/*************************************************************************/ /* __ */ /* / ) __ ____ /| / __ __ */ /* / / / /| / | / /_ | / (_ */ /* (__/ _/_ / /-| / |/ /__ |/|/ __) */ /* */ /* The Electronic Newsletter for Citadels */ /* */ /* Issue 10 - August 1991 - News9108.txt */ /* */ /*************************************************************************/ /* Editor: Dominic Duvall @ The Quest (C86Net) */ /* dominic@quest.athenanet.com (Internet) */ /* uunet!nstar!pallas!quest!dominic (Usenet) */ /*************************************************************************/ _____ _____ ( ___ )--------------------------------------------------------------( ___ ) | | || Issue 10 - August 1991 | | | | /> Welcome to |+===========================| | | | /< CitaNews! || _ | | | | [\\\\\(O):::<===================- || || /__ / || || // | | | | \< The Electronic || ||/\ | || || Newsletter for || || > \__/ || || \ | | |___| Citadels || / > |___| (_____)--------------------------------------------------------------(_____) (This issue's featured banner based upon The Quest's.) /*************************************************************************/ /* */ /* ========== */ /* Contents */ /* ========== */ /* */ /* Departments */ /* */ /* - What is CitaNews? */ /* - Obligatory Editor's Column */ /* - A Look Back at Issues 1-9 */ /* - CitaHistory This Month */ /* - Registering Your BBS */ /* */ /* Features */ /* */ /* - Featured Software -- Citadel-68K v3.31.b2 */ /* - Featured System -- The Quest */ /* - Featured User -- Dominic Duvall @ The Quest */ /* - Featured Door -- Empire (Amiga Citadel-68K) */ /* - Featured Utility -- TOPOL (MS/DOS) */ /* - Featured Room -- CitaNews */ /* - Featured File -- RSYS*.LST */ /* - Featured Feature -- Backbones, Peons, Spines */ /* */ /* Special */ /* */ /* - USRobotics' 9600 Baud Modem Prices for Sysops */ /* - AT&T's Reach-Out-World Plan */ /* */ /* Lists */ /* */ /* - System Birth Notices and Obituaries */ /* - New Networked Rooms */ /* - Directory of Boards Mentioned in this Issue */ /* - Headquarter Systems for Citadel Software */ /* - Articles Planned for Next Issue */ /* - Articles Planned for Future Issues */ /* */ /* (All articles are written by the editor unless stated otherwise.) */ /*************************************************************************/ /*************************************************************************/ /* Departments Departments Departments Departments Departments */ /*************************************************************************/ =================== What is CitaNews? =================== Greetings! Welcome to the newly-reborn CitaNews! This is an electronic newsletter for Citadel BBS systems and its many variants. Its purpose is to disseminate information about Citadel to those who might not learn of it otherwise, to more-widely distribute important information, and to provide a more permanent record of items of historical worth. This newsletter is freely-distributable and may be reproduced in any fashion, so long as appropriate credit is given. Submissions are welcome (ie. desperately desired) and are due on the 20th of each month. ============================ Obligatory Editor's Column ============================ Okay, okay, so I'm actually writing every article in this issue and thus have no real need of an editor's column. Well, I'm the editor, so if I say I get to have an editor's column, I do, so there! :-) Why revive CitaNews? Well, I enjoy being late getting the SCA newsletter ready each month, so I figured I'd probably enjoy being late getting CitaNews ready as well. My plans for CitaNews are rather nebulous, but I do have a few ideas of the direction I should try to take this thing. First, the C86Net network works quite well at spreading information, so CitaNews should not simply duplicate what the network does much better. There are some things which fit well in a newsletter, however -- information which deserves a wide distribution and information which should be preserved semi-permanently. Information about the various variants of Citadel is often difficult to come by. What is the difference between Citadel-86, Fortress, adel, K2NE, STadel, Pseudodel, Stonehenge, STKeep, and the many other variants that keep popping up? My intention is to highlight one variant each issue, as well as describe recent changes in other variants. This issue features Citadel-68K. I would also like to highlight one BBS each issue, describing what rooms it carries, file capacity, etc. Hopefully some of this information will be intriguing enough that the BBS will receive some new callers. It should also help sysops who are looking for net connections. This issue features my BBS, The