Re: Re: New elist program ab
  By: Ward Dossche to Dale Shipp on Tue Jan 28 2020 11:15:21


 DS>> The Elist is not controlled by Fidonet, but
 DS>> provides a service for those who choose to use it.

 WD> To my perception the elist was used to try to control certain aspects of
Fidonet.

that's because you don't understand why the echolist was created in the first
place and why the backbone distribution systems chose to use it...

it was created to provide a list of available echos with relevent information
about them...

the backbone distribution systems use it for several items related to their
distribution of echos... one of the mail items is determining who the moderator
of an echo is... they use it for other informational things, as well... like
the "short description" which is used in the backbone.* files along with the
echotag to provide the obvious... the quantity of messages that generally flow
is also used... whether the echo has any restrictions for access is another
item...

 WD> Other than that, I think the whole concept has become obsolete.

the concept of providing a central list of echos with relevent data about them
is still desired in today's fidonet technology networks... it is just a tool
for use by moderators, distribution systems that choose to use it, and
operators looking for a nice central list of available echomail areas so they
don't have to ask all around if certain echo topics are available from
anywhere... it is just a tool...


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