* In a message originally to Sondra Ball, jim barchuk said:
 > SB> Tell me, Jim:  are there any new BBSes going up anywhere?
 > I don't know about BBSs in general, there's no way to count
 > them. But Fidonet has about 10 people leaving for every new
 > one joining for about a year now.
 > That's in the US. In europe, Fidonet is actually expanding.
My stats show that 14 months ago there were near 40,000 nodes in Fido, Today 
there is approx 29,000. So there has been over 1/4 of them drop out. However 
traffic has dropped some 80-90 percent in most areas with a FEW exceptions. I 
have one area which used to get 12,000-15,000 messages in it in a month. 
Today it gets 12,000 in 8-9 months and is dropping off at a steady pace..
Internet itus and speed of contact is paramount for the change in where 
people are talking. This message is being written at 7:20 am on Thursday and 
my bet it will be the weekend before you read it. If this was e-mail it would 
be at your site in 15 minutes or less.. If we were both on line we could 
almost carry on a running conversation every 5 minutes or if we were in a 
chat room we could talk directly.
FIDO had its place in the scope of things over the past 12-15 years but since 
it still relies on individuals to transfer mail it is about like the Post 
Office vs. Faxing someone. Drop it in the mail it will be there in a day or 
two, or call up and its there in 30 seconds.
-=Steve=-
--- GEcho 1.11+
---------------