On 03-07-97 GEORGE ERDNER wrote to KENNETH NEWMAN... 
 
 GE> I think one of the 
 GE> best ways to keep echo mail nets alive and viable is to have 
 GE> fewer conferences with wider ranges of topics. 
 
        You are entitled to your opinion but you would do 
        yourself more justice if you presented it to an audience 
        which cared. If you're a sysop, then _SYSOP_ would be a 
        good echo for this type of discussion. 
 
 GE> Confernces that have lots 
 GE> of mail to read and reply to are, frankly, a lot more fun than 
 GE> conferences with small amounts of mail. 
 
        You're entitled to this opinion but it doesn't hold for 
        everyone; tastes are different, quality/quantity and 
        signal/noise ratios also apply. That's why, for example, 
        I much prefer the excellent _CD_ECHO_ to the much busier 
        _MUSIC_ echo. I mean, the "Nirvana Sucks" thread might be 
        interesting the first few dozen times you see it but 
        after its four thousandth iteration I find boredom tends 
        to sit in. 
 
 GE> The problem is that there is often a natural progression of threads 
 GE> stray into different areas. These threads, I find, are usually a lot 
 GE> more interesting than the ones that stick to a very tightly focused 
 GE> topic. 
 
        I'm sorry about that but that's just plain tough. The 
        rules here are no different than anywhere else in Fido. 
        If your problem is with Fido in general and not with this 
        echo in particular, then you're probably wasting your 
        time discussing it here since it won't change anything, 
        unless you just plain like shouting in a bucket. 
 
 GE> Given the steady decreasing message traffic on Fido, I have to assume 
 GE> that "most" people are switching to the Internet 
 
        Faulty assumption. It's the sysops who are switching from 
        running pay BBS's to running as ISP's. That's a different 
        phenomenon. 
 
 GE> and aren't calling 
 GE> local Bulletin Boards to participate in echo mail nets anymore. 
 
        People are still calling. They're just getting their 
        feeds cut. Fido isn't dying for lack of willing and eager 
        participants. The regulars who are no longer here (some 
        of whom are reading this message by way of reposting 
        through internet email, so great is their devotion to 
        this echo, I might add) aren't here because they gave up 
        on the echo or because they are hanging out at 
        rec.music.analretentive.progressive, it's because their 
        feed went down. 
 
 GE> I submit 
 GE> that a re-evaluation of Fido policy regarding the narrowness of topics 
 GE> would go a long way to preserving Fidonet as a viable institution. 
 
        a. you are submitting it to the wrong place 
        b. the choice here on _PROGROCK_, which is very much in 
        danger of just being dropped outright by its owners, is 
        not one of expanding for survival but continuing 
        unchanged. We don't have that choice of expanding. This 
        echo will be dropped if we continue to be flooded by 
        off-topic messages. That is why I would be particularly 
        appreciative if you would discuss progrock here, at least 
        in a majority of your postings or perhaps in ObProgs. 
 
 GE> So given that view, I think that this particular echo is as good a 
 GE> place to start expanding the scope of discussions as any other. 
 
        No, it isn't, and I'm officially telling you not to 
        pursue this. 
 
        Put frankly, it isn't that I don't care what you think, 
        but what you think doesn't matter, not for public 
        discussion here. By Fido rules, this kind of discussion 
        belongs in netmail. Also, unless you own an echo, you 
        can't really change an echo; you're much better off 
        trying to start a new one which you then own. I'm not 
        saying this is the way it should be, I'm saying this is 
        the way it is. 
 
 GE> Besides, I 
 GE> have seen a great many posts from people who say that Prog-Rock is one 
 GE> of their favorite types of music, yet they also enjoy other genres. 
 
        Come join us in _CD_ECHO_. We're there, discussing all 
        sorts of stuff. 
 
        If you want to discuss the moderating or rules of this 
        echo, switch it to netmail. (and that's official) 
 
        If you want to discuss or affect the future of Fido, you 
        need to take it way over my head. But you should probably 
        know that unless you are yourself a sysop, and preferably 
        higher than that, you probably won't get anywhere with 
        it. 
 
        If you just want to stir things up and not talk about 
        prog, I would rather you didn't, not here, anyway. 
 
                                Cheers, 
                                Kenneth 
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