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One Sysops Opinion
I have run an RBBS since Nov. 1,1983. I held off security for 8
months before being forced to go to a tight validation and registration
system for users. Since the system is run as a public service at my
company, I have had to defend the system to management for two years as
a result of the jerks that abuse it. I don't mind the downloaders who
use the system for nothing else. Many people have nothing to upload,
not being able to afford to call long distance to many systems and many
don't feel knowledgeable or secure enough yet to engage in talks with
more experienced people. My users cover a wide range of experience
levels from professionals to young kids with new machines from
Christmas. Some make even me (10 yrs professional experience with
micros) feel stupid, while some make me feel old. The only ones I mind
are the destructors, who feel my system is a plaything for their
experiments. Yet with time, patience, and some long phone
conversations, even some of them have turned into responsible hackers.
Those few kids alone, who have become some of my best users, have made
all the problems worthwhile, since they are the ones who are interested
and eager enough to become the SYSOPS of next week or next year. You
will never get rid of all of the jerks. So concentrate on the
successful users, let's not give up in disgust because of a few whose
actions seem all out of proportion to their numbers.
I think many of the Sysops around should have taken more time
before they set up their BBS's to decide exactly why they were setting
them up. Let's be honest. There are a few Sysops out there who think
of themselves as li?ttle tin gods who love to play benevolent dictator.
These are usually easily recognizable by the profound and pompous
pronouncements they love to make in their welcome screens or bulletins.
I think these people run their boards to give them an audience for
their pomposity which they can't find elsewhere.
Then there are the Sysops who are shocked and bewildered that
someone would actually try to damage their systems. They react with
beligerant threats, warnings, and espousals of dire punishments that
should be meted out to offenders. These are the people who ignore
vandalism on subways, crime in the street, problems in the schools etc.
because it doesn't touch them personally. But when it does, whew, watch
out for the righteous wrath of the offended.
COME ON FRIENDS. Knock it off. You knew, or should have known
what you were doing when you set up your BBS. You were throwing your
house open to the public when you gave out the number. You were
extending an open invitation to the public to come in and play. Why are
you shocked that there are idiots loose in the world? Were you
idealistic enough to think that everyone had your high ethical
standards, or were you just naive? Recognize that some people have no
morals and take the appropriate precautions. You lock your house when
you leave it unattended don't you, yet do you abandon your house and
live in the bushes because someone broke into it? Do you ban all
visitors because one person abused your hospitality?
As for this idea that people should treat you and your system
nicely because you out of the goodness of your heart are allowing them
to use your equipment, again, COME ON. Face reality. The jerks don't
care. When I log onto your system, I don't know you from Adam. You are
just a name on the welcome screen, no different from any other Sysop.
How affectionate or caring do you feel about the faceless nameless
operator you talk to on the phone? Most of your users know you only as
a disembodied presence who leave notes and does other mysterious things
somewhere on the other end of a modem line. If you are the kind of
person who needs strokes to feel good, if you get your feelings hurt
easily, if you get depressed when you feel someone doesn't like you?,
then you shouldn't be running a board. Leave it to those of us who are
a bit more thick skinned. If you don't want your hospitality abused,
your system crashed, and your passwords violated, then either stay out
of the game or set up a private board for your friends only, no
strangers allowed.
Now that I have sounded off about the ISP (I'm So Pitiful) club,
let me take note of a few of the positives, and YES there are some.
First off, there is the often spoken of feeling of providing a much
needed service to a very special community of very special people,
computer hackers (using the term in its old sense). You are in touch
with and have your finger on the pulse of the next wave of human
progress. As a Sysop, you are on the crest of that wave, you're one of
the people making it happen.
Your system is the catalyst that is providing the means for
information to spread and ferment into new ideas. The programs and
patches and bits and pieces of information your board contains are the
very fuel of this movement. The Freeware and Shareware and such, that
is only possible through your boards, is the force that is driving the
software industry where WE want it to go. They must provide what WE
want ultimately or WE will provide it for ourselves and leave them to
die like dinosaurs.
You and your board are the places where the young people get
their true exposure to computers in the real world. Sure their schools
teach them how to turn machines on and off, but it is your board and
the people and software on it that show them the real wonders of
computers. All of those kids who want to crash your board or snuff your
files are the troublemakers, the smart-ass kids who think they can do
anything. Those are the smart little punks who have the tenacity to try
those things that they know they shouldn't, to do the impossible things
that you know can't be done. If your only concern is to have a nice
neat well mannered board where everyone does the expected thing in just
the right way, then lock them out and you will have a nice neat,
well-mannered and boring board that neatly follows all the proper
guidelines and customs. Or, alternately, you could try talking with the
little monsters. Most of the ones I have spent time working with on the
phone or in person, have turned out to be pretty smart little devils
once I got past the hard shell. Sure it's hard and frustrating, and
time-consuming. Try getting them on your side for a change instead of
against you. Form a users group for kids under 16. Offer a standing
reward of $5 for a new way to crack your system. Then you are more
likely to find a Trojan Horse on your system because the kid calls up
and tells you that he uploaded it and not because you found it the hard
way.
Get them to let you onto their local pirate boards. You don't
have to participate or pirate software or engage in unlawful
activities, you don't even have to condone their activities, but keep
in mind that if you try to stop it, you will never know when it starts
up again. Find out what there concerns are. Find out what they are
doing and how they are doing it. You might be shocked to discover that
they aren't as bad as you imagine. You might even remember when you
were young and think about the things that you did. Instead, find the
ones who lead this kind of thing. They are the sharpest of the bunch.
They are the leaders and shakers of that world. Those are the ones you
have to win over to your side. You can't lecture and throw your weight
around, it doesn't work. Challenge them, lead them. Show them that
there are better ways. Help them set up a better board, help them
conquer their computer problems. The first time I advertised on my
board about a kid's users group,(no adults allowed, strictly for them),
the first ones to flock to it were the "troublemakers". They were the
ones who ended up leading it and once they had the responsibility and
had to deal with the same problems you as a Sysop deal with, suddenly
they began to see where I was coming from.
Those kids and troublemakers are the Sysops of tomorrow. They are
the ones who will drive the computer revolution to where it must go.
You can't beat 'em and you sure don't want to join 'em, but you can
sure be the one who helps guide them to where they need to go.
Think about it, the next time you have to delete an obscene
message the likes of which YOU of course never scrawled on a wall when
you were a kid. And when you get those ten new disks of software from
your old buddy in Idaho or California, feel smug that You got them and
not the kid down the street. (The same one you blasted because he never
uploads anything.) To a lot of people out there, YOU are the source of
software for them and for a long while, the stuff they write will not
be worth uploading until they become a lot sharper programmer. They are
the students and are not yet ready to teach. Of course you could ignore
the students and make it all neat and tidy