Quest. Are you beginning to see a pattern here? In addition to featuring one Citadel software variant and one Citadel BBS each issue, I also plan on featuring a BANNER.BLB (as the "cover" illustration), a Citadel door, a Citadel utility, a user, a room, a file, and an important and/or confusing feature. When new networked rooms are created, I plan on describing them here, including a list of which systems carry them. This should make it easier for new rooms to attract more connections. NOTE: I can't announce a new networked room if nobody tells me about it! When a new Citadel starts up or an existing one shuts down, the appropriate birth announcement or obituary will be published. NOTE: As with new networked rooms, I'll need help from my fellow Citadelians in order to learn of these events. Lastly, I hope to take a peek into the past to show you what events in CitaHistory took place during this month in previous years. This issue is decidedly provincial in scope: featured software is the software I use, featured BBS is mine, featured user is me, etc. This is simply due to the fact that I haven't had the time to get info about others yet. Future issues will rapidly expand ever farther from home. =========================== A Look Back at Issues 1-9 =========================== To many of today's Citadel users, "CitaNews" is simply the name of a networked room on the C86Net that is (sometimes) used for discussions of Citadel. However, way back when, CitaNews was the name of a newsletter. The room was used as a means of distribution. Alas, it has been many moons since CitaNews was published. However, back issues are still available from many sources (including The Quest). To my knowledge, there are only 9 previous issues of CitaNews. The first 7 of these were edited by Steve Yelvington (George Jetson @ The Lake). The 8th issue was edited by David Quick (The Badger @ Pell). The 9th issue was edited by Eric A. Griff. These issues are: Filename Month of Issue Size ----------------------------------------- News8704.txt ... April 1987 ......... 10K News8705.txt ... May 1987 ........... 10K News8706.txt ... June 1987 .......... 19K News8707.txt ... July/August 1987 ... 27K News8709.txt ... September 1987 ..... 33K News8803.txt ... March 1988 ......... 28K News8804.txt ... April 1988 ......... 39K News8805.txt ... May 1988 ........... 6K News8809.txt ... September 1988 ..... 10K Much of the discussion in these early issues was about the growth of the still-fledgling C86Net. For example, issue 9 describes what was then the newest nationally networked room, "Amiga"! Now we see rooms sprouting up constantly. How time flies! ======================== CitaHistory This Month ======================== HIGHLIGHT: Citadel-86 gained the ability to share rooms on August 19, 1986. Thus, this month we are celebrating this event's FIFTH ANNIVERSARY! 1985: Citadel-86 was presumably at version 2.03. (Version 2.04 was released in October 1985.) 1986: Citadel-86 version 2.12 was released, featuring ROOM SHARING (!) (before this release, C86Net supported only mail and file sharing), the addition of CRC to XMODEM, room archiving, and the utside command for sysops. 1987: Citadel-86 version 2.17 gained the <.R>ead nvited command (to let sysops see who has access to a private room) and the "sysop=" parameter (to specify who the sysop is). 1988: Citadel-86 version 3.11 was released, featuring options to the <.K>nown-rooms command, such as irectory. 1989: Citadel-86 versions 3.23 and 3.24 were released, featuring <.E>nter modem and <.R>ead modem for messages, block paragraphs (ie. paragraphs can be signaled by a blank line, rather than an indentation), the ability for aides to opy messages to other rooms, message flow reversal while reading, external protocols (such as stand-alone ZMODEM programs), and the nformation command (to provide information about the current room). 1990: Citadel-86 versions 3.34 and 3.35 were released, featuring backspacing of dot commands, sysop-netting of unnetted messages, auto-<.G>oto when the user does a <.E>nter eld-message command to recall a message being editing when carrier was lost, and the <.K>nown nformation command (which displays the information about all known rooms). ====================== Registering Your BBS ====================== There is no official requirement to register your Citadel board with anyone. Just grab the software and fire it up! However, registering your BBS with some people will help in a couple of ways: (1) It will publicize your BBS, possibly attracting more users; (2) It will get your BBS included on various network maps, making such things as Mail delivery and network connections easier to manage. So where should you register your BBS? There are a few places. 