.TOPIC:                                            
New User Sign Up

                                            VBBS 6.12 Documentation --  5-1

     ͻ
       CHAPTER FIVE     NEW USER SIGNUP                              
     ͼ

                When a user logs on as NEW on your system, he or she is
         first presented with the NEWUSER.TXT file (which you definitely
         should create before opening your BBS to the public) stored in
         the \TXT directory defined in your PATHS Configuration.  The
         NEWUSER.TXT file should provide enough information to get new
         users started; it may also include anything else you wish.
                If you configured a "New User Password" in VCONFIG, the
         new user will be asked to provide the password before the system
         allows him or her to continue (for most "public-access" BBSs,
         this is generally not done).
                At the end of the NEWUSER.TXT screen, the new user is
         prompted to provide some basic information about himself or her-
         self.  Depending on whether or not your system allows "aliases"
         or "handles", the user will be prompted to provide a "handle" or
         real name to use on the board.  VBBS checks what the user types
         in against other entries in the USERFILE.DAT to make sure that
         duplicate names are not used.  

         ͻ    If there are handles or names that you would prefer not
         ͼ    to allow on your system, you may include them in a text
                file called TRASHCAN.TXT in your \TXT directory.  This
                file is created using an ASCII text editor and has one
                handle/name/word per line.  Most sysops use this to pre-
                vent users from having profanities as handles.

                As the signup continues, the user is prompted for his ad-
         dress, voice and data phone numbers, birthdate, password, and
         other information pertaining to default settings used on the BBS.
         The information provided goes into the USERFILE.DAT file.
                If you have chosen to allow auto-validation of visiting
         sysops, VBBS will aske the user if he or she is a sysop.  If
         the user answers "yes", he or she will be prompted for informa-
         tion concerning his or her BBS and will then be given the SL
         and time you have defined for visiting sysops in VCONFIG.

         ͻ    Again, there have been instances in which a user has
         ͼ    given false information in order to gain sysop access
                to a BBS; use caution when allowing auto-validation.

                If you have configured "yes" for automatic call-back
         verification, VBBS will prompt the user (according to the area
         code and prefix criteria you have established) to prepare to
         receive an incoming call from your board, at which point VBBS
         hangs up, calls the data phone number left by the user, and
         confirms its authenticity by prompting the user answering the
         callback to provide the password for the new account (see "The
         Call-back Verifier" for more information).
                                           VBBS 6.12 Documentation --  5-2


                New users are assigned the SL and time allowed on the
        system according to what you have set up in VCONFIG.


         New User Feedback and Validation
         

                Generally, you do not want to give a new user too high 
         an access level to your system until you are sure the informa-
         tion provided you is accurate.  It is often desirable to have 
         a new user leave a short introduction of himself or herself in
         addition to the information given in the basic signup process.
                To have the system prompt for such "new-user feedback",
         set the appropriate option in VCONFIG "on" and edit the file
         LEAVEFB.TXT in your \TXT directory to ask for the sorts of in-
         formation you'd like to have (of course, you don't want to get
         TOO personal here, because that tends to catch new users off-
         guard).  

         ͻ    It should be noted that a new user may choose to abort
         ͼ    the feedback letter and go straight into the system
                without leaving any message to the sysop.  There are
                several ways of combatting this rudeness:

                1)  Using an ASCII text editor, create a file in your 
                    \TXT directory called NEWUMAIL.TXT.  It should in-
                    clude some basic information about your system and 
                    its standard operating procedures (but should not 
                    be too long).  It will appear as a message from the 
                    sysop in the new user's mailbox.  If the new user 
                    reads the NEWUMAIL.TXT file, the system will send 
                    you "oneliner" indicating that the message was read;
                    sometimes, this is the only way a sysop knows a new 
                    user has logged on, short of doing a complete user 
                    listing.  If the user chooses to not read this 
                    E-mail, no "oneliner" is delivered.
         
                2)  Should you happen to notice that a new user has 
                    signed up but has not left you any message announ-
                    cing his presence, send him an E-mail, asking if 
                    there was any particular reason the feedback was 
                    aborted.  Many users are somewhat embarrassed to 
                    draw this kind of "negative attention" to themselves
                    and will promptly reply the next time they log on.
                    They may not leave the information you requested in 
                    LEAVEFB.TXT, but that's another story ...

                3)  Simply ignore the new account until you receive 
                    feedback from the user.  If new users have only 
                    limited access to your system, the offending user 
                    will either tire of logging on and not being able
                    to do anything (and then send feedback), or will
                    simply not call any more.  This is, of course,
                    combatting rudeness with rudeness, and is one way
                    your BBS can earn a bad reputation among users 
                                          VBBS 6.12 Documentation --  5-3


                    (word-of-mouth is still a powerful positive or nega-
                    tive advertising tool, even among BBS users).

