(Information also online at Pat Clawson's Official ProBoard website)

The following public announcement has been officially released
jointly by Philippe and Pat Clawson:

ProBoard Announcement
TELEGRAFIX ACQUIRES RIGHTS TO PROBOARD BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM

For Release at 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

(WINCHESTER, VA) - November 18, 1998 - TeleGrafix Communications Inc. has acquired all intellectual property rights to the ProBoard Bulletin Board System ("ProBoard") originally developed by Philippe Leybaert of Drongen, Belgium.

Effective immediately, TeleGrafix assumes responsibility for marketing, sales and future development of ProBoard. TeleGrafix also has acquired all rights to the "proboard.com" Internet domain name. Leybaert, an enigmatic computer genius with an almost cult-like following in the online world, will advise TeleGrafix as an independent consultant on Internet technology issues. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"Philippe Leybaert's craftsmanship has helped ProBoard earn a worldwide reputation for quality engineering and speedy performance. We expect his work and creative insights will accelerate our development of a new generation of Internet server products," said TeleGrafix President Patrick M. Clawson.

"ProBoard has been a big part of my life, but the pace of change in the Internet industry has accelerated to the point where someone else needs to take over development. TeleGrafix is a company with great technology and their innovative approach to graphical Internet communications secures the future of ProBoard," commented Philippe Leybaert.

ProBoard is Europe's most popular BBS software, and is used by more than 4,000 online system operators. Designed to be compact and powerful, ProBoard is renowned for its lightning-fast speed. Its PEX (ProBoard Executable) software development environment allows C/C++ programmers to write system extensions that customize and expand the system's capabilities. ProBoard is currently available in DOS and a Windows-32 version is under development.

ProBoard is the second Internet server software acquisition announced by TeleGrafix in the past four months. In August, TeleGrafix announced that it had acquired intellectual property rights for the Searchlight Bulletin Board System and Spinnaker Web server originally developed by Searchlight Software Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio.

Clawson said elements of both ProBoard and Searchlight technologies, along with TeleGrafix's award-winning Remote Imaging Protocol (RIPscrip) rapid Internet vector graphics technology, will be incorporated in a new TeleGrafix product under development that is codenamed "Cherokee." A release date for Cherokee has not been scheduled at this time.

TeleGrafix, founded in 1992, is headquartered in Winchester, Virginia. The company is the developer of RIPscrip online vector graphics technology, which allows the rapid transmission and display of multimedia over any type of computer or telecommunications system. RIPscrip technology has been honored with the Dvorak Award for Telecommunications Excellence, the Internet industry's most prestigious honor.

NEWS MEDIA CONTACTS:
Patrick Clawson
TeleGrafix Communications Inc.
111 Weems Lane, Suite 308
Winchester, VA 22601
Voice: (540) 678-4050
Fax: (540) 678-4052
E-mail: clawson@telegrafix.com
Web: www.telegrafix.com

(Information also online at Philippe's website)

OK boys and girls, we getting down to the end of this thread! 8-))

The following public announcement has been officially released
by Philippe

ProBoard Announcement
November 16, 1998

As previously reported, the sale of ProBoard has been finalized.

The details of the news release are currently being prepared.

The official news of the sale and the identity of the buyer will be announced here on the ProBoard website and on the ProBoard mailing list at 3:00 PM New York Time on November 18, 1998.

Until the announcement has been made, all product information and registration details will be offline.

(Information also online at Philippe's website)

As we count down to the days before the really BIG event.....

The following public announcement has been officially released
by Philippe.

ProBoard News
November 6, 1998

1. An agreement in principle has been reached to sell ProBoard.
Both parties to the transaction are now negotiating contract details.

2. The buyer of the software will take over all customer support and future development.

3. The transaction is expected to close in mid-November.

4. ProBoard sysops will be both surprised and pleased when the identity of the buyer is revealed.

5. ProBoard has a good future.
A new version will be released sometime in mid 1999.

An official announcement will be made here before the end of the month.

Until the announcement has been made, all product information and registration details will be offline.

