Text 22546, 97 rader
Skriven 2011-10-09 11:33:32 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
Ärende: FidoNews Vol. 28 No. 40 Sustainability IV
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* Originally in FIDONEWS
* Crossposted in NETMAIL001

Hello Richard,

On Thursday October 06 2011 02:27, you wrote to me:

 RW> But I think from one who was active during the start of the
 RW> big decline

I have been there during the big rise AND the big decline.

 RW> that we have a bit of chicken or the egg, I'm sure you understand the
 RW> metaphor.  AS more folks lost access to a favorite local FIdo portal
 RW> their input stopped, other folks, missing the folks that to them made
 RW> an echo worthwhile quit coming.

Richard, you are fooling yourself. Fidonet was a success when it was the only
game in town. It was a BIG success. Then we got affordable internet access for
the masses. The users found that more interesting. So they left FidoNet.

There is no chicken and egg problem. The users left because they found greener
pastures. They are not coming back. Face reality.

 RW> YOu'll note in one of my articles I mentioned my friend who was
 RW> calling once a week to grab his mail. Back when the ham and ham_tech
 RW> echoes were jumping he engaged WAyne Sarosi in conversations about all
 RW> sorts of interesting antenna designs, and the rest of us lurked along,
 RW> and learned.

Face reality. That's history. Expecting users to come back to FidoNet is as
realistic as to expect society to do away with motorised transport and go back
to horses.

 RW> Wtf does somebody want with discussing some obscure piece of ftn
 RW> software they don't understand?  MOSt of these folks bought these
 RW> machines as appliances, like they bought a friggin refrigerator.

Indeed, the world has changed. 100 years ago, people who had a car were
engineers who had to repair themselves. Nowadays many car owners don't even
know how to open the hood.

Progress is measured by the amount of things we can do without having to think
about it.

 RW> What's your idea?

That we should make do with what we'v got. Forget about the users. They are not
coming back. Forget about growth. That's wishful thinking. We may see an
occasional old sysop returning or even a new sysop, but those do not make up
for what we loose on the other end. Many of the newcomers don't last longer
than a year anyway. Face reality.

 RW> THe fidonews echo as it was?  IS that your idea of a good time in
 RW> FIdonet?  I found it a reeking cesspool!

Be that as it may be, but it HAD flow. Look at what it is now. despite the fact
that the messages are as off-topic as before, the flow has dropped to a
fraction of what is was and it has become as boring as the Proceedings Of The
Mutual Admiration Society. Because that is what it basically has become.

 RW> SOmehow I don't think that's quite what you had in mind either,

And what it has become now is what you had in mind?

 RW> or I would hope not.  AT one time I could find just as nasty on the 75
 RW> meter phone band here in NOrth America, but the regulators cleaned it
 RW> up a bit.

The difference is that there is only one 80 meter band (that's what we call it
here). OTOH, there is no limit on the number of echos that FidoNet can carry.
So there is plenty of room for those who do not like it to vote with their feet
and start an alternative.

I did not like the mud slinging and the insults, but all in all, I found the
fidonews echo an interesting place. It was responsible for 50% of the flow on
my system. I did noyt like all of it, but I liked it enough to keep
participating.

Liked it.. past tense. As I see it, FidoNews is murdered. Murdered by a handful
of egoists that have abused their power to set things to their hands.

 RW> iF that's what we become, other than a few geeks arguing about proper
 RW> kludge lines

Yes, that is what we have become. Face reality.

 RW> then we may as well pack it in and quit producing a nodelist because
 RW> there's no use.

Not when we accept that FidoNet has become a museum piece and treat it as such.


Cheers, Michiel

--- GoldED+/W32-MINGW 1.1.5-b20070503
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