Talk:Door (bulletin board system)

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Door programs functioning opposite way[edit]

The statement marked as needing a citation

A few door programs operated the opposite way, answering the modem and then giving control to the BBS software

is entirely correct. Programs like 'BinkleyTerm' [1] and 'FrontDoor' [2] can technically be such 'door' programs. These external programs can either answer the phone for the BBS and then spawn the BBS software itself, or, for some BBS programs (T.A.G. and Telegard are examples) they can be spawned from the BBS like a door program would after the BBS answers the phone. How they were configured was often up to the SysOp -- the advantage of having the BBS spawn Bink or FroDo instead of the other way around was that the BBS was the program running at the wait-for-caller (WFC) screen, so it could spawn maintenance tasks ('events'); otherwise you had to setup your events in Bink or FroDo, which might not do you what you want. Launched either way, they were considered FidoNet 'front-end mailers' or even 'front-end doors' (hence names like 'FrontDoor').

Anyway, I couldn't find a citation, so I'm writing this from personal experience, which will hopefully stand as a citation for the article.

Thanks,

Rob Shinn, former BBS SysOp of Final Frontier BBS - 1:120/284.0@fidonet.org

This is unfortunately a clear violation of WP:NOR. -- Dan Griscom (talk) 03:27, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Clearing out external links[edit]

I've cleared out the external links section, with the exception of the dmoz link... things were starting to feel a little spammy in there. Here's the purged contents:

Feel free to re-add anything compliant with WP:EL, or if any of these are your sites, consider submitting them to dmoz.org instead. RTucker 01:36, 8 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

IMO dmoz.org is nothing better than any of the sites listed above. All are third party manual or utility sites. To be fair, we should either remove them all or leave them all. Since Wikipedia articles must be sourced, I think the best solution for the time being is to include all. --Der yck C. 06:04, 9 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Deryck et al. Unfortunately it's very difficult to get sites, where such files are featured, listed at dmoz.org which we've attempted before. I guess that's why they have so few there. It appears they are not currently in the business of expanding resource listings, or may not be monitored regularly. This seems to be the case with some other sites having similar, older lists.

There are sites in these listings which are currently active, and seem to be much more up-to-date than is dmoz.org. And the others link back and forth, as well as providing their own downloads. So if someone looks up this topic here, they can access the files as well.

We certainly didn't mean to appear 'spammy'. Only to add available resources where not many existed. -Steve —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Steve Hansen (talk • contribs) 12:10, 9 May 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Past tense?[edit]

This whole article is written in the past tense. These programs still exist, and surely there are a a few BBSes still operating somewhere with door games available for play... while writing about BBSes and doors as a thing of the past is universally intuitive, i still think it is ultimately POV. --PopeFauveXXIII 17:25, 31 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. It should be in the present tense. Voyager640 15:34, 6 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Having found this, they must still exist. I have edited some of the verbs to present tense, but I left many of them in the past tense because I wasn't certain if the subjects of some sentences referenced projects that were active or defunct. Perhaps someone more familiar with the history of this technology can edit the rest. B7T (talk) 13:35, 11 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"Popular" Doors[edit]

Labelling a door as "popular" requires subjective judgement and/or original research. I'm wondering if the list should be removed or renamed or something. Until something compelling goes here, I'll be removing doors which I have not personally seen installed on at least ten BBSs over the last 20 years. If you can provide a solid source indicating a door I've never played is popular, I'll leave it. But all these sourceless unknowns have got to go. --Real Deuce (talk) 23:41, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The list used to be longer, but i cut anything that wasnt wikilinked. i think the criteria ought to be whether or not the game has an article on wikipedia--thats fairly objective. --PopeFauveXXIII (talk) 06:59, 30 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It may be objective, but it's not a measure of popularity. For a list of door games listed in Wikipedia, visit Category:Door games (that's Category:Door games, but it doesn't seem to be wikilinking properly) --Real Deuce (talk)

Image copyright problem with Image:LegendOfTheRedDragon.gif[edit]

The image Image:LegendOfTheRedDragon.gif is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
That this article is linked to from the image description page.

The following images also have this problem:

Image:Twimage.jpg

This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --01:14, 19 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Print sources[edit]

I'd like to work on the games part of this article (possibly spin it out if enough sourcing is available) and since there are few historical sources online, am requesting recommendations for print sources (books, magazines, newspapers: any content that would qualify as a reliable source) that discuss BBS door games (this era and usage, BBS games as a genre, or individual titles). Even if you don't have the source yourself, titles would be good starting points. czar · · 02:36, 14 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]