Hi Bob

 >   Fidonet works on multiple paths.

From looking at origin lines, it would seem that most mail in Australian
echos goes through 808-809.  I know there are other feeds but the 808-809, 
50/99, and possibly others, make up the "backbone"

 > It's unreasonable to expect someone
 > whose interest is religion or cat-fancying and starts off moving 200K
 > of mail a day, only to see that grow to 2,000K as other nodes drop
 > off, and end up carting areas like AVT totally inimical to his
 > beliefs and interests.

I agree


 >   It's ok as long as there are enough people spreading the load with
 > a  diversity of interest

There doesn't appear to be a lot spreading the load. I'm happy to be
corrected on that by anyone involved in moving & routing mail.

 > but as nodes defect to the Internet what remains
 > is special interest fanatics, and it soon falls apart. I saw it
 > happen
 > with CB radio. It starts with enthusiasts, and spreads, and then the
 > enthusiasts are overwhelmed and move on, and the loonies take over.
 > Finally they only have loonies to talk to, and it dies because not
 > even loonies are that loony.

:-)

Cheers
Niels Petersen

--- FMail/386 0.98