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Ärende: FidoNews Vol 28 No 37 Articles Richard Webb
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                             Sustainability Part I.



                             Richard Webb, 1:116/901



     This seems to be quite the buzzword these days.  We hear about

     sustainable agriculture, etc. etc.  Some questions have been raised

     over the last decade or so re the sustainability of Fidonet.  Let's

     first look at what it actually means in the world of Fidonet, then

     we can look at what we need to do to maintain it.



     But, more important, first we have to define what sustainability

     itself means.  Sustainability at least in the parlance of the

     sustainable agriculture movement means practices and techniques

     that do no harm to the environment while providing the products of

     agriculture in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of the

     population.  For Fidonet that means coordinators and others

     engaging in practices which encourage people to remain part of

     Fidonet, and to actually participate.



     There comes a point in any complex endeavor, especially a

     communications network when that traffic it handles can no longer

     be routed effectively because resources aren't available.  In an

     endeavor such as Fidonet, we maintain those routing systems by

     keeping their operators truly interested in maintaining them, or

     venues where conversation of interest can take place.  Those places

     are the special interest echoes.  Many a sysop joined Fidonet back

     in its halcyon days specifically for access to a special interest

     echo which fit the theme of his or her board, and would help draw

     the users he wanted.  Back in Des MOines, Iowa where i lived when

     I first joined Fidonet, the board for musicians and production

     professionals was a member primarily for those echoes.  The local

     board for the self help and human services folks carried the usual

     twelve step echoes, disability related conferences, etc.  OF

     course, a sysop would then pull in more echomail to suit the

     various interests of those users he/she wished to keep coming back

     along with those that fit the theme of the system.



     Now, let's look at some comments sent to me in netmail by our good

     zc2.  AS we all know, for years Ward has been the inveterate

     nodelist tracker, both in Fidonews and in echomail.  HE says:



     "I've been going with a fine comb through the zone-1 segment and

     the situation is dramatic. The result of my searching is that there

     are about 300 individually listed sysops left, don't look at the

     number of nodes but at the number of single names. That means the

     number of actively participating people is way below that ... 100?

     More? Less?"



     Good question!  But don't think Ward's just picking on zone 1.  HE

     continues:



     "Then I did the same thing with the zone-2 segment and I must

     conclude that there barely is more than that number, including

     Russia maybe the double.  It leaves me with the uncomfortable

     feeling that we have less than 1,000 nodelisted sysops left, down

     from around 36,000 in 1995."



     Yes we have some returnees from the past.  But, the real question

     is why they left?  After all, with broadband connections and all

     the ways to participate you'd think they'd remain connected.  The

     question is why they don't.



     Even when I rejoined back in 2007 or so if I loaded up the nodelist

     in qedit it gave me the dreaded "entire file not loaded" message

     before it displayed the contents.  That no longer happens if I open

     the raw nodelist with qedit.  That means that even with some new

     blood joining, and old hands returning we're still losing more than

     we're gaining.



     For some the problem is internet service providers not allowing

     customers to operate servers, but there are other methods of

     remaining connected, even without running a net connected server.

     Email tunneling might be an option, or, as I understand it, binkd

     in client mode.  So why don't they remain with us?



     They don't remain, because they themselves don't find content of

     interest.  You can have the biggest darned blowtorch transmitter in

     the world, but if your radio station doesn't have the content the

     listeners want to hear they won't tune in, and if they don't tune

     in then advertisers don't want to buy air time on your station

     because they won't reach any potential customers.  You can have the

     finest chef from France in the kitchen of your restaurant, but if

     the atmosphere isn't pleasant and the serving staff friendly you

     won't have customers.  All though our FTSC chairman and I find

     ourselves in disagreement on this point, it's about the content!

     Nobody gives a damn about the damned protocols if they don't convey

     anything worth reading, and responding to!  Everybody that didn't

     just crawl out from under a rock knows that if you want your

     business to have repeat customers you've got to get 'em in the door

     the first time to see what you offer them, and once you get 'em to

     show up and check you out you'd better have something they want or

     they'll go elsewhere.  More on that next time!




     FIDONEWS Vol 28 No 37              Page 6          September 12 2011



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