Conferences provide you a way to separate information on your bulletin board system. Each conference can have different message bases, file areas, bulletins, scripts, etc.

Because the conference configuration screens are so extensive, it can take a while to create a conference. PCBoard does try to help you out with your conference configuration when you decide to create a new conference.

To create a conference, you need to first load PCBSetup, and select Conferences from the Main Menu. You will see a list of conferences on your system. To create a conference, press ENTER on a blank conference number.
You will be informed that you are setting up a new conference. You are then asked if you want PCBSetup to provide the defaults for this conference. If you did not see this screen, but heard a beep instead, it means you need to increase the Number of Highest Conference Desired in PCBSetup > Configuration Options > Messages.

If you choose not to have PCBSetup provide the defaults, you will be placed in the conference screen for the conference you are creating. All of the fields will be blank and you will need to fill in the fields as described in the Conference Setup chapter of this manual.

If you choose to let PCBSetup enter the defaults, you will be asked some additional information:

You may enter up to 13 characters to describe the new conference. You may use both upper and lower case letters.

Sometimes your conferences may be very similar in configuration with only a field or two in the configuration screen being different. If you enter a number in this field, PCBoard will copy the conference settings for a conference and use them for your new conference. Before the conference is cloned, you are asked for the Default Conference Location. This is where your MSGS, INTRO, and NEWS files will be stored for this conference. These are the only files that will change from the conference that you are cloning. The rest of the file locations and the settings will be copied from the conference you enter in this field.

For systems that have a lot of NetMail conferences, cloning conferences can save a lot of time because the MSGS file location is about the only thing that is different between each NetMail conference.

If you decide not to clone a conference, you will be asked what conference you wish to base your defaults on for the new conference. Once you enter the conference to base your defaults on, you will be asked for the Default Conference Location.
This is the location where all of your conference specific information will be stored (message base, etc.)

PCBSetup will now proceed to ask you about various file locations in the conference configuration screen to see how you want them to be configured.
You will first be asked about your Upload definitions. These will specify information about your public and private upload directories. The following options are available at this prompt:

The sort method, name/location of the upload DIR file, and the location of uploads will be copied from the conference you are basing the defaults on. In other words, the following fields will be copied:

           Sort   Name/Loc Upload DIR File       Location of Uploads

Public Upld: 0 : :

Private Upld: 0   :                              :

PCBSetup will create defaults for your private and public upload directories based on what you entered for your Default Conference Location. For example, if you entered C:\CONF\1\ for your default conference location, your description files will be stored in C:\CONF\1\, your private uploads will be stored in C:\CONF\1\PRIVUPLD\, and your public uploads will be stored in C:\CONF\1\UPLOAD.

If you select this option, your private and public uploads locations will be left blank. You would want to select this option if you did not want to accept uploads in this new conference.

Next, you will be asked about the following file locations:

The locations of your door menu and door configuration files.
These are commonly referred to as DOORS and DOORS.LST.

The locations of your bulletin menu and bulletin configuration files. These are commonly referred to as BLT and BLT.LST.

The locations of your script menu and script configuration files. These are commonly referred to as SCRIPT and SCRIPT.LST.

The locations of your file directory menu and file directory configuration files. These are commonly referred to as DIR and DIR.LST.

The location of your download path list file. This file is sometimes referred to as DLPATH.LST.

For each of these locations, you will be given the following options:

If you make any changes it will affect all conferences sharing the same defenitions. If you select this option, PCBSetup will store the same file locations you used in the conference you are basing the new conference on. Because the new conference and the conference you based the defaults on will share the same file, any changes you make in one conference will also be reflected in the other conference.

which you may then add to or delete from without affecting any other conference. PCBSetup will use new files based on your Default Conference Location, but will copy the data from the files in your base conference.
This way, you can have conference specific files that you may change freely without affecting the conference you used to base your defaults on.

which may be modified without affecting any other conference. PCBSetup will create new files based on your Default Conference Location. These files will be empty so you may customize/edit them to suit your needs.

Once you have answered these questions, you will be returned to the conference configuration screen where you may fine-tune or edit any of the fields.

There are several methods for registering users in a particular conference.
Some methods will only register one user at a time. Other methods will register an entire group of users.

You can register a group of users in a conference at the same time. To accomplish this, load System Manager. Next, select Users File Maintenance, followed by Insert Group Conference. You will see the following fields on your screen:

First number of conferences to be inserted in registrations  :    0
Last  number of conferences to be inserted in registrations  :    0


Adjust conferences user is normally allowed to join          : Y
Adjust conferences user can join with expired subscription   : Y
Adjust the user selected conferences for scanning            : Y
Adjust conferences where user becomes a sysop when joining   : N
Reset user's last message read to zero in these conferences  : N

Adjust users with a security level greater than or equal to  : 0

                                  and less than or equal to  : 110

Begin by specifying the beginning conference number followed by the ending conference number to register the users in. If you want to register the users in one conference, specify the same number for the first and last conference number.