Here's an update on the current situation regarding the future of ProBoard:

1. An agreement in principle has been reached to sell ProBoard.
Both parties to the transaction are now negotiating contract details.

2. The buyer of the software will take over all customer support and future development.

3. The transaction is expected to close in mid-November.

4. ProBoard sysops will be both surprised and pleased when the identity of the buyer is revealed.

5. ProBoard has a good future.
A new version will be released sometime in mid 1999.

Regards,
Philippe

Don Waybright wrote:
I am guessing that the decision has been made. I feel quite confident in that. I just wish something would be released to the rest of the free world.

I am unable to release anything at the moment, sorry.
There is nothing I can do about that.

No final decision has been made yet, but it's getting close.

Regards,
Philippe

(From Mike Ehlert's BBS Software Development News - 4 Oct 98)

Former ProBoard developer Philippe Leybaert has changed his mind about selling ProBoard to the higest bidder by the end of September, as he originally announced.

He now saids he may wait up until the end of October 1998 before he decides what to do with the code.

The few remaining ProBoard supporters are not surprised, as history has shown them that that what Philippe saids and what he actually does are rarely the same.

Frank,

Frank Robbins wrote:
I also noticed you have changed your homepage again at:
http://www.proboard.com/ to Activa Technologies.
Is this the new Programmer group name for ProBoard v3.0 ???

No, it is the name of my company.
http://www.proboard.com/ will eventually point to the site of the person or company who will continue the ProBoard development.

Currently, proboard.com and activatech.com point to the same IP address.

Regards,
Philippe

Greg Unger wrote:
Is the bidding open or closed?

That's up to the bidder.

What is the highest bid currently, and who made it??

I cannot disclose this information.

Is the bidding going to end at the end of this month? When is the last day for everyone to make their bid?

The last day is October 31st 1998, unless a deal is made before that date.

Regards,
Philippe

Hi Frank,

Frank Robbins wrote:
It would be good to have a crystal ball to see who bid and how much on the source code.

I can't tell you anything about it, but all I can say is that there seems to be a future for ProBoard at the moment.

Philippe

(From Mike Ehlert's BBS Software Development News - 1 Sep 98)

ProBoard author Philippe Leybaert has changed his mind about giving away the ProBoard source code as he had originally commited to. He now wishes to sell it, and has put it up for auction. Philippe said he wishes to sell it for around $1000 to $1500 for both the source to ProBoard 2.16, and also the unfinished source to ProBoard 3.0 for Windows, which includes a telnet driver.

Currently the highest bid offered was $600, but several sysops are considering each chipping in $100 or so to share ownership and build a development team. Interested bidders can join the discussion by clicking here.

Many ProBoard sysops pre-registered ProBoard 3.0 in advance, and they were promised nearly 2 years ago that they would have the first version within weeks. Since then there has been a number of commitments and release dates that have all failed. So far Philippe seems unwilling to refund any money that he accepted in advance, even though he is legally obligated to do so.

Hi,

Don Waybright wrote:
Do you prefer a team effort, or a single person for further development?

I don't care how the development is continued, but I only want to deal with one person.

Do you have a development model in mind at the moment, and if so, what is it?

I will leave that up to the person who takes over the development.

What will weigh heavier in your decision, any money offered, or the other factors like developer skill and motivation?

The skill, definitely.

What are the demands you have set for any future wannabe-ProBoard developers?

They should have a very good knowledge of C++ and they should be familiar with BBS's or serial communications.

Will there be any legal problems for the potential neo-proboard developers, and if so, how can/will they be solved/avoided?

I only see 2 problems:

1. I hold the registered trademark for the "ProBoard" name in Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg.

2. It's not really a problem, but I will demand that the new developer honors the pre-registrations for ProBoard v3.0

Do you want the result of eventual future development efforts to be explicitly freeware, shareware or commercial, or is that up to the developing people to decide?

That's up to them.

Do you have a special licensing in mind for the 'next generation' proboard?

No.

What is the concrete percentage of Proboard 3.0 sourcecode finished?

