[MUD-Dev] Re: In game bulletin boards vs. Web based.

[Adam Wiggins]

On Wed, 10 Jun 1998, Robert Woods wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Elis Pomales wrote:
> > I would like to know what your opinions are on bulletin board systems
> > within Muds. My belief is that a web based bulletin board systems is
> > alot easier to develop, fancier and more reliable than an online one. Is
> > this true? Do you agree?
> 
> Personally, I have never totally liked the bulletin board concept.  If we
> have "global mail", which is true of many muds (you don't have to be in a
> certain room to check/send mail), then "global news" can also be used.  I
> made a global news system when I was working with a Nightmare-based mud,
> and have ported it to a TMI-2 based mudlib and a Foundation II mudlib (all
> LP/MudOS libraries).  It's a very simplistic and easy to use system that
> players and immortals alike have enjoyed.  If you are interested in
> getting a copy, e-mail me.

It seems to me that there are two kinds of discussion boards.  One is OOC
stuff like "The mud was down friday night due to network outage" and "has
anyone had trouble running the client software on Irix 6.3?"  This should
definitely be accessable from outside the game, since it may contain
information related to why you can't get into the mud at all.  It would
also be nice if you could access it at any time from within the game,
through telnet; remember that although all of us here might be playing
from superduper hi-res workstations where we can open telnet and a web
browser at the same time, many (most?) mudders play from those
amber VT-100 terminals at their school.
The second kind of board is the sort that goes inside a guildhall and
which contains in-game concerns.  These should necessarily be accessed on
a character basis, since two character controlled by the same player might
have very different takes on the same issue.  Also, you can restrict
access to it physically, ie a board in the high tower of sorcery,
accessable only by mages or those that manage to kill all the mageguards.

Adam