Kk - sounds like these aren't online but... theres gotta be a 'best'
WWiV in
2024. :P Someone will say it.

Yeah, mine :D.

Kidding.

No, but really...

heheh.
→ 
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

Kk - sounds like these aren't online but... theres gotta be a 'best' WWiV in
2024. :P Someone will say it.

Yeah, mine :D.
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA

See - theres the answer I was looking for. The Weather Station is the best WWiV board in 2024. :P



|07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
|08.........

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (11:1/230)

See - theres the answer I was looking for. The Weather Station is the best WWiV board in 2024. :P

Appeciate the positive comments. Mine is "classic" however, where the main code is still WWIV 4.24a with pieces of 4.30 and a boat load of mods from over the years back in the day. It still using Borland C as a compiler, too. The nodes also run on eCS 2.2, so technically very DOS friendly.

I can't get my BBS nodes to run on Windows or anything other than OS/2 or DOS. It isn't compatible due to spawn/swap routines that require DOS.

I still would like to run a modern WWIV next to my classic version. Just need to find the time.

- Mark

:.: Weather Station BBS · telnet://bbs.weather-station.org :.: :.: http://www.weather-station.org/bbs · Bel Air, Maryland - USA :.:
      
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

On Friday,May 17, 2024 at 11:42 AM, Paulie420 (11:1/230)@8304.Wwivnet-Ftn wrote:

To.......... Phigan #1@137.Wwivnet

Kk - sounds like these aren't online but... theres gotta be a

'best'

WWiV in
2024. :P Someone will say it.

Yeah, mine :D.
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA

See - theres the answer I was looking for. The Weather Station is the
best
WWiV board in 2024. :P

|07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
|08.........

Paulie,

There are quite a few menu features built into the new WWIV 5.9X that allow for tons of customization like Mystic does. Aside from needing ANSI's and basic linux stuff working (BBSlink, Gopher, Python ..) I'm close to opening my WWIV BBS. Marks is by far the most modded BBS and LOVE his board, especially the 4.2x vibe, brings back TONS of memories.

I look forward to showing you and others the capabilities of a modern WWIV system using nothing but the fuctions built into WWIV (for now). The two areas (ok three) that WWIV could improve from a customization process are:

1. Offer a prelogin in menu form and turning things like last callers, automessage, oneliners, network traffic, file requests, etc. into menu commands so that we can personalize and lengthen the login process as desired. I'd like to be able to say have: Ansi file, Ansi file, last callers, ansi file, oneliners, ansi file, network traffic, ansi file with File request, new scan filez and message bases, check for mail, land on main menu (or whichever menu desired ..) as mystic does. Currently it source code and or understanding the WWIV login scripting much better than I do within the wwiv.ini file.

2. A manual or something for WWIV Basic scripting so we can write mods. The gr eat thing about the scripting is that we don't need to touch the source code to add cool stuff to WWIV. The downwside is that I haven't touched basic computer language since my C64 days and have no clue the syntax of basic, let alone WWIV basic. I'm a bit nervous getting into the WWIV source code to mod as that would likely mean me manually porting my mods over everytime a new version of WWIV came out. However atm I am unable to see a way to update strings colors and text without sifting the source code in some cases. BUT I could be wrong on that last part (strings), there are .json files I have yet to explore
(Think prompt editor in Mystic .. one for WWIV would be nice ..)

3. Getting doors to work in linux, (isn't that always the pain in the butt?) I'd love to see an easier way to do this. The DOSEMU directions need updated to whatever works these days (DOSbox or DOSEMU2?)

Outside of that, I'm so impressed with WWIV. I really love working with it. RUSH FAN and team have just done a great job making the SysOp experience easier to customize a BBS, while still keeping the clunky old school feel of BBSing truly ASCII. I just LOVE WWIV and WWIVnet. I'm so impressed, I may just keep this BBS to be exclusively a WWIVnet BBS and maybe start an FTN using this WWIV machine just to see if I can? I have a name, secret for now :)

Anyway, to answer your question, YES Mark's is really nice. I would also say add bbs.stardoc132.com:2323, alcoholidaybbs.com:94 (closed system but bet it's amazing,) and Blood Stone. I know I'm missing a few but each system has put good work into making their systems non "stock" and more custom with their own spin. Stardoc has great doors and runs a TW2002 server (I think, right?) And so many more ... I call each for different reasons, a few have extensive file sections of WWIV related content (not from the wwivftn site).

