Text 22539, 81 rader
Skriven 2011-10-06 17:45:43 av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
  Kommentar till text 22538 av Janis Kracht (1:261/38)
Ärende: FidoNews Vol. 28 No. 40 Sustainability IV
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Hi Janis,

On Thu 2011-Oct-06 10:37, Janis Kracht (1:261/38) wrote to Richard Webb:

JK> Agree with both of you there.  More than just an echo-cop, the good
JK> moderator can influence discussions, stave off off-topic messages
JK> while essentially providing the general tenor of the message area.

YEp, and I care for both the strictly business type echo,
and that with a little slippage in how the rules are defined and what's
actually permissible.  ml_baseball for example I
figure should be related to baseball.  Emergcom related
strictly to stuff that's radio and emergency related.
Contrast that with guitar, where you know there's going to
be lots of topic drift.

JK> Sometimes you'll see the "flavor" of the moderator just in how he or
JK> she describes the rules of the echo.  I think it's all of these
JK> things that can make or break an echo, as far as encouraging
JK> participation by users and sysops alike. 

Would agree.  I know i scared off one person a bit who was
sort of interested in gating usenet traffic into the echo,
but having looked at related usenet newsgroup it seems to me there's little of
actual topical value to that echo in those I've seen, hence he'd wish to do
more handpicking than he
might like.

> Some sysops adopt an echo when it's abandoned just to keep
> it going, but if they don't really have serious interest in
> the topic then they can't promote it adequately.

JK> Yep, and as well intentioned as some may be in 'saving' an echo, it
JK> does no good down the line if the 'new moderator' of a saved echo
JK> doesn't develop or encourage topics specifically related to the
JK> echo.  The echo becomes just shell of what was intended with no
JK> posts, from what I've seen.

Again agreed.  I adopted artware and comm because I had an
interest, and got another interested party to co-mod those,
which helps.

> IT's the content which will bring users, and today's user
> looks at that computer on his/her desk as an appliance.
<snip>
> echomail, at least here in NOrth America, offers that user
> little of interest to him if he's not a computer hobbyist
> per se.

JK> I think of great echos like the COOKING Echo though.. there you have
JK> a specific interest from the tagname, but that echo crosses into may
JK> related topics of interest.  Reviews of restaurants, menu items,
JK> travel, and much more. 

Indeed, that one does well just for that reason.  IF you
were forced to change the echo tag to food it would still do well for that
reason.  MEmories does fairly well
consistently, because there's a dedicated little community
there.  Debate has died off over the last few years, but
politics can be that sort of thing.

Echoes and newsgroups seem to develop their little
communities of interest, some do better than others.
Contrast the newsgroup rec.audio.pro with
alt.audio.pro.live-sound for example.  The rec group has a
dedicated cadre of old hands who help the newbies along, its founder and others
produced a very extensive faq file to
help the newbie as well.  The alt group on the other hand
has a few of its founders, but very few.  The flamethrowers
ran off most of the experienced pros, so there's little help for the newbie
there.  HEnce it limps along.
I've hoped to draw some of the live sound community to
live_audio, even posting occasionally a blurb in related
newsgroups, and gotten a couple to have a look via fidonet
via nntp, but we haven't gained much traction.  But, it's
there in case suddenly it takes off <g>.

Regards,
           Richard
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