Subj : FSP-10xx-1: BBSID Kludge Specification
To   : All
From : Rob Swindell
Date : Tue Dec 26 2023 03:05 pm

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FTSC                             FIDONET TECHNICAL STANDARDS COMMITTEE
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Publication:    FSP-10xx
Revision:       1
Title:          BBSID Kludge Specification
Author:         Rob Swindell (1:103/705)
Date:           2023-12-12
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Status of this document
-----------------------

 This document is a Fidonet Standard Proposal (FSP), issued by its
 author for the benefit of the Fidonet community.

 This document specifies an optional Fidonet standard protocol for
 the Fidonet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
 improvements.

 This document is released to the public domain, and may be used,
 copied or modified for any purpose whatever.


Contents
--------
 1. Background
 2. Definition
 3. Deployment
 4. References

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1. Background
-------------
 Synchronet BBS software supports the optional storage and display
 of character/block-graphic "avatars" for users of a BBS as well
 as the authors of messages imported from message networks.

 Other BBS software packages have also adopted the Synchronet avatar
 specifications and distribution model.  The technical details of
 Synchronet avatars, including their sharing and storage formats,
 are not within the scope of this document, but more information
 can be found by following the links in the References section.

 1.1 The Problem
 ---------------
 The Synchronet user avatar data is not sent/stored with every
 posted message, but rather the avatar data is communicated
 out-of-band from networked discussion areas and the stored avatars
 include metadata to allow them to be correlated with the authors
 of subsequently locally-posted and received networked messages.
 This correlation is necessary in order to display the proper stored
 avatar corresponding with each message's author.

 Since avatars may be shared among BBSes using one of a number of
 message networking technologies (e.g. QWK, NNTP, FidoNet), and a
 BBS may have multiple FidoNet addresses (AKAs), a single
 correlatable ID was saught to enable the identification of the
 proper avatar to be displayed with the author of a networked
 message, regardless of which FidoNet-technology-network address
 from which the message was posted.

 For example, a BBS may store an avatar for "Rob Swindell" at
 1:103/705 (the FidoNet address of Vertrauen BBS) but would want
 that same avatar to be displayed along with any messages received
 from "Digital Man" at 21:1/183 (the fsxNet address of Vertrauen
 BBS).  Solving the correlation of user aliases and real names is
 not within the scope of this document.

 1.2 The Solution
 ----------------
 Since BBSes that support QWK packet technology must already have a
 globally unique ID (the so-called BBS-ID or "Board ID" from which
 their QWK packet files are named), it made logical sense to reuse
 this  same ID as the method of correlating any message received via
 FidoNet with the avatar data stored for the message author.

2. Definition
-------------
 A control paragraph (AKA kludge line) that contains a FidoNet
 node's BBS-ID has the format.

   BBSID: <bbs-id>

 Where <bbs-id> is a string of between 2 and 8 monocased ASCII
 characters,  begining with an alphabetic character (betweeen 'A'
 and 'Z' inclusive).  Only MS-DOS compatible filename characters
 may be included in a BBS-ID.

 The current common practice is for FidoNet message control
 paragraphs to be introduced with an ASCII 1 (SOH) character and
 terminated with an ASCII 13 (CR) character.

 Although a BBS sysop would best serve their users by having a
 globally unique BBS-ID, there's no existing known method to insure
 that is the case.  So some creativity and research on the part of
 the sysop is recommended when determining what their BBS-ID should
 be and it should not be changed once the system usership has been
 established.

3. Deployment
-------------
 Synchronet and its FidoNet echomail program, SBBSecho, added BBSID
 kludge line support in December of 2020 (w/SBBSecho v3.12).  So it's
 likely that the nodes of various FidoNet technology networks around
 the world started importing and storing echomail messages with BBS-IDs
 around this same time.  So this document (from late 2023) finally
 formally defines the intention and use of this new metadata.

 Its possible that other uses for shared correlatable BBS-IDs within
 the metadata of FidoNet netmail and echomail messages may come to
 light in the future.


4. References
-------------
 [Synchronet Avatars] https://wiki.synchro.net/module:avatars
 [QWK Packets] https://wiki.synchro.net/ref:qwk
 [Kludge Line] https://wiki.synchro.net/ref:fidonet_glossary#kludge_line--
                                           digital man (rob)

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