Bulletin Boards

BBoards is a bulletin board system for your game. Players read and write posts with +bb commands, the same commands many MUSH players already know from Myrddin’s boards. On top of that, posts can have comments, comments can have replies, and boards can sit inside other boards.

This page has a part for players and a part for staff:

You are	You want to	Read
A player	read and write on the boards	Numbers and paths to The reader
A moderator	pin, close, move or remove posts	Moderating
Staff	install the boards and set them up	Running the boards
A Myrddin player	know what changed	For Myrddin players

In the game, +help bboards has the same commands in short form.

What boards are

A board is a place for posts on one subject, such as Announcements or Events. A post has a title and some text. Other players can comment on a post, and reply to a comment, so a discussion stays with the post it is about.

A board can hold other boards. A game might keep a few boards at the top and group the rest inside them. Staff can also put category headings over the boards at one level, such as Official and Community.

Every board remembers what you have read. New posts and new comments both count as new, so you can catch up on an old post that someone answered today.

Numbers and paths

You never name a post by its title. Everything has a number, and you join numbers with / to make a path:

• 5 is the fifth board at the top.
• 5/1 is the first thing inside board 5.
• 5/3/7 is comment 7 on post 5/3.

Inside a board, its boards come first, then its pinned posts, then its other posts, oldest first. One numbering runs down that whole list. So if board 5 holds two boards, its first post is 5/3.

Category headings take no number. On a new game the boards are numbered 1 to 6 across both categories, Official first.

A board you can’t read keeps its number. If you can’t see board 3, your list goes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and board 5 is still 5 for everyone.

You can type a board’s name instead of its number, or the start of its name: +bbread public/general is the same as +bbread 5/1. Post and comment numbers are always numbers.

When numbers move

A number is a place in a list, so it can change. Pinning a post moves it up. Removing or moving a post moves the ones after it up by one.

If a number you type has changed since you last looked at that board, the command stops and tells you what the number points at now:

> +bbcomment 6/12=Still for sale?
[BBOARDS] Warning: The numbers on 6 have changed since you last looked. 6/12 is now "Swords".
Type the command again to go ahead, or +bbread 6 to see the list.

If that is the post you meant, type the same command again. If not, list the board and use the new number.

Reading

Type	To see
+bbread	The boards you follow, with how many new things each has.
+bbread 5	Board 5: its boards and its newest posts.
+bbread 5/3	Post 5/3 and its comments.
+bbread 5/3/7	One conversation: comment 7 and every reply under it.
+bblist	Your boards as a tree.
+bbread/all	Every board you may read, followed or not.

The board list

+bbread on its own lists the top boards you follow:

> +bbread
===================================< Boards >===================================
#     Board                                                           New  Last
      Official
1     Announcements                                                        05:33
2     Policy                                                               05:33
      Community
4     Events                                                            1  05:37
5     Public  (2 boards)                                               51  05:37
6     Marketplace                                                     200  05:37
=============================< 5 boards, 252 new >==============================
+bbread <#> opens one.  +bbnext reads what's new.  +bbread/all lists all.

This player can’t read board 3, Staff, so it is missing and the numbers skip it. The last lines of every screen say what to type next.

A board

+bbread 6 opens board 6. A busy board opens on its last page, where the newest posts are. Each row has a mark at the left:

• U: unread.
• P: pinned.
• T: times out soon.
• +3 after the comment count: three comments are new to you.

To turn to another page, put the page number as a switch: +bbread/1 6 is the oldest page, +bbread/2 6 the next. The page is always the last switch on the command, so a command with other switches puts it at the end, as in +bbsearch/text/2.

A post and its comments

+bbread 5/3 shows the post, then its comments, ten to a page. +bbread/2 5/3 is page 2.

A comment that answers the post starts at the left margin. Replies to it sit under it, two spaces in, in the order they were written. A reply to a reply says which comment it answers with re [n]:

[1] Tomas, Oct 09 05:37
Does anyone know when the market opens?

  [2] Mira, Oct 09 05:40
  At dawn, most days.

