5) MESSAGE AREAS 5.1) What exactly are Message Areas? Message areas are similar to Usenet Newsgroups on the internet, the only different being they are limited to the users on your BBS. (They can be hooked up to others, that's coming up next) They are basically just a place on your BBS where users can communicate with eachother and with the Sysop. 5.2) What types of Message Areas should I have? There is usually a Private message area where users can write messages to the SysOp and vice versa. There are also private user to user message areas, as well as public ones where users can write to all the people that read the message areas. Specialist areas, such as a Star Trek message area are also very common, this is where all those Trekkies out there can talk about their favourite subject without annoying others! An example of a few message areas would be - Comments To/From Sysop Private User To User Chat Public Message Area Star Trek Talk Trading Post (Buy/Sell) TV Talk Sporting World etc.. etc.. You can have as many message areas as you wish, and they can be as diverse as you want also. Let your mind wander free, it is usually the strange message areas that are the most popular! 5.3) Should I base my Message Areas around one theme? It *CAN* be done, for example a sporting theme. So that all your message areas are about different sports being played around your country. Your users could all be sporting buffs, who call on a Monday morning and tell you how well they played golf on the weekend. If you are a self-proclaimed expert in one field, and you know quite a bit about one subject, then basing your message areas around that field is quite alright. Usually if you base your message areas around one theme, that will be the theme for your whole base. For example if you had the sporting theme, you BBS would probably be called "Sports World BBS" or something similar and you would have lots of sports files and games online. 5.4) What is "echomail"? Echomail is a form of inter-BBS message areas which can essentially link up your BBS's message area with a BBS in another state! It is called echo mail because the messages get "echoed" all over the country from BBS to BBS. To have echomail on your BBS you will have to have a front-end mailer set up (again this is getting technical, if somebody could help me out here I would be grateful!), and you will have to send and receive mail packets from other BBSs. There are many, many different echo "nets" around the place, they are basically just different message groups based around one theme. For example, there is one local to where I live called "Psychonet", so if that sounds appealing to you then echo mail is the way to go. 5.5) Can I have Usenet Newsgroups in my Message Areas? Yes, it is possible to have the Usenet Newsgroups in your message areas. You will have to have some sort of link with an internet server which can pass on mail to your BBS, then you can configure your BBS so that the Newsgroups will appear as message areas on your BBS. This is bound to gain your BBS popularity, as the internet is very popular, but it is rather difficult to set up, so wait until your BBS is established before you do this. 5.6) How do I maintain my Message Areas? Most message areas are very simple to maintain. Usually, you just have to configure your message area so that it automatically expunges out-date messages. Foul language and abusive messages also have to be deleted as you don't want to have lots of swearing and bad language on your BBS. Apart from those two requirements, you will not have to do anything else at all! ----------- 6) OTHER AREAS 6.1) What exactly are these "Doors" that I keep hearing about? C'mon baby, light my fire! (Sorry, couldn't help myself) :) Doors are otherwise known as Online Games and all other online programs which provide a "Door" from the BBS to an outside program or game. There are a *LOT* of doors out there that are easily installed onto most BBSs. These include adventure games, sporting games, match-making programs, chat forums and even online shopping centres! 6.2) How do I set up Doors on my BBS? Most doors are very simple to install on all BBSs. Each door will come with its own documentation to show you how to install and run it on your BBS. Doors require things called "Drop Files" to communicate with the BBS. These are generic files that your BBS will create automatically when it enters a door program. The drop file has information about the current user of the BBS which is needed by the door for it to correctly work. Information such as the user's name, baud rate and graphics capability are written in these drop files. For more information on installing doors and other online programs please refer to the upcoming BBS technical FAQ. 6.3) What other services can I have on my BBS? There are many services which you can provide for you users on your BBS. Match Making programs, Internet access, banking services, shopping services and even weather services can be installed on your BBS for your users to use. Of course the more of these services you have the more callers you are going to get. These extra services do require quite a lot of time to set up, and usually a little money too. But once you have an extra service that your users will want to use your BBS will become a LOT more popular and you will hopefully start to make a healthy profit. The services available to BBSs are nearly endless, it is up to you, the Sysop, to decide which services you wish to have on your BBS. ----------- 7) MAKING MONEY FROM SYSOPING 7.1) Can I make a profit from running a BBS? Yes, you most definitely can make a profit from running a BBS. Usually any profit you make will come from the users paying you to get increased access on your BBS. Most, if not all, BBSs these days will ask for a little monetary "donation" from the users if they wish to gain greater access. And with services such as the Internet now being provided through BBSs, SysOps can charge a substantial amount for their users to use this extra services. 7.2) How do I go about charging my users for access? Once you have a fairly popular BBS running with a few bells and whistles that will attract many users then you can think about asking users for a little "donation" if they want their access to be increased. The greater they want their access to be the larger the donation you should ask for. Here is a common pricing schedule that you will find on many BBSs - LEVEL TIME/DAY DOWNLOAD/DAY PRICE 1 60 Mins 2 Megs $10/Year 2 90 Mins 5 Megs $20/Year 3 120 Mins 8 Megs $35/Year You can charge as much or as little as you wish, whatever you think your users will pay for your services, is what you should ask for. 7.3) How do I make my users WANT to pay to use my BBS? Well, you can't *MAKE* your users do anything, thats a fact of life, but you can make your BBS attractive enough to your users for them to want to pay money to gain extra access. Here are a few things that'll help make your BBS popular - A) GOOD PRESENTATION - Presentation of your BBS is a very important factor when comparing your BBS to others. People like colour, they like to see a well set-out BBS that is easy to use and easy to find your way around. The moral of this story is - if your BBS LOOKS good then the battle for popularity is half over. B) RECENT FILES - As mentioned in section 4 of the FAQ having *NEW* files is very important! Remember to get new files every now and then and delete the old ones! C) WORTHWHILE MESSAGES - If you have 1000 message areas on your BBS and they are all very boring for your users then people are not going to read them! Try and have message areas for your BBS that people *ENJOY* to read. D) PROVIDE OTHER SERVICES - Providing services such as the Internet or a matchmaking service are great incentives for your users to pay a little donation, especially if they will get greater access to these services once they pay. The Internet is getting bigger and bigger on BBSs right now, if you want to try and make some money, try and get an internet connection hooked up, it will work. You can do anything you like to your BBS to make it popular, it is all up to your own imagination. 7.4) Is it legal to make money from my BBS? As far as I know, yes it is legal. As long as you are not providing adult files to children and making money that way, or providing commercial files, it is legal. It would be best to check with your local state laws though, just to be on the safe side. 7.5) If my BBS was large enough could running it be my full-time job? Yes, it is possible, but only once your BBS has been running for a long time, and it is rather large, with a lot of services. ------------ þ