Based on the request of a fellow sysop, I've created a new offline QWK mail reader (with the help of Claude AI), which I call SlyMail. Currently I consider it to be a beta version, as it hasn't been tested thoroughly, so there may be some bugs, but currently it's functional as far as being able to read messages from a QWK packet and save new messages, etc.

Also, I've never really used an offline mail reader much myself, so there may be some useful features in other offline readers I haven't seen yet - I plan to check out some other readers and see what features they offer. I've briefly used MultiMail and experimented with GoldEd but never really used those very much. They may have features that could be useful to include in SlyMail.

Some highlights of SlyMail:

- It has a text-based user interface with a look & feel (at least somewhat) similar to my DDMsgReader & SlyEdit mods for Synchronet
- It's multi-platform: It works on Linux and Windows, and should also build for Mac OS, BSD, and other *nix-style OSes
- QWKE (extended QWK) compatibility
- Compatibility with ANSI, as well as color codes of various BBS software
packages (Synchronet, WWIV, PCBoard/Wildcat, Celerity, Renegade)
- It understands Synchronet poll messages and vote replies: Poll messages should display properly in it, and poll response headers shouldn't show up in message lists. It should also allow you to vote on messages (according to Synchronet's voting system), but I'm not sure that is 100% working.
- It should be UTF-8 compatible (not 100% sure if this is fully working properly)
- It should be able to handle file attachments

It's available on GitHub, and there are screenshots: https://github.com/EricOulashin/SlyMail

The latest release (with binaries) is version 0.51, for both Windows and Linux: https://github.com/EricOulashin/SlyMail/releases/tag/SlyMail_051

The Linux binaries were built on KUbuntu 25.10. If the Linux binaries don't run for you, I think it should be fairly easy to build binaries from source on Linux.

I haven't made Mac OS binaries, since I don't have a Mac, but I have an automated build job on GitHub that does a build for Ubuntu and Mac OS upon checkin, and it looks like both succeeded, so I *think* it should build for Mac OS fairly easily.

Nightfox

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Re: New offline QWK mail reader: SlyMail
By: Nightfox to All on Wed Mar 25 2026 05:14 pm

Also, I forgot to mention, SlyMail can connect to remote systems (via FTP or SSH) to download QWK packets from within SlyMail, which should make it easier to download QWK packets.

Nightfox

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Re: New offline QWK mail reader: SlyMail
By: Nightfox to All on Wed Mar 25 2026 05:14 pm

Based on the request of a fellow sysop, I've created a new offline QWK mail reader (with the help of Claude AI), which I call SlyMail. Currently I consider it to be a beta version, as it hasn't been tested thoroughly, so there may be some bugs, but currently it's functional as far as being able to read messages from a QWK packet and save new messages, etc.

I'll have to check it out. I love my GoldEd+ (which I use mostly for fidonet messages these days), but I'm always willing to try out something new.

I Starred it on github, maybe I'll play around with it a bit.

...The cause of problems are solutions!

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Re: New offline QWK mail reader: SlyMail
By: Nightfox to All on Wed Mar 25 2026 17:17:01

Also, I forgot to mention, SlyMail can connect to remote systems (via FTP or SSH) to download QWK packets from within SlyMail, which should make it easier to download QWK packets.

Not sure I got that. RU saying SlyMail can conncet with another SlyMail on another system?

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On 26 Mar 2026, Mortar said the following...

Re: New offline QWK mail reader: SlyMail
By: Nightfox to All on Wed Mar 25 2026 17:17:01

Also, I forgot to mention, SlyMail can connect to remote systems (via F SSH) to download QWK packets from within SlyMail, which should make it easier to download QWK packets.

Not sure I got that. RU saying SlyMail can conncet with another SlyMail on another system?

in the synchronet ftp server if you try to download a specific non-existant file, say "VERT.qwk" it'll create that packet on the fly and let you download it.

so basically SlyMail would be able to grab that without logging in to the BBS part

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Re: New offline QWK mail reader: SlyMail
By: Mortar to Nightfox on Thu Mar 26 2026 10:44 am

Also, I forgot to mention, SlyMail can connect to remote systems (via FTP
or SSH) to download QWK packets from within SlyMail, which should make it
easier to download QWK packets.

Not sure I got that. RU saying SlyMail can conncet with another SlyMail on another system?