  [3] Tomas, Oct 09 05:41, re [2]  (new)
  Thanks. Even on feast days?

Comment numbers belong to the post and count up in the order the comments were written. Comments you haven’t read are marked (new), and in colour they stand out. Between the post and its comments is a thin line with the comment count and the page.

One conversation

A thread with a hundred comments is hard to follow. +bbread 5/3/15 shows only the conversation comment 15 belongs to: the comment at the margin that started it, and every reply under it. Comment 15 is marked with * at the left.

The tree

+bblist draws the boards you follow as a tree, with the boards inside boards shown under them. Posts are not listed.

A deep tree stops a few levels down and says how many boards are below, for example (+12 boards below). To see the rest, start the tree lower down:

+bblist 5
+bblist 4/1/1/1

+bbread/all is the same kind of tree, but it lists every board you may read, including boards you have left, and says what you may do on each: read, post, comment. +bbread/all 5 starts from board 5.

Keeping up

Reading what’s new

+bbnext opens the next post with something new on it. For a post you haven’t read, you get the whole post. For a post you have read that has new comments, you get its oldest ten new comments. Type +bbnext again to go on. The bottom line tells you how many new things are left.

• +bbnext 5 stays on board 5 and the boards inside it.
• +bbnew is another name for +bbnext.

Seeing what’s new

+bbscan gives one line for each board with something new, and which posts:

> +bbscan
Marketplace (#6): 3 unread (7, 9-10)

Marking things read

• +bbcatchup 6 marks board 6, and every board inside it, as read.
• +bbcatchup all marks everything read.

A new character starts with nothing read. A game that wants new players to start with everything read can run @force <player>=+bbcatchup all when it approves them.

Following boards

You follow every board you can read until you leave it. A board you follow shows in +bbread, +bblist and +bbnext.

• +bbleave 5 stops following board 5. You can still read it, and +bbread/all still lists it.
• +bbjoin 5 follows it again. Everything on it counts as new.

Notices

When someone posts on a board you follow, you get a one-line notice.

• +bbnotify 5=off stops the notices for board 5. New posts there still count as new. +bbnotify 5=on starts them again.
• +bbnotify off turns notices off on every board. +bboptions notify=off does the same.

Following one post

+bbfollow 5/3 tells you about every new comment on post 5/3. +bbunfollow 5/3 stops.

Writing

Posting

+bbpost 6/Selling a horse=A good grey mare. Ask Mira.

That posts at once on board 6, with the title Selling a horse. The part before the / is the board; it can be a path, such as 5/1 for General inside Public.

For a longer post, start a draft and add to it a line at a time:

+bbpost 6/Selling a horse
+bbwrite A good grey mare, five years old.
+bbwrite She is calm around crowds.
+bbproof
+bbpost

• +bbpost <board>/<title> with no = starts the draft.
• +bbwrite <text> adds a line.
• +bbproof shows the draft so far.
• +bbpost alone posts it.
• +bbtoss throws it away.

Comments and replies

+bbcomment 6/4=Is she still for sale?
+bbreply 6/4/2=Yes, until Friday.

+bbcomment comments on a post. +bbreply answers one comment: 6/4/2 is comment 2 on post 6/4. The reply sits under the comment it answers, so each conversation stays together.

A post holds at most 150 comments, unless staff change that number. A moderator can also close a post to comments.

Changing what you wrote

Type	To
+bbedit 6/4=grey/white	Change grey to white in your post.
+bbedit 6/4=1/2^^^half	Use ^^^ in place of / when the text has a slash in it.
+bbedit/all 6/4=<text>	Replace the whole text.
+bbedit/title 6/4=<title>	Change the title.
+bbedit 6/4/2=Friday/Sunday	Change your comment 2 on post 6/4.
+bbremove 6/4	Remove your post.
+bbremove 6/4/2	Remove your comment.

When you remove a post, the posts after it move up one. A post that has comments keeps its place, marked as removed, so its comments can still be read. A comment with replies works the same way.