Like I already said: about 75%

What parts of the code are finished, what parts need work, and which are not-done yet?

---

Done:The TCP/IP communication stuff is 100% done (only needs heavy testing) - The "terminal mode" window code (ANSI, AVATAR emulation), etc... is 100% done - All ProBoard 2.16 code and support libraries are ported to 32 bit.

Needs work:Native RS232 communications. - ProCFG for Windows

Not done:32 bit PEXes - Events - ProCFG for other 32 bit Operating Systems

---

There have been some people who have indicated that they maye be interested in further development, like Branislav, Don Waybright, and the guy on irc that wanted to port 2.16 to Os/2. If any, what are your objections to these people forming a loosely knit team to further develop PB ?

I don't want that.
I want one person to take it over and be responsible for it.

Regards,
Philippe

Matt Jenkins wrote:
Would you consider selling to a group of people interested in taking over the project? Are you taking bids, or do you have a set price?

I'm open to anything.
I don't have a set price, but I certainly won't sell it for less than $1,000.

Philippe

(Information also online at Philippe's website)

Due to a large number of reasons, both personal and professional, the release of ProBoard v3.0 for 32 bit platforms has been postponed several times during the last 2 years.

Many people have suggested that I never really intented to release this new version, and that it was (is) a rip-off. I can assure everyone that this is certainly not the case.

Two years ago, the Windows 95 version was about 75% finished, and at the rate the development was going back then, the release of the first beta version was imminent.

However, some important events in my life didn't allow me to continue the development. As time went by, I had more and more things to do besides ProBoard.

Right now I am at a point where I know I will never have the time to finish the product, although it is about 3/4 finished.

For this reason, I would like to announce that the complete ProBoard source code (version 2.16 and the portion of the finished 3.0 code) is up for sale.

It is not my intention to make a lot of money. The reason that I am not giving it away is that I don't want to have people involved who are not serious about it.

If you are interested, please send me E-mail at: philippe@proboard.com This offer will remain open until the end of the October.

If I don't receive a serious offer by then, I will continue development of the current DOS version until there is no more interest for it.

This will include a Y2K fix before the end of 1998, and some other maintenance releases to fix current known bugs.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all the people who have supported ProBoard for the last 2 difficult years.

Among them, I would especially like to thank Frank Robbins and Gilles Hemberg for always keeping a positive attitude.

It was a pleasant change from all the flaming I had to read. Thanks guys!

To quote Frank...
As another day goes by, the ProBoard Saga Continues!

(From Mike Ehlert's BBS Software Development News - 7 Aug 98)

(Click on IRC discussion for More Info!)

Philippe Leybaert (the former ProBoard developer) had a public IRC discussion today, and stated the following:

He would like to still be somewhat involved with ProBoards future, but he wants someone else to do all the work.

He is prepared to make ProBoard 3.0 Freeware, but not the current 2.16 version. He is willing to hand over the entire 3.0 source code (including the incomplete 32-bit PEX code) to the new developer only, but he will not make it open (GPL) source.

He is not willing to release the PEX portion of the DOS source as he feels the DOS PEX interface is unique and highly advanced. He did not want to discuss the DOS version further, but did state that there should be a Y2K fix for version 2.16 (DOS).

The Telnet code is 99% finished, and the only thing it currently can not do is run DOS doors. It will be possible for the code to support DOS doors in the future however.

The 32-bit PEX code has been fully thought out, but has not been implemented in code yet. He did not indicate how much work is needed.

Tom Torfs has offered to port the DOS version of ProBoard over to a OS/2 text mode version. He told Philippe that he does not need the DOS PEX source code to accomplish that, since he has already reverse-engineered the PEX code. Tom Torfs has also offered to port the PBUTIL to both Win32 and OS/2 console programs, and Philippe responded that he never said he would give Tom the full source code.

A guy known as cricetus offered Philippe $1000 for the source, and Philippe said he would consider it.

