few area codes/regions that
don't have a defacto-standard BBS list that is available.  For example, in the
Washington DC area, Mike Focke has been distributing his list for quite some time -
and it is THE definitive BBS list for the area.  There are similar lists all over
the place - which don't really contain reviews, but rather snippets of data like
baud rate, BBS SW, mail nets, file area descriptions, charges, etc...

Now there are a couple NATIONAL BBS lists around, Darwin's comes to mind, but
that seems too massive - and the accuracy of the information tends to be a few
months (or more) behind.  Maintaining a national list is very tough!  There is
also THE BBS LIST that has been floating around USENET that contains about 300
numbers - but again there is no validation done here as far as number accuracy,
old BBSes, etc... [Note: Darwin lists about 40 BBSes in the DC area, Focke's
regional list has nearly 400!  This is why regional lists may be the way to
go...]

Your best bet, as I see it, is to collect regional BBS lists on a regular
basis, and make those ftp-able.  The main plus is that the regional lists tend
to be very accurate as to expired numbers, new numbers, etc...  Another nice touch
would be to setup a MAGIC-WORD on your machine so that folks can request lists
through the mail!  Ex:

	From: New.User@somewhere.org
	to:   BBS.LIST@cpac.washington.edu
	Subject: SEND 410
	
That would tell your machine to send "Joe User" the appropriate list(s) for area
code 410...

Good luck,
Howie

PS -> Be sure to post here if you think up a master plan :-)  I'll help you
get ahold of the Baltimore/Washington area lists!