Markdown or SharpMUSH text

Posts and comments are Markdown unless you say otherwise. Markdown is plain text with a few marks:

• A blank line starts a new paragraph.
• *stars* around words make them stand out.
• %r starts a new line.

Markdown text is kept exactly as you typed it and looks the same to everyone.

Add /mush to write SharpMUSH text instead, with colour and functions:

+bbpost/mush 4/Feast night=[ansi(hy,Tonight)] in the great hall.

SharpMUSH text is worked out once, as you, at the moment you post it. What it produced is kept, and nothing in it runs again when others read it. /mush works on +bbpost, +bbcomment, +bbreply and +bbedit.

If you write SharpMUSH text most of the time, make it your default:

• +bboptions shows your settings.
• +bboptions format=mush makes SharpMUSH text your default.
• +bboptions format=md goes back to Markdown.
• /md on one post or comment asks for Markdown when your default is SharpMUSH text.

Searching

• +bbsearch 6/Mira lists Mira’s posts on board 6.
• +bbsearch/text 6/horse lists posts and comments with the word horse, on board 6 and the boards inside it.

A search looks at the newest 250 posts. If there are more, it says so. Add a page number to look further back: +bbsearch/2 6/Mira, +bbsearch/text/2 6/horse.

The reader

+bbreader opens a reader where every line you type is a key. You can move around the boards one letter at a time. +bbreader 5/3 opens it at post 5/3.

Nothing you type in the reader runs as a command except +bbread and +bbnext, so the links on its screens work. To page someone or pose, leave with q first.

Key	Does
Enter or n	The next new thing, what +bbnext shows.
A number	Open that board, post or comment where you are.
A path, such as 5/3	Open it from anywhere.
j and k	The next or previous comment in a thread, or page in a board.
J and K	The next or previous post on the board.
p	The comment this one answers.
t	The whole thread.
u	Up one level.
c <text>	Comment on this post.
r <text>	Reply to this comment.
c or r alone	Write several lines. A line of just . posts them; .toss drops them.
e <old>/<new>	Edit what you wrote here.
f	Follow this post, or stop following it.
m	Mark this board read.
l	Show this screen again.
?	List the keys.
q	Leave the reader.

In the portal

When your game has installed bboards-app, the portal has a Boards page under Community. It shows the same boards, posts and comments as the +bb commands, with the same numbers, and it obeys the same locks: a board you can’t read in the game isn’t on the page either.

The side menu has What’s new, with a count of everything you haven’t read, All boards, New post, and every board you follow with its own count.

A board’s page lists its sub-boards and then its posts, pinned posts first. Its buttons do what the commands do:

Button	Same as
New post	+bbpost
Mark all read	+bbcatchup <board>
Follow board or Leave board	+bbjoin or +bbleave

A moderator also sees up and down arrows on pinned posts. They change the order the pins are shown in, for everyone.

A post’s page shows its text and its comments, a few conversations to a page. Replies sit under the comment they answer, as in One conversation. When a conversation is long, “more replies” opens all of it. Reply under a comment opens it so you can answer; the box at the bottom of the page comments on the post. “Written in” picks Markdown or SharpMUSH text, as /md and /mush do.

Above the post are the buttons you are allowed to use: Follow, Edit and Remove for your own post, and for a moderator Edit, Remove, Pin and Close to comments on any post.

Editing in the portal replaces the whole text, like +bbedit/all. When a moderator edits a comment or post someone else wrote as SharpMUSH text, the box starts empty: the author’s code is never copied in, so saving can’t run it as the moderator.

Every page shows the command it matches, such as +bbread 5/5, so you can do the same thing in the game.

Moderating

A board’s moderators are the people who pass its moderate lock (see Locks). Anyone with the BBoard Moderator role moderates every board they can read. Moderators can do this on any post on their boards:

Type	To
+bbpin 5/9	Pin post 5/9 to the top of the board.
+bbpin 5/9=1	Move a pinned post to first place among the pins.
+bbpin 5	List board 5’s pins.
+bbunpin 5/4	Put a pinned post back in date order.
+bbclose 5/4	Stop new comments on a post.
+bbopen 5/4	Allow comments again.
+bbmove 5/4 to 6	Move a post, with its comments, to board 6.
+bbtimeout 5/4=30	Remove the post 30 days after its last activity.
+bbtimeout 5/4=never	Keep the post. =default uses the board’s setting.

