essage edit: Allows you to change various system banners, such
as the 'hello' logon greeting.
.ide ost Enter a message using any user name.
.ide oom nvite Invites a user to the room if it is private.
.ide oom ickOut Kicks a user out of the room if it is private.
.ide ystem config Edits global system configuration.
.ide serEdit Edits certain parameters of a user's account.
.ide alidate newusers Lists users who have recently registered and
prompts for new access levels.
.ide hoKnowsRoom Lists all users who have access to, and who have
not chosen to zap, the current room.
EDITING ROOMS
This command allows any aide to change the parameters of a room. Go to
the room you wish to edit and enter the .AE command. A series of prompts will
be displayed. The existing parameters will be displayed in brackets; simply
press return if you want to leave any or all of them unchanged.
Room name [IG's Fun Room]:
...the name of the room.
Private room [Yes]?
...enter Yes if you wish to restrict access to the room, or no if the room
is to be accessible by all users. Note that Citadel doesn't bother users
about access to rooms every time they need to access the room. Once a user
gains access to a private room, it then behaves like a public room to them.
The following four questions will only be asked if you selected Private...
Accessible by guessing room name [No]?
...if you enter Yes, the room will not show up in users' nown rooms
listing, but if they .oto the room (typing the room's full name), they
will gain access to the room.
Accessible by entering a password [No]?
Room password [mypasswd]:
...this adds an additional layer of security to the room, prompting users
for a password before they can gain access to the room.
If you did not select guessname or passworded, then the only way users can
access the room is if an Aide explicitly invites them to the room using the
.ide oom nvite user command.
Cause current users to forget room [No] ? No
Enter Yes if you wish to kick out anyone who currently has access to
the room.
Preferred users only [No]? No
Enter Yes if you wish to restrict the room to only users who have level 5
(Preferred User) status (and Aides too, of course). You should make the room
public if you intend to do this, otherwise the two restrictions will be
COMBINED.
Read-only room [No]? No
If you set a room to Read-Only, then normal users will not be allowed to
post messages in it. Messages may only be posted by Aides, and by utility
programs such as the networker and the "aidepost" utility. This is useful
in situations where a room is used exclusively for important announcements,
or if you've set up a room to receive an Internet mailing list and posting
wouldn't make sense. Other uses will, of course, become apparent as the
need arises.
Now for a few other attributes...
Directory room [Yes]? Yes
...enter Yes if you wish to associate a directory with this room. If you
enter Yes, you will also be prompted with the following four questions:
Directory name [mydirname]:
...the name of the subdirectory to put this room's files in. The name of
the directory created will be /files/.
Uploading allowed [Yes]? Yes
...enter Yes if users are allowed to upload to this room.
Downloading allowed [Yes]? Yes
...enter Yes if users are allowed to download from this room.
Visible directory [Yes]? Yes
...enter Yes if users can read the directory of this room.
Network shared room [No]? No
...you can share a room over a network without setting this flag, and
vice versa, but what this flag does is twofold:
1. It prevents people with no network access from entering messages here
2. Messages are displayed with the name of their originating system in
the header.
Permanent room [No]? No
...the sysop utilities have an option to purge rooms which have not been posted
in for two weeks. If you wish to keep this from happening to a particular room, you
can set this option. (Keep in mind that Lobby>, Mail>, Aide>, any network rooms, and
any directory rooms are automatically permanent.)
Anonymous messages [No]? No
Ask users whether to make messages anonymous [No]? No
...you can have rooms in which all messages are automatically anonymous,
and you can have rooms in which users are prompted whether to make a message
anonymous when they enter it.
Room aide [Joe Responsible]:
...on larger systems, it helps to designate a person to be responsible for
a room. Room Aides have access to a restricted set of Aide commands, ONLY
when they are in the room in which they have this privilege. They can edit
the room, delete the room, delete and move messages, and invite or kick out
users (if it is a private room), but they cannot perform aide commands that
are not room-related (such as changing users access levels).
Save changes (y/n)? Yes
...this gives you an opportunity to back out, if you feel you really
messed things up while editing.
FILE DIRECTORIES
If you have created any directory rooms, you can attach file descriptions to
the filenames through a special file called "filedir". Each line contains
the name of a file in the directory, followed by a space and then a description
of the file, such as:
myfile.txt This is a description of my file.
phluff A phile phull of phluff!
...this would create file descriptions for the files 'myfile.txt' and 'phluff'
which would be displayed along with the directory. It should also be noted
that when users upload files to your system, they will be prompted for file
descriptions, which will be added to the 'filedir' file. If one does not
exist, it will be created.
EDITING USERS
This command allows any aide to change certain parameters of any user's
account. Entering this command will ask for the name of a user to edit, and
then prompt with the user's current access level, then ask for the new one.
0 - Marked for deletion
1 - New unvalidated user
2 - Problem user
3 - User with no network privileges
4 - Normal user
5 - Preferred user
6 - Aide
DELETING AND MOVING MESSAGES
Aides have the ability to delete and move messages; however, they must have
message prompting turned on in order to do this. After each message, the
normal prompt appears:
gain, ext message, top ->
Entering will delete the message. A (y/n) prompt will appear to confirm
that you really want to delete the message.
Entering will prompt for a room to move the message to.
SYSOP UTILITIES
There are a number of utilities which may be accessed from the shell. It
is up to the system operator to decide which should be "sysop" utilities and
which should be accessible to all shell users. Please see utils.doc for a
description of these programs.
CUSTOMIZING THE HELP FILES
The subdirectory called "help" contains your system's help files. There's
nothing hard-coded into the system that dictates what files should be there.
Whenever a user types the command "<.H>elp" followed by the name of a help
file, it displays the contents of that help file.
The help files that come with the system, of course, are enough to guide
a user through its operation. But you can add, change, or remove help files
to suit whatever is appropriate for your system.
Now for the fun part. There are several strings that you can put in help
files that will be automatically substituted with other strings. They are:
^nodename = The node name of your system on a Citadel/UX network
^humannode = Human-readable node name (also your node name on C86Net)
^fqdn = Your system's fully-qualified domain name
^username = The name of the user reading the help file
^usernum = The user number of the user reading the help file
^sysadm = The name of the system administraor (i.e., you)
^variantname = The name of the BBS software you're running
So, for example, you could create a help file which looked like:
"Lots of help, of course, is available right here on ^humannode. Of
course, if you still have trouble, you could always bug ^sysadm about it!"
CONCLUSION
For more information, visit the Citadel/UX web site at UNCENSORED! BBS
http://uncnsrd.mt-kisco.ny.us