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                      B  B  S  *  B  U  L  L  S  H  I  T

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                       Computer Etiquette, By Mel North


    The following are a few points  of  general  BBS  etiquette. If you wish to
maintain your welcome on whatever system  you  happen  to  call, it would be to
your advantage to observe these few rules. (Sysops - feel free to download this
& display it on your BBS)

    1. Don't habitually  hang  up  on  a  system.  Every  Sysop  is  aware that
accidental disconnections happen once in a while  but we do tend to get annoyed
with people who hang up every single time they call because they are either too
lazy to terminate properly or they labor under the mistaken assumption that the
10 seconds they save online is  going  to significantly alter their phone bill.
"Call Waiting" is not an acceptable excuse for  long. If you have it and intend
to use the line to call BBS systems,  you should either have it disconnected or
find some other way to circumvent it.

    2. Don't do dumb  things  like  leave  yourself  a  message that says "Just
testing to see if  this  thing  works".  Where  do  you  think  all those other
messages came from if it didn't  work?  Also,  don't leave whiney messages that
say "Please leave me a mess- age". If  ever  there was a person to ignore, it's
the one who begs someone to leave him  a  message. If you want to get messages,
start by reading the ones that are  already  online and getting involved in the
conversations that exist.

    3. Don't use the local equivalent of  a chat command unless you really have
some clear cut notion of what you want to say and why. Almost any Sysop is more
than  happy  to  answer  questions   or   offer  help  concerning  his  system.
Unfortunately, because about 85% of the people  who call want to chat and about
99% of those people have absolutely nothing  to  say besides "How old are you?"
or something equally  irrelevent,  fewer  Sysops  even  bother  answering their
pagers every day.

    4. When you are offered a  place  to  leave comments when exiting a system,
don't try to use this area to ask  the  Sysop questions. It is very rude to the
other callers to expect the Sysop to  carry on a half visible conversation with
someone. If you have a question or  statement  to  make and expect the Sysop to
respond to it, it should always  be  made  in  the  section where all the other
messages are kept. This allows  the  Sysop  to  help  many people with the same
problem with the least amount of effort on his part.

    5. Before you log on with  your  favorite psuedonym, make sure that handles
are allowed. Most Sysops don't want  people  using handles on the system. There
is not enough room for them, they  get silly games of one-upmanship started, it
is much nicer to deal with  a  person  on  a  personal  basis, and last but not
least, everyone should be willing to  take  full responsibility for his actions
or comments instead of slinging mud from behind a phoney name.
    Also when signing  on,  why  not  sign  on  just  like  you would introduce
yourself in your own society? How  many  of you usually introduce yourselves as
Joe W Smutz the 3rd or 4th?

    6. Take the time to log on properly. There is no such place as RIV, HB, ANA
or any of a thousand  other  abbreviations  people  use instead of their proper
city. You may think that everyone knows what RIV is supposed to mean, but every
BBS has people calling  from  all  around  the  country  and  I assure you that
someone from Podunk, Iowa has no idea what you're talking about.

    7. Don't go out of  your  way  to  make  rude  observations like "Gee, this
system is slow". Every BBS is a  tradeoff of features. You can generally assume
that if someone is running a  particular  brand  of software, that he is either
happy with it or he'll decide to  find  another system he likes better. It does
nobody any good when you make comments  about something that you perceive to be
a flaw when it is running the way the Sysop wants it to. Constructive criticism
is somewhat more welcome. If you have  an alternative method that seems to make
good sense then run it up the flagpole.

    8. When leaving messages, stop and ask  yourself whether it is necessary to
make it private. Unless there is some particular reason that everyone shouldn't
know what you're saying,  don't  make  it  private.  We  don't call them PUBLIC
bulletin boards for nothing, folks. It's  very irritating to other callers when
there are huge blank spots in the messages  that they can't read and it stifles
interaction between callers.

    9. If your favorite BBS has a time  limit, observe it. If it doesn't, set a
limit for yourself and abide by it instead.  Don't tie up a system untitem as a
new user and run right to the other numbers list. There is probably very little
that's more annoying to any Sysop than to have his board completely passed over
by you on your way to another board.

    [Hang on a wee minute! Where's 10 gone!!?!?!? -EGBSS]

    11. Have the common courtesy to  pay  attention  to what passes in front of
your face. When a BBS displays your name and asks "Is this you?", don't say yes
when you can see perfectly well that  it is mispelled. Also, don't start asking
questions about simple operation of a system until you have thouroghly read all
of the instructions that are available to  you.  I assure you that it isn't any
fun to answer a question for the thousandth time when the answer is prominently
displayed in the system bulletins or  instructions.  Use some common sense when
you ask your questions. The person who said  "There's no such thing as a stupid
question" obviously never operated a BBS.

    12. Don't be personally abusive. It doesn't matter whether you like a Sysop
or think he's a jerk. The fact remains that he has a large investment in making
his computer available, usually out of the  goodness of his heart. If you don't
like a Sysop or his system, just  remember  that you can change the channel any
time you want. Besides,  whether  you  are  aware  of  it  or  not, if you make
yourself enough of an annoyance to any Sysop, he can take the time to trace you
down and make your life, or that of your parents, miserable.

    13. Keep firmly in mind that you are a guest on any BBS you happen to call.
Don't think of logging on as one of  your basic human rights. Every person that
has ever put a computer system online for  the  use of other people has spent a
lot of time and money to do  so.  While  he  doesn't expect nonstop pats on the
back, it seems reasonable  that  he  should  at  least  be  able to expect fair
treatment from his callers. This includes following any of the rules for system
use he has laid out without grumping about  it. Every Sysop has his own idea of
how he wants his system to be run.  It  is  really none of your business why he
wants to run it the way he does.  Your  business  is to either abide by what he
says, or call some other BBS where you feel that you can obey the rules.


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