BBDC Welcome to the Washington, DC area BBS list produced continuously each month since 1988 by Mike Focke. BBDC0296.ZIP contains the February, 1996 DC area list of boards validated in the previous month. Most users will just "print ascii.txt" and scan the information that is printed (about 50+ pages). The user need only run LIST or some Windows equivalent (like the WRITE applet) against the file ASCII.TXT to see formatted text output produced from the comma delimited data base of BBS information called BBS.ALL A condensed version of the BBS list may be requested by someone who has access to Internet Email by sending a message to bbdclist@neteast.com. Please use this way only to get a first list and download the much more complete list once you have access to bulletin boards. There is also a DOS program, BBSPRINT.EXE, separately distributed as BBSPRCnn.ZIP (nn is a version number) that will allow select, sort and multiple types of reports. It also provides conversion services to a few comm programs dialing directory formats. It is very much a work in progress and requests for features may be made to its author, Larry Robertson at the ElectroTech BBS. FONDIR59.ZIP also produces dialing directories for many comm programs. DCBB grew out of a long felt need for a verified BBS list. I had seen BBS lists that had once been current but had not been maintained or had been added to but never verified. Old numbers meant people kept calling the numbers years after the BBS went down and continued to irritate the owners of the new numbers. DCBB was my attempt to develop a verified list and I decided to share the list, as I had done in the Atari-800 BBS community for several years before that. Jeff Morley, sysop of a then-operative board called Interconnect, saw the list and provided a program to format the data in ways a user might find useful. But we were always constrained by the size and number of data fields we had to work with in the communications program I was then using. As DOS faded and I grew to using Windows and then NT, it became possible to use multi-tasking and GUI advantages to make my task easier. So I began designing my dream system and put out a plea for programming help. Larry Robertson, sysop of ElectroTech, saw the plea and answered. All the data import, phone number verification and data base programming was done by Larry, an enormous task and one for which I am immensely grateful. The new format allows the sysop to list much more info than they ever could before. Hopefully, we have removed all the problem areas the sysops pointed out over the years but which we were unable to do anything about until now. See the file SYSOPNO.TE for details about the fields I need and how to send them to me. For examples of what can be done with the new format, see the listings for ElectroTech, CPCUG and/or World Data Net. Much of the data on the number of conferences, doors, file size, etc is still wrong in this 11th listing. There was no practical way of acquiring the data. But as sysops send me updates for the list, the data will get better and the BBS list will get more useful to the user so they can better tell what board might interest them and more useful to the sysop as the "right kind" of user is attracted and the "wrong kind" are directed elsewhere. Bug your sysop to get his data updated, please. Do NOT call voice please. Not under any circumstances. It irritates my wife. The listing and data bases are free for individual non-commercial use. Contact me if you wish to use the information in a commercial manner or to publish it in some book or magazine. I will be reasonable (I generally ask for a credit line indicating who produced the list and when, where updates can be obtained and where information can be sent to update the list). I will also want a year long subscription to any book or publication the list is to appear in. If you'd like to verify numbers I can't reach, contact me. Maybe we can expand the coverage area. I'd like to see all the local BBS lists be in the same format and I can provide the programs to make that easy for you. Internet is the way we update the files so you'll neeed more than Email access to the net. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Technology description: A series of comma delimited files were imported into a Microsoft Access format data base. The data is thereafter maintained in a Visual Basic for Windows program with the classic capabilities to add, delete or edit a record. There is also a separate Visual Basic for Windows program that verifies that all BBS numbers at least still answer with a modem. This verify program creates a file which is then used to update the data base. Multiple passes on various dates and times are done over a month period at different baud rates before a number is listed as down. Disconnected numbers are listed for 1 month and then removed. I'm sure Larry would allow the total package to be used/modified by some other BBS list maintainer in another location. The verify program might well be useful to a person in another location without any changes. It expects a ascii file with a list of phone numbers and keeps dialing until it has verified them all or until you ask it to quit. I run it all night for several nights against my 500+ number list and it gets me down to about 20 I have to on-line verify. If you are a BBS list publisher, you will love this native Windows verification program.