                4)  Install one of the various script modifications avail-
                    able that will truly FORCE the new user to leave feed-
                    back or have the account deleted.  These may, of 
                    course, be edited (with an ASCII editor) to convey 
                    exactly the tone you wish, and while it may seem a 
                    "brute-force" method of getting the information you 
                    ask for, it IS effective.

                If the new user DOES leave feedback (or even a regular 
         E-mail), the sysop need only hit [V] from the E-mail submenu and
         then enter the user's account in the user editor.  Once there,
         the sysop can assign the user an appropriate security level and
         time allowed on the system, set any access flags/ratio exemp-
         tions/other variables as needed.

                There are MANY options as to how you present your BBS to
         new users, even without the use of scripts and/or source-code 
         modifications.  Your login screen(s), LEAVEFB.TXT, NEWUMAIL.TXT,
         and other informational screens make that all-important first 
         impression.  First-time callers, and ESPECIALLY new BBSers, ap-
         preciate friendliness and courtesy from the sysop, and USUALLY
         respond in kind (of course, if you're running a "bash board"
         and they EXPECT abuse on the first call ...).   :-)


         NEW USER DEFAULTS
         

                One of the most important things a new user (including a
         new sysop) should do is set his or her defaults.  Pressing [D] at
         the Main Menu brings up a list of settings, which are described
         below. New users are shown their default after registration also.

         1) Video Mode           The user may choose ASCII, ANSI, or En-
                                  hanced ANSI (which enables pull-down
                                  menus) as the default.  If a user wishes
                                  to use Enhanced ANSI, he or she MUST
                                  select it here; otherwise, ANSI auto-de-
                                  tection determines default.
         2) Expert Toggle        Expert mode disables the menu-at-every-
                                  prompt mode.
         3) Page Breaks          Number of lines per page.  A setting of 
                                  0 produces continuous screen scrolling;
                                  24 is default.
         4) Password             Change password, if desired.
         5) Autoposts            Toggles Autopost display at login.
         6) Ctrl-A User Macro    User may create up to 2 macros, each con-
         7) Ctrl-B User Macro     taining up to 79 characters (including
                                  ANSI control characters).
         8) ANSI Color Setup     User may customize screen colors to suit
                                  to suit personal tastes.
         

                                            VBBS 6.12 Documentation --  5-4


         9) Full Screen Editor   Toggles between the full-screen editor 
                                  (FSE) and a line editor; ASCII users get
                                  the line editor.
         A) Mailbox              Forward E-mail to another user or network
                                  system, if desired.
         B) Security             Displays a list of things the user has a
                                  high enough SL to do.
         C) Long Distance Cost   Allows user to keep track of LD usage and
                                  billing by defining cost per minute and 
                                  knowing the billing cycle.
         D) Sort File Lists      Toggles between alphabetically- and nu-
                                  merically-sorted file listings.
         E) User Time Bank       User may deposit unused time for later
                                  withdrawal.  Maximum time is set in 
                                  VCONFIG (q.v.).
         F) File List Display    Toggles between single- and double-line 
                                  file listing.
         Q) Quit                 Saves changes and quits to Main Menu.

                The sysop should encourage new users to take time to set
         their defaults early on; ANSI users should be encouraged to use
         the full-screen editor for its superior cursor control and edi-
         ting features.


         THE USER EDITOR
         

                The user editor allows the sysop to view and edit users'
         information, validate and/or delete users.  The user information
         is divided into several fields, each of which is described below.

            User Number         User's account number.
         a) User Handle         User's handle (if used/allowed).
         b) User Real Name      User's real name.
         c) Address             Street or P.O. box address
         d) City
         e) State
         f) Zip
         g) Security Level      User's SL; acceptable values are 1-255
                                 (255 is sysop access); new-user SLs are
                                 set in VCONFIG.
         h) Access Flags        Flags used for specific database access,
                                 given as a letter A-Z.  Certain data-
                                 bases (such as sysops-only databases)
                                 may be given an access flag; only those
                                 users with the corresponding flag in
                                 this field may access those databases.
                                 The sysop should toggle all of these
                                 flags ON for his or her account by 
                                 pressing [H] and typing the alphabet;
                                 this ensures that he or she cannot 
                                 accidentally be locked out of any 
                                 database.
         

