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56/70: Why Link became a sysop and other stuff...
Name: >UNKNOWN<
Date: >UNKNOWN<

Unlike a lot of other BBSes I've had the misfortune of calling in the past, I
set up Where the Wild Things Are for a reason - I couldn't find any other
boards that had what I was looking for, and I felt that a lot of people were
the same way.
Where the Wild Things Are is a compilation of the finest BBSes I had
called, and I watched other BBSes for 3 years before I even considered to put
mine up. Here's what I found, and why I did what I did...

The first BBS I called was Dimension X (defunct). I found out a year
later that there was a "Dimension X rule," much akin to Murphy's Law - "If you
have a silly sub, eventually the whole board will be contaminated." This was
true on Dimension X, as it is here. Revelers from the silly sub would
scramble all over, spoiling some subs beyond it that weren't silly. I tried
to avoid this by putting all the silly subs in one clump. That way, by the
time people were silly, the subs would cater to them. Should they ever burn
out of silliness, (I never did), then a few subs down the road would be more
straight and to their liking.

[PAUSE] w a lot of problems with another board, Drop Zone (defunct). I later
stopped calling it when I saw that the sysop never posted, never scanned his
files, and never did any work on the system. I figured that, if a sysop is
going to run a board, he's stuck to it. Reading the mail and the subs is only
the least of his duties, but if the sysop posts, the users will too. I've
seen a lot of subs where an introverted sysop throws out the token first post
and then ignores the computer for the rest of it's running time, until some
bored hacker crashes it. With the Drop Zone, the only posts were, "I'm only
posting this for the gold," and the sysop neither cared nor knew. The BBS I
set up had to avoid that - I'd never call a BBS with no conversation.

A lot of systems catered to leeches. Big mistake. I first got into
Online games from a system named The Inquisition (defunct). That was the
board. Onliners.
If a board has more onliners than subs, then that board has a serious
problem. Expecially if the board has the gold mod in it. Rows and rows of
"K-rad wairz" posts and that's it. The onliners are fun, but not *THAT* fun.
I consider them a reward or relaxation after an n-scan. When I start calling
a board just for my turns at Spouse DieNasty, then I stop calling.

Pirate boards, don't make me laugh. Stan assures me that 9600 pirate
boards are genuinely good. I have to believe him, everybody knows I'm a 2400
lamer. The 2400 boards, tho, have about 3 or so "Haha, this'll really fool the fedz" subs with no conversation on them, and about 20 k-rad pirate subs that
consist pretty much of, "Do you have Spamquest ]I['s crack, d00d?" The file
[PAUSE] re large, of course, but host mode can have a large file section too, without wading thru the bore of having to use your brain and post. 'Sides, at
2400, files take years to downleech, and that cuts out your callers
considerably. I've heard a sysop of a pirate board brag that he had 50-60%
activity. Sure. With 12 hours of your day devoted to 6 users leeching
Spamquest ]I[, you'd better believe you'll have a high daily activity. But I
laugh at the posting. No piracy on WTWTA didn't mean that I don't support it,
just that l00zer pirates will have to go elsewhere to leech k-rad wairz. (Real sysops are supposed to claim piracy is the anti-stiletto, but you know me
better than that)

The no-profanity rule oyed people. I just didn't see how swearing was a good
form of expression. For a board dedicated to users being silly and having a
good time, the use of "adult" language depletes that feeling. I know that *I*
don't feel silly after reading a post full of "Phucc you, shlitzhead!!!" in
blinky red. With the creative ways people wriggled around that rule, I
laughed, specially with Stray's "sucked big donkey!" Everybody knows what
Stray means, but somehow it's not vulgar when you make light of it, and that's
exactly what I wanted.

Too many boards cater to a couple of users. I'm afraid the Duke's Domain fits
into that category. If you're not on the "in" list, then you feel
uncomfortable until you either leave, become a leech, or get deleted. There's
just no way to break into that "in" crowd. I know on a few boards I just gave
up trying to fit in and stole all the files I could before getting deleted.
Trempex Console (defunct) had me feeling uncomfortable because the sysop didn't really like me, the users didn't really care, and it was over-modded, to boot.
[PAUSE] lly, I just became a leech (nothing else to do!) and stopped calling
after I took what I needed to start WTWTA. Sysops have to care enough about
people to dedicate their time, machines, and moeny to them. I welcomed
everybody pretty much with open arms, and it was only *AFTER* they disproved my assumption that they were good users that I took any action (or inaction, as
the case may be) against them.

(continued later)





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