Gilles Hemberg wrote:
Hi All,

I finally have *VERY* important news to give you on ProBoard!
-----

PROBOARD DEVELOPMENT:
========================
Philippe will *not* continue the development of ProBoard himself. He is searching for someone to take over the sources and continue the development. Philippe says that, although he does want to continue his efforts on ProBoard, he has too little time to do so properly. He says he HAS been working on ProBoard a little bit over the past months, but if he would continue at this pace, it would at least take another year.

Philippe asked if I would be prepared to take over the sources and continue the development. Although that is a very interesting prospect, I would not be able to do so. The reason is simple: I don't know anything about C++, let alone Win32 programming. Even if I take courses in C/C++, it would take me over 2 years to reach a sufficient level to work on ProBoard. I offered him all the help I could give him with the continuing the development.

I did, however, offer him my services to co-ordinate the efforts into further development. Philippe replied by saying that ProBoard had grown so big that it is now to complex to have it written by 1 person. Therefore a co-ordinated effort might be the right way to go.

So, if anyone feels he/she would be capable of working on ProBoard/32, please contact either Philippe himself (philippe@proboard.com) or me (apa@mail.dma.be) or even better: both of us! You can also attend the upcoming IRC meeting; see further for more details on this.

Philippe said he would help the people who would take oevr with all the help and technical advice he could give during the start-up period.

PROBOARD IRC MEETING WITH PHILIPPE LEYBAERT:
==============================================
I have arranged an IRC meeting with Philippe Leybaert on FRIDAY the 7th of AUGUST, starting at 23:00 GMT+1. The meeting will be on IRC.ISONLINE.COM; the channel will be #ProBoard. PLEASE NOTE THIS DOWN:

FRIDAY, 7th of AUGUST
23:00 GMT+1
IRC.ISONLINE.COM
#ProBoard

Philippe and me are 2 of the people who will CERTAINLY attend that meeting! I will make arrangements to log the chat and will publish it afterwards so people who will not attend the meeting will know what has been said.

NIGHTTIME DEVELOPMENT:
========================
I have no news from this part of the planet so far... As far as his website goes, he says he has become a vampire or something. I will send Filip Maertens an e-mail to see what is happening (hope he doesn't bite me:-)).

REGISTERING PROBOARD v2.XX:
============================
It is still possible to register ProBoard v2.XX through the regular channels (www.shareit.com and snail-mail). There are still about 2 or 3 new people who register ProBoard each month...

9999 KB DOWNLOAD LIMIT IN PROBOARD:
=====================================
This problem should have been fixed in ProBoard v2.16 (see the HISTORY.TXT for more details).
-----

Bye!
Gilles Hemberg

(From Mike Ehlert's BBS Software Development News - 25 Jul 98)

Also expected this month is another 32-bit RA clone, ProBoard/32 by Philippe Leybaert. ProBoard sysops have been waiting since the summer of 1996 to try the first 32-bit version of this BBS, but after numerous delays the author vanished into seclusion and has rarely been heard from since.

When we last heard from him back in April, he made a commitment to finally work on finishing ProBoard during this summer, and he claimed he would release the first beta before the end of July 1998. He said that if he can't meet that deadline, he will give it all up and release the source code!

Flip Maertens, a Windows programmer who had offered to rewrite the windows version of ProBoard ProCfg, never received the needed structures from Philippe, so the NiteTime project was scrapped. Flip was later bitten by a vampire bat in an unrelated incident. :)

Mike Ehlert wrote:
Hello Guys,

I've resubscribed again (2nd time this week) to pass along news I received from Philippe today. I'm unsubscribing again after this message. :)

* Philippe never intended to add the web server stuff in the first BETA.

* Philippe wants to finish the current code, but he is unable to do it at this time. He is currently working 12-16 hours a day, 7 days a week just to finish his current projects. He does not plan on taking on any additional projects after the deadline for his last project has passed (on May 25th) so that he can continue developing ProBoard.

* Philippe has made a commitment to himself to release the first BETA before the end of July. If he can not meet that deadline, he says that he will "give it all up and release the source code (or something like that)."

