Well here we are, coming up to the end of 2023 and a new year awaits.

I hope Christmas Day went smoothly for you whatever your circumstances.

I'm on holiday for a few days and have a few spare hours to do some bbsing :) My wife is in town shopping and I have Black Moonlight blaring from the sound system... it's a new Duran Duran track I like...

I've started playing with Mystic to see if I can get it running as a QWK gateway but thus far no dice.. seems the FTP stuff is eluding me at present. I'll posts some updates to the Mystic echo to see if anyone else has played in this space.

My parents health has remained a concern this year. My mum is declining and dementia maintains it's cruel hold on her quality of life. Visiting a few times a year is getting tougher as you never know when it's the last goodbye.

My dad is doing his best to cope with what is essentially a prolonged goodbye .. they have been an item since they were 16 and they now 81.. so not easy.

On the upside work has been OK with a bunch of changes in staff I work with (some old timers leaving and other younger folk arriving), I am so much an old timer hahaha..

Our kids are for the most part doing well, our grand daughter continues to grow and enters the teenager years (hold on white water rapids ahead!) in 2024.

I bought an EV and have been enjoying driving it. I like the tech in it and did the first update on the car yesterday... the sound system now works even better to that's a win...

As for bbsing... I plan to keep at the hobby and will try to dip in and out of the network a bit more often next year but it seems the intent can get offset by the day to day of life and demands of family... still... I'm not planning on going anywhere from this hobby.. it's a nice one in that you can pick it up and put it down and it still ticks along :)

A note of thanks for your involvement / usage of fsxNet in 2023, for your posts and chats in the echos... it's appreciated.

Righto back to QWK tussles... all the best for 2024 if we don't catch up prior.

Best, Paul

Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

On 29 Dec 2023, Avon said the following...

still... I'm not planning on going anywhere from this hobby.. it's a
nice one in that you can pick it up and put it down and it still ticks along :)

Glad to hear that! This remains my network of choice among the ones I've seen so far!

Righto back to QWK tussles... all the best for 2024 if we don't catch up prior.

Thanks, and wishing you a great 2024, too, Paul!

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)

I'm on holiday for a few days and have a few spare hours to do some bbsing :) My wife is in town shopping and I have Black Moonlight blaring from the sound system... it's a new Duran Duran track I like...

Sounds good, I don't know Duran Duran (I've heard of them, just don't know their music, though I'd probably recognize some tracks if I heard them)

I've started playing with Mystic to see if I can get it running as a QWK gateway but thus far no dice.. seems the FTP stuff is eluding me at present. I'll posts some updates to the Mystic echo to see if anyone else has played in this space.

Have you had any luck with this. I didn't know mystic supported acting as a QWK hub - I guess that's (relatively) new?

My parents health has remained a concern this year. My mum is declining and dementia maintains it's cruel hold on her quality of life. Visiting a few times a year is getting tougher as you never know when it's the last goodbye.

That's rough. Dementia is nasty.

I bought an EV and have been enjoying driving it. I like the tech in it and did the first update on the car yesterday... the sound system now works even better to that's a win...

What sort did you get? My brother in law worked for Tesla for many years, but was recently made redundant (right on his 40th birthday) I'm not an Elon fan, but Tesla make pretty good cars.

As for bbsing... I plan to keep at the hobby and will try to dip in and out of the network a bit more often next year but it seems the intent can get offset by the day to day of life and demands of family... still... I'm not planning on going anywhere from this hobby.. it's a nice one in that you can pick it up and put it down and it still ticks along :)

Yep, that's a good thing with BBSing, it can keep humming along in the background when you don't have time or energy for it, and is there ready to go when you do.

A note of thanks for your involvement / usage of fsxNet in 2023, for your posts and chats in the echos... it's appreciated.

Righto back to QWK tussles... all the best for 2024 if we don't catch up prior.

Good luck with the QWK. It's a shame there's no separate software to just run a hub for it.. (like HPT or something) I guess you're stuck with running either synchronet or mystic - are there any others that support running a QWK hub?

If you can't solve the mystic ftp issue, do you plan to spin up synchronet?

Andrew
--- Noddy git-2b8b935
* Origin: Smuggler's Cove - scove.talismanbbs.com:2323 (21:1/182)

still... I'm not planning on going anywhere from this hobby.. it's a
nice one in that you can pick it up and put it down and it still ticks along :)

I was playing Lemonade on my BBS, and found it _odd_ that I managed to beat my high score in the game (while not really noticing that the game was going _that_ well).

I hadn't played in about a month, either.

But my previous high score was from 2001. And I have played it many, many times since then (if not so much between 2003 and 2018).

And this, somehow, feels related to what you're saying.

Though perhaps it's also just, "...I broke a high score that I set two decades ago" feels like something I should post about to people who might understand the oddity of it all.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

On 30 Dec 2023, apam said the following...

