Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 15:54:53 -0600
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
Reply to: TOURBUS-REQUEST@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
To: Multiple recipients of list TOURBUS
Subject: TOURBUS - 22 FEBRUARY 1996 - FOOTHILLS
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\___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/
TOURBUS - TUESDAY, 20 FEBRUARY 1996
TODAY'S STOP: FOOTHILLS
TODAY'S ADDRESS: telnet://toybox.infomagic.com:2010/
Today, we are going to talk about one of my favorite places on the Net:
Foothills. Foothills is a MUD (a multiple user device) where you can
participate in real-time, text-based conversations with people from all
over the world. Best of all, Foothills is FREE.
Before we get too far into today's TOURBUS post though, I want to say three
things about Multiple User Devices:
1. There are hundreds of MUDS on the net, and everyone has a different view
on which MUD is the best. Foothills is just one of DOZENS of extremely
well-run and interesting MUDs on the Net (you can find the addresses of
other MUDs in Yanoff's list).
2. Most of the best MUDs (like Foothills) have "super-users,"
administrators chosen by the site that is hosting the MUD who stay online
to police the MUD (usually by "booting" people who cuss or offend the other
users). Because of this, most of the well-managed MUDs are much more
friendly and much less offensive than the non-monitored talker services
like Internet Relay Chat -- although there is no such thing as a completely
"sanitized" talker.
3. MUDS are seriously addictive, and are very large "time sponges." Please
try to remember that there are some things in life that are more important
than the MUDs ... although at this time I can't seem to rember what these
things are :)
LOGGING IN
----------
You can access Foothills for FREE through telnet by telnetting to
toybox.infomagic.com 2010
For those of you who are used to URL format, Foothills' URL is
telnet://toybox.infomagic.com:2010/
and for the gear-heads out there who like IP addresses, Foothills' IP address is
165.113.211.4 port 2010
Foothills is only accessible through telnet, though, so you will need to
use a telnet client to access any of these addresses. One word of warning:
from time to time, Foothills gets full; if this happens and Foothills will
not allow you to connect, just try to connect a little later.
Once you have connected, Foothills will ask you to
Please enter your name:
Don't enter your name! Instead, you need to enter a one-word, character
name (e.g.,. BusRider, BillyBob, Paramour, etc.). Think hard ... this one
word character name will be your identity while you are on Foothills.
The hard part is picking a name that isn't already being used by a
"resident" (a person who uses Foothills so much that they have their own
permanent character name). If you choose a character name that is already
being used, you will be prompted to
Please enter your password:
If that happens, just type a bunch of gibberish as the password. Foothills
will respond by saying
Hey !! that ain't right !
Wrong password .... closing connection.
Then, just reconnect and try again. It may take you a little while to find
a unique character name (there are 9,759 residents on Foothills), but keep
trying.
Once you find an unique character name, Foothills will show you a whole
bunch of welcome screens. READ THESE CAREFULLY. Thrown in amongst the
welcome screens are some questions that you must answer, like
You entered the name 'XXXXXX' when you first logged in.
Is this the name that you wish to be known as on the program ?
Answer Y or N:
and
The program requires that you enter your gender.
This is used solely for the purposes of correct english and grammar.
If you object to this, then simply type 'n' for not applicable.
Enter (M)ale, (F)emale or (N)ot applicable:
Foothills will also ask you to read and accept a disclaimer saying that you
won't hunt down and wound the administrators if you don't like Foothills.
You can either accept this disclaimer (by typing "continue" when prompted)
or exit Foothills (by typing "end").
As I said earlier, Foothills is an extremely well managed talker. As their
welcome messages says, "[w]hat you do on your own is private, but, should
anything you do be abusive, offensive, or annoying to other characters,
then be prepared to bear the full brunt of the consequences. This may
involve anything deemed suitable by the administrators or superusers
including complete banishment from the program and/or 'real life' actions."
You should also note that Foothills has a very strong position on sexual
harassment: "Please note that sexual harassment is *not* tolerated here,
even fairly mild forms (such as shouting things like 'any single girls
on'). Offenders will be removed."
... I told you that Foothills was cool :)
IN THE ROOMS
------------
Once you enter Foothills, you will be dropped into a room with a couple of
other people in it. This is really what Foothills is all about. Foothills
has a whole bunch of "rooms," and the people in each of the rooms are able
to "talk" to the other people in that room by typing what they want to say.
Depending on the time of day and what room you are dropped into, your
screen may start filling up with the conversations of the other people in
that room. Don't panic.
First off, let's get you into a "quiet" room (mine) and show you how to use
this thing. Type
VISIT SIMGOD
and press enter. SimGod is my Foothills character name (I used to be a
Simulations Director at Space Camp, and the kids nicknamed me SimGod), and
by typing VISIT SIMGOD you will be taken to my personal room on Foothills
(all residents can have their own personal rooms that they "decorate"
according to their own tastes). The only people who will ever be in my room
are other TOURBUS riders and myself, so it should be pretty quiet in there.
Once you get into my room, you should also type
EARMUFFS
This will block system-wide shouts, which can be quite annoying.
