Shit what were my goals for today?
I was supposed to write some CSS, and install a BBS, and start that website where I help people solve tech problems.
Have I done any of that?
(the answer is no.)
In my defense, I've only been home from work for half an hour or so.
Alright, the CSS work is going to have to wait until tomorrow, because I need monitors and a mouse for that, and the lady is asleep and I don't want to bother her by being bright and awake at the desk near here.
So, that leaves the website where I help people and a BBS.
One is practical and will help me in the future.
The other is silly and borderline useless.
Guess I'm working on the BBS.
So, Right now I'm considering Syncronet and Mystic for my BBSing needs.
It looks like there are (a lot of) other options, including some new ones like x87 that might also be promising.
Right now, I'm trying to focus on utility. Which BBS software makes reading messages and viewing files the easiest?
maple classic™ 
@ajroach42 I've only ever tried Synchronet
it's feature rich but uh a pain to set up is my opinion on it
@squirrel I don't super mind things that are a pain to set up, as long as they aren't also a pain to maintain.
How is it from a users perspective?
@ajroach42 hm, your average bbs i'd say? had some trouble getting some door games working when i set up mine but then again that was a long time ago and i bet i'd know better now
@squirrel I'm trying to find a system that has interactive menus, rather than requiring you to type a number to access the menu (I've been told that's "Not the way" this is done, but I also know that this is being done in some software (I've seen it!) I just don't know *which* software.
@ajroach42 ahhh not synchronet then
synchronet is definitely an order by the number system
@squirrel Looks like Mystic has interactive menus.
going to go with mystic for now.
@ajroach42 @squirrel What about single keystrokes (probably mnemonic letters whenever possible) instead of numbers? A lot faster than arrow keys and people can navigate really fast once they learn the keys. You can even let people turn off printing of the menu, though that's a more useful feature with dumb terminals and slow modems.
@squirrel @ajroach42 Just realized Mystic doesn't seem to be open source. Have you checked out Citadel/UX by any chance? http://www.citadel.org
It was open source the last time I went to look for the source, but that was probably four or five years ago.
Did the developers move back to a closed source model while I wasn't watching?
And I have not used citadel. I posted about it here a few weeks ago when I was still trying to decide on a platform.
Have you used it?
@ajroach42 @squirrel I just can't find any mention of source code or a license on the site. I may just not be looking hard enough, so maybe false alarm.
I haven't use Citadel but I heard about it on FLOSS Weekly about a year ago and it sounded pretty awesome.
@squirrel @ajroach42 Trying it out via ssh at bbs@uncensored.citadel.org right now.
@ajroach42 Citadel seems very messge-oriented. There's forums, chat, and files, all oriented around "rooms" you can organize into "floors". Reminds me of the JDR Microdevices BBS that they set up for support but a bunch of people used just to chat with each other.
@seanl Message oriented isn't bad. A community message board is certainly what I'm after.
I just don't want to lose the ASCII/ANSI/Unicode art, files, and games aspect of things, and I feel like I would with citadel.
@ajroach42 WWIV looks a lot more BBS-y, supports door games, and is open source. Hasn't had a release in over a year, though. Don't recall if you mentioned it.
@seanl I don't think I've heard of that one before.
I'll look it up.
@ajroach42 http://www.wwivbbs.org/
Looks pretty well documented.
@seanl Thanks for sharing, I'll take a look.
@seanl I'm installing it now. So far the docs are great.
I'm settled on mystic. I'm going through their config docs and stuff now. Doesn't look *too* complicated. Plenty of places for ANSI art available in the theme, plus support for ANSI files in the files menu and the messages, and a whole scripted menu system that I can't wait to play with.
I'm going to have to sleep for a bit, but if you're serious about doing some art, we can talk about themes and stuff until I fall asleep and/or tomorrow?
@squirrel Darn.
Okay, I'll keep looking.
I don't really *mind* order by number, as such. but I think an interactive menu is more friendly to beginners.