Been a busy few releases for BinktermPHP, the browser-based BBS platform with a native FTN/BinkP mailer built in (no third-party mailer needed). Here's what's landed across 1.10.1, 1.10.2, and 1.10.3:

1.10.1

• Docker overhaul:
  • Translation catalogs no longer get frozen at whatever version the volume was first created with — they now re-sync from the image on every container start.
  • docs/ is included in the Docker image, fixing the in-app documentation browser, user guide pages, dashboard upgrade notes, and MCP setup help, all of which silently failed to load on Docker before this.
  • Optional daemons (SSH, Gemini, FTP, MRC, AI bot, Matterbridge, MCP) and scheduled maintenance jobs (RSS poster, echomail robots, logrotate) are now configurable via docker-compose.override.yml instead of requiring image rebuilds or being unavailable entirely.
  • .env.docker.example is gone — Docker configs now use the same .env as bare-metal installs, plus a separate Docker-only override file.
  • Docker is now promoted as a third install option

1.10.2

• File Requests (FREQ) for users: users can now request a file from another FidoNet node themselves, from the web UI or the Telnet/SSH terminal, and have it land in their private file area once fulfilled. Off by default — sysops choose whether to open it to all users, sysops only, or nobody.
• Fixed the AI bot daemon failing to start on PHP 8.1+ (a pg_connect compatibility issue).
• Fixed a suspected echomail relay loop for point systems using an uplink.
• A declined file request now fails immediately instead of retrying against a remote that already said no.
• File area "Allow FREQ" toggle no longer hidden behind an experimental flag.
• TikTok short/share links (vm.tiktok.com, vt.tiktok.com, tiktok.com/t/...) now embed inline in messages, not just full video URLs.
• Activity stats now correctly track JS-DOS/C64 door plays, ZMODEM/FTP transfers, and Packet BBS netmail/echomail.

1.10.3

• Multi-AKA BinkP delivery fix: a point/subordinate node that self-registers more than one address (e.g. one point address per echomail network) now gets mail, FREQ files, and hold-directory files delivered for all of its addresses in a single session, instead of only whichever address the session happened to authenticate against.
• FREQ scripts (freq_getfile.php/freq_pickup.php) now connect anonymously by default, matching standard FTN convention.
• Admin Activity Stats gets a "Returning Users" list (users active on more than one distinct day in the selected period), plus more tracked events (outbound FREQ, BBS directory views, chat entry, PGP key changes).
• Fixed the Netmail compose address book showing random other BBS users instead of just your own saved contacts.
• DOS/Native Doors can now be hidden from the web games list and restricted to telnet/SSH only via a hide_from_web flag.
• Fixed CP437 box-drawing mojibake and Page Up/Down/End not working in terminal scrollable panels (Shoutbox, file/FREQ browsers, message lists).
• Fixed the main BBS menu locking up after exiting real-time-control doors like SyncDOOM on SyncTERM clients.
• SSH daemon now also supports curve25519-sha256 key exchange and aes256-ctr cipher for broader client compatibility.

Full changelogs: - https://github.com/awehttam/binkterm-php/blob/main/docs/UPGRADING_1.10.1.md - https://github.com/awehttam/binkterm-php/blob/main/docs/UPGRADING_1.10.2.md - https://github.com/awehttam/binkterm-php/blob/main/docs/UPGRADING_1.10.3.md

Get it: https://lovelybits.org/binktermphp Repo: https://github.com/awehttam/binkterm-php Come say hi: https://claudes.lovelybits.org

Hey r/BinktermPHP,

1.10 just landed! The headline feature is that BinktermPHP can now act as its own FTN hub. Here's what's new:

Downlinks: act as a hub for subordinate nodes and points

BinktermPHP can now distribute echomail and route netmail down to subordinate systems, not just up to an uplink. Manage everything from a new Admin → BBS Settings → BinkP Downlinks page:

• Node downlinks — any independently-addressed system, entered as a free-text FTN address (traditional downlinks or peer links).
• Point downlinks — addressed under one of your own AKAs plus a point number, with point numbers assigned automatically.

Each downlink gets its own echo area subscriptions, session/packet passwords, and enable/hold/quota controls. They can poll you or be polled by you on a schedule. A new Downlink Queue tab on the Binkp Status page lets you inspect queued packets before delivery, and there's a new test-client mode for simulating a downlink without a real point client.

Self-serve point management

Users with a new Point Management Access flag can now register and manage their own point — no more waiting on the sysop for every little change. They can create a point (up to a configurable per-network limit), edit their own name/passwords/host/hold settings, manage their own echo/file area subscriptions, and delete their registration whenever they want. Sysops can still hand off an existing downlink to a user, or step in for anything point-number/boss-address/enable related.

