Hey all. I ran a Talisman BBS (alpha complex) for quite a while, until
life came partly undone a couple years ago... Then, a couple months ago I
got the itch to return to my BBS and started playing around with BBS
software selection.

I went through the usual list -- all awesome software -- then I fell down
a DOS rabbit hole.

I had both Inquity and Renegade about 50% configured using Mystic as a
telnet server only, using doseum2 on Linux, but I soon ran into a bunch of limits with this method: file xfers, doors, general PITA with dosemu,
old issues, etc. I assume these are all addressable, but finally realized
that DOS software is best suited to Win 32 bit machines (which I don't have/want).

While I really love the nostaligia that DOS BBSs offer, I couldn't see it
being my main BBS (maybe spoiled by 'modern' amenities like full screen readers, SSH, QWK networks, ability to write my own doors as console apps, etc.). I really do admire those who are running those DOS-based setups.

So, this weekend, I fired up the latest Talisman version from Apam's repo,
and it became immediately clear to me why I chose Talisman in the first
place, all those years ago (beyond Apam's kindness and helpfulness): it's friggin' awesome.

There's so much under the hood, the LUA script labguage (like Mystic's MPL
or Iniquity's IPL) is very powerful for customization -- I built a
complete login matrix using it, a game -- and a lot of Taly's features use
it, like IBOL, Last Callers, Top 5 and Avatars. Plus, it's got a great full-screen reader, door support, custom fonts, hackable strings. And
it's reliable under Linux. Open source.

Anyway just a long post to say HELLO! and that I'm BAAAAACK (with
Talisman)...

Apam, I apologize in advance for the inevitable, forthcoming stupid
questions and feature requests (ha).

Cheers! Proverbial doors opening soon on R3TR0/X BBS!

.jA.

--- Talisman v0.48-dev (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: R3tr0/X BBS :: retrox.us:1992 (21:4/158)

Anyway just a long post to say HELLO! and that I'm BAAAAACK (with Talisman)...

Welcome back! Thankyou for the kind words :)

Apam, I apologize in advance for the inevitable, forthcoming stupid questions and feature requests (ha).

Hah, it's ok. Just don't ask for a configuration GUI. LOL. I would love a configuration GUI, but... soo much work.

Andrew


--- Talisman v0.49-dev (FreeBSD/amd64)
* Origin: Smuggler's Cove - scove.talismanbbs.com:2323 (21:1/182)

Apam, I apologize in advance for the inevitable, forthcoming stupid questions and feature requests (ha).

Hah, it's ok. Just don't ask for a configuration GUI. LOL. I would
love a
configuration GUI, but... soo much work.

Hahah, yeah totally understand it. Very used to the strctured text files
now, with Talisman, Engima 1/2, etc. Who needs a GUI anyway???

One thing I'm working on is documenting the MSGID strings, as I encounter
them. Pretty easy to search the Gitlab repo for the string and find it to override in strings.dat, I'll share if anyone wants it! Only about 13 so
far, mostly around user signup and login.

Oh, and it turns out that Talisman Matrix mod I wrote (Phenom) in Lua
waaaay back still works like a charm.

Cheers,

.jA.

--- Talisman v0.48-dev (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: R3tr0/X BBS :: retrox.us:1992 (21:4/158)

Hahah, yeah totally understand it. Very used to the strctured text
files
now, with Talisman, Engima 1/2, etc. Who needs a GUI anyway???

With the help of toolbelt to generate fragments for message bases (convertmsgna) it was a bit easier, but still a lot of work to set up
lots of message bases.

Seems like every single net has a different format for the file.na file
which was a bit of a pain.

I don't know if a gui would be quicker or not, I'd prefer to do a QT
based gui, but thats no good for headless linux setups.

them. Pretty easy to search the Gitlab repo for the string and find it
to
override in strings.dat, I'll share if anyone wants it! Only about 13
so
far, mostly around user signup and login.

Cool! I'm not sure anyones really used that feature yet, so if you
encounter any bugs let me know.

Oh, and it turns out that Talisman Matrix mod I wrote (Phenom) in Lua
waaaay back still works like a charm.

Cool, I haven't changed a lot with lua scripting, so not suprised, but
pleased it works :)

Andrew


--- Talisman v0.49-dev (FreeBSD/amd64)
* Origin: Smuggler's Cove - scove.talismanbbs.com:2323 (21:1/182)

Hah, it's ok. Just don't ask for a configuration GUI. LOL. I would configuration GUI, but... soo much work.

One thing I don't want. :) I've always prefered to configure my BBS
using my favorite txt editor then a GUI.


|09S|11hawn


--- Talisman v0.49-dev (Windows/x86)
* Origin: Tiny's BBS - tinysbbs.com:4323/ssh:4322 (21:1/222)

One thing I don't want. :) I've always prefered to configure my BBS
using my favorite txt editor then a GUI.

:)



--- Talisman v0.49-dev (FreeBSD/amd64)
* Origin: Smuggler's Cove - scove.talismanbbs.com:2323 (21:1/182)