IN THE BEGINNING . . .[ how this all started ]

Not four score but definately several years ago, Rob Swindell & Deuce made the first Hideous Green Monster. Time Warrior slew the beast with his web modifications. Everyone saw it and said that it was good.

But, not good enough.

Runemaster thought he could do better and indeed he did so, with his creation of the current Default Grey Theme. Surely it was more attractive than the green abomination that Time Warrior hath slane with his mods. But, this too fell short.

So Time Warrior said unto Runemaster "go fourth and be inspired by deviantART, for they use less TABLE statements and more DIV statements!" and Runemaster so did as he was asked, seeing as he happened to share Time Warrior's opinion. He worked his magic and something pretty & purple was born. It was the NightShade Theme -- the one that SHOULD be default, but for reasons unknown -- is not.

"Now THIS is something we can work with" said Time Warrior. So both the SSN Echomail Network (Time Warrior & Sniper) and SyncDev (Runemaster & Time Warrior) came into existance. Time Warrior and Runemaster worked well together, making vast improvements to the NightShade theme. SSN helped the Synchronet Community find a new level of support -- for those interested in modding and customization. Then, tragedy struck.

SSN suffered a net split and died. SyncDev dwindeled shortly there after. Time Warrior, being the stuborn son of a bitch that he is, did not give up. Him and Beta2k begun to work on the "Cerberus Themes Set" and made a LOT of progress. People liked what they saw over at Malkavia BBS, so Time Warrior decided to integrate some of the former SSN forums into Xpresit Net. It worked.

Interest is Growing!

The Sysop of Skyline BBS started taking Open Source CSS Templates and porting them over to Synchronet with a lot of success! The only error is that the Grey Theme has some serious errors where as the NightShade Theme does not have them. He started with the Grey Theme. Oops :-)

He is currently working on porting those to the NightShade Theme Code Base. From there, the new features created within the Cerberus Themes Set will be integrated into the Skyline Themes. Both the Skyline Themes and Cerberus Themes will fade away. The merger of the two aspects will become something newer. Better. More innovative. It shall kick much ass.

MODDED SYNCHWEB SYSTEMS

[ fully modded bbses ]

[ very limited modding ]

note: not all modded bbses are joined to xpresit net

Do YOU Run A MODDED BBS?

If so, then post a BBS AD in the Xpresit - Non-Profit Ads area with the subject heading of "ANOTHER MODDED SYNCHWEB BBS!" and you will get noticed. We will goto your BBS Web URL to make sure it is modded and if indeed it is -- you will find your BBS listed here.

The Next Phase

A complete re-design of the SSJS and Directory Structures. We love Synchweb, but it is a horrible disorganized mess. Replacing the current Themes System with one that supports "Plug N Play Drop-In Themes" will be one of the first priorities. Adding new themes is by no means an easy task as it stands.

The Sysop of SpiffWiggler BBS will also be attempting (we'll spare you the boring details) to create a basic set of utilities for limited communication between Synchronet and MySQL. This means that things such as e107 CMS will be able to share a User Database with Synchronet. Web Forum Softwares such as phpBB and SMF will be able to import and export mail -- not through some wacky NNTP Bridge -- but directly via FTN! This will allow such things as using these web forum softwares as a "Nested Threading Mode" option -- as well as a more advanced User Profile System. This would begin to thrust Synchweb into the PHP Universe.

We Would Appreciate YOUR HELP!

The more people we have helping, the faster this gets done. Please talk to us about it in the Xpresit Net SBBS Forums:

Xpresit - Syncdev SBBS Modding

Xpresit - Syncdev SSJS / HTML / Coding

We would really like to hear what you have to say!

12.31.2008 SyncDev CVS To Return

Thats right! Looks like Runemaster is begining to wake up from his long winters nap, to drop CVS updates down your TCP Stack for all you good boys and girls -- and malicious spyware for all the bad boys and girls! Okay, we're kidding about the spyware. Microsoft Windows does that already! Anything more would be redundant! :-)

So the real question is -- what WAS SyncDev CVS and what will it soon become?

SyncDev CVS was (and will be again) a place where everyones efforts can be coordinated into a universal standard. This will mean that Theme Authors can get CVS Access to update their content. Anyone who wants to can pull the CVS down to impliment it on their own BBS.

SyncDev CVS was (and likely will be again) indirectly linked to the Official Synchronet CVS. This simply means that at Runemaster's discression -- SyncDev features can become Official Synchronet Defaults. Please do not beg and nag Runemaster about what becomes official or not. His choices are based on both relevance and what won't piss off Rob Swindell & Deuce :-)

Once SyncDev moves beyond the Web Interface and into the modification of things such as configuration files, telnet shells, etc... then the CVS will show the entire SBBS tree. Until then however -- it will only show the /web directory.

SyncDev CVS will be accessable via CVS.SYNCHSUPPORT.NET. If clicking that link brings up a 404, it simply means the CVS isn't back up yet and we appreciate your patience! :-)