On 23/03/2019 14:09, Dan Clough -> David Drummond wrote:

 DC> I am *NOT* trying to see FidoNet "modernized" into some flashy web
 DC> presence.  I am against that in every way possible.

 DC> All I want to see is the public "face" of FidoNet be made (more)
 DC> accessible via the web (WWW).

 DC>  Not the actual workings of Fidonet echomail/FDN.  Just the "advertising"
side of things.  A way for a
 DC> potential new Sysop who wants to join Fidonet to be able to easily
 DC> access the information needed to join.

 DC>  Who to contact, and how to contact them.  Basic policy documents.  A
nodelist.  An overview
 DC> of how it all works.  The reason it should be more visible on the
 DC> WWW is because THAT IS HOW THINGS ARE DONE THESE DAYS.

Not in Fidonet it isn't. Fidonet (and the associated BBSs) is an alternative to
the WWW. All of the "how to join" stuff should already be available at those
BBSs.

 DC> People google something they want to find out about, and then expect/want
 DC> to be directed to some web page to read about it.  Not to a
 DC> fucking Usenet server, or an ancient website with NOTHING but dead
 DC> links on it.

Ancient dead websites are a fact of life when people lose interest in
maintaining them. There is nothing you can do about that until you come up with
some way that these can be set up and funded by *other than one individual*.

 DC> Why is this so abhorrent to the (your words) "stick in the muds"?
 DC> Hell, I'm probably in that category myself.  I was a Fido sysop
 DC> long ago, then I left for a long time due to Real Life (and other
 DC> factors), and now I'm back.

Why? If Fidonet is such an antiquated redundant thing then why did you return?

 DC> I'm just trying to promote the idea of making it EASIER for new people to
become FidoNet sysops.  How
 DC> can that be considered a BAD THING?

You are NOT making it easier with a website - you are just making one person's
opinion of the available information available.

 DC> Do we not want to try and keep Fido alive?  If nothing is done, Fido will
CONTINUE to
 DC> decline and eventually die.  Why not try to save it?  We all know
 DC> it will never be the same as it was in the early 90's, but it can
 DC> be salvaged and probably grow a little from what it is today.

Fidonet will NOT die out until the penultimate node drops out.

 DC> Can we put aside the bullshit and fears of losing the "old ways",
 DC> and just put a shiny new public face

Because there is NO shiny public face - only one person's opinion of how that
face should look.

 DC> on what curious investigators see when they research what FidoNet is?

 DC> Just a fucking workable website is what we're talking about here.

Should we also be taking out advertising in bus shelters, on highway
billboards? How do people even hear about Fidonet in the first place to want to
become a node?

Set up your web site - pay for the domain registration, fund the hosting fees,
display your fascist manifesto - and make out that it is the collective opinion
of Fidonet.

Fidonet has no collective social opinion. The only thing we vaguely agree with
is connection methods/protocols (and even then some of us cannot connect with
others of us - my node does not support POTS, your node does not support ISDN
etc.).

-- 

Gang warily
David

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