Digital BW, The Print

I have a linux server running on a dedicated 2mbit connection and would 
be more than happy to provide free hosting for a DigitalBW BBS. What I 
don't have is a lot of time. I would want somebody to take 
responsibility of actually administering the BBS.

I have thought about this before, and setting up the BBS is the easy 
part. The hard part is importing the full archive, maintain the mailing 
list functionality, and importing all the previously registered users. 
I'm not even sure if something like that would be possible. I doubt 
Yahoo makes this information easily available.

I'm almost positive that setting up a new mailing list and BBS, 
requiring every user to register again, would meet a lot of resistance 
and die a not so slow death.

Photobrusher is right about the Yahoo web interface though. It really 
sucks big time. Searching through the archives is a joke. There's a lot 
of very good information hidden in the archives, but when nobody can 
find it we end up with the same questions repeated over and over again.

At some point Yahoo reduced the usability of the search a whole lot. Now 
you have to navigate through endless empty pages with a few search 
results scattered here and there. It must be one of the worst search 
implementations I have ever seen.

A good BBS would give us some advantages:

- We would be able to split the list into separate topics. Topics like 
'MIS inks', 'Printer problems', 'Scanning', 'QTR support' etc... come to 
mind.

- We would have a searchable archive of every post every made grouped 
into the thread each message belongs to.

- We could make certain threads 'Sticky' which would make them always 
stay on top above other new messasges. This could be posts or threads 
containing particularly useful information.

- We would be able to upload iamge and file attachments to the messages.

I doubt something like this will happen though (for the reasons 
mentioned above).

And I think the mailing list functions really well when you subscribe to 
it. In Thunderbird I get a threaded view of the list, can quickly 
navigate through new messages and easily search through the archive. I 
only wish I could import all messages posted before I started to 
subscribe so I could have the entire archive. I already have two years 
of postings though, so it's not too bad.

--
Daniel Staver
http://daniel.staver.no


What

> ALL Yahoo forums are the same?  I am guessing you are new to this.  There is
> no customization.  All of that "junk" at the bottom comes on every message
> from every Yahoo group I receive.
> 
> THE PITA is those who reply without chopping that off the original message;
> or, those that reply below all the garbage.
> 
> HOWEVER, using a dedicated server a wholly controlled BBS could be put up.
> But, it takes DONATIONS,  more time and attention, maintenance, etc.  Who
> would do all that?
> 
> If you have all the messages just sent to your e-mail address, it is much
> more organ ized and controllable.  I think that is what most of us do.