Telegard

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Telegard is an early bulletin board system (BBS) software program written for IBM PC-compatible computers running MS-DOS and OS/2 and is best known as the predecessor of Renegade, one of the most popular BBS software packages written for DOS, and many other BBS software based from the Telegard code. Telegard was written in Pascal with routines written in C++ and assembly language, based on an unauthorized copy of the WWIV source code, and released in 1986, making it one of the earlier BBS packages for that platform. [1]

Contents

[edit] History

The Telegard FAQ that is distributed with the current Telegard BBS program archive addresses Telegard's somewhat murky history:

None of the history contained herein should be considered gospel. There are many rumours and half-truths swirling around the history of Telegard, and only the recent history has been recorded.

Wayne Bell is considered the "Godfather" of Telegard, which was based off early publicly distributed versions of Bell's WWIV BBS software in pascal (this part of history is still in contention by some...).

Carl Mueller obtained that code and improved on it, creating the first versions of Telegard.

Eric Oman took over the code, and improved Carl's work. He was inexperienced however and had to call upon his then friend Martin Pollard. Todd Bolitho would later join the team. Several versions were released during this time, culminating in the 2.5 standard release. Shortly afterward, Todd left the team due to "creative differences" with Martin. Eric left due to it being "not fun anymore". Martin, left alone, continued development work on Telegard until he was slapped with a legal lawsuit by Eric which temporarily stopped development (see section below "Minor Rebuttal by Eric Oman"). At that point, the latest standard release was still 2.5, but the beta versions 2.5i, 2.5j and 2.5q were floating around for use.

Telegard did not die, however, as version 2.7 would come out in 1991. This last version would be the mainstay of Telegard systems for years to come, while Telegard development would continue behind closed doors until Martins departure in 1993.

In September 1993 the Telegard project was handed over to Tim Strike, a utility author and Telegard beta site. In November 1993, the code changeover was complete, and by December 1993 the first beta version was available to the beta team (2.80.b1). The first 3 betas would mark the restoration of features that 2.80.b1 had gutted, and by 2.80.b4 the message, file and door routines had been rewritten. 2.80.b5 marked the introduction of Jam and Squish, and 2.80.b6 was the debut of the new file system. After almost a year and a half of development, the first public version of the new Telegard would be released as a gamma version, 2.99.g1 in July 1995. Telegard 3.0 would be released a year later, quickly followed by the patch versions 3.01 and 3.02. A year later, in November 1997, the first gamma version for the 3.10 series would be released, 3.09.g1.

A more emotional farewell message came from Martin Pollard himself, late in 1991, and widely distributed in the BBS community at the time:

*******************************************************************************
  From: Martin Pollard                                Msg Num:    66 of   108
    To: All                                          Date: 08 Dec 91  03:07:09
  Subj: So long, and thanks for all the fish...
  Attr: Sent                                                          Read: N
  Conf: Telegard BETA Discussion
*******************************************************************************
MSGID: 1:120/187 2941e46d
PID: TeleMail 1.50
On December 13th, 1991, the TELEGARD conference will be removed from the
FidoNet EchoMail backbone, and the Telegard software will come to an end.
This is being done for various reasons... but first, a little history...

I have been with Telegard almost since the beginning... close to three years.
When it was first released by Carl Mueller, it was little more than the WWIV
version 3.21 public domain source code with Carl's name on it.  At the time,
Carl was involved in a number of illegal activities, such as hacking,
phreaking, credit card fraud, and software piracy.  Telegard was originally
intended to be used by his friends who were into the same activities.

As time went on, Carl added modifications to the software, and people began to
take an interest in the software.  It mainly attracted software pirates
because of its ability to hide pirated files.  It was also full of back doors
so that Carl could hack into any board running it and have full SysOp access.

