    # 19554 of 21192
    Thursday 93Jun03 03:50:20 AM From Brent Bottles
Bobbie: What we are doing to make Citadel more "desirable" to those other than
what we already have is a multi-step process.

  First off, we are working to make the software work at what we consider to be
an "ideal" level of usability before we try wide-spread distribution.

  What this means is adding features that we believe that BBS users and sysops
in general desire from BBS software, and removing strange quirks of the
software that limit its growth.

  The most obvious of these is networking, and network mail routing in
specific. When Net 6.9 as designed is fully implemented (probably in /066 or
so), Citadel's networking will be very powerful and easy to use. As a test (of
both concept and code), we are implementing it a bit at a time, and letting the
users try the new parts of it.

  Other areas that need work are the console sysop's interface, mail security,
and installation/setup.

   A new console sysop interface is about halfway implemented in /064, and
should be done in /065. This makes it easier to do things on console: you are
not limited to the TTY interface that has been restricting Citadel for some
time. TTY is, of course, still supported, as it is required for remote sysop
use.

   Mail security is no longer a problem in /064, as a fairly good data
encryption scheme has been worked into the code.

  Installation/setup was made much easier in /063, and should be made even
easier in /065. (All you need to install a GremCit/063 or later is CTDL.EXE and
CTDL.DAT - it will create a CONFIG.CIT for you as you reply to questions.) What
I intend to add in /065 is a "Do you want a Twit or Serious BBS" question.
(Well, a bit more in-depth than this, but you understand.) All of the "Twit"
features in GremCit are disableable by the sysop, but you have to know how to
do it. This will make it easy to disable them all at once.


  About all that this leaves is file transfers. File transfers were marginally
improved in /064, but a full improvement is slated for /065.


   Aside from the software, the other obvious wall in the way of widespread
Citadel distribution is documentation. I have written about (a little over,
actually) 100 pages of documentation, and feel that I am half way there.

   I feel that all of this will be completed by the end of 1993, and
wide-spread distribution will start some time in 1994.

   Also, when distributing the software to new people, I think it would be best
to shield them from the network we have here as much as possible; tell them of
its existence, but limit their exposure to it to the few good rooms that there
are on it.

  This is what we see needs to be done for wider spread distribution, and what
we intend to do.