Good luck with the QWK. It's a shame there's no separate software to
just run a hub for it.. (like HPT or something) I guess you're stuck
with running either synchronet or mystic - are there any others that support running a QWK hub?

iirc QWK networking is (was before Mystic/maybe others implemented it) Synchronet-specific.

maybe it was.. Wildcat? that had a QWK implementation also?

i don't think it's really very complicated.. just run the same scan for messages as a normal user, download the packet, import it into your BBS. i bet you could write a utility to mod whatever might actually be different in a generic QWK packet from any old BBS.. so everyone could be a HUB.. the import part is more special..

i duno if mystic implements it properly or not, but it does have some extra stuff for handling email like apam@QWKID .. so the QWK door/packager/
whatever would in this case need special access to the email base.

tbh i like it a lot more than FTN. it removes the same silly ceremony Sync
does wrt stuff like linking to their IRC network, etc. you come, you go, who cares. the BBS will trim your idle account and nobody will know.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi (21:1/616)

Well here we are, coming up to the end of 2023 and a new year awaits.

I hope Christmas Day went smoothly for you whatever your circumstances.

I'm on holiday for a few days and have a few spare hours to do some
bbsing :) My wife is in town shopping and I have Black Moonlight blaring from the sound system... it's a new Duran Duran track I like...

I've started playing with Mystic to see if I can get it running as a QWK gateway but thus far no dice.. seems the FTP stuff is eluding me at present. I'll posts some updates to the Mystic echo to see if anyone
else has played in this space.

Here's a link that hopefully may give you some added info on the qwk issues. https://wiki.synchro.net/howto:dove-net-for-mystic. It addresses how to access dove net using mystic via a qwk network.

ogg
Sysop, Altair IV BBS
altairiv.ddns.net:2323

... Multitasking: Reading in the bathroom

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Altair IV BBS (21:2/147)

On 30 Dec 2023, apam said the following...

Good luck with the QWK. It's a shame there's no separate software to just run a hub for it.. (like HPT or something) I guess you're stuck with running either synchronet or mystic - are there any others that support running a QWK hub?

iirc QWK networking is (was before Mystic/maybe others implemented it) Synchronet-specific.

Yeah.

i don't think it's really very complicated.. just run the same scan for messages as a normal user, download the packet, import it into your BBS. i bet
you could write a utility to mod whatever might actually be different in a generic QWK packet from any old BBS.. so everyone could be a HUB.. the import
part is more special..

The tricky part is distribution, everyone expects an ftp server that can dynamically create a QWK file to download on request. In my mind it would have made more sense to use HTTP, then you could just have a php script or something create the qwk packet - but I don't know the history.

Andrew


--- Noddy git-2b8b935
* Origin: Smuggler's Cove - scove.talismanbbs.com:2323 (21:1/182)

Re: Re: 2023 > 2024
By: apam to fusion on Sun Dec 31 2023 07:56 am

Howdy,

The tricky part is distribution, everyone expects an ftp server that can dynamically create a QWK file to download on request. In my mind it would have made more sense to use HTTP, then you could just have a php script or something create the qwk packet - but I don't know the history.

Sync also supports getting it over http.

I've thought about adding it to clrghouz - and if I did, it would only be over http. If there was a demand, I'd make time to do it - but if folks can only do it over ftp, then I'm unlikely to.

I could also make it available over zmodem - clrghouz already supports that for the EMSI mailers, so that might be an option too I guess...


...ëîåï
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Re: Re: 2023 > 2024
By: apam to fusion on Sun Dec 31 2023 07:56 am

Howdy,

The tricky part is distribution, everyone expects an ftp server that can dynamically create a QWK file to download on request. In my mind it would have made more sense to use HTTP, then you could just have a php script or
something create the qwk packet - but I don't know the history.

Sync also supports getting it over http.

Oh! I wasn't aware of that. Thanks.

Andrew



--- Noddy git-2b8b935
* Origin: Smuggler's Cove - scove.talismanbbs.com:2323 (21:1/182)

iirc QWK networking is (was before Mystic/maybe others implemented it)

maybe it was.. Wildcat? that had a QWK implementation also?

Shrug, I have recollection of some form of QWK "networking" back in the
90s... but I don't know who or how off hand...

Spec


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
--- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
* Origin: Good Luck and drive offensively! (21:3/101)

iirc QWK networking is (was before Mystic/maybe others implemented it) Synchronet-specific.

maybe it was.. Wildcat? that had a QWK implementation also?

