ILDoc
ILink Organization and Operations
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Version 4.0
March 2001
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CONTENTS
I. General
II. ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION
A. Admin Team
B. Position Descriptions
III. CONFERENCES
A. Hosts
B. Mandatory Conferences
C. Participant Moderation
IV. MEMBER BBSS
A. Admissions
B. Application Procedure
C. Software Requirements
V. BBS OPERATIONS
A. BBS Network Topography
B. Distribution Sites
C. General Policies
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I. GENERAL
ILink is an electronic mail network which is based upon a network of
Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) throughout the world. A primary goal
of ILink is to permit participants to communicate freely and easily
with others of similar interests in a mature and socially acceptable
manner.
Participants exchange messages with each other in message areas
(conferences) covering a broad range of both technical and
non-technical topics. Each conference is hosted to help maintain a
friendly atmosphere by advising and guiding users, generating
interesting topics for discussion, and, when required, moderating the
unruly.
The ILink BBS network is organized to make the flow of traffic timely
and efficient. Access to ILink conferences is available via selected
other networks and systems, including the Internet.
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II. ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION
A. Admin Team
1. ILink's administrative group is known as the Admin Team. Each
member of the Admin Team has individual responsibilities plus
the collective responsibility to decide on subjects required
for ILink, as a whole, to meet its everyday needs and resolve
its problems.
2. The members of the Admin Team are as follows:
Executive Director
Conference Administrator
BBS Administrator
Admissions Administrator
Technical Standards Administrator
Public Relations Administrator
Secretary
3. ILink matters are to be decided by consensus if possible but if
not, by a majority vote of the Admin Team or, if necessary, by
the Executive Director.
4. All Admin Team are volunteer positions. Team members take
these posts with the understanding their work and participation
are vital to ILink and these responsibilities will require much
time and commitment. Admin Team members may appoint others to
work on specific tasks within their areas.
B. Position Descriptions
1. Executive Director
a. Exercise general oversight over all facets of network rules,
guidelines and policies.
b. Propose long term objectives for ILink and encourage their
implementation.
c. Appoint and discharge Network Administrators, and, if deemed
necessary, appoint Associate Administrators.
2. Conference Administrator
a. Develop and administer conferences for the network.
b. Add and remove conferences and monitor topic activity and
user interest.
c Intervene in any conference as necessary where an
exceptional situation may threaten the well-being of the
network as a whole.
d. Appoint conference hosts and maintain contact with them,
generally oversee their performance, and provide them with
guidance regarding the enforcement of network rules,
guidelines and policies.
e. Maintain the Host Guide document.
f. Maintain a list of all currently available conferences,
including a conference description and the host's name(s).
3. BBS Administrator
a. Direct all interactions with ILink BBSs, except for
admissions.
b. Assign systems to distribution sites and assign distribution
sites to other distribution sites as needed.
c. Maintain a distribution site assignment list, a network map,
and the node list.
d. Collect and maintain information concerning ILink BBS
systems.
e. Ensure that all applicant systems are promptly apprised of
the result of their review and that all newly admitted
systems receive an information packet.
f. Determine the status of systems which have been reported by
their upstream site to have not picked up mail for more than
30 days.
g. Carry out long-range planning for the network within the
context of BBSs.
4. Admissions Administrator
a. Receive applications from sysops for membership in ILink.
b. Review applicant systems for suitability.
c. Make recommendations to the BBS Administrator of a
prospective system's suitability.
5. Technical Standards Administrator
a. Approve new or revised software packages for network use.
b. Monitor the flow of mail within the network and investigate
reports of non-delivery of mail.
c. Notify network sites and/or software authors of problems
that interfere with the timely and reliable distribution of
mail.
d. Devise and implement contingency plans to ensure the flow of
mail.
e. Analyze and offer advise relative to alternate technologies.
6. Public Relations Administrator
a. Maintain contact with participants and encourage ideas from
them toward improving the quality of ILink in such areas as
new conference topics and ways of making ILink easier to use
and understand.
b. Host the ILink-Info conference and respond to participant's
concerns.
c. Work with the media and prepare and distribute general
advertising and promotional materials for ILink.
d. Encourage and, if applicable, staff the creation of various
teams, such as a newsletter team and/or other
network-related publications.
7. Secretary
a. Maintain a list of Admin Team members and their contact
details, and publish it in the ILink-Info, ILink, and Hosts
conferences.
b. Maintain the ILDoc and ILGuide documents.
c. Publish the ILink document set.
d. Conduct any necessary votes by the Admin Team and tally the
results.
e. Publish policy amendments as required.
f. Maintain the ILink Web site.
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III. CONFERENCES
A. Hosts
1. ILink's conferences are maintained by a team of Conference
Hosts. The following describes the main policies regarding
hosting but please refer to the Host Guide for further
guidelines.
2. The conference Host should make an effort to read all of the
messages in the conference(s) being hosted.
