Hello Michiel,

 TR>> There are still a lot of Fidonet sysops who run a BBS and still get
 TR>> users,

 MvdV> If you say so. But if there are indeed a "lot" of sysops running a BBS
with
 MvdV> users, there must be an even greater "lot" of users. Where are they? I
 MvdV> don't carry all the echos, but I don't see a "lot" of users. In the last
 MvdV> couple of years, I have only seen two. Tim Richardson and Lee Lofaso.
Only
 MvdV> the first writes via a "real" BBS, the latter writes via the system of a
 MvdV> sysop that grants access via JamNNTP. For the sake of argument I will
count
 MvdV> that too as a "BBS".

I have all the software needed for jammnntpd.  After the holidays
I should have time to get things moving.  Right now, not so much.

 MvdV> If these "lot" of users do not actively participate in Fidonet, what
 MvdV> relevance do they have for Fidonet?

The choice to participate or not to participate should be up to
each individual.  Nobody else can (or should) make that choice for
them.  However, in my opinion, all sysops should encourage others
to participate, and join the network.

 TR>> in my case I get (telnet & html) mainly users but nothing like before
 TR>> when most BBS has a 1000+ callers.

 MvdV> A thousand? You really had over a THOUSAND users? As in a one with three
 MvdV> zeros? How many of those were real lasting participants? How many of
them
 MvdV> just logged in once or twice to never be seen again? Was the user data
base
 MvdV> cleared after a period of non activity or did those "users" remain in
the
 MvdV> data base forever?

If Fidonet sysops could manage to convince three individuals per year
to become new members, just think how fast this network would grow!

Let's say there are 1000 Fidonet sysops at present.
Every Fidonet sysop recruits one new recruit per month.
After 30 months, how many new Fidonet sysops would there be?

 TR>> What has changed in Fidonet, we still move echos and files, there are
 TR>> some new protocols being used and the Fidoweb. Still moving A to B
 TR>> etc.

 MvdV> Lots of things have changed in Fidonet during your 15 years of absence.
You
 MvdV> apparently missed the Fidonews coup. It triggered the birth of the
Fidoweb
 MvdV> and with the Fidoweb Fidonet finally killed top down control of
echomail.
 MvdV> So much for the plus side.

 MvdV> On the minus side there is the dramatic decline in number of
participants
 MvdV> and volume of echomail content. A conservative estimate is that there
are
 MvdV> less than 200 active participants left in Fidonet.

There is a way to turn that around.

Once I obtain a node, I will reveal the answer (or one of many).

Stay tuned.

 MvdV> It should come to no surprise that most of the echos on the so called
 MvdV> "backbone" are dead.

There are robots keeping them technically "alive".
But nobody knows how to turn those robots off.
Maybe it is because those robots have become sentient.
Imagine that.  AI is the new ET.

 MvdV> Most of the echos that remain are below critical mass,

How much "critical mass" does a robot need to remain alive?

 MvdV> Not enough participants to keep the conversation going.

Do automated rules count?

 MvdV> It is only a handful of echos that have real traffic.

Wha'?  No robots?  Where did they all go?

 MvdV> Like this one.

There are two robots in this room.  Which may be the same.

 MvdV> There is hardly any echomail content not elating to Fdionet itself.

Would you rather have robots talking to robots?

 MvdV> Ir was decades ago that I stopped asking around in Fdionet when f.e. I
had a
 MvdV> problem with my car. Just not enough espert knowledge around to be of
use.
 MvdV> I go to the forum dedicated to the make and model of my car and voila
there
 MvdV> is where the expertise is.

An echo moderated by a robot that posts automated messages.

 MvdV> In my native language... So much for moving echos...

Unfortunately, all the robots in FidoNet were programmed in English,
and can only write automated posts in the same language.

 MvdV> Moving files? What files other than fido dedicated files such as
Fidonews
 MvdV> and the nodelist. The irony is that what made it affordable to move
files
 MvdV> around the world - The InterNet - also made it superflous. If I need a
 MvdV> driver for my graphic card, it is much quicker and effective to search
the
 MvdV> InterNet than waiting for someone in Fido to dig it up...

The entity known as the InterNet is doomed, and will die.  That is
another subject, which I had mentioned briefly in another post.

 MvdV> Yes, Fidonet has changed. It has become a shipping company without
 MvdV> passengers and without cargo. There are just the ships and the crews. We
 MvdV> keep the ships going because we like to keep the ships going. But that's
 MvdV> just it.

A museum piece.  An excellent observation.  A truth few want to admit.

--Lee

-- 
Pork. The One You Love.

--- MesNews/1.08.05.00-gb