SAYING STUFF
------------
To "say" something to everyone in the room that you are in, just type a "
or ' before what you want to say. For example, if I wanted to say
Anyone want to buy a really fast graphing calculator
I would type
"Anyone want to buy a really fast graphing calculator
or
'Anyone want to buy a really fast graphing calculator
and then press enter. Once I press enter, the following will appear on the
screens of everyone who is in the same room as me
SimGod says 'Anyone want to buy a really fast graphing calculator'
This is the way that conversations take place on Foothills. One person
types something, another person replies ... and so on :)
So, if you want to say something to everyone in the same room as you, you
just need to put a " or ' before what you what to say. Want to see
something cool, though? If I type
"Anyone want to buy a really fast graphing calculator?
the following will appear on everyone's screen
SimGod asks 'Anyone want to buy a really fast graphing calculator?'
What's the difference? Well, Foothills noticed the question mark and
changed the statement that appears on everyone's screen from "SimGod says"
to "SimGod asks." Is this cool or what?
Here are a couple of other commands that will help you on Foothills:
THINK
-----
You can "think" something instead of saying it by using the THINK command
(you can type THINK in either upper or lower case). For example, if I type
THINK I like coffee
the following will appear on the screens of everyone in the same room as me
SimGod thinks . o O ( I like coffee )
So, if I typed the following three lines (hitting enter at the end of the lines)
THINK I like coffee
THINK I like tea
THINK I like the java jive and it likes me
the following will appear on the screens of everyone in the same room as me
SimGod thinks . o O ( I like coffee )
SimGod thinks . o O ( I like tea )
SimGod thinks . o O ( I like the java jive and it likes me )
EMOTE
-----
You can not only say and think things on Foothills, you can also DO things
using the emote command (:). Just put a colon before what you want to do.
One word of warning: to be grammatically correct, think of the colon as
representing the words "my character." For example, to hit myself over the
head for my obscure reference to the java jive, I would type
: hits himself over the head for his obscure reference to the java jive
and the following will appear on the screens of everyone in the same room as me
Simgod hits himself over the head for his obscure reference to the
java
jive
X
-------------
To find out a little more about someone who is currently logged into
Foothills, type
X
replacing with the name of the character that you want to find
out more about. For example, if I were logged onto Foothills and you
wanted to find out a little more about my character, you would type
X SIMGOD
FINGER
------------------
This command is like X , but it allows you to find out
information about characters who may not be logged into Foothills at the
time.
HELP #
------
There are a WHOLE BUNCH more Foothills commands. To find out more about ALL
of the Foothills commands, type
HELP #
where # is a number from 1 to 15. For example, to see help screen 1, you
would type
HELP 1
and to see help screen 2, you would type
HELP 2
Your best bet is to do this in a quiet room (like mine (type VISIT SIMGOD))
so that you aren't interrupted by the conversation in the room.
OTHER STUFF
-----------
When a newbie (someone who is not a Foothills resident or who does not know
much about Foothills) enters a room that you are in, the following will
appear on your screen
appears flying through the air and lands in a heap on the
ground.
Residents enter with a little more class. For example, when I enter a
room, the following message appears
SimGod emerges from a mysterious fog bank and shouts "ROLL TIDE"
Also, when a newbie exits Foothills, the following message will appear
jumps up into the air and disappears with a loud *POP* !
Ready to start talking with the rest of the world? To leave my room and go
to a public room, type any of the following words and press enter
HILLTOP
VALLEY
SHADOW
SOUND
SIDE
BRIDGE
These are all public rooms where there are bound to be LOTS of people
chatting their little hearts out (the largest room is usually the HILLTOP).
Oh, and when you get tired of talking and you want to quit Foothills, just type
QUIT
SOME FINAL WORDS
----------------
Foothills is an amazing and fun place to meet new people. Unfortunately,
Foothills (and for that matter, other talkers) is a magnet for liars. It
is very easy for someone to exaggerate about themselves online, so it
happens quite often. I deliberately used the words "character name"
instead of "userid" in writing today's TOURBUS. Think of ALL of the people
that you meet online as characters -- people pretending to be something
that they aren't -- and you'll have a much more enjoyable time online :)
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---------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY
---------------------------------
ROOL - Adjective. Not urban.
FORD - Preposition. To advance.
Usage: "The rool markins wanna see this country move ford."
(Special thanks goes to Pat Vedomske and Dennis DeVendra for today's wurds)
YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE
SOUTHERN WORD HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html
... and since I am equal opportunity satirist, here is a NORTHERN word of
the day for you as well:
BEG - Noun. A paper, cloth, or plastic container.
Usage: "You wanna beg for your groceries?
(Special thanks goes to Talbert Malone for today's wurd)
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TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1996, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin
All rights reserved. Redistribution is allowed only with permission.
Send this copy to 3 friends and tell them to get on the Bus!
(\__/) .~ ~. ))
/O O ./ .' Patrick Douglas Crispen
{O__, \ { pcrispe1@ua1vm.ua.edu
/ . . ) \ The University of Alabama
|-| '-' \ } )) http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/crispen.html
.( _( )_.'
'---.~_ _ _& Warning: squirrels.