1. Bill.K @ Sinkhole for the next RSYS*.LST file. This is a monthly list of known Citadels. Send him Mail asking to be added to the next edition. Include your board's name, phone number, baud rates supported, software used (including version number), your name as sysop, and hours of operation. (The RSYS*.LST file is the "Featured File" for this issue of CitaNews! See the article below for more information.) 2. Hue, Jr. @ C-86 Test System for the next LINKS file. This is an ASCII "picture" of the Citadel network, showing which boards are networking directly. If you are on the network, send him Mail asking to be added to the LINKS file. He needs to know the state in which your board is located and with which boards you directly network. (The LINKS file will be our "Featured File" in a future issue of CitaNews.) 3. Hue, Jr. @ C-86 Test System for the TOPOL data files. This is a network topology program which makes it easier to locate problems in the network, such as vortexes (loops) and black holes (breaks). (The TOPOL program is the "Featured Utility" for this issue of CitaNews! See the article below for more information.) /*************************************************************************/ /* Features Features Features Features Features Features Features */ /*************************************************************************/ =========================================== Featured Software -- Citadel-68K v3.31.b2 =========================================== Describing Citadel-68K is rather difficult for me, since it is the software I use most often and thus consider "normal". The result is that I'm unsure what features differ from other versions. Keeping that in mind, I'll describe Citadel-68K as the "normal" Citadel and will describe other variations in the future by nothing their differences from this version. Citadel-68K runs on the Commodore-Amiga line of machines. It is possible to run it on a machine with only 512K of RAM and a single floppy drive -- not pleasant, but possible. Version 3.31.b2 is the most recent release and requires ROM/Kickstart version 1.3 of AmigaDOS. (The most recent version that will work with ROM/Kickstart version 1.2 is 3.27.) The software is a direct port of Citadel-86. Jay Johnson, aka Stallion, ported the software way back when (remember version 2.14?). Then an anonymous saint stepped forward and ported version 3.xx for us, turning over the support and subsequent porting functions to Jay. To my knowledge, the identity of the anonymous porter has never been revealed. Whoever you are, thanks! Version 3.38 of Citadel-68K made it as far as beta testing before Jay's attention was called away by the non-Citadel world. No release date for 3.38 has been announced. Citadel-68K features the normal Citadel characteristics. Rooms can be networked, hidden, anonymous, invitation-only, and/or archived. Rooms can optionally be viewed in floor mode, allowing similar rooms to be grouped together. Users can go to rooms, "ungoto" (ie. back up to a room and reset the message pointers as they were previously) rooms, skip rooms for later reading, forget rooms, and view a description of the current room's purpose. Some systems allow users to create new, temporary rooms. Users can read messages written by a particular user and/or messages containing a particular phrase. They can also use the global option to read or search messages in all rooms. While reading, they can reverse the message flow direction, enter a reply to the current conversation, or continue a reply started earlier. If the user logs off or drops carrier before saving a message in progress, it will be held for the user to retrieve later. File directories can be attached to rooms and can have file descriptions of up to 7,500 bytes per file. Uploading and downloading of files and messages can be done using XMODEM, YMODEM, or WXMODEM, as well as any external protocols the sysop has installed (eg. ZMODEM, JMODEM, and Kermit). If the proper programs are available, users can view or access the contents of files stored in ARC, ZOO, ZIP, and LZH formats. Files uploaded in these formats can be automatically checked for integrity. Doors (ie. external programs which the users can execute) are supported in two ways. First, Citadel-68K will free up the serial port for any door which provides its own serial handling (eg. Empire). Secondly, Citadel-68K supplies a software device, CTDLAUX:, which allows access to the serial port in shared mode, so any program which does all I/O via the stdio and stdout (ie. through the CLI) can have its I/O redirected through CTDLAUX:. Networked mail can be sent to any system with which the BBS directly networks, or through intervening systems to the target system, but ONLY if the target system has been properly entered into the system using the ROUTMAIL utility. The Citadel-86 concept of domains is not supported, nor is the STadel concept of "bang paths". That's it for this issue. In future issues we'll look at other variants of Citadel and compare how they differ from this. ============================== Featured System -- The Quest ============================== +-------------------------------------------+ | Sysop .................... Dominic Duvall | | Software ................. Citadel-68K | | Hours .................... 