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howtobbs
howtobbs
howtobbs
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DON'T WASTE MONEY ON A SECOND PHONE LINE - You don't need it for
a part time board. You meet such interesting people who call at
3 a.m. looking for a modem tone. You did want to meet interest-
ing people, didn't you?
TAKE THE BBS DOWN WHENEVER THE NOTION STRIKES YOU - After all, it
is your computer. So what if you want to play Tetris at 8 pm.
The callers can just listen to a busy signal for a while.
Follow these simple rules and I can guarantee you will join the
vast majority of BBSs that fade into the sunset within months or
even weeks of starting up. Now, obviously, these are not serious
tips. Quite the opposite is true. There is much more to running
a BBS than just slapping a program and a modem on your computer
and waiting for the phone to ring. Let's look instead at some
positive suggestions to help make your efforts successful.
BE ORIGINAL - OK, you have your brand new BBS up. It's plain,
vanilla RBBS software, right out of the distribution files. They
even had those neat screens and menus in there all ready to go.
Now you sit back and wait for the callers to ooh and aah over
your lovely system. Don't hold your breath. Everyone got tired
of those screens long ago. Come up with something fresh. Call
distant BBSs and get ideas. Don't steal whole screens intact
unless the SysOp has packaged them for distribution. Even then,
make a few changes to make them your very own. This is one of
the best ways to demonstrate to callers that there really is
something special about your BBS.
SHOULD YOUR BBS HAVE A "THEME?" - Maybe. That's the best answer
I can give. Some theme and special purpose BBSs are very suc-
cessful, but the world probably doesn't need another BBS based on
Dungeons & Dragons. If you are going to give your system a
theme, make sure it is one that will be interesting to most
callers.
GIVE THE CALLERS WHAT THEY WANT - within reason. Listen to what
your users have to say about the system. ASK them what they like
and don't like. If the majority of them hate a particular fea-
ture, get rid of it. If most of them want something you don't
have, try to get it. Remember, they have choices. There are
plenty of other modems out there waiting to answer the phone.
MAKE IT AVAILABLE AS ADVERTISED - part time boards rarely suc-
ceed. Some stay around through sheer inertia...just because it's
too much trouble to take them down. Hardly anyone calls these
boards for long...especially if the operating hours are bizarre
and irregular. If it must be part time, make it regular. 24
hours is always best. Frankly, if you can't make the commitment
to a separate phone line, you really aren't ready to run a BBS.
The same goes for using the computer yourself...you promised it
would be available at certain hours. Unless there is a real
emergency, you aren't living up to a commitment unless you have
it on-line for the promised hours.
TREAT YOUR CALLERS LIKE FRIENDS AND WELCOME GUESTS - After all,
YOU invited these people into your home! It's true, some callers
are brainless twits. There have always been people like that and
there always will be. But remember, for every jerk that calls,
there are 9 or 10 really nice, interesting people. Concentrate
on the good folks and ignore the clowns...sooner or later they
will get tired and go away.
THINK ABOUT THE KIND OF BBS YOU LIKE TO CALL - Your callers
probably like the same things. Analyze the other BBSs you call.
What do you like about each? What do you dislike? Do you feel
welcome on some and like an intruder on others? Why? How will
someone else feel after calling your board? Will they want to
call again?
Keep these tips in mind and you will find that your BBS grows and
succeeds while countless others come and go. Why? Because you
treat callers with respect and consideration! Because you make
them feel welcome. Because you really care about what they like
and dislike. Because you put yourself in their place and look at
the situation as they do.