175 lines
9.2 KiB
Plaintext
175 lines
9.2 KiB
Plaintext
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
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+ +
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+ The Do's and Don'ts of Ascii Express +
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+ +
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+ Written by Quasimoto +
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+ +
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+-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
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Introduction
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------------
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Having called hundreds of AE lines throughout the nation, I've come to realize
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that there are too many AE sysops who don't know what the hell they are doing.
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And of course, there are even more idiots who call the lines and don't know what
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they are doing. This makes life difficult for the few of us who want to easily
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use the lines. This file will hopefully help sysops become better sysops, help
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sysops make their lines better, and help the idiots who don't know what they are
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doing make life easier for us. With that in mind, let us start.
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SYSOPS AND THEIR AE LINES
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-------------------------
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The thing I hate most are the sysops who constantly break into chat. I'm not
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talking about when somebody wants to chat, I'm talking about the assholes who
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break in and say things like "Who is this?" or "What are you going to upload?".
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That pisses me off. Usually I hang up on the assholes (unless of course they
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have a ware up that I want). There is one AE that I called where it seemed like
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the sysop stayed home all day pinned to his computer chair waiting for somebody
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to call. Every time that I called he would break in and ask if I was going to
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upload, and then spend ten minutes telling me what I should upload. That is a
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definate problem.
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Then there are the sysops who never change the wares that are up on the lines.
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I mean, you know how frustrating it is to finally get onto a board that you
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called two weeks ago and find out that the wares haven't changed? They don't
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even make room for uploads.
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Okay, those are two negatives. Here's a positive. I know of one sysop who
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updates his AE.WELCOME every now and then to include some news of the line.
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Actually, quite a few do this, but only one that I've seen is updated to include
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something meaningful. That same sysop has help files for new users of the AE
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world. This one isn't too important, but worth mentioning since it is a nice
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addition to a line.
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One final word on sysops. If a sysop is around and hears a page, then he
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should answer it. I hate it (and you probably do too) when a sysop lets his
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presence be known by hitting a few keys (and messing up whatever you were doing)
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and then not answering when you page him only four seconds later.
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To start things off with the lines themselves, let's start with hardware. An
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AE line should definately have at least two drives and should always have a slot
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three or slot five ramdrive. Even if it is only sixty sectors, it is enough to
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keep the clutter of messages and ads off of the main drives. And as for disk
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drives, what the hell is the use of calling an AE that has only one drive? I
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don't know, that's why I don't call them. They are always filled with messages
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and ads anyway, the only wares on them are single file ancient games.
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AE lines should be up 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days in a year
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(not that any of them stay up longer than a year). AE's that have hours to call
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are stupid and a pain in the ass. If you can't have it up all the time, don't
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put them up at all. It's okay to take it down while you use the computer, but
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don't use the same line for your voice and modem. Oh, AE lines NEVER have call
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waiting on them. STUPID!
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AE lines with a hard drive always should have a wares map. Do you know what a
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pain it is to search through 65 volumes only to realize that there were no wares
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that you wanted in the first place? I'm sure you do because it happens to just
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about everybody. As long as we're talking about hard drives, make sure that all
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of your wares are on the first volumes! Don't have wares on volumes 1-13, and
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then skip over to volume 43-59. Actually, that would be okay if you have a
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wares map, but since most AE's don't (sysops are too lazy and care too little
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about their system to spend no more than ten minutes making one) keep them in
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order.
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Back to sysops. They should always make sure there is at least one meaningful
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ware up. Sorry all you assholes who put up three drives that say "UPLOAD HERE"
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and one drive that contains nothing but messages. Most people aren't going to
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upload without getting something first.
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AE's with password programs should have a hard drive, or at least three
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drives. Otherwise it is like having a one drive AE (see above) because the
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password program takes up 3/4 of the disk space, leaving no more room on it for
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wares.
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Sysops should never get on-line and say "You can't take anything until you
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upload first!". First of all, sysops shouldn't get on unless they are called
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for anyway (see above). An AE line is made for downloading, and some uploading.
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I am not condoning leeching, I think leeches should die (we'll get to that
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later), but forced uploading (except for upload weekends, which seem to work
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great) is stupid.
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Sysops shouldn't suppress anything unless it is absolutely necessary. For
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instance, if you have a password program you will need to suppress the at sign
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(@) so that nobody can read your private stuff. Or, if somebody is terrorizing
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your line by putting ^L's or ^J's in the catalog, and they continue doing so,
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you should suppress that. But under no circumstances should you ever suppress
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the space bar, no matter how many times you are crashed. It makes it difficult
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to read/write text files.
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To end with this section, let me just say that if you follow the simple rules,
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things will be easier for all of us, even you.
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AE LINE USERS
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-------------
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Let's start with a very important topic, the chat option. Almost all AE lines
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have a text file named 'CHAT' or 'PAGE' or something like that, and they
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shouldn't be used abusively. Use it once if you need to, but if the sysop
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doesn't answer, either try later (after a transfer, not two minutes later) or
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leave private mail to the sysop. Also, never make your own chats. If there is
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no chat up, the bell is probably disabled anyway. If it isn't, the sysop
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doesn't want to be disturbed (I don't condone that either, but you might as well
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respect it).
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If you upload something, leave a brief description of what it is. I for one
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hate taking something that I have no idea about, and I am tired of seeing those
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"WHAT IS _________?" messages.
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NEVER LEECH! That is one of the most important. I'm not saying that you have
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to give for everything that you take, but if you take more than one thing,
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especially if you do it on the same call, give something in return. I don't
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know about you, but I like uploading. I just upload and watch TV why it is
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transferring, and when I'm done I can sign my name and feel proud that I did
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that (since very few people do upload). Always, it puts you off the spot on
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individual password AE's, and makes you more popular in the AE world if you
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upload to a lot of different AE's. And one word of advice, never upload to a
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ram drive. If the power goes out or the sysop turns off the machine without
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saving the ram drive, the ware is wasted.
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Learn how to leave private mail. I can't imagine somebody not knowing, but
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you need to know. I'll tell right now. Just right TO SYSOP or whatever, skip
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three spaces ( ), then write something else after it like your name or the date
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or something.
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If you are leaving a message to another user, put a date after his name so if
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there are more than one he knows which he has read.
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Read the sysop's want list and upload something he wants. Make sure you don't
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upload something he has. How useless can you get.
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Conclusion
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----------
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I guess that's about all for now. As new ideas form I'll bring you a new
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volume of this guide, or maybe somebody will write a new one with his own ideas
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(I hope I didn't start a trend like the REAL PIRATE'S GUIDE. I don't want to
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see THE DO'S AND DON'TS OF ASCII EXPRESS PART XIV). Just remember other people
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when you are doing something, whether you are a sysop or a user, and everything
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will run a lot smoother out in that AE jungle. I'm not going to list AE's now
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at the end of this file. That is useless. By the time somebody reads this it
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will probably be down! Later everybody.
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----------
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[Humorous Note: After Quasimoto uploaded this file to my board, he looked
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around, saw Robotech II, and started to leave a message asking what it was --
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something I had explained in the AE.WELCOME. On the same call, he also uploaded
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a file that not only did I already have, but that was up on the board at the
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time! What was that you were saying about "idiots who call the lines and don't
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know what they're doing," Quasi?
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/\/oo\/\ Count Nibble /\/oo\/\]
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+-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
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+ +
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+ This Has Been a Notre Dame Release +
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+ +
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+ Tuesday July 30, 1985 12:40 p.m. +
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+ +
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+-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
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