Ever wonder just how difficult it is to run a forum?

[Blue Devil]

I guess what I'm getting at is that RPGsite is the "call an ass an ass" zone. RPGnet is the "play nice or else" room, RPGLounge is the newborn "we're in the middle ground" spot.

We are a talk about rpgs and some other stuff forum.   We have some great people right now.  The only moderation I have had to do was to move threads because they were posted in the wrong place (and that was because in the begining I was setting the site up so fast my discriptions were not completely clear.  so that's my bad).

[James McMurray]

That wasn't meant as a dig or anything, just the way the place feels to me. I like it, and wish there were more posters there. Unfortunately the stuff that crosses my mind usually gets posted here and/or on the board for the game I'm playing at the time, and it feels odd to post it multiple places, especially with the overlap of forumites between here and there.

Speaking of which, I just posted a new topic there. Get over and fill my game with fresh new ideas!

[NYTFLYR]

The HEXeditor is your friend.  ANSi software that converts GIFs et al into ANSi is your worst nightmare, but if you find a good ANSi editor then creating a logo to put at the front end of your BBS can be easy.  Granted if you decide to choose a giant red demon some people may complain, especially if they are logging in under 14.4 baud but, well, smaller can work too.

The BIG problem I always had was with doors.  Those were a pain and a half to set up and don't even get me started about the problems I ran into when I tried to put up the game I spent time modifying and tweaking, in PAS, or the problems with compiling it!

I do my ANSI without any conversions (well thats not entirly true, I did find a neat BMP to ANSI converter, but you had to do a LOT of work after the conversion, and it was only in B&W). The doors are easy, Ive never had a problem with them, and if I did, they usually werent worth setting up in the first place.

[Kester Pelagius]

I do my ANSI without any conversions (well thats not entirly true, I did find a neat BMP to ANSI converter, but you had to do a LOT of work after the conversion, and it was only in B&W). The doors are easy, Ive never had a problem with them, and if I did, they usually werent worth setting up in the first place.

So you've never had problems with older games and fossil.sys or fossil.drv or whatever it was?

I just clicked the link in your sig and all I have to say is O-M-F-G!  Legend of the Red Dragon!  Tradewars!  Yankee Trader!  (Darned Ferrengi!)

I have to ask.  What mods do you have running in TW?

If you have the time see if you can Google up a copy of "Time of Chaos".  It was a ANSi rogue-like (sort of) PA RPG that you could set-up to run as a semi-functional BBS.  At least I did that, purely by accident, for a week once much to my users amusement.  Fun times!

[Serious Paul]

I guess what I'm getting at is that RPGsite is the "call an ass an ass" zone. RPGnet is the "play nice or else" room, RPGLounge is the newborn "we're in the middle ground" spot.

You should consider Bulldrek or AnimalBall. Both have a pretty large group of active gamers, as well as a lot of people who aren't gamers but have an interest in many things gamers do: movies, books, television, etc...

Both have incredibly hands off moderating teams, and short of actually breaking the boards for amusement I don't know if either has ever banned a user. (I know Bulldrek has not.) Even Pundit couldn't make couldn't rabble rouse well enough to earn more than a few chuckles. (I'm a much better rabble rouser when I feel like it. Luckily I am a lazy man.)

[Zalmoxis]

Getting a board off the ground is very difficult and requires a lot of time recruiting and tweaking. I know this because I've been doing just that for the past 7 months. I like it though. It's challenging.

[Kester Pelagius]

So I've set up a voting poll to decide on whether or not to install global moderators, a board issue that I felt needed addressing.  Several views but no votes so far.  I guess that's democracy in action.

I've also discovered that a lot of what I'd thought you'd be able to do I apparently can't.  Change the min/max of an avatars size?  Check.  Change the max size of an avatar members can upload.  Not.  Install fresh new custom avatars for the members to choose from?  Not.

However I did learn a few things I didn't know before.  Mostly management related.  Which is all fairly boring.

So the lesson learned today is: Free is as free does, or rather what it allows you to do.  Or, as your momma used to say: You get what you pay for!

Still nice BB.  *knock on wood* And I, at least, haven't inadvertantly done anything to make it implode.

[Kester Pelagius]

Getting a board off the ground is very difficult and requires a lot of time recruiting and tweaking. I know this because I've been doing just that for the past 7 months. I like it though. It's challenging.