Moderators can also use +bbedit and +bbremove on anyone’s post or comment.

Pinning, unpinning and moving all change the numbers of other posts, so the renumber check may ask you to type a command twice.

Running the boards

Installing

BBoards ships with the server but is not installed on a new game. An administrator installs it from the portal:

1. Open Packages in the admin area and choose Browse.
2. Install bboards. It needs plus-help and http-handler, which a new game already has.
3. To show the boards in the portal as well, install bboards-app. See In the portal.

See Softcode Packages for how installing, upgrading and rolling back work.

The boards you start with

#	Board	Category	Who may post	Notes
1	Announcements	Official	BBoard Admins	Anyone may comment.
2	Policy	Official	BBoard Admins	No comments.
3	Staff	Official	Wizards and BBoard Admins	Only wizards and BBoard Admins can see it.
4	Events	Community	Approved players
5	Public	Community	Approved players	Holds 5/1 General and 5/2 Looking for RP.
6	Marketplace	Community	Approved players

Everyone can read every board except Staff. “Approved players” means players with the approved role. If your game doesn’t approve players, change the post locks on boards 4, 5 and 6 (see Locks).

Roles

The package adds two roles:

Role	Can
BBoard Admin (bboard-admin)	Make, set up, order, lock and remove boards. Moderate and read every board.
BBoard Moderator (bboard-moderator)	Moderate every board they can read.

Give one with @role/assign:

@role/assign Mira=bboard-moderator

To make someone a moderator of one board only, don’t give them a role. Put them in that board’s moderate lock instead.

The commands below need the BBoard Admin role.

Making and moving boards

Type	To
+bbnewgroup Trade	Make a board at the top.
+bbnewgroup 5/Plots	Make a board inside board 5.
+bbcleargroup 7	Remove board 7 if it is empty.
+bbcleargroup/confirm 7	Remove board 7 and its posts.
+bbparent 7=5	Move board 7, and everything in it, inside board 5.
+bbparent 5/3=top	Move board 5/3 to the top level.
+bborder 6=up	Move board 6 up one among the boards of its category. =down moves it down.
+bborder 6=1	Move board 6 to first place in its category.

A board that holds other boards can’t be removed until those are moved or removed.

Moving or reordering boards changes their numbers for everyone. Tell your players when you do it.

Categories

A category is a heading over some of the boards at one level. Boards in no category are listed last, under Other boards.

Type	To
+bbcategory/create Out of Character	Make a category at the top level.
+bbcategory/create 5/Plots	Make a category inside board 5.
+bbcategory 7=Out of Character	Put board 7 in that category. =none takes it out.
+bbcategory/rename Out of Character=OOC	Rename a category.
+bbcategory/order OOC=1	Make it the first category.
+bbcategory/delete OOC	Remove a category. Its boards stay, in no category.

For a category inside a board, put the board first, as in /create: +bbcategory/rename 5/Plots=Stories.

Boards are numbered down the categories in order, so changing a category or its place renumbers the boards at that level.

Settings

• +bbinfo 5 shows a board’s settings and locks, and which board a lock comes from.
• +bbconfig shows the defaults.
• +bbconfig all shows every board’s settings and locks in two tables. +bbconfig all 5 starts from board 5.

Change a setting with +bbconfig <board>/<option>=<value>:

Option	What it is	Example
name	The board’s name.	+bbconfig 6/name=Market Square
description	A line shown at the top of the board.	+bbconfig 6/description=Buying, selling and trading.
color	The colour of the board’s name.	+bbconfig 1/color=hy
timeout	Days after its last activity before a post is removed. 0 means never.	+bbconfig 6/timeout=60
pins	How many posts may be pinned, 0 to 10.	+bbconfig 1/pins=3
comments	The most comments a post may hold, 1 to 200.	+bbconfig 5/comments=200
anonymous	A name shown in place of the poster’s.	+bbconfig 4/anonymous=A Rumour

+bbconfig default/<option>=<value> changes the default for boards that don’t set their own: +bbconfig default/timeout=90.