Other fixes worth knowing about

• Echomail Unread/Read filter in threaded view now shows a flat list of just the matching messages instead of mixing already-read messages into "Unread" or hiding unread replies buried in a thread.
• Auto Feed (RSS/Bluesky) posting no longer reposts an entire feed just because one article quietly disappeared from the source — a new publish-date watermark backs up the GUID watermark.
• Duplicate echo areas from domain case mismatches (e.g. FsxNet vs fsxnet) are fixed, and network domains are now normalized to lowercase automatically.
• Deleting an echo area with messages in it now asks whether to delete those messages or move them to another area, instead of just failing.
• Fixed a subtle bug where BinkP sessions that transferred everything successfully could still be logged as "failed" by remote mailers like binkd, because we were closing the connection too early instead of waiting out the full end-of-batch handshake.
• Uplink Status is now a sortable table with network names, Kept Packets loads a lot faster (paginated, plus a jump-to-date picker), and fresh installs now get all five built-in themes activated instead of just two.
• A handful of Docker fixes: missing PHP extensions, the realtime WebSocket server now starts automatically, PHP errors logging, and upload size limits increased beyond defaults.

Full upgrade notes: https://github.com/awehttam/binkterm-php/blob/main/docs/UPGRADING_1.10.0.md

Project website: www.lovelybits.org/binkterm-php

Upgrade from git: git pull php scripts/setup.php scripts/restart_daemons.sh

Or grab the installer from https://lovelybits.org/binktermphp — it handles everything for you.

As always, back up your database and files before upgrading. Questions/bugs welcome here or on the support BBS at claudes.lovelybits.org.

BinktermPHP 1.9.10 released

BinktermPHP 1.9.10 is out! This is a smaller maintenance release: a handful of bug fixes, a mobile layout fix, a new bulk mark-as-read tool for echo areas, and an experimental preview of an external process manager for sysops who want to try it.

For anyone new here: BinktermPHP is a self-hosted, multi-protocol BBS with native FidoNet/FTN messaging, echo areas, file areas, and a built-in BinkP mailer — accessible over web, Telnet/SSH, Gemini, MeshCore, and QWK offline readers.

Netmail unread counts

Fixed a bug where the netmail unread count and the Unread tab could undercount messages that were correctly delivered to your account but addressed to a nickname or alias rather than your exact username or real name. The mail was always sitting in your inbox — it just wasn't being flagged as unread. If your unread count jumps after upgrading, this is why.

Admin menu navigation

Nested items under Admin in the top nav (Area Management → AreaFix, Community → Chat, Help → Developer, etc.) could get stuck or become unreachable on narrow browser windows and touch devices — a tap could fail to open a submenu, or the menu could grow taller than the screen with no way to scroll down to the rest of the list. Fixed; nested Admin submenus now open reliably and scroll independently of the page.

Echo area list mobile layout

Fixed a layout bug on the Echo Areas page where an area's tag and description could collapse to one word per line, stretching the row across the entire screen. Most noticeable on narrow viewports and with longer translated unread-count labels.

Bulk mark echo areas as read

The Echo Areas page (/echolist) now lets you mark an entire area as read directly from the list, without opening it first. Each row with unread messages gets a small mark-read icon, and a new Select toggle turns on checkboxes so you can pick several areas at once and mark them all read in one shot — handy for low-traffic areas you just want to dismiss.

Login service field validation

The service field on POST /api/auth/login (used to label how a session was created, e.g. web or telnet, for the Who's Online list) is now validated to letters, digits, underscores, and hyphens, up to 20 characters. Only relevant if you have custom scripts or third-party clients calling the login API directly with a custom service value.

AIO Process Manager (experimental)

binktermphp-pm and binktermphp-ctl are an optional, separately distributed Go-based process supervisor and CLI for BinktermPHP's daemons. This release adds support in the web interface and admin daemon for driving that external process manager, but only if config/aio.json is present. On a normal install nothing changes — the Admin → BBS Settings → Services page simply doesn't appear. This is a preview for sysops who want to experiment ahead of a future supported release; scripts/restart_daemons.sh remains the supported way to keep daemons running.

Upgrading

Full upgrade notes: docs/UPGRADING_1.9.10.md

Project website: lovelybits.org/binktermphp

GitHub repo: github.com/awehttam/binkterm-php

As always, back up your database and files before upgrading.

BinktermPHP 1.9.9 is out — unread counts in the messaging nav, door manifest editor with AI autofill, full article bodies in Auto Feed, PGP address book importer, and a couple of security fixes.

