-=> On 03-08-08  19:34,  Jeff Smith <=-
 -=> spoke to All about Echos? <=-

 JS> Hello everybody.

 JS> In browsing the current Echolist I happened to notice a continuing
 JS> trend that has me concerned. I acknowledge his freedom to do so. But it

  I am not concerned -- in the end, it does not matter what happens to
  dead echos.

 JS> looks like Allen is continuing to grab pretty much any echo that
 JS> becomes available. Will he continue his policy of gating filtered
 JS> newsgroups into these newly aquired echos? Is it good for us as memebrs

  The one echo he did that to that I looked at in any detail was
  RECIPES.   The gating lasted for perhaps a week or so, and is no
  longer happening.   The echo has returned to its former dead state.

 JS> of this hobby of ours to have the  majority of echos controled by a
 JS> handfull of individuals?  The current Echlist shows that Allen has
 JS> grabbed the  following echos this time around.

  No problem to me.   IMO, those mostly are echotags, not echos.  At
  least they are not echos until some traffic is generated.

 JS> I acknowledge Allen's interest in reviving dead echos by injecting
 JS> them with activity from the internet. And compliment him for his
 JS> efforts to filter the incoming messages from the newsgroups. But a

   His filter is good, but not perfect.   The internet rec.food.cooking
   may well have 50% spam or more, and what he imported to RECIPES had
   only about 5% spam.  Filtering is a very difficult problem.

 JS> From the Echolist I see that 191 echos are controled by 8 people
 JS> and 112 echos are controled by just 2 people. This grabbing of echos
 JS> has been done by others in the past. We all can remember their names

   Again -- are they echos or just echotags for dead echos.

 JS> and the effect that it had on our hobby. One of the things that I have
 JS> liked about this network is it's diversity. With ideas, opinions, and
 JS> thoughts coming in from many differant directions. A hobby where
 JS> control is not at the direction of a smaller and smaller group of
 JS> people. 

   His relisting will ultimately have little effect (IMO) just as
   the lack of effect of those in the past who relisted expired echos.

   His gating of large volume usenet newsgroups into selected fidonet
   echo tags will (IMO) have no positive effect on fidonet -- and will
   create a larger load for the mail movers.   I'll let Ross, Janice,
   Bob, etc. say whether or not that larger load is a problem.

                               Dale Shipp
                  fido_261_1466 (at) comcast (dot) net
                              (1:261/1466)

                  Co-Moderator, National Cooking Echo


... Shipwrecked on Hesperus in Columbia, Maryland. 00:06:07, 10 Mar 2007
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