User:Cg2112/Inara BBS

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Inara BBS is the first text based BBS to gain popularity since 1989. This is particularly significant to internet culture, as text based bulliten board systems have become largely non-existant.

Inara BBS, also known as Inara, is a bulletin board system (BBS). It is populated primarily by current and former ISCABBS users, as well as users of other, lesser known telnet-based BBS systems. Like most Citadel based BBS systems, the focus is almost entirely on conversation between users.

Inara BBS currently runs vDOC code, a derivative of Dave's own version of Citadel (DOC), which is, in turn, a derivative of Citadel.

1 History
2 Philosphy
3 Software
4 User Controlled
5 Links

[edit] History

Inara BBS was starting on September 7, 2006. The goal was to create a fun environment without the red tape and internal infrastructure of ISCABBS and others. The idea was to create a user oriented text based bulliten board.

[edit] Philosphy

The policy philosophy on Inara BBS is very different in the telnet-based BBS culture. As opposed to Sysops who traditionally moderate over BBS-wide rules, the rules are left to individual administrators who are in charge of "rooms" or "forums" (these are the telnet BBS equivalent of discussion groups). There are a total of two Sysops, whose duties in that capacity consist of creating new rooms, validate new users, and assist users. There is no BBS-wide policy.

[edit] Software

Inara BBS currently runs vDOC code, a derivative of Dave's own version of Citadel (DOC), which is, in turn, a derivative of Citadel.

Currently, Inara BBS supports discussion forums, private Mail, as well as private instant messages known as "eXpress messages." There are discussion forums for most topics. The code supports virtually a limitless number of discussion forums. A departure from the traditional code found on ISCABBS are "doing" fields (a wholist will show how long a person is idle for, or if they are active, a small text string of their choice) as well as "vanity flags" which users can customize (essentially, a small title that a user can give him/herself.)

[edit] Topical discussion areas

Inara BBS has the capability of having virtually unlimited rooms (formerly known as forums) for discussion of assigned topics. Room Aides (or, RAs, formerly Forum Moderators) are assigned to each forum are responsible to ensure compliance with the topicality of the room.

[edit] Instant messaging

eXpress messaging is another functionality which allows users to send up to twenty lines of an instant or "eXpress" message to another user. These messages are permanently stored, and users can review older "eXpress" at any time.

[edit] Internal mailing

A special mail room allows for private messages of unlimited length to be sent to and from users. These messages are stored for a significant period of time (typically three to nine months).

[edit] Software Improvements

Inara BBS has implemented certain changes to the code at the request of the userbase. Some of these changes include: 20-line eXpress messages (as opposed to the typical 5), quirky "Goto" messages which show up when there are no new messages in the discussion forums,longer alloable login time (100 hours, as opposed to the traditional four hours), and eXpress messages which are saved indefinitely (as opposed to per session).

[edit] Client interface

Multiple clients have been created to ease interface with ISCABBS, and these clients generally work with Inara BBS, and provide additional features as well as distribute a portion of overhead from the Inara BBS machine to the client machine. Client programs gained popularity amongst BBS users during the mid-1990s, when client users were able to shorten their wait in queue before login on the more popular ICSABBS. Clients remain in common use for their various graphical, navigational, and communication functions, as well as one-click ease of connectivity. Clients can be found at BBSClient.net.

[edit] User Controlled

Inara BBS is largely user controlled and funded. Users decide what discussion forums they would like to have, what sort of community they\'d like to create, and ultimately, the sort of environment that exists. Additionally, Inara BBS is largely funded by users, who pooled together and purchased a new server for the BBS to run on, in response to a hardware fairlure that resulted in less than a day of down time.