142 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
142 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
RIME POSTLINK R/O and PRIVATE MAIL - Revised: 09-09-1996
|
|
|
|
|
|
TYPES OF MESSAGES
|
|
|
|
The following pertains to BBSs using POSTLINK. Both your BBS and
|
|
the BBS you are sending a message to must support POSTLINK. At
|
|
the time of this writing, the vast majority of RIME BBSs use
|
|
POSTLINK. However, as POSTLINK is no longer supported or
|
|
available, this percentage will be come less and less.
|
|
|
|
In reading the messages on the RIME network, you have probably
|
|
come across some relay terms that you are unfamiliar with.
|
|
Phrases such as "R/O", "Routed", etc. refer to the different
|
|
ways of sending a message.
|
|
|
|
While no message placed on the network can legally be considered
|
|
private, you can direct a message to a single individual by
|
|
making it R/O, i.e. Receiver Only. The BBS software in use on the
|
|
BBS that you access RIME through will determine how you mark a
|
|
message as R/O. On PCBoard systems, it is actually termed
|
|
Receiver Only. On other systems, it may be called "private". By
|
|
marking the message as private or R/O on the BBS, you are making
|
|
the message R/O in respect to RIME as well.
|
|
|
|
There is a consideration to be made before sending someone an R/O
|
|
message. Plain, unrouted R/O mail is usually not exported from a
|
|
BBS that is on a PostLink network. If you send an unrouted R/O
|
|
message, and your board does not allow the export of this type of
|
|
mail, you will receive a message from PostLink telling you that
|
|
the message was not sent into the network and that you should
|
|
send the message routed as well as private.
|
|
|
|
We strongly recommend that you do not leave UNROUTED private
|
|
messages to other users in the network. Private, unrouted mail is
|
|
delivered to every system in the network and is readable by any
|
|
person with sufficient security to read private mail. We
|
|
recommend that any message you wish to be sent private, be sent
|
|
via ROUTED MAIL only. Always remember, there is no mail in the
|
|
network that cannot be read by the sending and receiving SYSOPs,
|
|
and while we do not guarantee real private mail, the software
|
|
facility for sending routed messages, which limits the sending of
|
|
messages to just the boards to which the message is routed, helps
|
|
save each and every SYSOP money and disk space.
|
|
|
|
Routed messages
|
|
|
|
A routed message is a message meant to be delivered to only
|
|
specific board(s) mentioned in the routing information of a
|
|
message. It may be either public or private.
|
|
|
|
To send a routed message you must know either the SITE number or
|
|
the IDCODE of the board you wish to reach. The IDCODE, which is a
|
|
group of up to 12 letters including some numbers, appears
|
|
immediately after the words POSTLINK version number in every
|
|
tagline. The site number then immediately follows the IDCODE and
|
|
is preceded by the # symbol. The # symbol is NOT part of the site
|
|
number. You should ignore it, it is just a signal that the site
|
|
number follows directly. If the board you wish to route to does
|
|
not have a PostLink site number or ID Code, you may not
|
|
be able to route your message. If you are not sure, ask the
|
|
Conference Host of the conference you are Messaging in.
|
|
|
|
Here is a typical tagline:
|
|
|
|
* Collector's EDITION, Dallas, TX (214)351-9859/9871 14.4 <ASP>
|
|
* PostLink(tm) v1.20 EDITION (#79) : RelayNet(tm)
|
|
/^^^^^^^ ^^ \
|
|
/ \
|
|
/ \
|
|
This is the IDCODE This is the Site Number
|
|
EDITION 79
|
|
|
|
As you can see, the information you need in order to route
|
|
appears after the word "PostLink(tm) vX.XX in the tagline area.
|
|
The IDCODE immediately follows the PostLink version number and
|
|
the SITE number is preceded by the # symbol. Do NOT use the #
|
|
symbol in your routing information.
|
|
|
|
The symbol for routing is -> This is a hyphen immediately
|
|
followed by a greater than symbol or arrow pointing to the right.
|
|
This routing symbol must then be immediately followed by the site
|
|
number or the IDCODE. You do not need both the IDCODE and the
|
|
site number. This routing symbol must be placed in the extreme
|
|
upper left hand corner of the message, on the very first line.
|
|
Do not start the text of your message immediately after your
|
|
routing symbol. Skip a line before you start the body of your
|
|
message.
|
|
|
|
Either ->MOONDOG or ->35
|
|
|
|
If you want to know when the routed message arrived and thereby
|
|
receive a "return receipt", place a backward routing symbol <-
|
|
immediately after
|
|
the site number or the IDCODE. It might look like this:
|
|
|
|
->35<-
|
|
|
|
You may route a message to more than one site at the same time by
|
|
stacking the site number or IDCODE on the routing line, each
|
|
route separate by a space. This is called multicasting. You may
|
|
mix site numbers and IDCODES and you may mix upper and lower
|
|
cases for the IDCODES. The IDCODE does not need to be in upper
|
|
case. You may also request a return receipts when multicasting,
|
|
but realize you will receive a return receipt from every system
|
|
you have on your routing line.
|
|
|
|
Here is an example of a multicasted message asking for a return
|
|
receipt:
|
|
|
|
->MOONDOG 547 modemzone 1121 687 5 1421 Earthzone<-
|
|
|
|
Multicasted messages all are addressed to the same person and are
|
|
most useful when trying to reach SYSOPs, a particular user that
|
|
frequents more boards than one, or ALL the users of a few select
|
|
boards. You may multicast either public or private messages.
|
|
|
|
Routed messages may of course be either public or R/O.
|
|
|
|
NOTE: The directional arrow is nothing more than a hyphen
|
|
("minus key") followed by a greater than key (>). It is not the
|
|
right arrow key on your keyboard.
|
|
|
|
NOTE: There is no space between the arrow and the IDCODE or Site
|
|
Number of the destination node.
|
|
|
|
NOTE: PostLink will read the occurrence of the symbol ->WORD if
|
|
it is the first thing on the first line as an attempt on your
|
|
part to route a message. Do not use -> as a quoting symbol in
|
|
your reader unless you leave a space between the '->' and the
|
|
first letter of the following word. BE CAREFUL!
|
|
|
|
NOTE: To successfully route, the routing symbol and site you are
|
|
routing to must be the very first thing on the very first
|
|
line in the extreme left hand corner of the message. Do NOT skip
|
|
a line if you wish to have your routing symbol honored by the
|
|
software.
|
|
|
|
By using the Routing function, you can help decrease the traffic
|
|
of messages that clutter conferences and actually lower the
|
|
operating cost of many nodes.
|