3. Conference-specific guidelines and common questions and answers
may be created by the conference host and posted as often as
seems appropriate.
4. Conference hosts are expected to maintain a description of
their conference.
5. Hosts are to see that all messages adhere to all applicable
copyright laws.
6. For all moderations beyond an Informal Warning, the moderating
Conference Host is to notify that participant's sysop of the
moderation.
7. Hosts are expected to present "the face of ILink" to their
conferences and to promote ILink to their participants. They
are to model the behavior being asked of participants, in
terms of courtesy, good taste, discussion, and participation.
B. Mandatory Conferences
1. All BBS systems must carry the ILink, ILink-Info, Host&User,
and Coconuts conferences. Systems which are accessed by one or
more Hosts must also carry the Hosts conference. Distribution
Site Systems must carry any local administrative conferences
maintained by their upstream sites.
2. The ILink and Hosts conferences are the main business
conferences of ILink and access is restricted to sysops, hosts,
and Admin Team members. They are for official announcements
regarding ILink policies and procedures; and for discussions
amongst the sysops, hosts, and Admin Team. All ILink sysops
are expected to read the ILink conference and hosts read the
Hosts conference on a regular basis.
a. Coconuts is an informal conference which is limited to hosts
and sysops for their private chit-chat.
3. The ILink-Info conference is where participants can ask
questions and discuss ILink. It is a public conference, and
should be accessible to all users who have access to other
ILink conferences.
4. The Host&User conference is the forum for discussion of
moderations between Hosts and the recipients of their
moderation. It is a public conference, and should be
accessible to all users who have access to other ILink
conferences.
C. Participant Moderation
1. When a participant ignores the advice of a host and threatens
the friendly intelligent interchange of messages in a
conference, the host initiates the 1-2-3 process. In this
process, an unruly participant ordinarily receives an
Informal Warning, then a Formal Warning, and if necessary, a
removal of access.
2. The following table summarizes the range of moderation actions
and their associated probationary period:
ACTION PERIOD
Informal Warning 3 months
Formal Warning 6 months
Permanent Network Expulsion N/A
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IV. MEMBER BBSs
A. Admissions
1. The Admissions Administrator carries out the evaluation of BBS
systems that apply for membership in ILink.
2. The following are the minimum requirements which a system must
meet in order to be considered for membership as an ILink BBS.
a. The applicant BBS must be running registered and approved
BBS software, mail tossers and mail doors.
b. The applicant BBS must be available to participants 24 hours
a day, 365 days a year, with the exception of time set aside
for mail transfers and board maintenance.
c. The system should have a set of posted BBS rules which
clearly state that commercial (retail) or pirated software
is not to be uploaded.
d. The BBS should not have commercial software, pirated
software, or registered shareware in a list of files
available on the system or in a download directory.
e. Sysops may not charge their callers an extra fee for
participation in ILink conferences.
B. Application Procedure
1. When a system has applied for membership in ILink, the
Admissions Administrator will contact the applicant system to
review it. This review will take into account the minimum
requirements, as well as other guidelines that may be issued
from time to time.
2. The Admissions Administrator will then submit both a review and
a recommendation to the BBS Administrator.
3. When a decision has been reached, the sysop of the applicant
system is notified.
4. a. If an application is accepted, the BBS Administrator takes
over and assigns the new system to an appropriate
Distribution Site to send and receive mail.
b. If an application is rejected, the sysop may re-apply after
addressing the reason(s) for the rejection.
C. Software Requirements
1. The integrity of the network depends upon the software used to
transfer the mail, and systems must use approved packages.
Violation of this policy may result in disconnection from the
network without prior notice. As of the release of this
document, the following software is approved:
a. Approved BBS Packages
PCBoard (with approved tosser / door)
Remote Access (with approved tosser / door)
Synchronet (using internal QWK support)
Wildcat! (with approved tosser / door)
b. Approved Mail Tossers
CamMail (PCBoard)
RNet (PCBoard)
TNet (Wildcat!)
QNet (PCBoard)
RoseMail (PCBoard)
SUARM (Remote Access)
Synchronet (internal)
wcGATE (Wildcat!)
wcECHO (Wildcat!)
c. Approved Mail Doors
CamMail (PCBoard)
RoseMail (PCBoard)
TomCat (Wildcat!)
QMail (PCBoard)
WCMail (Wildcat!)
d. Note that PCBoard's internal QWK networking is NOT approved
for transferring ILink network packets; an ILink-approved
external program must be used with PCBoard.
2. One of the following standard network conventions for origin
lines must be adopted:
a. ILink: BBS Name * BBS City * BBS State or Country * BBS Phone #
b. ILink: BBS Name * BBS City, State or Country * BBS Phone #
c. As an alternate, the above * (ASCII 42) may be replaced by
the block spacer character (ASCII 254). The mail tosser ID
must be displayed on the nettag line.
