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.  Feel free to
download this and display spread it around.
 
  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's 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 message".  If ever there
was a person to ignore, it is 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 irrelevant, 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 pseudonym, make sure that
handles are allowed.  Some Sysops do not want people using handles on
the system.  The reasons vary, but everyone should still 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.  If the BBS asks you the city
where you are calling from, remember that 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 are 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 will 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 should not know what you are saying, do not make it
private.  We do not call them PUBLIC bulletin boards for nothing,
folks.  It is very irritating to other callers when there are huge
blank spots in the messages that they can not 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.  Do not
tie up a system as a new user and run right to the other numbers
list.  There is probably very little that is more annoying to any
Sysop than to have his board completely passed over by you on your
way to another board.
 
  10. 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
misspelled.  Also, do not start asking questions about simple
operation of a system until you have thoroughly read all of the
instructions that are available to you.  I assure you that it is not
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 is no such thing as a stupid question" obviously never
operated a BBS.
 
  11. Don't be personally abusive.  It does not matter whether you
like a Sysop or think he/she is a jerk.  The fact remains that he/she
has a large investment in making his computer available, usually out
of the goodness of his/her heart.  If you don't like a Sysop or
his/her 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/she can take
the time to trace you down and make your life, or that of your
parents, miserable.
 
  Along those lines, don't be abusive of other users on the system.
It doesn't matter what you think of him/her/them, but "If you don't
have something nice to say, don't say it."  If you think someone is
being too abusive/whatever, let the Sysop know.  It is his/her
system, and upon him/her lies the responsibilty of dealing with
problem users.  If you think that he/she is not doing a good enough
job, do not call back.
 
  12. Lastly and ****** MOST IMPORTANTLY ****** keep firmly in mind
that you are a *** GUEST *** on any BBS you happen to call.  Do not
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/she does
not expect nonstop pats on the back, it seems reasonable that he/she
should at least be able to expect fair treatment from his/her
callers.  This includes following any of the rules for system use
he/she has laid out without grumping about it.  Every Sysop has
his/her own idea of how he/she wants his/her system to be run.  It is
really none of your business why he/she wants to run it the way
he/she 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.