Regards,
Mike Ehlert

Frank Robbins wrote:
Come on Philippe, pay your ISP and get back online!

Pay? If only it would be that easy. The problem had nothing to do with money, but with the lack of response from InterNIC. This is without a doubt the worst functioning company in the world. I could write a book about it by now...

Philippe
ProBoard <philippe@proboard.com>
----------------------------------

Hello Philippe.

I see that your website is back online at: http://www.proboard.com new IP#: 207.234.208.180

The unofficial mirror site is NOW offline folks!

This return to online status ought to kill some recent Doom & Gloom rumors that THE END was here!

For the rest of you who want to know, but are afraid to ask, here it is:

New ISP is ASCEND.NET located out of Miami, Florida! Must be low rates during tornado and hurrican season in the US! For some of you that haven't heard, Florida was hit by over 26 tornadoes in a few minutes a few weeks ago.

Now here comes the boring stuff:

TwinSoft Belgium PROBOARD-DOM
   Groenplein 15
   Zelzate, OVL 9060
   BE

Domain Name: PROBOARD.COM

Administrative Contact:
   Leybaert, Philippe PL948 philippe@PROBOARD.BE
   +32-9-3430279

Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
   Gonzalez, Alex AG1512 alex@ASCEND.NET
   305-638-8250 (FAX) 305-635-1004

Billing Contact:
   Leybaert, Philippe PL948 philippe@PROBOARD.BE
   +32-9-3430279

Record last updated on 13-Mar-98.
Record created on 23-Sep-96.
Database last updated on 15-Mar-98 04:20:42 EDT.

Domain servers in listed order:
   EARTH.ASCEND.NET 207.234.191.2
   URANUS.ASCEND.NET 207.234.191.3
-----------------------------------------

The only thing I question is that the email address: philippe@PROBOARD.BE

I don't believe that it is good! Just a rumor since my email to that address did bounce recently!
-----------------------------------

Good to see that you are back.

I suppose that with all that down time on your server, you had plenty of time to work on your v3.0 masterpiece and that NEWS is ready to be released about your so called progress!

What can you tell us now?

Gilles Hemberg wrote:
Hi All,

I have some interesting news relating to ProBoard:
-----

* I have found someone willing to help developing ProCFG 's GUI shell. I will not publish his name because I don't want him to get tons of questions fired at him before he wants that himself. Therefore if he wants his name published, he will have to do it himself.

* I will be writing the HELP file for the new ProCFG. I have downloaded a few help compilers and will pick the one that suits me best and gives the best results.

* www.proboard.com has been down because of a mistake of InterNIC; it was not due to Philippe. Philippe changed servers and informed InterNIC about it; InterNIC did not update the address... It should be fixed real soon (maybe it already is).
-----

Bye!
Gilles Hemberg

Gilles Hemberg wrote:
Hi All,

I just contacted Philippe to get, probably, the most important news I ever had to get (< grin >):

-------------------------------------------
PHILIPPE IS CONTINUING PROBOARD DEVELOPMENT
-------------------------------------------

HE IS *NOT* QUITTING (yet :-))

He told me he was currently installing a second computer for testing purposes. I asked him if he would be willing to post some screen-shots on his website of the most recent changes: he told me he still had to write ProCFG in the new GUI version.

He even asked if I wanted to help him writing the new ProCFG; I replied that I was willing to, but unable to do so since my knowledge of Windows GUI programming and of VisualC++ is very limited. I told him I would look for a few people willing to help out. I already have a few people in mind and will ask them if they want to participate. E-mails to these people is being sent along with this one.

There is still some other news, but as compared to this, it is of minor importance :-) This is it:
-----

Q: How will PB v3.00's setup be stored: in the registry or in files?

A: The setup will be stored in files. This was mainly done to make it possible to exchange the cfg-file with a (possible) OS/2 version in the future. Some registry keys might be used to store the paths to the main system directories, though.

Note from Gilles: There is another positive point to using CFG-files: if your OS (95/NT) crashes, you can recover CFG-files; recovering a lost registry on the other hand is a lot harder.