Locks

Each board has four locks. You write them the way @lock takes them.

Lock	Decides	Example
read	Who may see the board.	+bblock 3/read=role^wizard
post	Who may start posts.	+bblock 5/post=role^approved
comment	Who may comment and reply.	+bblock 1/comment=role^approved
moderate	Who moderates the board.	+bblock 4/moderate=role^storyteller

storyteller here stands for any role your game has.

+bbwritelock 5=<lock> is the same as +bblock 5/post=<lock>.

A board with no lock of a kind takes it from the board it is in. For example, board 5, Public, has the post lock role^approved. General (5/1) and Looking for RP (5/2) set no post lock, so only approved players can post there too.

A board’s own lock replaces the one above it. To let only storytellers post on General, while any approved player can still post on Public itself:

+bblock 5/1/post=role^storyteller

To clear a lock, so the board takes it from the board above again, leave the lock empty:

+bblock 5/1/post=

A few more examples:

+bblock 3/read=role^wizard|perm^softcode.bboards.admin
+bblock 5/2/moderate=role^storyteller
+bblock 6/comment=role^approved

At the top, a board with no lock lets everyone read, post and comment, and nobody moderate except the people with the roles above. A board you can’t read hides the boards inside it as well.

Tip

+bbinfo shows each lock and, when it comes from a board above, which board. Check it after you change a lock.

For Myrddin players

If you have used Myrddin’s bulletin board, most of what you type still works.

Works the same

You type	It does
+bbread	Lists the boards you follow, with what’s new.
+bbread 2	Lists board 2.
+bbread 2/5	Reads post 5 on board 2, now with its comments.
+bbpost 2/<title>=<text>	Posts.
+bbpost 2/<title>, +bbwrite, +bbproof, +bbtoss, +bbpost	The draft.
+bbnext, +bbnew	Reads the next new thing.
+bbscan	One line per board with something new.
+bbcatchup 2, +bbcatchup all	Marks boards read.
+bbleave 2, +bbjoin 2	Stops and starts following a board.
+bbnotify 2=off	Turns off new-post notices for a board.
+bbedit 2/5=<old>/<new>	Changes your post. ^^^ works in place of /.
+bbremove 2/5	Removes your post. The posts after it move up one.
+bbmove 2/5 to 3	Moves a post.
+bbsearch 2/<name>	Finds posts by someone.
+bbtimeout 2/5=<days>	Sets when a post times out.
+bbnewgroup, +bbcleargroup	Makes and removes boards.
+bbwritelock 2=<lock>	Sets who may post.
+bbconfig 2/timeout=<days>, +bbconfig 2/anonymous=<name>	Board settings.

Different

• Boards hold boards. A board number can be a path, like 5/1. Inside a board, its boards come first, then its posts.
• The renumber check. If a number has changed since you last listed the board, the command stops and tells you, instead of acting on a different post. Type it again to go ahead.
• +bblist draws the boards you follow as a tree. +bbread/all lists every board you may read.
• +bblock takes a lock kind and an @lock lock: +bblock 5/post=role^approved.
• +bbcatchup on a board also catches up the boards inside it.
• Text is Markdown unless you add /mush.

New

• Comments and replies: +bbcomment, +bbreply, and +bbread <post>/<#> for one conversation.
• +bbreader, for moving around with single keys.
• +bbfollow and +bbunfollow, for one post’s comments.
• +bbsearch/text, to search what posts and comments say.
• +bboptions, for your format and notices.
• For moderators: +bbpin, +bbunpin, +bbclose, +bbopen.
• For staff: +bbinfo, +bborder, +bbparent, +bbcategory, the read, post, comment and moderate locks, and the name, color, description, pins and comments settings.