I was building a new mod and for that to come alive, i need info coming from BBSes, like address,sysop,email,location, what echomails supports, how many users it has, how many files etc and even an ASCII version of a flyer/advert for the BBS.
That sounds interesting... Did you have a specific use for this or is
your intention to have a more auto/dynamic generated BBS list?
Any suggestions are welcome. :)
So, because the data, for some, may be "sensitive" and also the same
data, can be used by other tools/mods, i would like to ask proposals
on what data the package should have, in what format and if it should
be encoded or not.
In my opinion, "sensitive" user data (like email addresses) should not be shared between BBSes at all. Regardless of whether or not it is encoded, it's not for the sysop to make decisions about the users data. If I sign
Personally I dislike things like BBSes that tweet out when I call them or the interbbs last callers mod, what's next hey everyone here's a list of files apam downloaded.
As for encryption, I wouldn't bother. Stuff like ROT13 is just a slight obfuscation and easily read, and what's the point hiding the information in the message base if it's available via a mod anyway.
For example my interbbs mod, shows to all connected bbs who logged
and nothing else. But when you log into a bbs, the system itself may
show, your IP, in which menu you are, the time last logged, perhaps
the last file you downloaded etc. So, whats the line? The data? or
that the data will be inter bbs, available? or both? Also... is it
valid to worry about privacy in bbses when we also login to facebook
and give tons of info about ourselves to a much wider "audience"?
I was building a new mod and for that to come alive, i need info coming from BBSes, like address,sysop,email,location, what echomails supports, how many users it has, how many files etc and even an ASCII version of a flyer/advert for the BBS.
So, because the data, for some, may be "sensitive" and also the same
data, can be used by other tools/mods, i would like to ask proposals on what data the package should have, in what format and if it should be encoded or not.
Each BBS that will use this script, will send once per day a message to a specific message base (perhaps a data or bot base). It will be something like a "ping" request, that the BBS is alive, connected and has specific features.
Do you find it useful? What kind of data the message should have?
encoded or not? and what encoding algorithm to use? in what type of
format the data should be? one field/record per line? XML? something
else?
Any suggestions are welcome. :)
I like your idea but agree with Apam I would not share any BBS user specific information. If the mod allows for some contact info to be pre-populated from the BBS end then that would be go. So the sysop could offer a contact name, email etc. Total number of files and/or users I don;t mind sharing. Is it helpful to know that? Not sure.
Do you envisage the mod would auto-scan echos and message groups and create a report? If yes, what if the sysop has an echo they don't want scanned and reported on?
I would suggest basic obfuscation through some encoding. I think that works well enough for the inter-bbs stats mod etc. running now and
should be kept. I accept some can easily decode it and indeed the mod recompiles and displays the current data being shared, but as an individual update being posted to a FSX_DAT style echo I'd still opt for the status quo encoding.
So for this to work would nodes running the script all just send data to say FSX_DAT and a HUB take care of compiling a daily report?
Best, Paul
Nodes that run the script will actually say to the Net... "hey, i am
here and this is my info". Another mod will be build, that will collect this data and create a BBS List in a Tree-like UI, that the users of the BBS that runs this mod will use a way to find new BBSes, get info about them and connect. Something like Gryphons script but the data collected for the BBSes will be always 100% accurate and fresh, as they'll be collected from the echomail. The mod will also keep a track, of how many days it has to "hear" from a BBSes and if its older than a specific
number of days, it will exclude the BBS from the list.
Thanx for the feedback. :)
to how you allow whatever data is presented to be laid out. It might be you can offer a template or .ini style file so if folks want to post reports to their local system or to a FSX_BOT echo they can determine
what of the available data elements they wish to post and/or customise
the header/footer - just a thought :)
| Sysop: | Weed Hopper |
|---|---|
| Location: | Clearwater, FL |
| Users: | 14 |
| Nodes: | 6 (0 / 6) |
| Uptime: | 229:06:40 |
| Calls: | 55 |
| Calls today: | 1 |
| Files: | 50,127 |
| D/L today: |
21 files (2,409K bytes) |
| Messages: | 275,324 |