A SYSOP IS...
                            by David M. Kilgore

     As a user of several local computer bulletin boards, I have seen quite 
a few text files written by sysops who felt a need to vent their frustration 
regarding the things their users do to annoy them.  I decided to write this 
text file as a means of telling the other side of the story - as a user who 
wishes to vent a little frustration of my own. 


     A SYSOP IS... 

     A sysop is someone who works very hard to provide an interesting and 
valuable board for his users. 

     A sysop is someone who is constantly trying to make his board better,
more useful, more impressive and more fun, no matter what it takes or what 
it costs.

     A sysop is someone who usually doesn't get much appreciation from his 
users, no matter how nice his board is or how much effort it takes to 
maintain it. 

     A sysop is someone who has to put up with a lot of nonsense from users
who never even acknowledge his existence at all unless they want to complain 
that this doesn't work and that file is corrupt and you'd better fix this 
and I don't like that.  

     A sysop is someone who has a lot of dedication and patience and 
generosity, and who deserves every kind word and gesture of support he can 
get. 

     Sysops are wonderful.


     HOWEVER... A SYSOP IS ALSO...

     A sysop is someone who can, in the same breath, scold you for not 
uploading anything to his board, while simultaneously complaining that his 
hard disk is full and he needs you to give him money so he can buy a bigger 
one. 

     A sysop is someone who thinks that each and every one of the people who 
logs onto his board has an unlimited supply of software, all of which is 
fascinating and valuable, all of which is public domain, and all of which is 
utterly unlike anything he already has on his 550MB board.  The sysop is 
convinced that everyone who logs onto his board is deliberately and 
maliciously refusing to upload this wonderful software out of pure spite.  

     A sysop is someone who BEGS his users to upload software to the board,
then screams "RAPE!" whenever anyone tries to DOWNLOAD any of it.  

     A sysop is someone who insists that YOU send HIM files, but thinks you 
have a lot of nerve asking HIM to let YOU have any.

     A sysop is someone who goes to a great deal of trouble to provide file
areas, message areas, online games and various other services, then gets all 
bent out of shape if anyone prefers one of these services to another.  
"What?  You want a slice of the APPLE pie?  What's wrong with the 
PUMPKIN???"

     A sysop is someone who can't be happy for those people who use the
message areas because they actually have something to say to each other.  
The sysop wants EVERYONE to use the message areas, even if they know 
absolutely no one else on the board and have nothing whatsoever worth 
saying.

     A sysop is someone who can't understand why anybody would want to scan 
through the file areas looking for new and useful pieces of software, when 
they could be slogging through an endless stream of incomprehensible and 
irrelevant messages sent by people they don't know to other people they 
don't know for reasons which are neither of any interest to them nor any of 
their business. 

     A sysop is a lunatic.  He has to be.  Why would anybody in their right 
mind want to run a BBS? 

:-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  

:-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  

:-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  

:-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  

     And, I suppose, a sysop is a necessary evil.  

     I just hope I don't find myself banned from this board for life.