Thursday, May 10th 2018 11:35:10 from Sysop: Walter
Subject: bbs100 is deprecated

You came here looking for the bbs100 software. Thank you for your interest.
Alas, it is no longer available here. You may still be able to find it
elsewhere.

The times have caught up on bbs100. The problem is that since May 2018
laws surrounding the handling of personal data and offering online services
have become strict enough that it is no longer possible to run a simple
online service such as bbs100 without breaking the law.

bbs100 started out in 1999, but harkens back to 1994-ish (?), an era
when the internet was small, new grounds for pioneers, and yes, lawless.
It was free (as in freedom), non-commercial (as in gratis), and with
all good intent. And it was great fun meeting people and making friends
online from all over the globe.

bbs100 has always respected the user's privacy; although you were asked
to fill in your real name and address, it was never a requirement.
It also offered the possibility of hiding your personal information
from non-friends. It never secretly logged any activities, and there was
no way for sysops to eavesdrop on your private chats with others.
As far as I know bbs100 has never been hacked, nor has there been any data
breach of some sorts.

Data hungriness by the internet giants (e.g. Facebook, Google) and
the steady stream of data leaks due to inadequate security practices
at organizations _everywhere_ (companies, hospitals, schools, municipal
governments, your local sports club) have led to the lawmakers taking
drastic measures, and maybe rightly so.

Such as it is, bbs100 is not in compliance with regulations, meaning that
by hosting a bbs100 service as it was originally intended you will be
breaking the law and risking a tremendously high fine.
I suppose it's not unlike being a radio pirate: it's really cool, until
you get caught.

Tinkering with the code in the comfort of your own home is fine of course,
but that is not what bbs100 was built for. Some have suggested to "fix"
the software. Doing it properly would require a massive undertaking,
with little reward.

bbs100 is therefore deprecated, to be treated as legacy software.
The license and copyright remain intact: the source code may be
distributed freely and is still provided "as is" under terms described
in the GNU General Public License version 2. Nevertheless, I decided not
to make it available anymore on my personal web pages.
The final release of the software was version 3.3.1 dated May 31 2015,
although few bugfixes appeared on github afterwards stamped 3.3.2.

My thanks to everyone for the good times.

Greets && have fun,

    --Walter