Carl eventually got caught and busted for phone phreaking (the charges were
eventually dropped), and the source code was turned over to Eric Oman, who
removed the back doors and continued to modify it.  Later on, Todd Bolitho
joined the Alpha team in an organizational capacity, and I joined as Alpha and
co-programmer by version 1.8.  After version 2.4 I was doing almost all of the
programming.  It was around this time that the TELEGARD conference was placed
on the FidoNet EchoMail backbone, as version 2.5 was enhanced to support
EchoMail.

During these three years, we've seen the software grow quite a bit, and its
popularity along with it.  Unfortunately, its reputation as a pirate BBS
preceded it, and has been an albatross around the neck of the developers
since its inception.  Today, "Telegard" is synonymous with "Pirate BBS Hack",
even though that definition has not applied for two years.

Due to creative differences between Eric, Todd and myself, the team split up,
and I was the only one left supporting Telegard.  For the past year and a half
I have received quite a few compliments about the software, but many more
demands, threats and complaints, not to mention illegal hacks of the software
that claim to be the "REAL" Telegard.

This conference was supposed to be a place where Telegard SysOps around the
world could participate in a round-table forum to receive technical support.
I moderated the conference openly and fairly, and was very lenient upon people
who broke the conference rules.  From the moment that TELEGARD was put onto
the backbone, however, it has been dominated by insults, foul language,
flaming, software piracy, and overall childish behavior.  I put Scott Raymond
-- who has been involved with Telegard almost as long as I have -- in charge
of the conference because he is a lot more heavy-handed than I am, and I
wanted it that way.  According to the current Backbone Operating Procedure
(BOP) being followed by the Net, Regional, and Zone EchoMail Coordinators,
backbone conference moderators and co-moderators have unilateral control over
a conference, and NO ONE, not even the ZEC, is supposed to interfere in the
workings of a conference as long as it does not interfere with backbone
operations.  In short, it means that a conference moderator is allowed to cut
ANY feed o the conference he sees fit without providing a reason or fair
warning; the only thing required is a note to the offending node that they
have been cut from the conference.

Over the past two months, ten individual links and an entire net gateway were
cut from access to TELEGARD.  In response, several of these people filed
policy complaints against Scott Raymond, which they had no grounds to do,
since he was well within his rights as the co-moderator of this conference.
The NCs and NECs involved decided to ignore the BOP, however, since it seemed
convenient to do so.

Since it's still obvious that human stupidity is rampant and there will never
be a way to curtail it in a completely public forum, we are taking that forum
away.  If you can't play nice with others, your toys get confiscated.  This
conference will be moved to the sanctioned Telegard support network, USTGNet.
In that net, when a link is cut from the conference, it stays cut and no
policy complaints will be accepted (as the policies of FidoNet do not apply to
USTGNet).

What does this have to do with Telegard itself?  In a nutshell, version 2.7
will be the very LAST version of Telegard ever to be released, and that
includes Beta and Alpha versions.  In exchange for free software, free
utilities, and free tech support, I and the remaining Telegard support team
have received insults, hacks, stabs in the back from ex-Beta sites, and piracy
of a Beta version (several, in fact) still in the testing stages... and still
buggy.  Therefore, after version 2.7, there will be no more Telegard.  As far
as I am concerned, the software will be dead and buried.  The source code will
NOT be released to the public.

(The name "Telegard" itself is trademarked.  Any BBS software using the name
Telegard is in violation of current trademark ownership law.  The source code
for version 2.5g that found its way to the public is owned by both myself and
Eric Oman.  You may not put your own name on it as the programmer unless 75%
or more of the code has been rewritten from the ground up.  If this is not the
case, then you must give credit to Martin Pollard and Eric Oman in the
copyright notice.  Any software not following the above requirements is in
violation of current copyright law.)

Why am I doing this?  It's very simple: I'm tired of giving away something for
nothing and getting nothing but grief in return.  Except for a relative
handful of people, the majority of the Telegard users have no respect for
software authors, conference rules, or copyright laws.  They not only expect
everything handed to them for free, they DEMAND it, and expect me to kiss
their asses while doing it.  Thanks, but I'll pass; I'm not required to put up
with this kind of grief over a goddamn HOBBY.

