Even from the "old good days" of BBSing i didn't like the JAM base style of
posting things. Specially when old messages are being deleted and the thing,
that all posts, with various subjects are in the one and same "bucket" and
when you try to find something or follow a conversation... it's a mess.

For sure it's a way to keep live conversations, cause the same things are
being repeated over and over, cause posts have gone deleted/missing...
exactly how fuckbook works... :p

So, i have to admit... i am a forum-style guy... i really like organizing
conversations in forums/topics and keep them indefinitely! This way, nothing
is getting lost, other users can search and find what the want and even
browse the forum, just to kill some time :)

That's what it's all about this mod! A Forum for local use in BBSes... I
wanted to build it, for a long time, but didn't had the time or the
dedication to do it, cause it needed enough time and piece of mind to make
it. There were a lot of problems to overcome and figure out, but in the end,
i hope the result is satisfying.

[hr]

This forum/mod is a link between the past and present of BBSing. It uses the
tree structure of a forum, the BBCodes of a forum!, but also uses all the good
things about BBSing, which is ANSI graphics, oldskool format files, lightbars
etc. :)

The mod supports full ANSI graphics, also Pipe colors and you can customize
it as you want, in all aspects. The treeview, the text view, headers, fields,
bars, you name it... After all, the code is open and you can even twitch that.

For saving/storing the data, i didn't want to use something like SQLite or
other type of database... i wanted to make it as oldskool, as JAM bases are
and I even got some ideas from that scheme. Everything is stored in binary,
data files, except the posts, which are saved as text/txt files. So, MysticBB
uses a flatfile based database ;)

The good thing about this approach, is that you can store and access
everything easy enough. With a text editor you can view messages, with a HEX
editor you can view/edit the data files (but there is also an internal
function to do so, so don't worry). You can backup things with a single
copy/paste in your file browser.

Also, if something goes wrong, for example an unexpected shutdown of the
system, there is no fear of some SQL(ite) file being corrupted and loose
everything. If a data file, storing posts data, be corrupt, only that topic
will be lost and only the data file! not the actual texts. Of course you
still have to make backups, if want to be 100% sure, not loosing something.

Of course there are downsides of this approach. The system, depends on
disk/file access, so it has to read/write things on the drive a lot
(depending the size of the forum and usage). So systems like RPis, may seem
slow. Don't think that it reads/writes all the time... no, don't worry, it
wont worn your sdcard in a night ;)

[hr]

MysticBB brings BBCodes in the BBS scene :) You may wonder, why? ... but...
of course... why not? :) BBCodes is a way to have posts/text keep some sort
of same style (template). For example if the users insert pipe color codes
all over the place, text will be ugly... but if you use BBCodes for text
styling, text will be the same, across the forum and even if you decide to
change the theme/style of it, in the future you can do so and all BBCodes,
will follow the same style ;)

Also, by using BBCodes, we can also use more ANSI graphics!!! yeah! For
example look the Youtube BBCode. It's just a way to show things a little
better and be distinguishable in the post text. Of course if you have better
ideas, you can add your own BBCodes to the system.

[hr]

With MysticBB, you can search the entire Forum for specific text or just list
the new/updated topics in just a click ;) You can also download post text,
create topics and anything else you should expect from a forum in 2020+

Of course there are more capabilities for the sysop, as he can make topics
and forums read only, give ACS levels to restrict access of users, backup
files remotely from the BBS ;) and more... 

[hr]

I hope you like the ideas behind it and enjoy the mod... 

.