Anyway, good topic, more to come ..

|11R|153|11C|110|11N

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (11:1/230)

--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

There are quite a few menu features built into the new WWIV 5.9X that
allow for tons of customization like Mystic does. Aside from needing
ANSI's and basic linux stuff working (BBSlink, Gopher, Python ..) I'm
close to opening my WWIV BBS. Marks is by far the most modded BBS and LOVE his board, especially the 4.2x vibe, brings back TONS of memories.

Appreciate the positive comments! One of my goals since I returned to BBSing was to keep the old classic going (much like some of my old vehicles) no matter what changes over the years.

It is also great we have modern development. Rushfan has done a fantastic job on adding much of what I have as mods, into native WWIV.

Always great to hear all the people keeping our great hobby alive.

- Mark

:.: Weather Station BBS · telnet://bbs.weather-station.org :.: :.: http://www.weather-station.org/bbs · Bel Air, Maryland - USA :.:
      
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

Yeah, mine :D.
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA

See - theres the answer I was looking for. The Weather Station is the
best
WWiV board in 2024. :P

Heeeeey! How'd that happen?! :/

Does my origin line say weather station?!
Or are you just messin with me? :)

 
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

On Saturday,June 01, 2024 at 18:48, Recon wrote:

I look forward to showing you and others the capabilities of a modern
WWIV system using nothing but the fuctions built into WWIV (for now).
The two areas (ok three) that WWIV could improve from a customization process are:

I love that you've jumped in and are beating the bushes. We've had a lull for a while and fresh energy is a big help. :-)

--
GranitePenguin

_-----_
/(^)_(^)\ The Wretched Beagle - Re-established 2014
|\_/#\_/| telnet://bbs.wretchedbeagle.com
\_/\-/\_/

            
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

I so envy you having saved your highly modded 4.2x BBS man .. Mine got lost on a Zip Drive Disk a good 20 years ago. If I recall the Zip Drive finally gave out and I just discarded it as I never thought I'd need some "old files from my single days" now married. Who knew CV19 would stir up so much nostalgia and time to totally dig in like it was 1985 and spend the days modding BBSes. I started with C-Net on a C64 but in 1989-1991ish I got my first 8088 and immediatly went to WWIV. I just loved it being open source. I'm not sure everyone appreciates how incredibly hard it was everytime Wayne Bell came out with a new shiny version, getting mods transferred over to the new code, but I did it with love and excitement over each new version I grabbed from my local distribution BBS. It's also great to see you carrying on WWIVnet, there just isn't a network like it. It's hard to explain to anyone who's never run a WWIV board, to only need one network and to have hundreds of message areas to subscribe to (and not always guaranteed to be given access,) as opposed to multiple FTN's. I did really like the text mode vibe of ICEnet and wish a version could be spun up on a modern WWIV BBS, but WWIVnet was just incredible (and still is). So thanks for all you do Mr. Mark, mucho appreciated. Hopefully someone younger and healthier than those of us closer to retirement is waiting in line to have the batton passed along to so WWIVnet is not left on a "Way back machine" some day.

Rushfan most definetly created an amazing *thing*. I remember being a part of a lot of the requests, along with many others (alpha, apam, and many more) during the big overall to the menu editor and wide screen displays. It's so close to not "needing" the source code but still extremely unique and nice that it's readily available to mod if one desires. I just wish I had a bit more energy to learn whatever language .bas Basic Scripting (Assuming Free Basic) is in .. I'm sure its .. basic. It have so many ideas for my new WWIV BBS, now I just need another 2 years of being able to stay home (minus any pandemic) to shred out a nice system and learn.

|11R|153|11C|110|11N

On Thursday,June 06, 2024 at 07:32 PM, Weatherman wrote:

RE: Re: Best WWIV board
BY: Recon #1 @126

There are quite a few menu features built into the new WWIV 5.9X that allow for tons of customization like Mystic does. Aside from needing ANSI's and basic linux stuff working (BBSlink, Gopher, Python ..) I'm close to opening my WWIV BBS. Marks is by far the most modded BBS
and LOVE
his board, especially the 4.2x vibe, brings back TONS of memories.