24 hrs/day | | Baud ..................... 3/12/2400 | | Hardware ................. Amiga 2000 | | Storage .................. 145Megs | | Message Base Size ........ 750K | | Avg. Msg Length .......... 460 bytes | | Rollover rate ............ 18 days | | Number of rooms .......... 66 | | # of shared rooms ........ 59 | | Pseudonyms allowed? ...... Yes | | User-created accounts? ... No | +-------------------------------------------+ Systems networked with: Beach, Blade, Data Drum, Lunatic Haven, Lunatic Fringe, Mars Hill, Synapse, The City of Brass, Wolf's Den Rooms Shared: /unix/stuff, AD&D, Adventure, Amiga, Anime/Comics, Astronomy, BattleTech, BBS List, BlakeNet, Call of Cthulhu, Chess Plays, Citadel 68K, CitaHelp, CitaNews, Classifieds, Cyberpunks, Dark Shadows, Dodson's Dungeon, Empire, Esoterica, GameInfo, Gossip, GURPS, IBM PC (Virtual), Illuminatus!, Macintosh (Virtual), Map Updates, Martial Arts, Miniatures, Modem Boardgames, Monty Python, Movies, Music, NASA News, PaganNet, Play-by-Mail, Role Playing, Role-Playing-Story, RPG Idea Central, SCA, Science Fiction, SF Tech, Shadowland, Shadowrun, Spinward Marches, Star Trek Adventure, Story Master Says, Strahd, Sysop Stuff, The Occult Scene, Traveller, TrekNet, Wargames, Warhammer, WhoNet, Writers' Guild, Yrth Notes: Current home of CitaNews! Will be upgrading to a 9600 baud dual standard V.32/HST modem in a few months. ============================================= Featured User -- Dominic Duvall @ The Quest ============================================= My real name is Wally Hartshorn. I first used the name "Dominic Duvall" for a character I used in D&D (Dungeons & Dragons, for those who don't know). I later used the name as a pseudonym on the CDC Cyber mainframe at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. I also used it as the name of my persona in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism, an international medieval recreation group). I majored in Computer Science at the University of Illinois, but spent far too much time doing out-of-class computer projects, particularly programming a game called "ADVDND" (Advanced D&D). ADVDND was a huge success, with nearly 200 players participating, but I ended up flunking out after 3 years. (Whoops!) Having learned that not going to class and not doing homework was NOT a good thing to do, I went to Western Illinois University and got my degree. I then got a job as a programmer at the Illinois EPA here in Springfield, programming in COBOL (ugh) on an IBM 3090 mainframe. My current Systems Analyst and I have recently begun working on a pilot project to implement GIS (Geographical Information Systems, eg. satellite photographs, maps, etc) using SPARC workstations and multi-disc CD ROM drives. In my spare time I am president of ACES (a local Amiga user group), am chronicler (newsletter editor) for the Shire of Swordcliff (the local SCA group), run The Quest, write programs in Manx C for my Amiga, play Warhammer and MegaTraveller, and read F&SF as often as possible. ============================================= Featured Door -- Empire (Amiga Citadel-68K) ============================================= This is an excerpt from the documentation describing Empire, a game which you can run as a door program from Citadel-68K: "Empire is a fairly rich simulation of international politics, economics and war. It is played over a period of a few months by 2 or more people. The Empire world consists of a toroidal grid of sectors consisting of regular land, mountains and water. Players govern countries, which start out as a pair of adjacent sectors and soon spread into large areas requiring much management and protection. Various sector types can be created which build ships, bridges, guns, shells, airplanes, and which make medical and technological breakthroughs. Others are things like radar stations, weather stations, fortresses, highways, warehouses, etc. A special country, the Deity, is available, which has godlike powers to modify sectors, ships, etc. The Deity is responsible for fixing up any problems which occur during the game." Empire