Parachutt" Inilustrl lssricirltim - Parachute Industry Association

A GUIDE TO THE PTA BBS
PIA BBS BASICS
First of all, you need a personal computer with a modem. CaII
the BBS at 904-985-0580. If this is your first call, you will be
asked to sign up for the board. This involves selecting a password,
Ieaving your address and other information, and configuring
how the BBS will work with your computer. You are usually best
off with the option the computer suggests. Any options selected
here can be changed at a later date. Be sure to indicate that
you are a PIA member when you sign up. OnIy PIA members can
access the entire board. Your security profile will be updated
within 24 hours. After you complete the sign up process, you wiII
see the main menu. The first option to discuss is "Join a conference".
Simply type 'rJ'r and you may select a conference by
number or "L"ist the possible conferences. Once you have selected
a conference, you wiII return to the main menu.
CONFERENCES
The main concept to understand about the BBS is conferences.
Which conference you are in controls the options you have. We
currently have 25 conferences set up on the board. Conferences
include General Public Messages, PIA Committees, No Shit There I
Was (for jump stories), Used Gear for SaIe, and conferences for
manufacturers such as Jump Shack, Relative Workshop, and Precision.
Other manufacturers may have a conference set up for them
upon request. Conference #20 is the international rec.skydiving
newsgroup. This is an "echo" of discussions among skydivers aII
over the world. People post messages to a central locatj-on and
the messages are sent to aII subscribers to the newsgroup around
the world-. To post a message to the newsgroup, simply enter a
message to 'ALL' in conference #20. It wiII be forwarded to
subscribers to the newsgroup aII over the world. Commercial use
of the Newsgroup is not permitted. I believe that product announcements
would be appropriate but blatant advertising should
be avoided. Many non-profit educational organizations are involved
with newsgroups and would not appreciate paying for your
advertising. Since PIA pays for the local BBS, advertise to your
hearts content on any conference but #20. There are many forms
of etiquette in newsgroups that you will understand after you
read the messages currently there. 50-100 messages a week are
Ieft in the newsgroup. The day after the Northampton crash, the
net was buzzing with discussion of it.
Conference #2I is used for Internet mail. Internet mail is
reserved for PfA members only as Internet traffic costs PIA money
in increased phone costs. The Internet is a network of computers
around the world. This allows communication between any user of
any computer on the net. To send someone on the Internet a
message you need their "e-mail" address. E-mai-I addresses are in
the format "user@computer.domain" where domain is the type of
U. S. computer, such as . edu for schools, . com for