+++ /dev/null
- 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.
projects / citadel.git / commitdiff