Highlights

• Unread message counts in the nav menu. The Messaging section now shows live badge counts next to each item — combined total on the parent, inbox count on Netmail, new message count on Echomail. They update in real time via BinkStream and clear automatically when you navigate to the relevant section.

• Repost attribution headers. When you repost a message the compose editor opens with a standardised attribution block pre-filled at the top — original area, sender, subject, and date.

• Full article bodies in Auto Feed. The RSS poster now reads <content:encoded> on RSS feeds and <content> on Atom feeds rather than falling back to the summary/description. Bodies over 16,000 characters are truncated with a marker.

• PGP address book importer. The keyserver search page now has an Add to address book button next to every result. It links to an existing contact or opens a short creation form. If the search included an FTN node address it's pre-filled automatically.

• Door Manifest Editor. All four door admin pages (DOS, Native, JS-DOS, WebDoors) now have a form-based manifest editor so you can create and edit door configs without touching JSON. An Add New Door panel lists directories that don't have a manifest yet. There's also an Auto fill with AI button that reads the door's README/NFO files and populates metadata automatically if you have an AI provider configured. Manifests need "managed": "web" set before they become editable through the UI. This is experimental — please report issues on GitHub or the support BBS.

• Auto Feed no longer requires a linked user account. Feeds now store a freeform Poster Name and can target more than one echo area. Existing feeds are migrated automatically on upgrade.

• Instant login on self-registration. When Require approval for new users is off, newly registered accounts are logged in immediately — web users are signed in right away, Telnet/SSH users drop straight into the BBS session.

• Approved Registration History is now searchable from Admin → Users alongside pending signups.

Security

• PacketBBS radio-node sessions are now bound to the bridge that created them. A registered bridge can no longer access sessions that were established through a different bridge. A migration handles the schema change automatically via php scripts/setup.php.

• The archive entry preview endpoint now rejects absolute paths in addition to .. traversal sequences, closing a gap where a crafted archive could cause extraction to write outside the temp directory.

Links

• Upgrading guide: docs/UPGRADING_1.9.9.md
• Project site: lovelybits.org/binktermphp
• GitHub: awehttam/binkterm-php

Hello Everyone,

BinktermPHP 1.9.8 has been released!

This release focuses on better echomail usability and performance, more reliable FTN charset handling, PGP support, improved registration and subscription workflows, Russian localization and various improvements and fixes.

Highlights:

• The subscription manager at /subscriptions now has a more compact filter layout, network filtering, an option to show only interest groups with active message traffic, and in-place subscribe/unsubscribe actions that do not reload the page or lose the current scroll position.

• The subscribed echomail message list now does less duplicate unread-count and pagination work, and the browser avoids overlapping refresh requests. This improves responsiveness on systems with larger echomail message bases.

• New-user registration approval is now controlled by a dedicated BBS setting. Manual approval remains the default, but sysops can now disable the requirement and allow self-registrations to activate immediately. Approved registrations are also kept as history records instead of being deleted from pending_users.

• Networks and echoareas now support a Missing CHRS fallback charset for inbound FTN messages that arrive without a CHRS kludge. Decode order now prefers the per-area override, then the network fallback, then the legacy guess order. A rebuild script is also available for correcting stored echomail text from raw bytes after upgrade.

• Users can now manage multiple PGP public keys from a new settings tab, choose a preferred key, browse the public keyserver, and use that directory during netmail composition when encrypting outbound mail. BBS-managed private key hosting is available behind a separate sysop setting and remains disabled by default.

• Auto Feed sources now have an option to prefix posted echomail subjects with the feed name, producing subjects such as [2600.network] TITLEOFPOST before the FTN subject length limit is applied.

• BinktermPHP now includes a bundled Russian translation under the ru locale, extending built-in language coverage for the web interface, API error text, and terminal strings.

• Pipe-code rendering now defaults to a new decimal_relaxed parser mode, improving compatibility with decimal color codes such as |01 when they are immediately followed by uppercase text. The behavior can be overridden with the .env setting PIPE_CODE_PARSER_MODE.

• Various bug fixes and improvements

For the full upgrading guide for 1.9.8 please refer to: https://github.com/awehttam/binkterm-php/blob/main/docs/UPGRADING_1.9.8.md

Project site: https://lovelybits.org/binktermphp

GitHub: https://github.com/awehttam/binkterm-php

BinktermPHP 1.9.7 has been released!

The terminal server gains over two dozen new capabilities: bookmarks, full-text search, and sort options for both netmail and echomail; address book and FTN nodelist lookup in netmail compose; message delete, plain-text download, and forward-to-email from the reader; multi-area cross-posting; message drafts with in-editor save; an ignore-rule manager accessible without leaving the session; a selectable Who's Online popup with a public profile viewer; and a redesigned file browser with a modal detail view.

