Message Bases

The Synchronet message base is where public conferences live — sub-board posts that any user with access can read and reply to. It's distinct from your private electronic mail: messages here are public (or restricted to a group of users via access controls), threaded discussions visible to everyone with permission to that sub-board.

The message base is two-level:

• A group is a generalized category — for example Main, Computers, 18-and-Over, DOVE-Net, FidoNet.
• A sub-board is a specific topic within a group — for example Computers/Macintosh, Public/Politics, DOVE-Net/General.

Conventionally, groups represent broad themes (or networks like FidoNet/DOVE-Net), and sub-boards are individual conferences within them.

The number of groups and sub-boards a BBS carries is up to the sysop and depends on which networks they've joined. Vertrauen, for example, hosts dozens of sub-boards across Main, DOVE-Net, FidoNet, fsxNet, and others.

Your current group and sub-board are shown in the Classic shell's Main prompt:

￭ Main ￭ 3:58:42 [1] Main [1] Notices:

[1] Main is your group; [1] Notices is your sub-board within it. From the Main prompt:

• * — list all sub-boards in your current group
• /* — list all groups
• # — jump to sub-board # in current group (e.g. 3)
• /# — jump to group #
• } / { — next / previous sub-board
• ] / [] — next / previous group

(These bindings are Classic-specific. Other shells may use different keys.)

R at the Main prompt enters the Read Messages prompt, where you read sequentially through the messages in your current sub-board. From the Read prompt:

• <CR> — display the next message
• - — display the previous message
• L — list all message titles and authors in the sub-board
• T — list titles and authors of the next ten messages (advances pointer)
• R — re-read the current message
• F — search for specified text in all messages
• B — bypass remaining messages in this sub-board, advance to the next sub-board (in scan list)
• I — display information about the current sub-board
• Y — list posts addressed to you
• C — display remaining messages continuously (no per-message prompt)
• A — reply publicly (post a reply on the sub-board)
• M — reply privately by mail (creates an e-mail to the author)
• Z — reply privately on the sub-board (see below)
• D — delete the current message (only if you're the author and it's the last message in the sub-board)
• P — post a new message in the current sub-board
• W — post a private message in the current sub-board
• Q — quit Read Messages, return to the Main prompt
• ? — display the Read Messages menu

N from the Main prompt scans for new messages — messages posted since you last read each sub-board. You're prompted whether to scan:

• S — your current sub-board only (''[NS]'')
• G — all sub-boards in your current group (''[NG]'')
• A — all sub-boards in all groups (''[NA]'')

After each message you get the Read Messages prompt and any of its commands work. Pressing <CR> after the last message in a sub-board (or B to bypass) advances to the next sub-board in the scan list. Group and All scans skip sub-boards with no new messages.

B is like New Message Scan but doesn't skip empty sub-boards — instead it shows the last message you read there and lets you read/post in that sub-board too. Useful for reviewing recent activity even where there's nothing strictly “new” to you.

• [BS]] — browse current sub-board
• [BG]] — browse current group
• [BA]] — browse all

Like N but no per-message prompt — messages stream by continuously. Use Ctrl-S/Ctrl-Q to pause/resume or Ctrl-C to abort.

• [ZS]] — continuous on current sub-board
• [ZG]] — continuous on group
• [ZA]] — continuous on all

F from the Main prompt searches all messages in the current sub-board (or wider, depending on prompts) for specified text. Useful for tracking down a half-remembered post.

S from the Main prompt scans for messages addressed specifically to you across sub-boards in your scan list.

P from the Main prompt (or from the Read Messages prompt) posts a new message in the current sub-board. You're prompted:

• Public or private post.
• Title (subject).
• Body — composed in your selected message editor.

You're also offered to post when you press <CR> past the last message while reading a sub-board.

A private message on a sub-board is visible only to the recipient (and the sysop), but it travels with the sub-board's networking — so over a QWKnet (which doesn't support NetMail) you can use a private sub-board post to send a confidential message to a user on another BBS in the network. Over a FidoNet-style network, NetMail is more direct (see Mail).

To check which networks a sub-board uses, press I at the Read Messages prompt or [IS] from the Main prompt.

A from the Main prompt updates the auto-message — a short note shown to every user at logon. As soon as another user changes it, your message is replaced. Default module: automsg.

Synchronet supports polls as a type of message. V from the Main prompt lets you view active polls and cast votes. Polls were introduced in v3.17 (Nov 2016). The default module exposes:

• V — list active polls
• Numeric keys to vote
• C — close a poll (its author or sysop)

The P key on the Main menu also lets you post a poll or a meme in the current sub-board, depending on what's offered by the prompt.

QWK packets let you read and reply to messages offline — see the dedicated QWK Mail Packet Menu page.

& from the Main prompt accesses the message-scan configuration prompt. Options:

• C — Convert credits to minutes (one-way; can't go back)
• R — Unfiltered Input Switch (allow ASCII-upload of message text with control codes / ANSI / page formatting; one-shot, auto-disables after the next post)
• N — New Message Scan List Configuration (toggle which sub-boards are included in your new-scan; * marks an enabled sub-board)
• P — New Message Scan Date/Time Pointers (manually set how far back a new-scan looks per sub-board)
• I — Reinitialize Message Pointers (reset scan pointers to the values they had at logon — useful if you scanned and then want to scan again)
• Q — Quit to Main

The scan pointer for a sub-board is automatically updated to the timestamp of the most recent message you've read there.

These two-key sequences from the Main prompt jump straight into specific scans without going through the menu:

• [NS] / [NG] / [NA] — new-scan sub-board / group / all
• [BS] / [BG] / [BA] — browse sub-board / group / all
• [ZS] / [ZG] / [ZA] — continuous-scan sub-board / group / all
• [&N] / [&P] / [&I] — scan-list config / pointers / reinitialize

(Square-bracket notation: see Classic shell guide.)

• User Documentation
• Message editors — used to compose posts
• QWK Mail Packets — read/post offline
• Electronic Mail — private mail (versus public sub-board posts)
• Classic shell — Main prompt key bindings
• SMB format — on-disk format for messages
• FidoNet / QWKnet — networks that distribute sub-boards across BBSes