Some of you may say that I'm chickening out, that I'm giving up, that I'm
caving in to pressure from the ones who caused the trouble.  I won't argue the
point.  On the other hand, those of you who caused the trouble will probably
start partying and rejoicing after receiving this news, thinking you've "won"
your battle against "the bad guy".  All I can say is, party away, and rejoice
in the fact that you've destroyed a great software package and reduced it to
the level of Celerity, LSD, ViSiOn, Emulex/2, and their other pirate/hack
siblings.

To those people who have been loyal to Telegard and respected my wishes as
author, I commend you on your perseverance and thank you for the support; you
couldn't begin to guess know how much it meant to me.  If you aren't already a
member, I invite you to consider USTGNet (headed by Jack Reece); you stand a
much better chance of receiving the tech support you deserve in that network.

To those people who stabbed me in the back, pirated the software, turned this
conference into a circus, and in general destroyed what was supposed to be an
enjoyable hobby, congratulations; you got what you worked so hard to attain:
the end of Telegard.  You made your bed, now die in it.

                           -=[> Martin Pollard <]=-

... TELEGARD Conference Moderator and Author of Telegard (Retired)
--- Blue Wave/TGq v2.02/C+ Beta
 * Origin: The I/O Bus - TG_BETA Conference Moderator (1:120/187.0)
PATH: 120/187 278/624

There were several fixes and feature enhancements in the late '90s as well as an OS/2 native version of Telegard (called Telegard/2) released in 1998.

All development stopped in 1999 after the Y2K patch release for Telegard. Tim Strike had disappeared from the scene, only to reappear on April 17, 2005 to announce that Telegard development was officially dead. He also said that Telegard could never be released as open source due to many different copyrights on the collective Telegard code. You can read the message from Tim here [2].

[edit] Current status

Despite the old rumors, Tim explains in his post that "I'm not sure where Telegard can go from here -- I'm not sure that the PC that has all the source code can boot, nor am I sure that I have all the compilers and tool chains that would be required to revitalize the project. I also know that I don't have the time, or the will, to continue the project myself. I don't remember what state it was left in, as time and age have not likely been kind to the project. Off the top of my head, I don't know what code can be open-sourced, and wouldn't move the project that way without the consent of the other authors of the project (and yes, as much as I rewrote there are still contributions and copyrights that are owned by other individuals). I realize this leaves it open ended, and I suspect for the next little while that's where it'll have to stay with my apologies -- and with your understanding."

There are several dedicated sysops running Telegard BBS today. Many still congregate in Fidonet's TG_SUPPORT echo as well as on other networks.

[edit] Minor Rebuttal by Eric Oman

In my entire life, I have never asked a lawyer to sue anyone. I am not sure where the myth began that I "slapped" anyone with a lawsuit, but this is false. It is easy to verify as false, because lawsuits are part of the public record.

Telegard was a good programming and teamwork experience for me, and the only reason I dropped out of the Telegard Team was because I needed to focus on my senior year of high school, and later, on college.

I am sorry that people gave Martin trouble after I dropped out of the project. I actually did not hear about Martin's bad experience until years later: that's how little I was keeping up with Telegard. Based on Martin's message (above) it sounds like some people were giving him a hard time, and I wish things had turned out better.

I have nothing but respect and good wishes for everyone involved in the Telegard project. Thanks to everyone for the good experience!

[edit] See also

[edit] BBSes running Telegard

[edit] External links

‹The template Noteworthy bulletin board system software has been proposed for deletion here.›
Noteworthy BBS software +/-
Citadel | Excalibur BBS | Major BBS | Maximus | PCBoard | Renegade | RemoteAccess | RoboBOARD/FX | Spitfire | Synchronet | Telegard | VBBS | Wildcat! | WWIV
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