Yo! Louie:
Thursday May 01 1997 15:41, Louie Gonsalves wrote to Bill Cheek:
 BC>> My BBS is being replaced by my Web and FTP sites as follows:
 LG> Why not offer the web and ftp as a side dish to the BBS?
It adds to the cost.......
 LG> I'm devloping such a scheme, using the Web site to educate newbies on
 LG> the BBS thing. Same goes for Fido.  They're not finished just yet,
 LG> not if sysops pull together and pool resources to overcome this
 LG> decline.
But they won't.  It's the SysOps and the software developers who are frogging 
to the Internet......
 BC>> The days of the BBS are wrapping up and drawing to a close.  BBS's
 BC>> just don't get it anymore in terms of cost and resources of time
 BC>> and equipment.  FidoNet is shrinking weekly and is down by over
 LG> Only because the web is easier and more accessible.
And......cheaper, more effective, and more powerful.
 LG> It is up to us to design clean, easy to use interfaces for our
 LG> boards, and to again educate folks.  I, and others, feel the web is
 LG> an excellent blackboard to do this.
If the BBS can be structured to beat the Web, then it will win.  If not, then 
it will lose.  So far, it is losing.
 BC>> This may be the time to develop your Internet connections,
 BC>> if you haven't already done so.  There are several great newsgroups
 BC>> that go along the lines of SCANRADIO:
 LG> This may be the time for more users to develop their own Fidonet
 LG> connections, and replace those who have left.  Again, the web may be the
 LG> place to put up tutorials, how-to's and such on how to set up a BBS with
 LG> mailer.
How do you get around the "one user at a time" for the BBS?  My HOME web 
site, nothing special or wild, can support upwards of 26 users at a time, 
each running 28.8-k modems.  A BBS would require 28 phone lines.  
Sheesh......!!!
 LG> And I'm developing such a beast.
Cool.
 BC>> wrong, I'm wrong.  If I'm right, then I'm right. History will prove
 BC>> it one way or the other.
 LG> I'm hoping you're wrong =-)
I'm not emotionally attached.....   :-)
 LG> You still gonna mod SCANRADIO?  Don't let this one die, man... it's
 LG> one of the first I read when I first found Fido, and I know its one
 LG> of the oldest...
SCANRADIO will remain, no matter what I do.  I am entertaining nominations 
for a successor, even as we speak.
 LG> I won't tell you what to do, but make sure you make a full backup of
 LG> your BBS before you pull the plug on it.  I run a 1 line free board,
 LG> and have my fair share of fidonuts...  and with some gentle prodding
 LG> and hand-holding, they are increasing slowly in number.
 LG> There is hope.
Each week, the Fido Nodelist shrinks by a hundred or more nodes.  You call 
THAT "hope"?
 LG> On another note:  Any recommendation on a sub $300 handheld that will
 LG> do up to 900 mhz, and will cover the military air UHF band?  I work
 LG> at an airbase, and our jets don't talk 118-136...  I just can't swing
 LG> the $400 RatShack wants for their "capable" handhelds..
You're outa luck.  Mil-air doesn't come cheap, thanks to its remoteness from 
the other bands and to its 200 MHz spectral width.  It costs money to put it 
in a scanner.......  'Sniff.
Bill Cheek | bcheek@san.rr.com
Windows 95 Juggernaut Team | Microsoft MVP
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