[Dxspider-support] Mail Enhancement?

[Stephen J. Carroll]

Our network is primarily made up of "RF links" and covers 5 states
(AL,MS,TN,GA,SC). The locally connected users are encouraged to remain
"logged in" continuously (if possible), which cuts down on the amount of
PC16/17 packets to be sent over the backbone. The previous DX Cluster
software that we utilized (prior to DX Spider) would send the "New Mail
Pending" Notification everytime the "Keep Alive" prompt was sent (10
minutes). Re-educating our users is a BIG deal across our network, but some
"old dogs" aren't responsive to new tricks and training does take time to
fully implement. Also, keep in mind that a handful of our users (believe it
or not) still use "dumb terminals" for packet. Some of these pre-historic
machines DON'T have a scroll-back feature or ability to change their screen
colors. We don't allow General Bulletin mail on our network, so the use of
"DIR/NEW" is a new concept. It wasn't necessary in the past because the
cluster informed the user of UNREAD personal mail.

The specific scenario where UNREAD mail can occur:

User "XYZ" is away from the keyboard (perhaps 12 hours have elapsed),
returns and DOESN'T always use "DIR/NEW" to check for New Mail. Even if the
user DOES scroll-back, there could be hundreds of DX spots to weed through
in order to find that ONE "New Mail Pending" line. Sure it would be nice if
EVERY possible user configuration were able to change to neon colors, but
they DON'T and some CAN'T. Like I said, unless the user logs out/in or the
SysOp takes down the cluster for maintenance (forcing the user to log back
in eventually), there's no other indication that he/she has "New Mail
Pending" aside from "DIR/NEW" (the learning curve is steep for some).

I realize this is an isolated scenario and probably doesn't apply to most
other situations and/or networks around the world. So, why not allow the
SysOp to turn such a feature on/off? I know a dozen SysOps in our little
corner of the world that would welcome it.

73, Steve - K2SC




-----Original Message-----
From: dxspider-support-bounces at dxcluster.org
[mailto:dxspider-support-bounces at dxcluster.org]On Behalf Of Colin Harris
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 1:29 AM
To: The DXSpider Support list
Subject: Re: [Dxspider-support] Mail Enhancement?


Hi Ian & others,

                           Yes , true with console.pl but
these logging programs have adjustable scroll back buffers
that can go back 24 hrs or so. User software always aim's
the blows at the server. It's like being a sysop , when
anything goes wrong it's the cluster which gets blamed
first. I speak from bitter experience of a well known user
logging prog which was incorrectly set up but led to a lot
of anger when we changed to Spider. I accept your technical
point.
.
- Regards Colin



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