Text 10122, 65 rader
Skriven 2004-11-22 14:20:24 av Thom LaCosta (1:261/1352.0)
  Kommentar till text 10117 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Science 1/2
===================
Michiel van der Vlist wrote in a message to Thom LaCosta:

 >  MvdV> And even FN_SYSOP is at risk. The erratic flow is also a sign.
 >  MvdV> Even the mighty power of the English speaking community can not
 >  MvdV> stop tis process. How many active participants do we have in
 >  MvdV> FN_SYSOP? 20? 30?

 > Coulld it be that as the number of participants downdles,
 > the subject matters also dwindle, and at some point the
 > discssions that are left are of little interest to a large
 > numner of folks?

 MvdV> I suppose that for non topic bound echos this could be a
 MvdV> contributing factor. 

 MvdV> But... isn't that just another way of saying the number of
 MvdV> partcipants has dropped below critical mass....

Could be....but it may explain why the number of participants drop below a
certain level.


 > The diabetes echo was vitually dead, and it now appears to
 > be picking up, since most of the participants either have
 > diabetes, or have someone close who does...and therefore
 > the posts are not theoretical or attacking, but more of a
 > helping and information sharing type of thing.

 MvdV> Apparently there are still enough diabetics in FidoNet to keep
 MvdV> the echo alive. One can not say the same for the ham or the
 MvdV> science echo. There are more diabetics in this world than hams or
 MvdV> scientists...

Diabetes is an epidemic....

 > I think that as an echo's content dwindles down to fido-
 > centric stuff, the interest leevel and number of participants may drop.

 MvdV> That depends on the echo.

 MvdV> It certainly does not hold for the many echos that went dead here
 MvdV> in The Netherlands. For most f them the messages stayed on topic.
 MvdV> Same as in HAM and SCIENC. It is not off topic messages that are
 MvdV> the problem.

Perhaps I should have phrased it differently....I think that then an echo turns
from the origianl topic, whether it's Diabetes, candy making or ham radio and
the posts become fido-centric, that my be the point when the echo can be
considered dead....as I suspect many echo participants either are not
interested in fido-centric discussions or find them a real turn-off.


 MvdV> For FN_SYOP; I don't see a dramatic change in topic either. It
 MvdV> has been a "fight" echo for as long as I have been partcipating.
 MvdV> So I do not think that is the problem either.

I think FN_SYSOP is a special case...and I suspect that many sysops have turned
it off because of the "fight" nature.  That may be an inaccurate assesment in
my part...I admit that I've never seen much worth in carrying it.

cya,
thom
http://www.tlchost.net/echolist/ 
--- GEcho 1.20/Pro
 * Origin: Home of The Other Robot (1:261/1352)