No, it can connect to, say, a BBS to download a QWK packet. As a BBS user, you can often download a QWK packet from a BBS to use it with an offline reader; SlyMail allows you to do that from within SlyMail - It can connect to a remote system via FTP or SSH, and that system would usually be a BBS, and it lets you select a QWK packet to download, and then read.

For instance, if you connect to a Synchronet BBS via FTP or SSH for secure file transfers, the BBS will list a QWK packet file if there are new messages for you - You can then download that and use it with an offline reader. Similarly, QWK reply (rep) packets can be uploaded in a similar fashion. This is how QWK networking works with Dove-Net.

Nightfox

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Re: Re: New offline QWK mail reader: SlyMail
By: fusion to Mortar on Thu Mar 26 2026 12:15:00

in the synchronet ftp server if you try to download a specific non-existant file, say "VERT.qwk" it'll create that packet on the fly and let you download it.

In this example, sounds like you'd end up with an empty packet. Is there a use case for that?

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Re: New offline QWK mail reader: SlyMail
By: Nightfox to Mortar on Thu Mar 26 2026 09:31:55

No, it can connect to, say, a BBS to download a QWK packet.

Ahh, gotcha.

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On March 26 2026, Nightfox wrote:

Re: New offline QWK mail reader: SlyMail
By: Nightfox to All on Wed Mar 25 2026 05:14 pm

Also, I forgot to mention, SlyMail can connect to remote systems (via
FTP or SSH) to download QWK packets from within SlyMail, which should
make it easier to download QWK packets.

Didn't see that mentioned when I downloaded it. Will have to check it out. I hope absinthe bbs has SSH; so I can use slymail with it :-)

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Re: Re: New offline QWK mail reader: SlyMail
By: Errol Casey to Nightfox on Thu Mar 26 2026 01:35 pm

Also, I forgot to mention, SlyMail can connect to remote systems (via FTP
or SSH) to download QWK packets from within SlyMail, which should make it
easier to download QWK packets.

Didn't see that mentioned when I downloaded it. Will have to check it out. I hope absinthe bbs has SSH; so I can use slymail with it :-)

If it supports FTP, that should work too.

Nightfox

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Re: Re: New offline QWK mail reader: SlyMail
By: Mortar to fusion on Thu Mar 26 2026 11:31 am

Re: Re: New offline QWK mail reader: SlyMail
By: fusion to Mortar on Thu Mar 26 2026 12:15:00

in the synchronet ftp server if you try to download a specific non-existant file, say "VERT.qwk" it'll create that packet on the fly and let you download it.

In this example, sounds like you'd end up with an empty packet. Is there a use case for that?

Why do you think that?
Due to the magic of synchronet you are getting your qwk packet.

Yes there was a "use case" for it. We were using it.
I prefer nntp msg networking, though.


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On 25/03/2026 21:14, Nightfox wrote:

It's available on GitHub, and there are screenshots: https://github.com/EricOulashin/SlyMail

Looks fantastic, well done. Exciting to see more offline mail readers and BBS server packages enter the scene!
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Nightfox wrote to All <=-

Based on the request of a fellow sysop, I've created a new offline QWK mail reader (with the help of Claude AI), which I call SlyMail.
Currently I consider it to be a beta version, as it hasn't been tested thoroughly, so there may be some bugs, but currently it's functional as far as being able to read messages from a QWK packet and save new messages, etc.

Nice, checking it out now!


... Always the first steps
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
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Nightfox wrote to All <=-

Also, I forgot to mention, SlyMail can connect to remote systems (via
FTP or SSH) to download QWK packets from within SlyMail, which should
make it easier to download QWK packets.

Again, very cool. I use a script to download .qwk files and upload .reps
with Multimail, having that built in will be slick.



... Are there sections? Consider transitions
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
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Mortar wrote to fusion <=-

In this example, sounds like you'd end up with an empty packet. Is
there a use case for that?

BBSNAME.QWK is a magic filename - requesting to receive it triggers the
BBS to generate a QWK packet. Ditto for sending a BBSNAME.REP packet -
the reply packet is automatically tossed into the message areas.

It's very handy, I use it on my BBS all the time in a batch file that
downloads the packet, opens MultiMail, then uploads the replies.




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Re: Re: New offline QWK mail reader: SlyMail
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Nightfox on Sat Mar 28 2026 12:25 pm

Again, very cool. I use a script to download .qwk files and upload .reps with Multimail, having that built in will be slick.

Although SlyMail has the built-in ability to download & upload QWK packets, it's not automated. I've thought of possibly making it automated with SlyMail though.

Nightfox

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