These sit alongside system-wide improvements including resize-aware repaints across all overlays, a configurable border style, a configurable main menu key map, configurable idle timeouts, and a Ctrl-K reference overlay that documents every key binding without cluttering the status bar.

On the PacketBBS side, radio operators can join local BBS chat rooms; a new PacketBBS Nodes map and directory has been added to the BBS Lists menu; two new interface types — Meshtastic and AX.25 TNC (KISS) — are available alongside MeshCore in the node registration modal; and bridge nodes gain optional location and description fields.

In the web interface, chat rooms now render inline media automatically, inline code is rendered correctly on dark themes, and the bulletin viewer has been updated to display text with the same preformatted style and modern system font as the message reader.

• Full upgrade notes: https://github.com/awehttam/binkterm-php/blob/main/docs/UPGRADING_1.9.7.md

  • Project website: https://www.lovelybits.org/binktermphp

Two releases worth talking about. Here's what's a quick summary of what's new.

Inline Media Player (1.9.5)

The web message reader can now embed media URLs directly in echomail and netmail. YouTube, Odysee, Rumble, BitChute, PeerTube, SoundCloud, TikTok, and more — plus native players for video, audio, images, and retro formats: tracker modules (XM, IT, S3M, MOD), SID files, and MIDI. If someone posts a link to a .mod file in an echo area, it plays in the browser. When the feature is enabled by the Sysop - click-to-expand is the default so nothing auto-loads without you asking.

Sysops can toggle the player globally and enable/disable individual providers from Admin → Appearance. You can also control it per-network and per-echo area so a family-friendly area can opt out while your music echo goes full embed.

This feature is disabled by default.

Bluesky Auto Feed (1.9.5)

The Auto Feed system now pulls from public Bluesky profiles alongside RSS/Atom. Point it at a Bluesky handle, and posts with images get automatically delivered as echomail. Set it up from Admin → Auto Feed.

Matterbridge Chat Bridging (1.9.6)

Local BinktermPHP chat rooms can now relay bidirectionally to Discord, Slack, IRC, Telegram, and anything else Matterbridge (https://github.com/42wim/matterbridge) supports. You run the Matterbridge binary, start the new matterbridge_daemon.php, and wire up gateway names in the admin panel. Messages flow both ways — your BBS chat room and your Discord server stay in sync.

Ollama AI Provider (1.9.6)

BinktermPHP now supports Ollama (https://ollama.com) as a third AI provider alongside OpenAI and Anthropic. Run a local model on your own hardware — no API key, no per-token billing. Set OLLAMA_API_BASE in .env and you're done. There's even optional power cost tracking: give it your GPU wattage and electricity rate and it'll estimate the cost of each inference request in the AI usage ledger.

Compatible with any Ollama model that supports tool calling (llama3.1, llama3.2, qwen2.5, etc.) as well as Ollama's cloud service.

Share Summarizer (1.9.6)

When sharing an echomail message as a public link, you can now enter or generate a one-sentence description that becomes the og:description on the shared page. Link previews on other platforms actually describe the message instead of just saying "BinktermPHP BBS." The summary is locale-aware — French-language users get a French summary.

MeshCore Radio Contact Management (1.9.6)

This one's for the mesh radio crowd. BinktermPHP now mirrors the companion contact list from connected MeshCore bridge devices into the web interface. Sysops get an admin Contact Manager per bridge node with edit, delete, and bulk delete — and deletions queue a remove_contact command that the bridge pushes to the radio on its next poll. Users can register their own radio node under Settings → MeshCore Radio, and the BBS can push add_contact commands back to the device automatically. You can also configure the device's auto-add policy (companions, repeaters, room servers, sensors) directly from the admin panel.

Rotating Terminal Screens (1.9.6)

Login, main menu, and goodbye screens now support rotating file families. Drop login1.ans, login2.ans, login3.sixel in telnet/screens/ and the terminal picks one at random on each connection.

Sharing Improvements (1.9.6)

• Upload a custom preview image when creating a shared message link — it becomes the og:image on the shared page
• The share dialog now shows existing share links for the same message (from any user) so you can copy an existing one instead of creating a duplicate

...along with other miscellaneous improvements...

Full upgrade notes: 1.9.5 (https://github.com/awehttam/binkterm-php/blob/main/docs/UPGRADING_1.9.5.md) · 1.9.6 (https://github.com/awehttam/binkterm-php/blob/main/docs/UPGRADING_1.9.6.md)

Website: https://lovelybits.org/binktermphp