SysOp (pronounced /ˈsɪs.ɑp/, or more rarely, /ˈsaɪ.sɑp/) is short for "systems operator". It is a commonly used term for the administrator of a bulletin board system (BBS) or special-interest area of an online service or, historically, the operators of any computer system, especially a mainframe computer. Symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. ... A bulletin board system or BBS is a computer system running software that allows users to dial into the system over a phone line and, using a terminal program, perform functions such as downloading software and data, uploading data, playing games, reading news, and exchanging messages with other users. ... A 1990 Honeywell-Bull DPS 7 mainframe Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as big iron) are large and expensive computers used mainly by government institutions and large companies for mission critical applications, typically bulk data processing such as censuses, industry/consumer statistics, ERP, and financial transaction processing. ...

Usage of the term peaked in the early 1990s, being mostly used strictly to refer to BBS operators; someone doing equivalent functions on the Internet is primarily referred to as a "sysadmin", short for "system administrator". The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive. ... The term system administrator (abbreviation: sysadmin) designates a job position of those people responsible for running a computer system or some aspect of it. ...

A Co-SysOp was a user who was granted certain admin privileges on a BBS. Generally, they would help validate users and monitor discussion forums. Gaia Online, the largest English language forum-based community as of April 2005 — powered by a modified version of phpBB. An Internet forum is a facility on the World Wide Web for holding discussions, or the web application software used to provide the facility. ...

An MSN SysOp is a high ranking volunteer or a paid employee who monitors the actions of those who enforce policy on the MSN chat, and the MSN Internet services. They act much like those who ran BBS systems, except deal on a more operator to operator situation rather than user to operator. This group of political volunteers is working to promote voter turn-out. ... Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... For the band, see The Police. ... MSN (or The Microsoft Network) a collection of internet services provided by Microsoft. ... A chat is a casual conversation. ... MSN (or The Microsoft Network) a collection of internet services provided by Microsoft. ...

See also

• Network administrator

Many such traditional BBSes still exist today from the old scene as TCP / IP based systems on the Internet, just as any other Internet Server. The most popular of which, for both Linux and Windows, is Synchronet . The terms network administrator, network specialist and network analyst designate job positions of engineers involved in computer networks, the people who carry out network administration. ... Synchronet is a multiplatform BBS software package, with current ports for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and BSD variants [1]. Past versions also ran on MS-DOS and OS/2, but support for those platforms has been dropped in recent versions. ...

References

• Jason Scott Sadofsky. "SysOps and Users", part 2 of BBS: The Documentary (film).