 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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ONE BBSCON
My employers sent me to ONE BBSCON, a major BBS convention that was held this time in Atlanta, Georgia. This is all rather exciting if one is "into" BBSs and communications but frightfully boring if not.
It was not aimed at the "budget" market, which cuts out most 1-4 line BBS sysops. Many of the USA sysops ran big systems, some around 200 lines! The 2500 attendees were not just sysops; many were users or potential sysops.
Melb PC sent Barry McMenomy and Allan Michelmore as its official reps to this event. They are documenting their findings for members to read but I'd like to add some remarks here.
Melb PC spends a lot of money sending reps to Fall Comdex each year and to interstate meetings with user groups, even though Borland and Microsoft have sponsored some of us in the past. We learn a lot by sharing experiences with other user groups, particularly when done in person, as at Comdex. This is more so when it is done in the home territory of the host user group.
In Atlanta I met two user group presidents with similar names: Bob Blum and Bob Bloom, which created its own comedy of errors. What was very pleasing for me was to see Barry and Allan swap ideas and experiences with several members of the Atlanta PC Users Group with great enthusiasm and enjoy the experience. Trouble is, they want to go back to Atlanta next year!
Bob McDearmid, the former president of the Atlanta group took us to a CompUSA computer supermarket and it took all of us to keep Barry from getting overexcited at the range and prices of the goodies. If you visit the US, you should ask to see such a store.
Our Internet Service
Richard Solly and I are testing SLIP on the Internet service and once we can track time usage on the terminal server and the committee decides an appropriate fee, we will offer SLIP accounts to existing subscribers. We are not sure whether to wait for AARNet to announce volume charging or do it sooner. If you have an opinion, post it on melbpc.general but not in private mail.
You now have "unlimited" time on melbpc.org.au. Of course, there is a catch. Member Ian Quick wrote an excellent program that warns you when your 90 minutes have expired and, if some unused lines are available, gives you additional time. When those lines are used up, you get the boot. Not one complaint has been received about time allocations since we implemented this program! Thank you, Ian.
We now have 350 users and it is still easy to log in. As before, there will be another settling-in period before the waiting list is opened. New users need extra time when they are in the "gee whiz" phase, but we noticed that the old hands have now settled into a pattern. Many seem to check their mail and log off within minutes.
Some users did not read the dire warnings in earlier editorials that told them not to expect much help in getting started. Some continue to send inappropriate questions to admin instead of asking in melbpc.general. If nobody can help you within melbpc, there are 20 million users out there who could, so become familiar with the news.* newsgroups and read what you can about the UNIX operating system. If you are willing to help others, please send mail to richard and ask to be placed in the Help alias.
We cannot emphasise enough how important it is to maintain net etiquette, regardless of how others behave. If you breach netiquette and create unnecessary work for us, you will lose your account, for that is what you agreed on your application form. Your choice of language might be acceptable in some newsgroups but not in others.
Future Internet Services
The following is a statement of direction, not necessarily how it will pan out. Who knows, volume charging might even prove to be too hard a nut to crack and we might be forced to limit our services.
In July next year we hope to move melbpc to our premises and connect it to the BBS. This will be an expensive exercise but we will have better access to the machine. Before BBS users get too excited, this means that only Internet subscribers will be able to get to the BBS from melbpc and vice versa.
The BBS will benefit by sharing the files that are ftp'd by melbpc subscribers. We will share a 64-port terminal server with the BBS, with 16 lines dedicated to melbpc. The BBS will eventually use the other 48 lines as you will see elsewhere in this issue. The BBS will get a TCP/IP connection and will be on the same Ethernet as the Internet service. The terminal server needs a UNIX box, which we will put in place later this year and which may or may not be run as a parallel Internet service with its own subscribers, until melbpc is linked with it next July. We are aiming to use multiple PCs than "place all eggs in one basket". You might wonder what would happen if the terminal server died but we are reliably informed that this is an extremely rare occurrence.
The Name: "Melb PC"
The official nickname of this Melbourne PC User Group is "Melb PC", so please support that convention by refraining from calling us "MPCUG" or "PC User". The former is an accurate abbreviation but does not convey the same impression as Melb PC. PC User is the name of a British magazine and there is an Australian PC User magazine too.
Melb PC is not a "user's group"; it is a "user group". To confuse matters further, our Internet machine is "melbpc". Take pride in your user group and know its proper name.
Reprinted from the October 1994 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