Appreciate the positive comments! One of my goals since I returned to BBSing was to keep the old classic going (much like some of my old
vehicles) no matter what changes over the years.

It is also great we have modern development. Rushfan has done a
fantastic job on adding much of what I have as mods, into native WWIV.

Always great to hear all the people keeping our great hobby alive.

- Mark
♦1
♦2:.: Weather Station BBS ·
telnet://bbs.weather-station.org :.:
♦3:.: http://www.weather-station.org/bbs · Bel Air, Maryland
- USA :.:

--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

On Friday,June 07, 2024 at 01:56 PM, Granitepenguin wrote:

Well not my first go at WWIV since 2019 but this time here to stay. And thank you. I think really need a few guys to put what time they have into using some of the latest features of the newer version and showcase how awesome WWIV really is. I'm excited about it and just always really love the group here. So glad to be back and once I have all of the "this is where system.msg goes" gone I'll soft open lol!

RE: Re: Best WWIV board
BY: Recon #1 @126
On Saturday,June 01, 2024 at 18:48, Recon wrote:

I look forward to showing you and others the capabilities of a modern WWIV system using nothing but the fuctions built into WWIV (for
now).
The two areas (ok three) that WWIV could improve from a customization process are:

I love that you've jumped in and are beating the bushes. We've had a
lull for a while and fresh energy is a big help. :-)

--
GranitePenguin
♦1
♦2 _-----_
♦3/(^)_(^)\ The Wretched Beagle - Re-established 2014
♦4|\_/#\_/| telnet://bbs.wretchedbeagle.com
♦5\_/\-/\_/
♦6

--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

more) displays. It's so close to not "needing" the source code but
more) still extremely unique and nice that it's readily available to mod more) if one desires. I just wish I had a bit more energy to learn
more) whatever language .bas Basic Scripting (Assuming Free Basic) is in more) .. I'm sure its .. basic. It have so many ideas for my new WWIV

We use my_basic (an open source basic) and embed that into WWIV for WWIVbasic, there's a good PDF documentationf or my_basic. At some point (with enough free time), I'd do my own basic compiler and compile it to WASM and update WWIV to run anything that WASM can using WASMI for the interface (that'd unlock infinite possibilities now that the WASI interfaces are getting standardized), but for now it's my_basic. here's their pdf docs:

https://github.com/paladin-t/my_basic/blob/master/MY-BASIC%20Quick%20Reference.p df

Also lots of good info on his github wiki on using the basic language. For WWIV I document the APIS we have available:

https://docs.wwivbbs.org/en/latest/cfg/wwivbasic/

between having a menu command to run a script, and any event that is defined in wwiv.ini being able to run a script instead of an external, it's pretty extensible.

Glad you like it, I tried to make everything as self-service as possible.

For WWIV itself, you can now even use github codespaces to develop it and run/test locally on their linux terminal.

rushfan



--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

I so envy you having saved your highly modded 4.2x BBS man .. Mine got
lost on

I learned early on that backups are one of the most important things. Basically if you don't have backups, you are ok with the data getting lost.

In the early days I did lots of WWIV modding (1984 or so timeframe). I put off getting a tape backup unit and ended up having an issue where I lost months worth of custom mods. After that disaster, I became a backup fanatic which follows me to this day.

I'm just happy there are still people interested in BBSing and WWIV that still stay in touch and participate here.

I will say that there was a period of time I was offline from BBSing - maybe two year or so. I had recently divorsed and moved and my BBS PC was old and I ended up not powering it back on at the time. I remembering thinking that I wouldn't be able to run it much longer anyway since it would only run on super old hardware. Then virtualization changed everything. Once that became a thing, I decided to try and virtualize my original OS/2 physical PC to see if I could get it back online.

The process worked and I'm still here. Everything just runs on VMs on a server that I run (24) different VMs anyway. It costs me nothing more to do this and I'm no longer tied to hardware, so I can continue to run the classic BBS on even some of the most modern servers available. Very cool!

- Mark

:.: Weather Station BBS · telnet://bbs.weather-station.org :.: :.: http://www.weather-station.org/bbs · Bel Air, Maryland - USA :.:
      
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

On Sunday,June 09, 2024 at 17:57, Weatherman wrote:

I learned early on that backups are one of the most important things. Basically if you don't have backups, you are ok with the data getting
lost.

