Who makes the BBS?

[BOB BRODY]

Certainly a Sysop can have a great deal to do with the successful
propagation of his or her BBS. I didn't mean to imply otherwise.
However, on the other side of the coin, it isn't requisite that a Sysop
have 'anything' to do with things other than custodial and minor
involvement in order for the BBS to propagate successfully. Many boards
I use almost never see/hear from the Sysop yet the board flourishes.
Robert Blacher's BBS in D.C. has two conferences and files yet is
probably the best BBS in the country for files, shareware/freeware/PD
authors upload their stuff to his board before any other; Word Perfect
Corp. gets WP files from his board (that's how extensive his WP
collection is) and the board has people calling from all over the world.
A writer's and 12-Steppers board in L.A. (The Wicked Scherzo) is
custodially attended to by the Sysop and once in a blue moon he'll
respond to notes not addressed to him, doesn't read the conference notes
except the Main and substance abuse Recovery conference, has limited
files, yet is populated by numerous published authors, t.v./film writers
& producers, freelance consultants, and we carry on our own
conversations. My own board, which was up for a few years, didn't have
a Sysop! Nobody knew it was my board. I logged on under my own name
like anyone else and if you tried to leave a note to "Sysop" you got an
"Invalid I.D." error. (A note upon registering as a New User informed
you the BBS was run by a company and maintained by company personnel
during the day but no one in particular was a Sysop.) The board was
quite active and had an outstanding files library.

So I'm not saying the Sysop is irrelevant to the success of the BBS; his
or her presence can be quite the reason people log on, but it doesn't
'have' to be that way is what I'm saying and a board can do just fine
with a Sysop off in the background tending to housekeeping and joining a
convo when he or she wants to. Some Sysops seem to feel they have to be
all over the place, reading/responding in every conference, responding
to notes that go unanswered even though they 'too' have no answer to the
question. That's nice commitment but not requisite to the success of a
board (not the least bit requisite. What's requisite are good people
with diverse interests willing to participate with other good people.)
Comment was made about spending 20 hours per week running a BBS.
"Twenty hours"?? Heavens. But to each his (or her) own. If I had 20
hours to spare it wouldn't be spent running a BBS. On the other hand,
my avocational interests may be just as frivolous to somebody else.

A Sysop can sit back and enjoy his or her board without feeling obliged
to ring lead or spend lots of time techno fiddling. That's a personal
choice. I never found it to be a requisite. Sysoping is a labor of
love, to be sure, but a Sysop can stay off in the background and the
board can still be successful. Of course, the inimitable wit and charm
of the Konases and Kisors doesn't hurt (even if you do prefer color to
mono; notice how I'm willing to accept your faults and still come back).