Part Two to the "How to" of Sysoping: 3) MAINTAINING A BBS 3.1) Is it hard work maintaining a BBS? Yes and no. The amount of work you put it to your BBS is entirely up to you. Of course, the more work you put in to your BBS the better it will be. Maintaining your BBS *CAN* be hard work, but only if you are continually adding things on and making changes. If you are quite content to let your BBS be the same with limited additions then it is not hard work at all. 3.2) Will it cost me a lot of money to keep my BBS running? No. The *ONLY* regular payment I make towards my BBS is my monthly phonebill for the rent of my phoneline. If you have more than one phone line for your BBS it will cost a little more. If you use your modem to call other BBSs to get files for your own BBS then it'll cost you a little more still. But overall it is not a big sacrifice and if you're BBS is good enough you'll have people paying for more access before you know it, and you'll be able to make a healthy profit. (More on this subject in section 7). There are other costs which *CAN* occur sometimes such as computer problems, modem failures etc. But these do not occur very often and once the problem is fixed it is usually a long time before it will stuff up again. Probably the most common of these problems with hardware are hard drive crashes. Remember your hard drive is on *ALL THE TIME*, so it is bound to get a bit of wear and tear after a few years. But (believe it or not) it is *BETTER* to have your hard drive on all the time than to keep turning it on and off. So don't worry that you're killing your hard drive by having it on all the time, just think you're doing your hard drive a favour. :) Modems can also break down and die, but I do not know of any SysOps personally that it has happened to. The main cause of worry about your modems are storms. In severe electrical storms it is necessary to dissconnect your modem from the telephone line and turn your BBS off until the storm has passed, then boot it up again and reconnect the modem. One lightning strike can fry your modem and I am pretty sure it is not covered in any modem's warranties, so *BE CAREFUL* when there are storms about! 3.3) Will I be spending hours each day maintaining my BBS? No, I do not know of any SysOps that spend hours a day maintaining their BBS, except maybe on weekends when they have the spare time to do so. You are required, however, to log-on to your BBS every day to check your mailbox to see if any of your users have left you some mail with queries about the BBS. The file and message areas of your BBS do require some regular attention but I will go into that in greater detail in sections 4 and 5. 3.4) What exactly do I have to do to maintain my BBS? Apart from the File and Message areas (which will be mentioned in sections 4 and 5), and your personal mail-checking there isn't that much more you need to do to keep your BBS running satisfactorily. Of course it all depends on how many additional programs and games you have on your BBS, some of which might need a little time to maintain. ----------- 4) FILE AREAS 4.1) What exactly are File Areas? File areas are areas on your BBS which hold various software titles available for your users to download onto their machine for their own use. Each file area has an appropriate title such as "APOGEE GAMES" for the area where the Apogee Games are situated in. So if your users are looking to download Wolfenstein 3d or Commander Keen then they just look for the APOGEE GAMES file area and they can get that they are after without asking you where to look. The file areas have their own file list which has a list of all the files in each area and a small description of each file which is available for download. HINT - The more organised and well presented your file areas are the more popular your file area will be. If your files are all over the place in no particular order, not many people are going to call back again. 4.2) Do I *NEED* to have File Areas on my BBS? No, you do not *NEED* to have file areas on your BBS, but it is advisable. A few BBSs around the place dedicate their systems for very large message areas, or for a complicated chatting forum, but if you are not going to set up something like this, a file area is a good idea, so that users will have some reason to call back. 4.3) What types of Files do users like? The most popular types of files available to all BBS users are games. People love playing games, thats why they are popular on BBSs. Other programs, such as DOS Utilities, Music Players, Hardware Diagnostic programs etc, etc, are also popular. Informational files (such as this FAQ), are also quite popular on BBSs. Having a few sections with FAQs on how to set up computers, or how to grow grass, or how to make a kite are all things people will find interesting. Of course, there are the good old adult files, but I wont go into that just yet. Look ahead to section 9 for that. Some BBSs are dedicated to a certain theme, for example, lets say Star Trek. So their file area would basically be full of Star Trek stuff - games, information, TV scripts etc. This can be done but it is hard to find enough stuff for just one topic, so it is rare to see BBSs like this. 4.4) How many File Areas should I have? Anywhere from 10 to 1000, it is entirely