ISCABBS

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ISCABBS, also known as ISCA, is a bulletin board system (BBS) based at the University of Iowa. Dave's own version of Citadel, an early branch of the Citadel/UX BBS software, was developed to run ISCA. Like most Citadels, the focus is almost entirely on conversation between users.

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[edit] History

Governed by, and named for the Iowa Student Computer Association (ISCA), ISCABBS was started in 1989. Previously a computer conferencing software program entitled "Participate" made by Unison (Iowa students referred to it as "Parti") resided on the University of Iowa's Prime mainframe computer (running the Primos operating system) and was accessible to all University students. Parti users developed a tradition of social picnics which exist to this day. Parti-picnic --> ISCAnic.

[edit] Precursors

Many of the Parti users had migrated over from a student created BBS called BBS1 (circa 1985) which was accessed from its creator's personal account "astran" on the University of Iowa mainframe computer PrimeA. It had been originally designed as a means for its creators to converse with one another. The board was promoted across campus on flyers placed in computer labs. Users took on handles and developed a culture of their own with socialization being the main use of the board. The software eventually was altered and passed around by a rogue sysop in a version known as "STEALTH" which could be compiled and executed on a users own personal account. The main message system files were no longer safe or private once the general user population learned the directory names. The anonymity of a handle was proven to be non-existent and the cracked software allowed anybody to read any file they chose and track users back to their originating personal accounts.

[edit] DOC creation

Several student programmers began to create an improved code using the Citadel framework. As several developers were named "Dave" - including two key developers of the early software - it was coined "Dave's own version of Citadel" or "DOC" (Note: Often, this has been written "Daves' own version..." to note the plurality of Daves involved in the project). The Daves include the project leader Dave Lacey who is now an M.D. Originally ISCABBS was run on the University of Iowa's Engineering Departments Iowa Computer Aided Engineering Network "ICAEN" and accessibile only by engineering students. However, soon ISCABBS was made available to all University of Iowa student and then to anyone with an internet connection. In addition to the BBS a file sharing system was made available for freeware and shareware.

[edit] Peak of popularity

At its peak just before the rise of the World Wide Web, it supported more than a thousand users online simultaneously and a virtual velvet-roped queue in which hundreds more waited to log in when the system was very busy. The popularity of ISCA as a meeting place, hangout, and occasionally a virtual dive bar gives a glimpse of what modern day chat rooms would become. Between serious discussion on topics ranging from social issues and politics to computer and home repair, lighthearted babble about almost any topic can be found. In addition, instant messaging (called eXpress Messages - or simply Xes - in the lingo of DOC BBSes and other citadel-derived systems) provides a venue for private discussion and conversation.

Before the rise of the Web, ISCA was one of the largest free public bulletin board systems in the world. It continues on today as a likely candidate for the most active telnet-based BBS in the world, followed closely by Eschwa BBS and ITESO BBS.

[edit] BFM

In the BFM (Big Freaking Mess), the President of ISCA turned over user information to the Campus Police. A Sysop felt this violated the confidentiality pledge and informed the BBS at large. This Sysop was sanctioned by another Sysop, who was in turn sanctioned by yet another Sysop who felt the original post should stand.

[edit] Moving to new software

At one point the BBS was poised to cut over to a new platform called Gestalt. It was a project developed almost entirely by Lee Brintle (also known as "Tanj"), an ISCA member and former BBS Sysop. ISCA (the Iowa Student Computer Association) was offered free license to use this new BBS platform which offered not only integration with the old BBS platform but also enabled developers to construct instant messaging, email, and web-based interfaces to the BBS, much like many modern messageboards have today. The cutover was scheduled for "sometime in 1998" and would have enabled the BBS to very easily run on commodity hardware (Intel PCs) rather than expensive, proprietary, and increasingly-hard-to-obtain HP workstations. Conflicts over licensing terms, ownership, and other interpersonal issues caused the cutover to Gestalt to never happen.

[edit] Moving away from the University of Iowa

The ISCA student group has created a non-profit organization (also called ISCA) and will separate from the University of Iowa on December 16th, 2006. The domain name has been changed to bbs.iscabbs.com from bbs.isca.uiowa.edu (the IP address will change on December 16th). Group meetings will now be held online instead of in-person in Iowa City. Membership in the NPO is currently open to current and former Sysops, former Policy Board members, and University of Iowa students between 1991 and 1997. The NPO is based in the state of Iowa. Post-university hosting arrangements are still being made at this time. The NPO will elect a seven-member policy board who will handle policy changes once the BBS has separated from the university.

[edit] Infrastructure

ISCA originally supported over a thousand simultaneous users on a 50 MHz PA-RISC system with 64MB of RAM, which ran HP-UX. Today, the system is 80 MHz with 128MB of RAM, though the active user base is much smaller. Connectivity was and is provided by the University of Iowa. Due to the popularity of the BBS and its limited resources, much effort went into shrinking the size of the BBS process in memory. Stripped-down versions of standard libraries were written that included only the handful of functions that the BBS required to operate.

[edit] Features

[edit] Topical discussion areas

ISCABBS has the capability of having 200 forums (formerly known as rooms) for discussion of assigned topics. Forum Moderators are assigned to each forum are responsible to ensure compliance with the topicality of the forum as well as ISCABBS boardwide Policy

[edit] Instant messaging

eXpress messaging is another functionality which allows users to send up to five lines of an instant or "express" message to another user. These messages are not permanently stored; only messages received and sent during the current user session can be reviewed.

[edit] Internal mailing

A special mail forum 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] Client interface

Multiple clients have been created to ease interface with ISCABBS, provide additional features as well as distribute a portion of ISCABBS's overhead from the ISCABBS 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. 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.

Note: it has since been revealed that email and eXpress messages are stored indefinitely.

[edit] XML feeds

Recently RSS feeds have been added at http://rss.iscabbs.com/ .

[edit] Other WWW features

In 2006 forum related web sites were officially implemented on the iscabb.com domain for some of the most popular forums. Eventually every forum will have a web site as a convenient place to host information and raise the BBSes profile:

[edit] Events

[edit] ISCANic

ISCABBS has semi-annual picnic or "ISCANIC" events held in Iowa City, Iowa, typically with parties and/or gatherings following. Recently annual camping or "CampNic" events have been added. Various regional "NICs" have been held on a more irregular schedule. These events have been held for nearly fifteen (15) years.

[edit] CampNic

Recently an annual "CampNic" is held at Whitebreast Campground at Lake Red Rock near Knoxville, IA for more "outdoorsey" meetings of the members of ISCABBS.

[edit] Inara BBS

In September of 2006, Inara BBS (bbs.inarabbs.com) formed. This BBS largely consists of current ISCABBS users as well as some former users. It uses a very similar code base, with a different policy philosophy.

[edit] ISCA NPO

On December 16th, control of the BBS will transfer to a non-profit organization, also known as ISCA.

Initial membership requirements for the NPO One of the following: •Former or Current Sysop •Former or Current Policy Board member •University of Iowa Student during the period from the 1991-92 school year to the 1996-97 school year.

Dues will likely be required for membership. These requirements will be loosened on 07-01-2007.

[edit] NPO Members

ISCA Handles of NPO members will be listed here soon after 12/16/2007

[edit] Board Members

A seven member board has been elected and handles will be listed here after 12/16/2007 Board elections will take place on a rotating schedule.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../i/s/c/ISCABBS_7b02.html"