And yet you gave no link and didn't put one in your sig!  :rolleyes:


 

[NYTFLYR]

So you've never had problems with older games and fossil.sys or fossil.drv or whatever it was?

nope, infact up until recently Synchronet didnt even support games that didnt have fossil support. I used TriBBS prior to that and it was also simple to set up the fossil doors, at least from what I remember... that was 8 years ago

The hardest part about the door games is finding the ones that people will actually play (outside of the big 3 TW, BRE and LORD)

I have to ask.  What mods do you have running in TW?

None, it is a straight game, nobody has requested any, I dont have the time to invest in TW so I dont play

If you have the time see if you can Google up a copy of "Time of Chaos".  It was a ANSi rogue-like (sort of) PA RPG that you could set-up to run as a semi-functional BBS.  At least I did that, purely by accident, for a week once much to my users amusement.  Fun times!

doing that now...

[Kester Pelagius]

I learned something very valuable today.  When posting, be yourself.

I wanted to be helpful and, fresh from the high of a new forum install with trivial knowledge floating around my head like planets around a red giant, I apparently had that spectre hubris looming.  Ah, yes, that spectre that only enthusiasm seems to summon.

You see I wanted to post something informative, a suggestion, just a simple post that, any other time, I probably would have just said "I remember so and so saying" but, now, being all, yeah, I have a forum, I know things and stuff, well, I kinda do, instead came off apparently sounding  haughty or self-important or some such nonce.  Which, you know, as someone who used to run a BBS I should have remembered there's an old golden rule. .

Don’t sound like you're talking like a SysOp on someone else's board.

I really hadn't even thought about the fact someone might read the post and say to themselves, hey, here's a Admin from some other board trying to sound all like, yeah, I know stuff.  *giggle*  Okay, time to deflate that dumbkoff before he does damage.

So, yeah, the incident was nicely handled via PM and me, after facing that spectral hubris with a +1 Vorpal sword, well, I now have be to aware that, wow, if I'm going to type something that sounds like it's remotely related to board operation I probably better think twice about hitting submit.

Let that be a lesson to anyone thinking of setting up a forum.  Just because you have one doesn't mean you know anything, and even if you do know something, best leave it to the staff at whatever board to talk about it because, you know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Now a moment of silence to think about the thankless jobs of admins and mod staff while we wait for those same moderators and admins reading this thread pick themselves up off the floor.  Or go ahead and keep laughing, whatever floats your boat.

[Kester Pelagius]

nope, infact up until recently Synchronet didnt even support games that didnt have fossil support. I used TriBBS prior to that and it was also simple to set up the fossil doors, at least from what I remember... that was 8 years ago

Yeah TriBBS was a little better with setting up doors, though I don't think it had as many as some other platforms did.  Still better than MajorBBS!

Plus TriBBS had that native QWK support and a message network.

None, it is a straight game, nobody has requested any, I dont have the time to invest in TW so I dont play

TW without even Spacedock?

doing that now...

If it's half as fun as I remember- well when you have a lot of people logged in it can be fun, so if you don't have multi-node support it may be boring- your users should really enjoy it.  Granted there's a LOT of wandering through the desert and, IIRC, searching for items.  Mostly items from the dead who wandered the wastes before you but. .

[RPGPundit]

I learned something very valuable today.  When posting, be yourself.

I wanted to be helpful and, fresh from the high of a new forum install with trivial knowledge floating around my head like planets around a red giant, I apparently had that spectre hubris looming.  Ah, yes, that spectre that only enthusiasm seems to summon.

You see I wanted to post something informative, a suggestion, just a simple post that, any other time, I probably would have just said "I remember so and so saying" but, now, being all, yeah, I have a forum, I know things and stuff, well, I kinda do, instead came off apparently sounding  haughty or self-important or some such nonce.  Which, you know, as someone who used to run a BBS I should have remembered there's an old golden rule. .

Don't sound like you're talking like a SysOp on someone else's board.

I really hadn't even thought about the fact someone might read the post and say to themselves, hey, here's a Admin from some other board trying to sound all like, yeah, I know stuff.  *giggle*  Okay, time to deflate that dumbkoff before he does damage.

So, yeah, the incident was nicely handled via PM and me, after facing that spectral hubris with a +1 Vorpal sword, well, I now have be to aware that, wow, if I'm going to type something that sounds like it's remotely related to board operation I probably better think twice about hitting submit.