Q: Will PB v3.00 support DDE calls?

A: No. DDE is too slow for real-time interfacing.
-----

Bye!
Gilles Hemberg

(From Mike Ehlert's BBS Software Development News - 4 Jan 98)

Proboard BBS author Philippe Leybaert announced today that he is willing to make a big effort to make ProBoard a success again!

This comes just two days after his previous announcment in which he said that ProBoard perspectives look very bad, and he was very close to the point of letting someone else take over his development. Many Proboard SysOps urged him not to give up, and offer their support in any capacity.

Today Philippe went on to say that "although ProBoard/32 will not be ready in January, it will certainly not take another year." Many Proboard SysOps are breathing a Sigh of Relief, as of yesterday it seemed that the end was so very near.

ProBoard Sysops have eagerly been waiting the public beta release of ProBoard/32 3.0, a Win95/NT generation of the once popular BBS package since the summer of 1996 when it was originally scheduled for release.

Unfortunately, there were numerous delays, and release dates were postponed first for weeks, then for several months as the author vanished into seclusion.

Philippe reappeared in mid October and announced that the reason for lack of development was due to him taking time off to get married and settle into his new house. He assured us that ProBoard would finally be released in "the next few months".

Late in November one of the ProBoard Sites announced that the deadline for the first release of ProBoard/32 was December 97, and the ProBoard world eagerly awaited as the final days drew near.

In mid December Philippe announced that most of his registration sites had not paid him recently, and said if the situation did not improve there would be no new version!

Chuck King (the US/Canada registration site) quickly responded. Philippe had failed to notify him of his new address when he went into seclusion. US funds were sent, and we were told the release was back on track.

As the end of December deadline approached, ProBoard SysOps eagerly awaited for the 32-bit version. Unfortunately December came and left with no sign of Proboard/32.

On January first, members of the ProBoard Mailing list began to speculate on why it did not appear, and when it would.

On January second, Philippe responded explaining that there was no December release date after all, and it was all a misunderstanding.

He mentioned that he is currently working on some other project to provide himself immediate income, and that he should be able to spend time developing Proboard once again in "a few weeks" after his current project is done.

(From Mike Ehlert's BBS Software Development News - 17 Oct 97)

There were rumors...

People were sure that Philippe Leybaert had given up on ProBoard since he had dissapeared from the public's eye back in April 1997.

Just when many ProBoard SysOps were ready to give up hope, Philippe reappears out of the blue, and with a lovley bride at his side.

Yes, it's true! Philippe got married in June, and soon after their honeymoon they bought a new house, which was in need of some fixing up.

Philippe says that's all finished now, and things are finally getting back to normal.

This means that he will have time to work on ProBoard again.

He assures me that there _WILL_ be a ProBoard 3.0 release in the "next few months". Hurray!!!

Philippe thanks everyone for their continued support!

It's an interesting coincidence that at almost the same time, several other key figures in ProBoard's support and development have suddenly re-appeared as well.

Branislav Slantchev just came back from is summer vacation in his Bulgarian homeland. Branislav is now attending a University in Rochester, New York. Branislav is best known for his huge library of the SCi PEX addons for ProBoard, but he has also developed PB-Lib, the ProBoard Programmers Library which makes developing high quality PEX a snap for any C or C++ programmer. Branislav is also a member of the ProBoard beta team and founded The Global ProBoard Network better known as TGPBN.

Chuck King just reappeared as well. Chuck is the US/Canada Registration site for ProBoard, and while Chuck never stopped doing his duties as the Reg Site, he was not heard from in the support echos and the ProBoard Mailing list for most of the summer until recently. Chuck is also Beta site for ProBoard as well.

And I had also vanished for a while this summer. I had to take my ProBoard BBS down while my wife and I shopped around for the new house, and after escrow closed it took us a while to get settled in.

There are many other beta testers and supporters of ProBoard still with us as well... Too many names to mention here, and they are all ready and awaiting the first wide-beta release of ProBoard 3.0 for Windows 95/NT which which is now expected around December 1997.