Next, you need to determine the conference flags that will be set in the user record. The following lists the flag that will be set in the user record based on how you answer the questions in the second section:

If you put a Y in this field, the R flag will be put in the conference flag section of the user record. This flag controls if the user is able to join a particular conference or not.

If you put a Y in this field, an X will be placed in the conference flag section of the user record. When the X flag is set, the user can join the conference if their subscription has expired.

If you put a Y in this field, an S will be placed in the conference flag section of the user record. This means that conference has been selected for scanning/reading.

Putting a Y in this field will put the C flag in the conference flag section of the users file. When users who have this flag join the conference, they will automatically be upgraded to the security level specified by the Sysop Level field in PCBSetup > Security Levels > Sysop Commands.

Finally, you need to specify the security levels that the conference flags will be altered for. In the first field, enter the lowest security level you want the flags to be altered for. In the last field, enter the highest security level you want the flags altered for. All security levels between the low and high security levels will also have their flags altered.

If you need to register just one or two users in a particular conference, the easiest way to do it is via System Manager. Select Users File Maintenance, then Edit Users File. You should see your record on this screen. Now press A-F and type in the name of the user that you want to register in the conference. Once their record is on the screen, press 2 twice to go into conference view. You will see the conferences you have configured on the system with a Flags column next to each conference.

To move between the fields on the screen use the TAB key. When you are in the Flags field, you can enter any of the flags that were described previously (R, X, S, and C). To save the new information, press ESC and tell System Manager that you want to save the changes made to the user record.

If you have SysOp security level and you have sufficient security level to access the 7 command, you can edit almost any user record on the system. See the SysOp Commands section in the PCBoard Commands chapter of this manual for more information on the 7 command. First, locate the user record that you want to edit, then select C to change the current user record. As you step through the various items, you will see one which says Select Conferences.
You may then select the conference number(s) to register the user in. Once you have selected the conference(s) you will be asked which conference flags you would like to set for the user. Simply enter the flags, and press ENTER.

There are five methods you can use to keep a particular user out of a conference.

They are as follows:

• User does not have the R conference flag set in their user record for a private conference.
• User does not have sufficient security required to join a public conference or does not have the R conference flag set.
• User does not know the password for the conference if defined in the conference configuration screen and if the conference is a private conference.
• You have set the L conference flag in the user record to lock the user out of the conference in question.
• The subscription for the user has expired and the X conference flag is not set for the conference you are restricting them from.

PCBSetup does not provide a method for deleting a conference. However, you can have PCBSetup re-ask you the initial questions for the conference so that you can re-configure it. To do this, clear out the name of the conference in the configuration screen by positioning your cursor in the name field and pressing CTRL-END. Next, press ESC to get back to the conference listing.
Select the conference number that you just cleared the name out of. PCBSetup will now think that you are configuring a new conference and you can proceed to answer the questions.

NOTE: You can temporarily disable a conference by clearing out the conference name or the location of the MSGS file. If a user attempts to join a conference when either of these fields are blank, they will be told the conference is an invalid conference.

A conference has a few fields which give the location for configuration fields. If you have more than one conference which needs to share the information the easiest way to do it is to specify the same filenames in both conference configuration screens.

For example, let's say that you have one conference which has the following information stored for your BLT and BLT.LST file:

Bulletins   : C:\PCB\GEN\BLTMENU           : C:\PCB\GEN\BLT.LST

If you want another conference to have the same bulletins available, enter the same filenames on the second conference. Because both conferences point to the same configuration files, the information stored in those files will be shared between the two conferences. When you edit one of the configuration files, any changes you make will be written to the configuration files. Any conferences that use these configuration files will see the changes because they all read from the same files.

You can use this method to share data for any fields in the conference configuration screens which point to files.

In order for your users to know what conferences are available on your system (if any), you need to edit the Name/Loc of Conference Join Menu in PCBSetup | File Locations | Display Files. This is file is commonly referred to as CNFN.

This file is a text file which you may edit with the editors you have defined in System Manager by pressing F2 or F3. You may make the menu look anyway you wish. As a bare minimum, you should include the conference name and/or number and a description of each conference. The following is a sample:

 #       Name                          Description
---  -------------  --------------------------------------------
 1   PARANOID       Discussions include paranoia and fears.

The user can join a conference either by typing in the number or the name.
Therefore you do not necessarily have to include the conference number and name. You could instead, list the conference number or conference name.

You can create this text file using just about any text editor. Better yet, if you have defined your text editor or graphics editor in PCBSM, you can simply press 2 or 3 (depending on which file you want to edit). Otherwise you will have to manually edit the files while at the DOS prompt.