Let that be a lesson to anyone thinking of setting up a forum.  Just because you have one doesn't mean you know anything, and even if you do know something, best leave it to the staff at whatever board to talk about it because, you know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Now a moment of silence to think about the thankless jobs of admins and mod staff while we wait for those same moderators and admins reading this thread pick themselves up off the floor.  Or go ahead and keep laughing, whatever floats your boat.

Huh? :confused:

You aren't talking about anything that happened here, are you??

RPGPundit

[Kester Pelagius]

Huh? :confused:

I've lefted RPGPundit confused and speechless!  

I should get a T-shirt for that.  

You aren't talking about anything that happened here, are you??

Drat, he found his tongue.  

It's nothing that happened here.  Aside from the threads that explode with multi-pages full of posts that leave me behind in the dust of conversations I've not had any problems here AFAIK.

*knock on wood*

[Kester Pelagius]

Greetings All,

I think I'll make this my last post, as I'm sure many have grown tired of these running monologues by now.  

So what have I learned about installing and running forums?

Obviously it's barely been a week so I haven't really learned too much about running a forum but, as I ran a BBS many years ago, I can tell you there's a world of difference.  At least where a free forum is concerned.

I know this much: There is a dedicated version of the software I am running that you, apparently, can install yourself.  This, of course, costs money.  However if you are installing the software yourself there is a WORLD of difference between the sorts of customizing you can do with it.

A free forum is hosted on a machine in, well, it could be Taiwan or the basement of the Central Intelligence Agency for all anyone knows!  That means you don't have to worry about the day-to-day problems of having a server.  However it also means you don't actually have access to the full install of the software, which means you can't really do much of anything except change style sheets and some fluffy bunny graphics and maybe, if you're lucky, get a plug-in modification or two.

Now, here's what you need to know about "mods" and free forum software.  They come in two types:

1) Little code snippets that you can use to alter some surface features.  If you know how to code in Java then you can probably do some really neat stuff without ever having access to the full files.  However most of us will be relegated to . .

2) Third party plug-ins.  There's nothing wrong with these, necessarily, except for the fact that if you don't have access to the install of your board that means you are going to have to either find a off-site host for the executables or, as is more likely the case, decide whether or no to use a host service offering software on their machines.

Now that just seems like a big security risk to me.  What do you really know about the software?  The host service?

As a former SysOp I can tell you that third party software should be looked on with the trust one gives to an elephant in a china shop.  Backdoors are relatively easy to code and, I'm guessing, if someone is savvy enough to code a mod for your BB they can easily code themselves backdoor access to it.

So what I've learned, in a nutshell, is Forums, while surprisingly simple to set up, can be more trouble than they are worth.  Think long and hard before setting one up.  Though, if you are curious, I have to admit using a free forum host service can be a great way to get some basic experience.  Basically what you're given is a fully functional, if bare bones, demo to play with.  Which can be both instructional and a lot of fun.  (Initially.)

Just be aware if you do set up a free forum you probably wont have neat stuff like a chat room or a blog for your members.  Though you may be able to set up a "graffiti wall" but don't expect to be able to put up a section for posting reviews or an arcade without using a third party plug-in.  But if you feel comfortable doing so go right ahead.  I've seen quite few boards with really nice third party plug-ins.

So, there you have, that's basically what I've learned about this whole forum business.  Which, really, isn't much.  So I leave you with the following words of wisdom that someone else thought up:

• You do get what you pay for.
• The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
• Pride goeth before the fall.
• No good deed goes unpunished.

Thanks for reading.  Peace!

Kind Regards,

Kester Pelagius
#

Addendum: Something else about having a third party "free" hosted forum, it can apparently disappear without warning and you have no way of knowing if the server's gone down or it's been hacked, deleted, or the host servers are down for maintenance.

   Inability to access other forums on the same host, while providing circumstantial evidence for a host issue, actually tell you nothing.  What's the problem?  It could be a server issue, a denial of service attack against the host, hackers could have wiped data, or the server could have been taken out in the opening salvo of WW III and you're just lucky to live in the tail end of BFE and not heard about the end of the world yet.  Or your ISP connection could just suck.

   The simple facts are you just don't know what's going on nor do you have any way of finding out, much less addressing the issue.  If you plan to be an absentee landlord your board could actually go down for periods of time and you may never know unless someone e-mails you.  Otherwise you're likely to log in one day and find PMs asking where the board went, assuming it was just a minimal downtime and you actually have a decent sized member base.

   Which also means, if you don't, you may never even be aware that the reason why might be because of "issues" beyond your ken or control.