In the early days I did lots of WWIV modding (1984 or so timeframe). I
put off getting a tape backup unit and ended up having an issue where I
lost months worth of custom mods. After that disaster, I became a
backup fanatic which follows me to this day.

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those that do backups, and those that haven't lost something important yet.

--
GranitePenguin

_-----_
/(^)_(^)\ The Wretched Beagle - Re-established 2014
|\_/#\_/| telnet://bbs.wretchedbeagle.com
\_/\-/\_/

            
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those that do backups, and
those that haven't lost something important yet.

Yes, and fortunately I learned that lesson early. I still remember it very clearly. I was around 21 years old, had an apartment with an old girlfriend, money was tight. I kept putting off buying the tape backup. Bad move.

That is what turned me into a backup fanatic. I run two different backups on most everything. I use Veeam to backup my VMs - keeping 31 days of them. I also use Veritas Backup Exec, backing those images up once a week and keep 3 images of each. I also ensure the images are on different physical systems at home so if needed, I can restore the system that has all the disk images.

I dedicate (3) 14TB drives just for image backups. It is RAID5, so 28TB usable storage just for backups.

- Mark

:.: Weather Station BBS · telnet://bbs.weather-station.org :.: :.: http://www.weather-station.org/bbs · Bel Air, Maryland - USA :.:
      
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

On Monday,June 10, 2024 at 06:02, Weatherman wrote:

Yes, and fortunately I learned that lesson early. I still remember it
very clearly. I was around 21 years old, had an apartment with an old girlfriend, money was tight. I kept putting off buying the tape backup.
Bad move.

I think what irritates me the most is that people think cloud sync is a backup. All that does for you is gives you a way to replicate your failures. ;-)

--
GranitePenguin


_-----_
/(^)_(^)\ The Wretched Beagle - Re-established 2014
|\_/#\_/| telnet://bbs.wretchedbeagle.com
\_/\-/\_/

            
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

I think what irritates me the most is that people think cloud sync is a backup. All that does for you is gives you a way to replicate your
failures. ;-)

lol. Yes, accidentally delete the local file and it replicates the deletion to the cloud. Making sure you have no data. :)

- Mark

:.: Weather Station BBS · telnet://bbs.weather-station.org :.: :.: http://www.weather-station.org/bbs · Bel Air, Maryland - USA :.:
      
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those that do backups, and
those that haven't lost something important yet.

thats what raid is for right? lol

┌─────┐┌──┐──┐ ┌──┐ ┌─────┐┌─────┐┌─────┐ ┌──┐ ┌─────┐ bbs.outpost9.co:2023 │ ┬ ││ │ │┌┘ ┴─┐│ ──┘ ││ ┬ ││ ───┴┐┌┘ ┴─┐│ └── │
│ │ ││ ┘ │└┐ ┬─┘│ ┌──┘│ │ │├───┐ │└┐ ┬─┘└──┐ │ https://outpost9.co
│ ┴ │││ │ │ │ │ │ ┴ ││ ─┘ │ │ ││ │ WWiVNet node @138 └─────┘└─────┘ └──┘ └──┘ └─────┘└──────┘ └──┘└──┘ Maryland, USA

               
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

On Tuesday,June 11, 2024 at 00:15, Veeb0rg wrote:

RE: Re: Best WWIV board
BY: Granitepenguin #1 @90

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those that do
backups, and
those that haven't lost something important yet.

thats what raid is for right? lol

The number of times I've restored a server because the RAID failed... ugh.
My "favorite" one was when a disk failed so we put in for a drive swap, and the cage was physically labeled backwards so they swapped the wrong drive and killed the RAID. Good times.

--
GranitePenguin

_-----_
/(^)_(^)\ The Wretched Beagle - Re-established 2014
|\_/#\_/| telnet://bbs.wretchedbeagle.com
\_/\-/\_/

p ╞"→
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

The number of times I've restored a server because the RAID failed... ugh. My "favorite" one was when a disk failed so we put in for a drive swap,
and the cage was physically labeled backwards so they swapped the wrong drive and killed the RAID. Good times.

Yup, you gotta love when that happens. I view RAID just what is really is. I spare drive to lower the risk of complete loss. Certainly not a replacement for backups.