up to you and the limit of your hard drive space. Just try to make sure you don't have too many files in each file area otherwise things can tend to get a little cluttered up, and your users will probably tell you so. If you have lots of files, then of course you are going to need more file areas, especially if you have a CD online. There are many CDs out there at the moment that are especially for BBSs such as the Night Owl Series. These have around 100 file areas on each CD, so you can understand having a CD-ROM on your BBS will definitely boost your BBS's popularity. File Area Guide Line - (Smallest - 20 File Areas) (Medium - 50-100 File Areas) (Large - > 100 File Areas) 4.5) Should I limit the number of files users can download each day? Yes, otherwise you'll get people calling and downloading as much as they can in their allotted time on your BBS. When your BBS first starts, then I would suggest allowing your users a pretty big download limit, then gradually cut it down as your BBS gains popularity. Use this next table as a guide - Your BBS's Age Download Limit Just Starting 1-3 Megabytes 3 Months 1 Megabyte 6 Months 750 Kilobytes 9 Months 500 Kilobytes 1 Year 300 Kilobytes Ok, well that is approximately the way I decreased the download limit on my BBS, and it seemed to work fine. Remember you have to get your users to *WANT* to call back and download more at first because you won't get many callers when you start up. If potential callers heard that your BBS only lets you download 100Kb a day, then they are *NOT* going to call you! It is all about getting lots of callers, so treat your users well! Eventually you will be able to charge people money to receive increased download access. (More on this in section 7) 4.6) Should I reward users who "Upload" Files to my BBS? That is entirely up to you - your BBS program can "reward" your users in several ways once they make an upload (ie. send files TO your BBS) - A) INCREASED TIME - most BBS programs can be set up to give users extra time on the BBS once they make an upload. This extra time is ONLY for that particular call, and it is usually calculated by a percentage of time taken for the upload. eg. If you set your BBS Upload reward percentage to 100% and the upload takes 20 minutes, then they will be given an extra 20 minutes *AFTER* the upload. B) INCREASED DOWNLOAD LIMIT - Some BBSs will offer users an increased download limit once they have uploaded a file to the BBS. So instead of only being able to download, say 300Kb, after the upload they will be able to download 500 Kb. C) FILE POINTS - Some BBSs have a File Points system where the users earn file points for each file they upload. These file points are in turn used to download files, so if they have enough file points banked up they will be able to download a pretty big file. It is totally up to you whether or not you reward your users for uploads, of course if you DO reward your users for uploads you can make a fair bet you'll get a lot more uploads than if you didn't reward them! 4.7) How do I maintain my File Areas? File Areas are usually the areas that take the longest to maintain, simply because you have to get new files for your system to replace the older out-dated ones. Two main rules for maintaining your File Areas are - A) GETTING *NEW* FILES - This is very important to keep your users happy. If you get new files every week for your BBS, but that I mean *LATEST RELEASE* stuff. For example, if Apogee bring out Commander Keen 14, then your users are going to expect that you are going to have it on your BBS. If they don't find the file they want they are just going to call one of the other BBSs in town - you *DONT* want that! B) DELETING *OLD* FILES - Once files have been on your BBS for a few years, then it is usually a good policy to get rid of them, because they tend to get out-dated very quickly in this ever-growing techno-world we live in. Once files are outdated nobody will download them and they just clutter up your File Areas. Refer to this table regarding old files - AGE OF FILE DO I DELETE IT? 1 Year No, keep it. 2 Years Hmm.. up to you. 3 Years Yep, get rid of it! 4 Years DEFINITELY! 5 Years JUST GET RID OF IT! Of course, if you have some old files that *ARE* useful, then don't delete them. This usually refers to old games and utilities that have been updated since and that are really not up to today's high standards. If you follow those two guidelines, as well as keeping the descriptions of files appropriate and informative, then your file area will be a success. 4.8) Do I need to put files on my BBS every day? No, that is not necessary. By all means, if you *WANT* to put new files on every day then go ahead, but a weekly or bi-weekly file maintenance session is usually sufficient. 4.9) Can I put commercial files on my BBS? *NO*!! Do *NOT* put commercial files (non-shareware/public domain) on your BBS. It is ILLEGAL and you will probably end up losing your computer, and being fined a lot of money, and maybe even end up in jail. Sysops that allow commercial files on their BBSs are usually running what is called a Pirate BBS. If you are thinking of starting one of these then *DONT*! You WILL get caught and there is a strong chance you'll never be a SysOp again, so steer clear of those crazy ideas man! ----------- þ