Tips and Hints for setting up a successful TriBBS by Fire Escape

First if you don't have a dedicated computer for the BBS or plan on
needing the system a lot for other things, go ahead and set up TriBBS
from the start to run under a multitasker with a local node and a
remote node so that it will be easy to add additional nodes later if
you want. Once you get everything set up for a single node in DOS, it
will be much harder to convert it over for multinode use in Desqview
Windows or OS/2. 

Secondly, determine your user security levels in advance before you
create your menus and display files. Here is a copy of my security
levels and their restrictions as found in the DLIMITS.DAT file. It's
a GOOD guide to go by. Feel free to use it or modify it to meet your
BBS needs.

The following numbers represent the following in this order:
Security level, Time/day, calls/day, time/call, downloads/day, Bytes/day

TriBBS 5.1 and up has nifty and easy pulldown menus for configuring this crap
so you'll only need to create these DAT files by hand IF your version is 5.0 or
older.

5,17,2,17,0,0          ;Closed/Suspended accounts
9,82,10,12,0,0         ;Guest Account
10,42,3,22,5,150000    ;Unvalidated new user
11,22,2,22,2,50000     ;Incomplete registration
12,32,2,32,5,100000    ;Probationary account
15,52,3,32,10,525000   ;Bottom of sliding level ratio system 20:1 UL/DL
20,62,4,42,15,750000   ;Middle of sliding level ratio system 15:1 UL/DL
25,72,4,52,20,975000   ;Middle of sliding level ratio system 10:1 UL/DL
30,82,5,62,20,1500000  ;Top of sliding level ratio system 5:1 UL/DL
35,92,10,72,15,2097152 ;Message Base contributor
36,102,20,82,10,500000 ;Physically challenged level (non-paying)
40,92,20,82,0,2500000  ;$10.00 donation level
45,102,30,92,0,3500000 ;$15.00 donation level
46,102,20,92,0,0       ;Physically challenged level (paying)
50,122,40,92,0,0       ;$20.00 donation level
99,20,10,10,0,0        ;Netmail user level for QWK networking
100,240,50,120,0,0     ;Minimum sysop/co-sysop level
250,240,60,120,0,0     ;Maximum sysop level

The comments after the ";" do not GO in the DLIMITS.DAT file, they are only
there by way of explaination. 

Thirdly, decide in advance if you want any file ratios and set them up.
If you use the sliding levels ratio system this means the user's security
level will be adjusted up or down depending on an upload to downloads ratio.
ONLY the levels in your RATIOS.DAT file apply to the ratio adjusting or
download restricting system. If you don't want your new unvalidated users to be
instantly upgraded to the top of your ratio system then DO NOT include your
new user security level in your RATIOS.DAT file. Here is a copy of ours which
is a fairly good and pleaseing system to our users here who like being able to
decide what level they want to maintain simply by how much they upload.

30,5.0,0.0   ;Security level 30's have a 5 downloads per 1 upload ratio
25,10.0,0.0  ;Security level 25's have a 10 downloads per 1 upload ratio
20,15.0,0.0  ;Security level 20's have a 15 downloads per 1 upload ratio
15,0.0,0.0   ;Security 15's have no ratio so this is the bottom of the ladder

Again, the comments after the ";" do NOT go in the RATIOS.DAT file. In the
above system after validation if the user's security level is 15 or ABOVE,
the user falls subject to either a security level adjustment OR a download
restriction (depending on which manner of ratio systems you configure your
TriBBS to use) based on how much they upload in comparison to how much they
download. You don't have to set up a ratio system if you don't want to. But it
is the best way to fill up your hard disk and to entice user donations.

Fourthly, You need to decide if you want to allow the use of alias's on your
BBS. Many users prefer the anonymity of a handle but if you plan on carrying
many conference networks (some of which take a DIM VIEW of alias usage) you may
want to prohibit aliases.

Fifthly, You need to decide if you are going to carry any adult oriented
materials on your BBS and if you are take the necessary precautions to verify
user identities and ages and then install the necessary safegaurds to restrict
the access of underage users. I can't give you any tips on this part since I do
not bother with adult materials on my BBS. It's just less hassle and safer.
 
Sixthly, You need to decide if you are going to do any networking with other
BBSes. If so, decide if you want to do QWK packet networking through QWK Mail
nodes and script files or if you want to do FIDO-Sytle networking with a
frontdoor program and a netmail processor. If you plan on the latter, then it's
best to install and configure your networking software before moving on to
other less important things.
 
Seventhly, You will want to configure your .MNU's for all your BBS menus.
The .MNU files will determine which options are offered to which users of
the various security levels. Here is a sample of MAIN, MESSAGE and FILES
.MNU's:

MAIN.MNU

6,0,1,15
B,B,Bulletin Menu,10
M,M,Message Menu,10
F,F,File Menu,10
D,D,Door Menu,12
T,T,TeleChat Menu,100
Q,Q,Questionaire Menu,10
S,S,Sysop Menu,100
C,C,Comment to Sysop,5
A,A,Toggle ANSI Graphics Mode,5
R,R,Toggle RIPScrip Graphics,100
N,N,Newsletter,10
Y,Y,Your Personal Information,10
I,I,System Information,10
U,U,List of Users,10
W,W,Who's On,100
X,X,Expert Mode,10
P,P,Page Sysop,9
G,G,Goodbye,0