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V. BBS OPERATIONS
A. BBS Network Topography
1. ILink's BBS Network is organized as a tree structure - a system
of hubs and nodes. The BBSs that make up the network fulfill
different roles in distributing the mail. The following
sections describe the categories of site and how they
interconnect.
a. BBS Categories
IDS International Distribution Site. The central hub of
the network. Coordinates and handles traffic among all
of the NDS systems. Can also handle traffic from TNS
systems.
NDS National Distribution Site. A secondary or regional
hub. Responsible for transferring mail between the IDS
and TNS systems or SDS systems.
SDS Strategic Distribution Site. A relay station between
an NDS and a group of TNS systems. Used where there
is a concentration of TNS systems in a region which
has no NDS.
TNS Terminal Node Site. A 'leaf' node - like a terminus
on a bus route. A TNS transfers mail for its own
participants but does not distribute it to other
systems.
b. The following diagram illustrates how the different
categories of ILink system interconnect:
[ IDS ]
|
+----[ NDS ]--------------------[ TNS ]
| [ TNS ]
|
+----[ NDS ]----+----[ SDS ]----[ TNS ]
| | [ TNS ]
| |
| +---------------[ TNS ]
| [ TNS ]
| [ TNS ]
|
+-------------------------------[ TNS ]
[ TNS ]
B. Distribution Sites
1. Distribution Sites must carry all official ILink conferences
and assume the the following additional responsibilities, over
and above those of all Terminal Node Site systems.
2. ILink conference message bases are to be kept in good
condition, with all reasonable efforts made to eliminate
duplicate or corrupt messages.
3. Distribution Sites must maintain a sufficient number of
messages in each ILink message base at any time to allow
connecting systems to collect at least 15 days worth of mail.
4. Distribution Sites should make efforts to allow easy,
high-speed access by their downstream systems.
5. Duties unique to Distribution Sites are voluntary.
6. Distribution Sites are to encourage newly admitted system's
sysops to post a seed message into each of the ILink
conferences they intend to carry. Seed messages should include
the name of the conference, as well as the new system's name
and location, all within the body of the text.
C. General Policies
1. To the extent that it is within a sysop's reasonable control,
no ILink system shall allow, promote, or in any way condone any
illegal activity in any ILink message base.
2. If illegal activity is discovered, and the activity is legal at
the point of origin but illegal elsewhere on the network, the
originating sysop will be notified and expected to stop the
activity. Repeated violations may result in disciplinary
action or removal.
3. ILink prefers that participants use their real name. An
assumed name may be acceptable, but any non-traditional or
offensive name is not acceptable.
4. If a system carries more than one network, it is the
responsibility of the sysop to ensure that mail from ILink is
not posted into another network's conferences, and that mail
from another network is not posted into ILink conferences.
5. ILink may have "backbone" arrangements with one or more other
networks. A backbone is an outside network whose mail we also
carry and which takes mail from us in return. Conferences
"belong" to the network of origin and in all instances users of
whichever net are subject to the rules and regulations of that
particular network.
6. TNS systems should exchange mail with their NDS or SDS a
minimum of once per day. All NDS and SDS systems must exchange
mail with their upstream sites at least once per day.
Exceptions to these time frames can be granted only by the
BBS Administrator or the Executive Director. It is strongly
suggested that mail runs be made twice per day, as the
additional cost should be minimal (one or two extra on-line
minutes), and the turnaround time for replies may be halved.
6. All systems are strongly encouraged to update their conference
listings as soon as possible after the announcement of
conference additions and deletions posted in the ILink
conference.
7. TNS systems are encouraged to maintain at least 15 days worth
of mail in each of their ILink conferences.
8. Sysops should notify the BBS Administrator and the sysop of
their source NDS or SDS if an absence of more than a week is
anticipated.
8. In addition to the mandatory conferences, all systems should
carry a selection of public conferences. A minimum of 15 is
suggested, up through the entire conference inventory.
9. All systems should use ILink conferences names as provided in
the ILink Conference List (e.g., Investor should not be renamed
as Stocks). Because many systems carry more than one echomail
network, adding network identification to the conference name,
such as IL-Politics or Politics_IL, is strongly recommended.
10. All systems are to make the current versions of the following
files available for download:
ILDOCnn.ZIP ILDoc - this document.
ILGUIDnn.ZIP ILGuide - etiquette guidelines for participants.
ILHOSTnn.ZIP Host Guide - guidelines for Conference Hosts.
ILNKyymm.ZIP General info pack including BBS and conference Lists.
Where: nn is version n.n of a document (ILDOC40.ZIP = v4.0)
yy and mm are the year and month of issue (ILNK0103.ZIP =
Mar, 2001)
New releases of these files are announced to ALL in the ILink
and Hosts conferences, and copies are available on the ILink
Web site. It is recommended that sysops ask their participants
to review ILGuide before granting them access to ILink
conferences.
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