There is plenty of content I don't backup due to the massive size that would be required. All that stuff could technically be re-downloaded, so while it would be a giant pain, it could be done.

On the RAID volumes for that content, I also keep a spare drive on hand ready for swapping right away as soon as I see issues. I have swapped many drives over the years (mostly Seagates), with no issues. HGST/Hitachi which is now part of Western Digital makes the absolute best drives you can buy. The enterprise drives might be a bit more loud, but they last forever. I buy them in bulk used and they are fantastic.

- Mark

:.: Weather Station BBS · telnet://bbs.weather-station.org :.: :.: http://www.weather-station.org/bbs · Bel Air, Maryland - USA :.:
      
--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

On Sunday,June 09, 2024 at 09:50 AM, Rushfan wrote:

We use my_basic (an open source basic) and embed that into WWIV for WWIVbasic, there's a good PDF documentationf or my_basic. At some point (with enough free time), I'd do my own basic compiler and compile it to
WASM and update WWIV to run anything that WASM can using WASMI for the interface (that'd unlock infinite possibilities now that the WASI
interfaces are getting standardized), but for now it's my_basic. here's their pdf docs:

https://github.com/paladin-t/my_basic/blob/master/MY-BASIC%20Quick%20Ref erence.p df

Also lots of good info on his github wiki on using the basic language.
For WWIV I document the APIS we have available:

https://docs.wwivbbs.org/en/latest/cfg/wwivbasic/

Ok thank you, I will have to bookmark the github docs as I never know which is more current between that and wwivbbs.org, however collectively it sounds helpful. Is WWIVBasic able to do things such as save one liner (user inputed) to a text file yet? The wwivbbs.org site refers only to a GLOBAL data file which linux (I put a ticket in for this) is not able to write to. It does not appear to be a file permissions issue either (Ubuntu latest version ..)

between having a menu command to run a script, and any event that is
defined in wwiv.ini being able to run a script instead of an external,
it's pretty extensible.

Ok this answered my question, I think. So .bas files can not currently REPLACE a function from within lilo.c, as an example, such as for the purpose of customizing the last caller list to say .. populate to specific x/y positions from within an ansi file, without modding lilo.c itself? Is there any plans or reasons for not making the login process a menu command for more customized logins? From what I understand, I can use the logon event within wwiv.ini to write a .bas file however it would be to ADD to the existing login sequence, not replace. So it would be beneficial for calling a .sh script for a Discord web hook loading a door program, displaying a WWIV.ANS file, etc... however not necessarily replacing functions or choosing their order. For that I would still use lilo.c and compile?

Glad you like it, I tried to make everything as self-service as
possible.

Yes for the most part its super user friendly and fun. I love the changes over the past 4 years Rushfah, serisouly work was put into this. I'm really enjoying building this out. It's a learning curve like anything, and less time these days to sit around and dinker with hobbies, but something I focus on at least weekly. Thank you for all your efforts on this!

For WWIV itself, you can now even use github codespaces to develop it
and run/test locally on their linux terminal.

Ok this is 100% new to me. I'll have to check this out !!!

|11R|153|11C|110|11N


--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)

not able to write to. It does not appear to be a file permissions
issue either (Ubuntu latest version ..)

Yes, when I can get some time to dig into that I will, it's tough since it seems to work for me.

Currently wwivbasic can only load and save from it's "data" classes, which can be GLOBAL or USER scoped. You can try user to see if that works. user just has the user number encoded into part of the filename. The reason I didn't allow it to read or write somewhere else was to minimize any risk of someone using it for bad things and keep it sandboxed.

would be beneficial for calling a .sh script for a Discord web hook
loading a door program, displaying a WWIV.ANS file, etc... however not necessarily replacing functions or choosing their order. For that I
would still use lilo.c and compile?

Yes, you are correct.

I'm really enjoying building this out. It's a learning curve like anything, and less time these days to sit around and dinker with
hobbies, but something I focus on at least weekly. Thank you for all
your efforts on this!

I'm glad it's fun for you as well, it's been a hobby for me since '87 when I started bbsing and for wwiv5 since '99 when I started a windows port during the 4.3 development cycle and that turned into 5.x


rushfan


--- WWIVToss v.1.52
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (11:1/101.0)