is available for downloading from the "Empire" room on The Quest. =============================================== Featured Utility -- TOPOL (MS/DOS Citadel-86) =============================================== These area excerpts from the document describing TOPOL, a network topology manager for MS/DOS machines, written by Hue, Jr. @ C-86 Test System: "The primary C86Net has grown large enough that attempts to "know" the net, in both the senses of rooms available and avoiding both vortexing and lack of connectedness, are failing more and more often, not only between widely separated installations, but even in local areas. Therefore (if not exclusively because), the program TOPOL has been written. "Topol's purpose is to digest a collection of data files describing the room sharing habits of some collection of systems and attempt to detect what systems, if any, will not "reach" other systems, and where vortexes might occur. The input files can be produced automatically using utilities (or said utilities can be written) common to most Citadel-type installations, thus minimizing the amount of manual labor most sysops will have to go through. The most difficult labor an ad-hoc network administrator may go through is actually obtaining said files from other systems, since some sysops don't seem to read their mail all that often. "In order for Topol to become an effective utility, data files must be collected, updated, and distributed for a majority of the systems that are a part of C86Net. Towards this end Citadel-86 Test System will open and maintain a room named Topology. Hopefully, from time to time system operators will netsend or upload updates of their room sharing profiles to Test System, which will then become available to the public for use in tracking down room sharing problems." The TOPOL program, a set of data files for it, and a 300K results file are available for downloading from C-86 Test System's "Topology" room. Note that this utility is not limited to tackling the entirety of the C86Net universe! It can be used by sysops to manage a local section of the network, particularly in areas with a significant number of Citadels. =========================== Featured Room -- CitaNews =========================== Purpose: Discussion of Citadel, particularly from the users' point of view. Also used, from time to time, for distribution of CitaNews, this electronic newsletter. Nodes: Asylum, Atlantis, Backfence, Beach, Blade, Byteways, C-86 Test System, CubNet, DISK, Data Drum, DogLink, ENY, Eagle's Roost II, ElfBBS, Eye of the Storm, FROZEN Hut, Free Lunch, GatewayNJ, HIL-Vancouver, Hidden Adventure, Hornet's Nest, Hotel, Images, JACS, Jersey Devil, Junkyard, Kronos, Penhold, Kumquat Church, Labyrinth, Lockheed, Lunatic Fringe, Lunatic Haven, MAST, MMTF, MVAFIX, NDP, Norad, Nuuduitgaang, Omni, PC Tech, Inc, Power Alley, RockLand, SAC, SJ Net House, Sanctuary, Sinkhole, TPT4, TWWOL, The City of Brass, The Dungeon, The Expressway BBS, The Jungle, The Mars Hotel, The Quest, The_HHQ, Ummagumma, Underground Univers, Utica College, Virtuality, Wicca Citadel, Willie's Place, Wolf's Den, cocotel, devnull, dish, maison de sante, overmind, swamp, undermind. ============================ Featured File -- RSYS*.LST ============================ "What's the number for XYZ BBS?" How often have you seen that question asked (or asked it yourself)? There's usually an easy way to learn the answer -- check a recent edition of RSYS*.LST, the Room Oriented BBS List maintained by Bill Karpowicz (Bill.K @ Sinkhole). This file is produced monthly and is named in the form "RSYSmmyy.LST", where "mmyy" are the current month and year (eg. "0891"). The June '91 edition lists 249 entries and weighs in at 27K. (However, the "RSYS0691.ARC" file is only 12K in size.) It can be downloaded from the CitaNews room on C-86 Test System and many other Citadel boards. I *STRONGLY* encourage all Citadel sysops to add their own BBS information to the list! To do so, send a message to Bill.K @ Sinkhole with your system's information in the format described below. What follows is excerpted from the latest RSYS*.LST, with some minor editing: (BEGIN EXCERPTED TEXT) Node Name C Phone Num. S Ba Software Sysop Last -------------------- - ------------ - -- ------------ ----------------- ----- Quest,The 217-546-7608 c 24 Cit68kV3.31 Dominic Duvall 91Aug ^ ^ ^ ^ / | |_Baud | / | 12=1200, 24=2400 | Misc. codes: | 30=300, 96=9600 / #= headquarter system | 19=19.2kb Date of $= pay fee for access | latest &= strange hours System access contact c - controlled (Mail to Sysop) o - open p - private (nominations) Systems above are assumed to be up 24 hours unless otherwise noted. 