                                            VBBS 6.12 Documentation --  5-5


         i) Flags               General flags used outside of databases,
                                 given as a letter A-Z.  VBBS currently
                                 uses four flags "out of the package":

                                   A -- Login autoposts on/off
                                   F -- If set, user uses full-screen
                                         editor
                                   N -- User has received new-user
                                         message
                                   X -- Menus in expert mode

                                 Flags may be set or reset manually in
                                 the user editor, or via scripts.
         j) Password            User's password.
         k) Phone 1             User's voice phone number.
         l) Phone 2             User's data phone number
         m) MaxTime             Maximum time allowed on per day.
         n) Credits             User's credit total (see VSCRIPT.DOC for
                                 more information).
         o) Verify Birthday     User's birthday.  If toggled, will ask
                                 user to re-enter birthday at login.
         p) Ratio Exempt?       Allows you to exempt the user from up-
                                 load/download ratio (if any).
         q) U/L                 Files/kilobytes uploaded.
         r) D/L                 Files/kilobytes downloaded.

         Ex1 - Ex8              User's $extra variables 1 through 8 (see
                                 VSCRIPT.DOC for more information).
         Page                   User's default page length.
         Vid                    User's default video mode.
         Calls                  Number of calls to your BBS the user has
                                 made to date.
         Time                   Total time the user has spent on your BBS
                                 to date.
         Last                   The date the user last called your BBS.
         Posts                  Number of public posts the user has left
                                 to date.
         Email                  Number of E-mails the user has sent to
                                 date.


                You may edit the information in fields a) through r) and
         Ex1 through Ex8; the rest is pretty much "read-only" user-selec-
         ted defaults or record-keeping information.

                There are several commands to help the sysop get around
         in the user editor:

         [/]            Prompts for a user number, handle, or real name 
                         and searches on the information given.  In case 
                         of duplicate information (e.g., two users with 
                         the first name "Mike"), it will ask if the user 
                         shown is the correct one.
         [Enter]        Move to next record.
         [-]            Move to previous record.

                                            VBBS 6.12 Documentation --  5-6


         [!]            Delete user's account.  Sets SL to 0 and opens
                         the account number for reassignment.  If you
                         open several slots, a new user will be given
                         the lowest-numbered slot available; the user
                         list is NOT "packed" (renumbered) after dele-
                         tions.
         [Esc]          Quit to sysop menu or WFC, whichever the editor
                         was invoked from.


                The user editor is a powerful tool for managing your
         user base -- spotting bogus accounts, changing users' access
         to various areas of the BBS, verifying information, and so on.
         There are several utilities available that make use of the in-
         formation stored in USERFILE.DAT; see "Virtual Tools" for more
         information.


         ONLINE FUNCTION KEYS
         

                When a user is online, the [F1] through [F10] keys func-
         tion differently from the way they do at the WFC screen.  The
         list of functions available when a user is online is given be-
         low:

         [F1]           Enter/exit Chat mode.
         [Shift-F1]     Enter split-screen Chat mode; [Esc] exits.
         [F2]           Call up user editor; user sees a <Wait> prompt
                         on his or her screen.  By exiting the [F2] user
                         editor as another user, the sysop can "change
                         into" that user.
         [F3]           Add 1 minute to the user's session.
         [Shift-F3]     Subtract 1 minute from the user's session.
         [F4]           Increase user's SL by 5.
         [Shift-F4]     Decrease user's SL by 5.  It should be noted that
                         the [F4] and [Shift-F4] changes appear to be
                         permanent; if you wish to give a user a higher
                         SL temporarily, your best bet would be to go
                         into the user editor using the [F2] key.
         [F5]           Drop to DOS (VBBS stays in memory).
         [Shift-F5]     Drop to DOS (VBBS shrinks out as per a door pro-
                         gram).
         [F6]           Pseudo-DOS multitasker; allows sysop to run small
                         DOS commands from the console while the user is
                         online and using the BBS.  One of the most un-
                         derrated features of VBBS.
         [F8]           Sysop alert; sets the computer to beep when the
                         current user online logs off.
         [F9]           Invoke the "Download Any File" convenience fea-
                         ture.
         [F10]          Boot user off the system, "cold".
         [Ctrl-F10]     Display STORM.TXT (found in the \TXT directory),
                         warning of inclement weather conditions, THEN

                                            VBBS 6.12 Documentation --  5-7


                         boot the user off the system.
         [Shift-F10]    Spurt some simulated "line noise" at the user,
                         and boot him or her off the system.  Makes the
                         user think a bad connection terminated the ses-
                         sion.


                                * * * * * * * * *


                That just about does it for the "introductory" section of
         the VBBS documentation.  The next section deals with the various
         functions and features of VBBS.

