Bulletin Boards
From ElanVital
The Bulletin Board System is our series of in-game public message boards for general announcements. These are generally OOC (except for the IC news boards), and can be used for such things as announcing upcoming events, absences, or policy changes. Here, we'll give you a quick tutorial of how to use the BBS.
Contents |
Commands
Player
- +bbread - Shows you a listing of all the bboards you are currently subscribed to.
- +bbread <board> <page> - Shows up to 20 messages from the given page. If no page is given it defaults to 1, the front page.
- +bbread <board>/<message list> - Reads the list of messages supplied from that board. Message list can be a single number e.g. +bbread ANN/3, a start and end +bbread ANN/1-3 will read messages 1 through 3, individual numbers +bbread ANN/1 3 5, or 'u' which will read all unread messages on that board.
- +bbpost <board>/<subject>=<text> - Posts a message to the board with subject and text. Step by step message writing is also possible, commands below.
- +bbnew - Reads the oldest unread message.
- +bbscan - Shows a list of all unread messages.
- +bbcatchup <board> - Marks all messages on that board as read without reading them. If 'all' is supplied instead of a board it will mark all posts as read.
- +bbleave <board> - Unsubscribes from the given board, you will no longer receive notifications about new messages on that board, nor will they show up on +bbnew.
- +bbjoin <board> - Resubscribes to a board. As boards are added you will be automatically subscribed, so you only need to use this if you have left a board already.
- +bbedit <board>/<message>=<old>/<new> - Will edit a posted message (has to have been posted by you!), replacing all instances of 'old' with 'new'.
- +bbremove <board>/<message> - Deletes the message (has to have been posted by you!).
Partial BBpost writing
These commands allow you to write a bbpost step by step.
- +bbpost <board>/<subject> - Starts a BBpost to the board with the given subject.
- +bbwrite <text> - Appends text to the bbpost.
- +bb <text> - Identical to +bbwrite.
- +bbproof - Shows you what your post will look like when posted.
- +bbtoss - Deletes your post in progress.
- +bbpost - Posts your post in progress.
Staff
- +bbnewgroup <handle>/<board name> - Adds a new bboard with the given handle and name.
- +bbcleargroup <handle> - Wipes the board and all postings. Only use if you're really sure you want to do that!
- +bbconfig <handle>/anon=<anon name> - Will make all the posts on that board appear to have come from the anon name. If no name supplied, will make it public again.
- +bblock <handle>=<lock> - Sets a read lock on the given board. If no lock supplied, then clears the read lock. See below for information on locks.
- +bbreadlock <handle>=<lock> - Identical to +bblock.
- +bbwritelock <handle>=<lock> - Sets a write lock on the board. With a read lock comes an implicit write lock. If you can't read the board you can't write to it.
Locks
<lock> can be valid MUSHcode, replacing instances of %# with 'player', or it can be flag/<flag> e.g. +bblock WIZ=flag/Wizard will lock WIZ to those with a wizard flag, or <attribute>/<value> will lock to those with the attribute of a certain value e.g. +bblock ANN=sex/male would lock ANN to male characters only. Not a serious suggestion. Don't do this, please.
Tutorial
Reading on the BBS System
There are a few basic commands to know here. The first of these is +bbscan. +bbscan will let you know if there are any messages on boards you have access to that you have not read. When you use this command, you should get an output like this:
===============================- Unread Posts -=============================== Announcements (ANN): 1 unread (3) ==============================================================================
As you can see, we have an unread post to look at - when you log in, there should be a message on your screen alerting you to this. To go any further, let's use the command +bbread:
==============================================================================
Group name Last post # of messages
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANN - Announcements Tue Dec 16 3 U
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'*' = restricted '-' = read only '(-)' = read only, but you can write
==============================================================================
This was made using a mortal unconnected to any organizations, by the way, so this is the only board he can see. The U next to the Announcements Board indicates that there are unread posts, and three posts in the board itself.
We can go a step further by typing +bbread ann, to see what is in that specific board.
===============================- Announcements -==============================
Message Posted By
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ann/1 BBS up? Sat Nov 15 Ifrit
ann/2 Staff requests Tue Dec 16 Ifrit
ann/3 U Welcome to Elan Vital Tue Dec 16 Shiva
==============================================================================
Here we see the list of topics the player can read. We are interested in the third one, with a U next to it, marking it as unread. To read it, type +bbread ann/3, or +bbnew to read any new posts.
===============================- Announcements -==============================
Message ann/3 Posted Author
Welcome to Elan Vital Tue Dec 16 Shiva
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We hope you enjoy your stay at the game. This post is largely being made for the sake of a tutorial, but we give you great cheer and love
anyways.
Oh, and happy holidays.
==============================================================================
And this is how you read on the bulletin boards. Next, we'll discuss posting.
Posting Messages
Shiva was recruited to help us out here. We're going to show you what he did to create a message. First, we select the board we wish to write on, and our subject. To start our message, we then type +bbpost <board abbreviation>/<Subject>
+bbpost ann/Welcome to Elan Vital [BBS] You have started a new post to Announcements (ann) with subject 'Welcome to Elan Vital'. [BBS] You can now compose the body of the post by using '+bbwrite <text>' [BBS] or '+bb <text>'. When you are finished, type '+bbpost' by itself.
This starts our message, next we wish to write it. to add text, we do exactly as they say. Here is what we entered below.
+bbwrite We hope you enjoy your stay at the game. This post is largely being made for the sake of a tutorial, but we give you great cheer and love anyways. [BBS] Text added to bbpost.
A simple step, but as you see above, we still need to add another line. This is simply done with another +bbpost.
+bb %r%rOh, and happy holidays. [BBS] Text added to bbpost.
As you see, we used %r%r before our actual add-on to the bulletin board message. %r, in a MUSH, is used to give us a line break. Twice, we get a space between lines. Other useful codes to know include %t, which functions as a tab. See Basic Text Formatting for more information.
Before we go on, we make sure our post looks how we wish it to.
+bbproof ============================================================================== Board: Announcements (ann) Subject: Welcome to Elan Vital ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We hope you enjoy your stay at the game. This post is largely being made for the sake of a tutorial, but we give you great cheer and love anyways. Oh, and happy holidays. ============================================================================== [BBS] If you are ready to post this message, type +bbpost.
Since this matches what we want, we type +bbpost and move on.
If you wish to abandon your message, just type +bbtoss. It will junk the one you are writing, and let you pull together a new one.
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