EDSTROM@UNCAEDU.BITNET (John Edstrom) (01/21/88)
This pertains to the STadel/multiuser BBRD discussion: First: Neil, I think that you may be missing something with the discussion on STadel. A number of STadel users have written in and actively promoted its adoption by Atari. That no one has been pushing other BBRD packages may reflect the fact that commercial concerns are discouraged from pushing their products on the net. Even so, I can't recall any USERS of other BBRDs sticking up for any other product. Even if STadel doesn't behave the way you think a BBRD ought to behave there are a number of users out there who are enthusiastic about STadel and motivated enough to make it work and even write friendly tutorials. The point is that there is a significant user/owner group out there who do want it and the goodwill and desires of a significant user/owner population are not, or at least should not, be taken lightly. Second: Sorry, STadel-enthusiasts, I tend agree with Neil that as it is now STadel is not suitable for his needs. The major deficit is the inability find public messages. Citadels' strength is chat but makes it difficult to read some particular messages. For example, to find and read a message that you remember having read once and want to re-read, you have to go through all of the intervening messages first and scroll back to it, you can not go directly to it. I don't use that feature often and enjoy and prefer the speed and ease of navigating around a Citadel-type board but on a commercial board where one expects callers looking for specific information this is an important deficit. Third: The built-in networking in STadel is an important feature as is its price, i.e. free. This gives any user the option of participating directly in an Atari (and some other brands) computer network. With a little organization and forethought the need for a multiuser BBRD might disappear altogether. I would go so far as to suggest that Atari even consider bundling STadel with new computers. This would give new users an opportunity to participate in a rather large and usually friendly user community and, if Atari adopts STadel, Atari-central itself. Fourth: STadel is not a multiuser BBRD. It has been suggested that its networking capability could be used to keep the various rooms on the various computers more or less up to date. This is an ugly notion but true. I suggest that the built-in networking in STadel can be modified to use the MIDI lines continuously so that each incomming message or file is available to all of the STs in the ring. Obviously this is not a feature that the average home user would want and is apt to be added, if at all, only if Atari seriously considered using STadel. Fifth: Someone wanted to know what was wrong with Forem. I have used it a lot (not as an operator but as a user) and have no serious complaints. Its a fairly standard multi-featured BBRD program that does most of what you'd expect a BBRD to do. It contains the message-finding utilities that STadel lacks. My criticism is that you can't escape them and I find that annoying. Most of the time I don't care about those features so that when zooming through a bunch of mail or entering a message there you are confronted by menus and sending mail is like playing 20 questions. I would really like to be able to turn them off when I don't want them. I consider it one of STadel's virtues that it defaults to the zippy mode and the more baroque features are only invoked by explicit command. +-- In the Real World ----------+--- Elsewhere ---------+ |Dr. John P. Edstrom |EDSTROM@UNCAEDU Bitnet | |Div. Medical Physiology |7641,21 CIS | |3330 Hospital Drive NW |JPEDstrom BIX | |Calgary, ALberta T2N 4N1 | | |CANADA (403) 220 4493 | | +-------------------------------+-----------------------+
stowe@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (holly stowe) (01/22/88)
[munch] Nice letter, John! I even agree with you on almost everything in it. (Not bad for a pseudo-Republican, eh? *grin*) One comment: FoReM's latest release DOES allow you to not have all those nasty questions before your reply to a message. A *great* improvement... Holly "Truth is impervious to hissing" -Peter Schickele [burp]