Letters to the Editor

By: Philip Lozier
To: Malcolm Miles

Hello Malcom,

[...]
PHIL> As to all of this recycled FidoNet vs. Internet stuff... it is not a valid comparison in any way... the old "apples and oranges" thing... the internet and FidoNet are two completely different beasts altogether... FidoNet is merely a messaging network, nothing more, nothing less. It is used either to add content to a BBS, or for personal consumption by private nodes and points... some BBSs have their themes and plenty of information on particular items that interest the SysOps, but again, hat is not FidoNet either... just like the internet and FidoNet, BBSs and FidoNet are two different things, although they work hand in hand with each other. What people need to focus on is not how to compete with the internet, but how to promote FidoNet usage both on and off the internet by what we have available to us. With many FidoNet systems rushing to get their systems available via telnet, there are likely ways that the BBSs themselves could promote more traffic to themselves... I think that if a large number of the telnet systems would set up to allow telneting from their BBS into other boards, then BBSs could be created on as many topics as you can think of, bringing back the old days of "theme boards"... an indexed listing could be kept on the telnet sites that supply information on various topics, and telnet could become, for all intents and purposes, a BBS web, with the various BBSs being the "websites"... Of course, with the above, many SysOps probably wouldn't want to do that, as the mentality seems to be "I just want them on MY BBS, why am I going to let them use me as a portal to someone elses?". Well... for one thing, it would probably improve the quality of BBSs themselves, as the SysOps would have to pay more attention to their content other than echoes and files to keep a user interested, "generic" BBSs just wouldn't cut it... another thing may be that it might be a way to attract totally new BBS users, and ultimately FidoNet posters, in that for some reason, people have always been attracted to something that seems new, or is some kind of "underground"... Even without having the actual systems calling to and from each other, I am sure that someone could come up with a searc engine for telnet sites (search by locality, topic, or whatever), that works exactly the same as any engine on the web, and pages could be created and promoted which contain top of the line telnet clients for download, and much information about telnet itself, that make it easier than ever for a first timer to get involved. A simple telnet list just wouldn't cut it. No, this may not be strictly FidoNet related, but, by getting more people to utilize these telnet BBSs, it does create a way to expose FidoNet to people, and hell, even if the nodelist didn't start to grow rapidly right away, it would sure be nice to see message traffic increase due to BBS callers via telnet... ultimately, it would attract new nodes as more people got involved, and discovered that it really isn't that hard for them to do themselves. I would also venture so far as to say that if this was a succesful way of reviving BBSs, that we would likely see much higher quality software being produced for all ends of BBSing. Sure, we would probably see a lot less freeware and cardware, but, that's the way it used to be anyway when BBSs were all the rage. There is enough freeware to get anybody started, but I would sure love to see a higher amount of new and improved stuff coming out, even if it was costing a few bux again. There IS a way to revive BBSing, but, it involves people working together towards the goal, and keeping things organized and well maintained, making all of the sites easy to locate, and easy to connect to. It also calls for SysOps to create and provide much richer content for their BBSs... if many of these people can create websites with all that content, why couldn't they do it on their BBS So what it will be just text... it will load faster and likely be easier to navigate... myself, I would love to read information I that thinks it's all high important to load it down with time consuming images and graphics... the BBS caller could simply download own system. I don't think the graphics limitations would be a deterant any more than the web is a deterant to people who like to read novels or books right from the printed page.

Some might view using what is available in order to further preserve and promote the hobby that we all love, and put it in a position to be around for a long time to come. We should start coming up with ways to utilize telnet to our full advantage... if what I envision could happen, FidoNet and nets like it would simply be the "newgroups" of the BBS web, and once folks discover it, they will likely apreciate it and like it much better than than those SPAMgroups. What about inter-bbs chatting as well? We can do a lot if everyone would get together and stop trying to figure out how to compete with the internet and would rather work on utilizing what we do have available to us to its full advantage. Of course it could never compete with the web itself, but it sure could boost our traffic a bit. Just another of my penny and a half thoughts that had been brewing around for awhile :)

Think about it.

Phil

Richard Webb <elspider@interl.net> wrote:

Dear editor:

Up until 1995 I was active in fidonet, as a node for a little over a year but mostly as a point since 1992 or close to it.

After I took my node down I performed sysop duties on another bbs running binkley Maximus, and with some neat little utilities (most of which were created by Harvey Parisien) I was able to do a lot of maintenance chores by remote, even things which normally couldn't be done by logging into Maximus 2.01, such as changing tosser config files. In fact, I was able to set us up an areafix program without ever having to leave my office <grin>.

Like your author of the article on pointing in z2 I often wondered why pointing didn't catch on more here in the states. I could have my mailer poll my boss node, freq files and all those other tasks while I was either out of my office or in bed asleep. I could get the echoes I wanted even if not carried by a bbs in town, no begging for higher access status, no calling multiple boards and sitting in front of my computer being invited to visit the files section or being paged by the user on node 2 that was a kid who was looking for somebody to play Doom with.

When I first started bbsing I discovered offline readers and tried playing with Procomm and Telix scripts, but soon after discovered Ppoint by Harvey Parisien. Once I downloaded it and got it running I was hooked. I could have new echomail and netmail available to me, consult emailable search engines through the internet gateway, meet new and interesting friends, all without having to leave my chair. Better yet, I could do this while taking breaks sitting at my desk and not have to worry about whether I was still logged on trying to get the file I wanted or read messages when I should be back at work.

Also, my phone line was free for business calls during business hours, and I could enjoy its use during off hours to communicate with friends and family. Just before bedtime, tell my system when to poll my boss and go happily to bed. Next morning with my first cup of coffee I could enjoy lively conversation with people all over the world.

In fact, now that I've left the old dog behind for the most part, I still interact with the internet offline. I use an offline reader for internet mail and newsgroups. NO it doesn't do html or binaries well, but that lets me miss out on the nasty viruses that seem to attack Microsoft products. NO fancy java scripts either, but I really don't care. Automated retrieval of usenet and email is there and I can tell it to call in my absence just as I could my mailer. Automated ftp is available with this system as well. Even better, I can run it on my old antiquated 386 with 2 mb ram.

On the other side of the fence: When I was a node I was mail-only part of the time, but then I moved to a small town where there were no FIdonet boards. I set up a board to introduce people to FIdonet. Before I'd moved however I'd introduced three people to pointing who normally didn't call bbs systems. Out of those three two switched to local boards, first as qwk reader users then as points, the third called my system about twice a week, though it was a toll call, because he enjoyed having access to the echoes he wanted. There was a fully functional areafix program so he could link and unlink from the echoes he wanted. He also liked the automated nature of late night file requests.

I think the main reason pointing didn't catch on here is that sysops didn't promote it enough.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Regards,
Richard Webb
Former Fidonet 1:290/18 and 1:283/520
Also formerly 1:290/8.1 and 1:283.525.5