1. You must be the Sysop of the system in question. (If you are not the Sysop, ask him/her to send the information.) 2. I need *all* the information at once! (System name, phone number, maximum baud, system software, and Sysop's name). If you can format it to look the way it does in the list, that helps me too. (I currently spend an awful lot of time re-formatting.) 3. Deadline for submissions is the 20th of every month. Send your update to me at one of the following addresses: 4. It seems that when sysops pull the plug on their system, they fail to let anyone know, so the new rule is, If you don't update your system info at least once a year, and I get information that it's down by a reliable source, like a sysop I have known for while..it will be taken off the list. Where I can be reached : System Name/Alias ================================= Sinkhole Bill.K Mast!Sinkhole!Bill.K devnull!Sinkhole!Bill.K Also any system carrying Net.Gossip, Citanews or BBS List As usual, constructive comments, suggestions, and ideas are welcome. (END EXCERPTED TEXT) ============================================== Featured Feature -- Backbones, Peons, Spines ============================================== The terminology I'm using here is taken from Citadel-68K and Citadel-86. I don't know how standard these terms are on other variants. Vortexes (vortices?) and black holes. They aren't intentional features of Citadel, but they do occur. This article is an attempt to describe their causes and explain how to avoid them. A "vortex" is a repetition of a message in a room. A "black hole" is a system which doesn't share the messages which it receives. A "spine" is a system which will be doing all of the calling. Quite simply, if you share a room with a system which you mark as being a spine, your system will NEVER call that system. Instead, you are relying upon that system to call you. Generally this is the situation in networking with a long-distance system. One of you agrees to do the calling (and thus pay the phone bill). The system that will be doing the calling refers to itself (and is referred to by the other system) as a spine. This setting has nothing to do with vortexes and black holes. A "peon" is a system which will be calling the other peons sharing the current room, so your system never copies messages from one peon to another peon. Peons get messages from other peons directly. A "backbone" is a system which will NOT be calling any other system you share this room with, so your system shares all messages with this backbone. Consider "ZorkNet", a hypothetical room for discussion of Zork. Let's suppose it's carried by 3 systems. +---------------------------------------------+ | Scenario A | | | | Little Maze ----------------- Mountain King | | \ / | | \ / | | Dimwit Flathead | | | +---------------------------------------------+ Each of these 3 systems considers the other 2 to be peons. A message entered on Little Maze is shared by Little Maze directly with Dimwit Flathead and with Mountain King. Since Dimwit Flathead knows that Little Maze will be calling Mountain King (ie. both are peons), it does copy messages it gets from Little Maze to Mountain King. +-------------------------------------------+ | Scenario B | | | | Little Maze Mountain King | | \\ // | | \\ // | | Dimwit Flathead | | | +-------------------------------------------+ Little Maze and Mountain King don't share this room directly with one another. Instead, they rely upon Dimwit Flathead to share messages entered on one system with the other. All connections in this setup are backbones. A message entered on Little Maze would be shared with Dimwit Flathead, which would then share it with Mountain King. +---------------------------------------------+ | Scenario C | | | | Little Maze Mountain King | | \ / | | \ / | | Dimwit Flathead | | | +---------------------------------------------+ In this situation, there's a problem. Dimwit Flathead will act as a "black hole". It considers Little Maze and Mountain King to be peons, and thus expects them to call one another, so messages from Little Maze won't be copied to Mountain King, and vice versa. Who's fault is it? That's hard to say. Either Dimwit Flathead should consider the two systems as backbones or the two systems need to begin sharing the room directly. +------------------------------------------ + | Scenario D | | | | Little Maze =============== Mountain King | | \\ // | | \\ // | | Dimwit Flathead | | | +------------------------------------------ + This scenario is an example of the infamous "black hole". Each system shares the room as a backbone with the others, and thus copies all messages. However, the messages are also sent directly by the system originating them, so they appear