🚀 go-pugleaf

thurlow@convex.com (Robert Thurlow) writes:

>After reading the latest spate of "my bbs is better, nyaah" and "yo mama"
>posts, I'd like to ask a serious question:

>	Has anyone with brain cells actually worked with enough of
>	these packages to provide informed commentary about the
>	strengths and weaknesses of a half-dozen or more of them?

>It sure looks like nobody has admitted to having done so thus far.
>(On the other hand, given the nasty arguments they'd likely get, I
>can see why that wouldn't be something people would leap to admit.)

I think that one of the real problems with running a BBS is that a sysop
gets past most of his users pretty quickly --- it's easy for the sysop
to refer to the documentation, since it's right there on the disk ---
and they don't really know anymore what it's like to call and not know
so much about the system.

The problem is that people don't want to stop, download the
documentation, and then read it.  One of the virtues of most local
boards is that it doesn't cost anything (except time) to stumble around
instead of reading the help material.  Every system that I've ever
called has some sort of online help and usually a user's manual
available for download.  The problem with the manuals is that they tend
to be very generic and a version or two behind, but it's a lot better 
than nothing.

One sysop many years ago required you to read the rules of his system
and answer a questionnaire.  If you didn't get a passing score, you
couldn't login.  That's a little hardcore for me, but I can empathize.
I'm tending more and more to answer questions with "look at help file
such and such" rather than give a specific answer.  "Give a man a fish
and he'll eat for a day.  Teach him to fish and he can feed himself."

Some complaints about documentation are valid, and I probably wouldn't
arrange things the same way you would.  But way too many complaints come
from people who never looked at the documentation.

In answer to your question, I'd be surprised if there were very many
people who had the time to both run and use more than one or two
packages.  The diversity of software shows to me that users aren't as
concerned with what BBS software the sysop uses, they're more concerned
with what the system does with it.  Doors and other external programs
let you add functionality to your system so that it can do most
anything, even things that the BBS programmer never intended.  

"What software is best" doesn't have an answer.  What software is the
most open-ended?  What software is best for graphics?  What software is
best for leaving unattended for days on end?  These questions do have
answers, but I think you'll find that most software can do a competent
job at most things.