Ward Dossche : August Abolins wrote:

> AA> Everyone should read this:
> AA> Original Date: 2016-08-22 00:10:36
>
> Huh? ...

:)  Don't look at ME!  It is your "if it ain't broke don't fix it"
program that did it. And that was just 3 years ago.

I looks like it is just a repost in 2016 of the true original from 2002.
   And maybe that was done with manual technology. ;)


> AA> Barking up the (wrong) Tree
> AA> By Frank Vest
> AA> 1:124/6308.1
> AA> (2002-01-16)
>
> He's also dealing with a Fidonet of 17+ years ago, a totally different
> Fidonet.

I think you miss the heart of his message. He was expounding his
thoughts on the reasons for Fidonet members decline.  It was a people's
fault, not necessarily a technology fault.  There sure was a lot of
apathy or barking up the wrong tree going on imho and that did not help.

Around 2002 that is when the drop-out rate from fidonet was quite
dramatic.  (I too dropped out, around 2006, but for different reasons,
primarily because I had a hdd crash.)  AOL promotion seemed to succeeded
in my area. People preferred to call a number, hardly ever get a busy
signal, and spend all the time they wanted online.  Very shortly after,
local ISP dialups started emerging and competing for the subscriber.

Prior to that, I had quite a few users (a mail only system) that
featured gated email.  Very popular. I helped people to configure point
software and demonstrated the addressing rules to construct a netmail
message destined to the internet as email.  If anyone was interested, I
demonstrated access to the Fidonet echoes.  Calls were quick, short, and
done within a few seconds or minutes. I had 2 landlines.  I had 2 more
lines ready for another pc. Even my userbase was declining, a bit, in
2005.  I could not sustain the cost of 4 landlines.  I had to encourage
users to be patient if they encountered a busy signal.  But I digress..


> Despite what some will claim, Fidonet has re-invented itself more than
> once over the years and "Thank You" to the Russians for that.

Yes.  So there *is* room for even more and better things.

I miss Frank V.

His contributions to the newsletter and echoes were fun to read.

.../|ug

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