QWK networking goes back pretty far. Several DOS based BBSes had either
built in or third party add-ons that allowed for QWK networking. The
ones I am aware of required the client/node to run a script to log onto
the host/hub bbs, access the QWK networking option/door and move the
packets. I am sure there were other more automated ways but that is the
way I was familiar with.

i don't think it's really very complicated.. just run the same scan
for
messages as a normal user, download the packet, import it into your
BBS. i bet
you could write a utility to mod whatever might actually be different
in a
generic QWK packet from any old BBS.. so everyone could be a HUB.. the import
part is more special..

There is/was a network status flag that allowed certain systems to upload messages not from the uploader. So you could not use just a regular user account because the BBS would reject messages from other users who were
not associated to the account uploading the REP packet.


--- Talisman v0.51-dev (Linux/armv7l)
* Origin: possumso.fsxnet.nz * telnet:2123/ssh:2122/ftelnet:80 (21:4/134)

On 30 Dec 2023, apam said the following...

The tricky part is distribution, everyone expects an ftp server that
can dynamically create a QWK file to download on request. In my mind
it would have made more sense to use HTTP, then you could just have a
php script or something create the qwk packet - but I don't know the history.

The history goes back to dial-up days when you had to dial in and have
the dialing software run a script to exchange packets with the hub. Some
BBSes may have had a more automated way of doing that, but it predates
the internet.

As for scripts, you can easily write scripts that use ftp also. I have
scripts that cron runs that call ncftp to move packets from my DOS BBS back/forth with a synchronet hub.



--- Talisman v0.51-dev (Linux/armv7l)
* Origin: possumso.fsxnet.nz * telnet:2123/ssh:2122/ftelnet:80 (21:4/134)

Re: 2023 > 2024
By: Avon to All on Fri Dec 29 2023 09:23:35

I've started playing with Mystic to see if I can get it running as a QWK gateway but thus far no dice.. seems the FTP stuff is eluding me at present. I'll posts some updates to the Mystic echo to see if anyone else has played this space.

It might prove easier to spin up a Synchronet instance, or to have someone who is running Synchronet to handle it.
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
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On 31 Dec 2023, deon said the following...

I've thought about adding it to clrghouz - and if I did, it would only
be over http. If there was a demand, I'd make time to do it - but if
folks can only do it over ftp, then I'm unlikely to.

mystic can use qwkpoll to import qwk packets that were previously wget-ed. so you're not stuck with qwkpoll doing ftp internally.. it just wouldn't be as automagic .. i think mystic by default will do "qwkpoll all" which would do nothing for a default config, but just automatically work if you add a qwk hub in mystic -cfg.. whereas you'd have to replace that event with a script to wget the packet, import it, check it was imported correctly.. have the script pass along the exitstatus so mystic is happy.. not as clean but certainly not venturing into hackish territory.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi (21:1/616)

As for scripts, you can easily write scripts that use ftp also. I have scripts that cron runs that call ncftp to move packets from my DOS BBS back/forth with a synchronet hub.

I was talking about the server side. Synchronet's ftp server creates a qwk packet when you request the download on the fly. A little like a php script might make some dynamic content when you request a http page.

I don't know if modern FTP servers that aren't specifically written to do that can.

Andrew
--- Noddy git-2b8b935
* Origin: Smuggler's Cove - scove.talismanbbs.com:2323 (21:1/182)

On 30 Dec 2023, apam said the following...

The tricky part is distribution, everyone expects an ftp server that
can dynamically create a QWK file to download on request. In my mind
it would have made more sense to use HTTP, then you could just have a
php script or something create the qwk packet - but I don't know the history.

The history goes back to dial-up days when you had to dial in and have
the dialing software run a script to exchange packets with the hub. Some BBSes may have had a more automated way of doing that, but it predates
the internet.

I was talking about the history of synchronet and why ftp was chosen over http. Deon has corrected me as http is also supported.

Andrew

--- Noddy git-2b8b935
* Origin: Smuggler's Cove - scove.talismanbbs.com:2323 (21:1/182)

Re: Re: 2023 > 2024
By: fusion to deon on Sun Dec 31 2023 02:31 pm

Howdy,

mystic can use qwkpoll to import qwk packets that were previously wget-ed. so you're not stuck with qwkpoll doing ftp internally.. it just wouldn't be as automagic .. i think mystic by default will do "qwkpoll all" which would do nothing for a default config, but just automatically work if you add a qwk hub in mystic -cfg.. whereas you'd have to replace that event with a script to wget the packet, import it, check it was imported correctly.. have the script pass along the exitstatus so mystic is happy.. not as clean but certainly not venturing into hackish territory.

For something like mystic, it might just be even more simpler to use binkp...?

I'd could even set up to wget normal packets (I actually have all the ground work in place to do this), so that it negates the need to use a mailer/binkp, and I think this would only be worthwhile if you were in scripting territory anyway (like if you were using a non-mailer BBS and didnt want to spin up a mailer to get/send packets)...?


...ëîåï
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