Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!cbosgd!mandrill!hal!ncoast!robertd
From: robertd@ncoast.UUCP (Rob DeMarco)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: The future of simple BBS boards...
Message-ID: <4942@ncoast.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Oct-87 06:25:27 EST
Article-I.D.: ncoast.4942
Posted: Mon Oct 26 06:25:27 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Oct-87 05:42:12 EST
Reply-To: /dev/null
Organization: Cleveland Public Access UN*X, Cleveland, Oh
Lines: 57
Keywords: BBS future software complex
Summary: Are BBS boards getting too complex?

[  The following is a file I made awhile back for some BBS boards. It is
formatted in 40 columns in order to make it easier to read for those mis-
fortunant enough (including me) to have 80 columns.(Go ahead, flame away!:-)) ]



    The Future of BBS Software
    --- ------ -- --- --------

    The future of BBS software is very
certain.  BBSs seem to be getting much
bigger, more complex,and more and more
impersonal by the year. Remember those
mom-and-pop  BBSs  several years  ago?
Those creative  and friendly BBSs that
made you feel at home?   The time when
every new board meant new software with
its own  personal touch?  Well,  those
times are  gone.  Now-a-days  the  BBS
market is being taken over by the mean
and evil C-Net.  Not  only C-Net,  but
huge complex beasts like Pc-Board,  GT
Procomm, and SysLink. Now granted, for
some  boards this  is  really  a  good
thing,  like Compu$erve or USENET news
interfaces,  but the private  BBSs are
becoming  more  complex,  impersonal ,
and worst of all,  they're all  alike!
BBS boards are becoming boring because
they act the same  way, look  the same
way, and {feel} the same way.  Indeed,
the most important thing to  a BBS are
the message bases.  But  another  very
important aspect of all of this is the
way the BBS feels.Next time you log on
a  BBS,  ask  your  self  this:  "Am I
logging on ANOTHER BBS?Or am I logging
on THE BBS?" And then think "How is it
possible that there be two  BBS boards
with the  same good  users at the same
place  and  time that BOTH  have  good
volume of interesting topics.  I think
your answer can be the attitude of the
BBS  expressed  by  the  SysOp.   That
special something that  makes that BBS
truly unique  from  any  other BBS  in
the known world.

    What  we  need  is   a  return  to
fundamentals  when  talking  about BBS
boards.   So  that   humans   set  the
standards for the path of the BBS. Not
impersonal machines.
-- 
North Coast Computer Resources(ncoast) - 216-781-6201 (or 781-6202)

UUCP:decvax!mandrill!ncoast!robertd