FILES.MNU

7,0,5,15
C,C,Change File Area,10
L,L,List Files,10
N,N,New Files,10
T,T,Text Search File Lists,10
U,U,Upload File,11
E,E,Edit Batch Queue,10
D,D,Download File,10
V,V,View Archive,10
R,R,Remove File,100
O,O,Move File,100
M,M,Main Menu,0
X,X,Expert Mode,10
P,P,Page Sysop,10
G,G,Goodbye,0

MESSAGE.MNU

7,0,2,15
C,C,Change Conference,10
E,E,Enter a Message,11
R,R,Read Messages,10
N,N,New Messages,10
Y,Y,Your Messages,10
S,S,Text Search Messages,10
Q,Q,Queue Conferences,10
M,M,Main Menu,0
X,X,Expert Mode,10
P,P,Page Sysop,10
G,G,Goodbye,0

Eightly, After you set up your MNU configurations, you MAY want to draw custom
screens for your menus instead of using the ones which TriBBS internally
creates based on your .MNU color codes. That's what those 4 numbers at the top
of the MNU files are for. They tell TriBBS what color scheme to use for your
internal built-in ANSI menus. Some Sysops find custom screens more
personalizing and like to make their own. This is done by drawing screens in an
ANSI editor, the most popular one being The Draw. It's available on most BSBes
under the name TDRAW###.ZIP (where ### is the version number). 

The thing to remember when making custom screens is that for your menus, you
should limit the screens to 80 columns wide and 16 lines in height. If you make
them taller than 16 lines then the top will scroll off the screen of the user
if you disable the more prompt or a more prompt will appear ans "break" the
screen in an annoying fashion. After you draw your screens in The Draw, you
save them using the appropriate file names for the menus. If you want just
one for all your security levels, you can name them simply MAINALL.ANS,
MESSALL.ANS and FILEALL.ANS. If you want various ones for the different levels
then you can name them using this scheme: MAIN10.ANS, MESS15.ANS or FILE20.ANS
where the number in the name corresponds to the security level which gets the
screen display. All menu custom screens go in NODE 1's DISPLAY directory.
I suggest that after you save the screens that you pull them up in your basic
no frills text editor and put the following codes at the top and the bottom of
each file:

@MOREOFF@ <== This goes on the first line of your .ANS file, it will prevent
              TriBBS from pausing the screen with a more prompt. The menu
              screen will paint continuously without a pause if this code is
              found at the top of the .ANS file for the screen in question.
              This is called an "@-VARIABLE" (Pronounced "at variable"). 
              ALL @-VARIABLES MUST BE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS!!!

@MOREON@ <== This reenables the More Prompt after the screen has painted.
             This goes at the very bottom of a display file on the last
             line.

Other @-Variables are explained in detail in the TRIBBS.DOC file found in the
TB51-1.ZIP or TB51-2.ZIP Archives.

You can make a custom ANSI LOGIN Screen for display after the user connects if
you want. Just draw it in The Draw and save it under the name "LOGON1.ANS" and
put it in the DISPLAY directory of your main node. Remember to keep your
screens (wether display screens, menus or logon screens) smaller than 80
columns and shorter than 16 lines. Save it with a Clear Screen command at the
fastest display speed "0". If you want to set up RIP graphics on your BBS all
you have to do is grab a RIP editor and draw rip screens with buttons for each
of the menu options. Save the files under the same naming scheme and instead of
a .ANS extension, give'em a .RIP extension, then enable the RIP graphics mode
in TriBBS's system configuration on the Waiting for caller's screen OR in
TRIMAN. Toggle "RIP" to "ON" or "YES" (whichever it is). TriBBS automatically
detects then if the user is calling in RIP emulation and displays any files
with the extension .RIP when it finds one in the DISPLAY directory.

Ninthly, Online games. If you want online games, TriBBS supports almost every
single door data file type there is except for WWIV's CHAIN.TXT's. You'll have
to convert those CHAIN files to something else to use WWIV doors. Be forewarned
that BBSes that offer a multitude of online programs and games will be
constantly buzy. So if you have messages or files in mind for an orientation
then you will want to be conservative on your onliners. Remember that ethically
you have to register every door program you run online unless it's FREEWARE and
being a game BBS can get costly then unless you have your users pay for the
doors one by one. Many sysops run an "Adopt-A-Door" program. Multiple users
pledge a few bucks for each game and in return get special access to that door
during the fund raising period. If you get 10 users to pledge 2 bucks each,
then a 20 dollar registration fee can be met at minimal cost to the sysop. This
is definitely the way to go if you plan on running many games.

Lastly and certainly not leastly, MAKE DAILY BACKUPS of all your Node files!
Everything in MWORK, NWORK and DISPLAY. All your files.lsts, all your
executables, .CFG's, .DAT's and .BAT's should be backed up every night onto a
tape or floppy. Especially all the user data files for your user records.
System crashes are not uncommon on BBSes and those backups can save your life.
If you are single node under DOS, run a TSR memory resident watchdog program
that will reboot your computer if it detects so many unanswered rings or if the
computer is "idle" for more than x number of hours on end. If you add a batch
file that automatically runs the BBS at bootup then your watchdog program will
bring your BBS back up if it should lock up while you are away from it. Users
really appreciate this feature. This isn't an option though if you go
multi-tasking in Windows or Desqview with multiple nodes.

Hope these tips and hints help you. There is a multitude of other things which
apply to setting up and running TriBBS smoothly but these are the basics. If
you have any unaddressed questions, you can write to Fire Escape c/o Fire
Escape's BBS Directory HQ at 314-741-9505 and get more specific information.
 
Good luck with your TriBBS
Fire Escape