twice. Who's fault is it? Again, that's hard to say. Somebody needs to stop calling someone else, or else all 3 systems need to start sharing the room as peons. /*************************************************************************/ /* Special Special Special Special Special Special Special Special */ /*************************************************************************/ =============================================== USRobotics' 9600 Baud Modem Prices for Sysops =============================================== As many of you know, USRobotics has a program for sysops that offers their 9600 baud modems at greatly reduced prices. I can't personally recommend these modems, since I don't have one, but I figured I might as well make this information available. This information is NOT complete, so please call their BBS (708-982-5092) for the full story. You must have been operating a BBS for at least 6 months, notify via a login bulletin that you are using a USRobotics modem, operate the BBS for at least another 6 months, and maintain a login account for USRobotics to allow them to verify these things. Prices effective August 1, 1990, were: Courier HST 14.4 ........ $995 ... $399 Courier V.32bis ......... $995 ... $449 Courier HST/V.32bis Dual Standard ... $1,295 ... $499 If you have information about sysop prices or low-cost high-speed modems from other companies, let me know and I'll try to include it in a future issue. ============================= AT&T's Reach Out World Plan ============================= Those of you who are calling Canada from the US probably should consider AT&T's Reach Out World Plan. Calling Canada costs just 18 cents per minute, compared to 33 cents per minute for normal a normal AT&T call. That's a 45% reduction and makes international networking FAR more affordable. Calls to other countries are reduced by less, an average of 20%, but that's still significant. For more information or to sign up, call 1-800-523-9675, extension 456. If anyone has information about other long distance calling plans, either for international or national calls, please let me know. The lower we can make the cost of LD networking, the wider C86Net will spread! ===================================== System Birth Notices and Obituaries ===================================== -- Births -- -- Deaths -- Brazil 309-786-5638 Acrylion-SLC Synapse 217-525-6251* Black Dog Universal Writers 612-430-0549 Cheetah Door into Markland 916-755-0838 Firth of Fifth Bat Cave 609-723-2722 Flamingo, The Iceman's Frozen Hut 609-893-6915 UCS3 Wonderland *7PM-7AM only ===================== New Networked Rooms ===================== CoC Campaign: Carried by The Quest, Data Drum (virtual), Brazil. Play-by-BBS game of Call of Cthulhu, GMed by "Keeper @ Brazil". GURPS: Carried by The Quest, Data Drum (virtual), The Mansion, The Dungeon, Blade, Wolf's Den. Discussion of the Generic Universal Role Playing System. Monty Python: Carried by The Quest, Data Drum, Brazil. Discussion of the British comedy team, Monty Python's Flying Circus. ============================================= Directory of Boards Mentioned in This Issue ============================================= Node Name Phone Number Baud ---------------- ------------ ---- C-86 Test System 612-470-9635 9600 Pell DOWN Sinkhole 203-873-8518 The Lake DOWN The Quest 217-546-7608 2400 ========================================== Headquarter Systems for Citadel Software ========================================== Software BBS Name Phone Number Baud -------------------------------------------------------- adel Secret Service,The 403-425-1779 2400 Citadel-68K Images at Twilight 612-884-7951 2400 Citadel-86 C-86 Test System 612-470-9635 9600 Citadel-86e ENY 914-735-9362 2400 Citadel-K2NE Jersey Devil, The 609-893-2152 2400 Fortress/PC undermind 404-521-0445 9600 IdeaTree ProtoSoft 206-932-7125 1200 Mac Citadel MacCitadel Test Sys 213-820-4320 9600 ST-Keep ST-Keep BBS 916-729-2968 2400 Unidel Bitsko's Bar & Gril 801-269-0670 19.2 (Primary Source: RSYS0691.LST) ================================= Articles Planned for Next Issue ================================= Submissions are welcome and are due on the 20th of each month. Planned articles for the September issue (News9109.txt) include: Featured Software -- Citadel-86 Featured System -- C-86 Test System ==================================== Articles Planned for Future Issues ==================================== Advice for New Sysops Nettiquette: How to Piss Off No More than Your Fair Share of Citadelians Ruggies and How to Defend Against Them Networked Mail Evolution of the Citadel "Personality" Hall of [F|Sh]ame: Requested "Feeping Creatures" that Were Not Fulfilled ---=== The End ===---