Subj : Returning to Talisman
To   : All
From : j0HNNY a1PHA
Date : Tue Nov 28 2023 06:59 am

Hey all. I ran a Talisman BBS (alpha complex) for quite a while, until
life came partly undone a couple years ago... Then, a couple months ago I
got the itch to return to my BBS and started playing around with BBS
software selection. 

I went through the usual list -- all awesome software -- then I fell down
a DOS rabbit hole.  

I had both Inquity and Renegade about 50% configured using Mystic as a
telnet server only, using doseum2 on Linux, but I soon ran into a bunch of
limits with this method: file xfers, doors, general PITA with dosemu,
old issues, etc. I assume these are all addressable, but finally realized
that DOS software is best suited to Win 32 bit machines (which I don't
have/want).   

While I really love the nostaligia that DOS BBSs offer, I couldn't see it
being my main BBS (maybe spoiled by 'modern' amenities like full screen
readers, SSH, QWK networks, ability to write my own doors as console apps,
etc.). I really do admire those who are running those DOS-based setups.

So, this weekend, I fired up the latest Talisman version from Apam's repo,
and it became immediately clear to me why I chose Talisman in the first
place, all those years ago (beyond Apam's kindness and helpfulness): it's
friggin' awesome. 

There's so much under the hood, the LUA script labguage (like Mystic's MPL
or Iniquity's IPL) is very powerful for customization -- I built a
complete login matrix using it, a game -- and a lot of Taly's features use
it, like IBOL, Last Callers, Top 5 and Avatars. Plus, it's got a great
full-screen reader, door support, custom fonts, hackable strings. And
it's reliable under Linux. Open source.   

Anyway just a long post to say HELLO! and that I'm BAAAAACK (with 
Talisman)... 

Apam, I apologize in advance for the inevitable, forthcoming stupid
questions and feature requests (ha).

Cheers! Proverbial doors opening soon on R3TR0/X BBS!

..jA.

--- Talisman v0.48-dev (Linux/x86_64)
 * Origin: R3tr0/X BBS :: retrox.us:1992 (21:4/158)

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