Subj : echos - a morbid curiosity
To   : August Abolins
From : Charles Pierson
Date : Wed Dec 16 2020 03:41 am

On 16 Dec 2020, August Abolins said the following...
 
 AA> On 12/15/2020 6:23 AM, between "Charles Pierson - August Abolins":
 AA> 
 AA> > There are many, many echos that aren't listed. That doesn't mean they ar
 AA> > connected though.
 AA> 
 AA> Of course. That is part of the problem - they are not easily "known" to
 AA> exist.
 AA> 

Fidonet or othernets for that matter are not particularly known to exist
outside of the participants for that matter. Or if they are it's in a vague 
"old fashioned computer thing" that gets an occasional nostalgia article in
computer articles.

 AA> > Echos are limited by whatever the Sysop carries. I've read discussions a
 AA> > it where some sysops have said they only carry those areas which interes
 AA> > them. That's fair, it's their system after all. So it becomes a crap sho
 AA> > whether or not a particular Echo is on a particular system.
 AA> 
 AA> Crap shoot it certainly is.  :(  But that situation does not help to
 AA> bolster users.
 AA> 
 AA> It's no good for example to have 3 different BBSes to boast that they
 AA> carry Fidonet, when all 3 of them carry different combinations and/or
 AA> only a handful of echos and never plan to change.
 AA> 

Fidonet is not a business, Its a platform for and by hobbiests. These
hobbiests have different interests, so their BBSes are going to reflect thay.

You aren't likely to convince very many sysops to change how they do things.
The way you would like things to be only stands a chance of happening is for
people with views like yours to start BBSes in the way you would like to see
them.

 AA> >  AA> It would be nice if there was a more consolidated (and real-time) w
 AA> >  AA> announce active/live echos.
 AA> > You aren't going to get real-time with FTN Technology. The best you'lll 
 AA> > is those systems that have bots or whatever that post stats from their
 AA> > systems.
 AA> 
 AA> If "bot" is the closest to real-time, that would be great!

They post in the STATS echo. Which youpve already said is mind numbing for
you.

You have ECHO_ADS for Moderators to post about their echos. 

The best thing that I can come up with for a typical BBS would be the sysop
could post a bulletin with a list of echos they carried and a desriptuon of
them.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Raspberry Pi/32)
 * Origin: theoasisbbs.ddns.net:1357 (1:153/757.26)

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