Maximus BBS

Documentation for Maximus BBS — Next Generation

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The Dashboard

MaxTel's ncurses dashboard — panels, layout modes, and navigation

When you run MaxTel in interactive mode, you get a full-screen ncurses dashboard that shows you everything happening on your BBS at a glance. The display is divided into four panels, a header bar, and a status bar — and the whole thing adapts to your terminal size automatically.

Screen Layout

The dashboard is organized in a consistent arrangement:

User Stats Panel

This panel shows information about whoever is logged into the node you’ve selected in the Nodes panel. If nobody’s online on that node, it displays “(No user online)”.

Field What It Shows
Name The user’s registered name
City City and state/province
Calls Lifetime call count
Msgs Messages posted and read
Up/Dn Kilobytes uploaded and downloaded
Files Files uploaded and downloaded

Select a different node (arrow keys or number keys) and this panel updates instantly.

System Panel

Gives you a snapshot of your BBS configuration and current activity.

Field What It Shows
BBS System name from maximus.toml
Sysop Sysop name from maximus.toml
FTN FidoNet address (if configured)
Time Current system time
Nodes Total nodes configured
Online How many have active users right now
Waiting How many are sitting at WFC (Waiting For Caller)

On wider terminals (100+ columns), the panel expands to also show uptime, peak simultaneous users, total user count, messages written, and files downloaded.

On compact terminals (80×25), there isn’t room for everything at once. The System panel switches to a tabbed view — press Tab to flip between the Info tab (BBS/Sysop/FTN) and the Stats tab (uptime, peaks, totals).

Nodes Panel

This is the heart of the dashboard — a live list of every node MaxTel is managing.

Column What It Shows
Node Node number
Status WFC (waiting), Online (active session), Starting, Stopping, or Inactive
User The logged-in user’s name, “<waiting>” during login, or blank
Activity What the user is currently doing (wider terminals only)
Time Session duration in MM:SS

The currently selected node is highlighted. Use ↑/↓ or number keys (1–9) to change selection. If you have more nodes than fit on screen, scroll indicators appear at the edges.

The selected node is also what the User Stats panel displays, and it’s the target for sysop commands like Kick and Snoop.

Callers Panel

Shows recent caller history so you can see who’s been connecting.

Column What It Shows
Node Which node the call came in on
Calls That user’s lifetime call count
Name Caller name or alias
Date/Time When they connected (medium+ terminals)
City Where they’re from (full-width terminals)

The panel title shows how many callers are displayed (e.g., “Last 8”), and the bottom border shows today’s total caller count.

Responsive Layouts

MaxTel detects your terminal size and picks the best layout automatically. If you resize the terminal window, it redraws on the fly — no restart needed.

Compact (80×25)

For standard-width terminals:

MaxTel Dashboard — Compact 80×25 Layout

Medium (100×30+)

For wider terminals:

Full (132×40+)

For large terminals:

MaxTel Dashboard — Full 132-Wide Layout

Tip: If you want a specific layout regardless of what your terminal reports, use the -s flag when starting MaxTel: maxtel -s 132x60

Key Action
1–9 Jump to node 1–9
↑ ↓ Move node selection up/down
Tab ← → Switch System panel tabs (compact mode)
Q Quit MaxTel (shuts down all nodes gracefully)

For sysop commands (Snoop, Kick, Restart, Config), see Sysop Features.

See Also