HI Ed,

On Fri 2038-Jun-04 19:16, Ed Hulett (1:123/789) wrote to mark lewis:

EH> You're a dinosaur...

Been accused of bein' one o' them myself, with my straight
key opn the bench over here on the keyboard tray, and my old Hamarlund
receiver behind me.



EH> Ah ah ah... you participate, so you aren't just an enabler.

AS do most, we enable so that we can participate, helps us
justify it ya know .



EH> Not all sysops have or do think that way. Some (have) just set up
EH> their BBS and let it go. I remember when there were hundreds of
EH> BBSes in the local BBS list kept by one of the locals here. Now,
EH> there are maybe a dozen. I have no idea how many still carry FIDO. A
EH> guy I worked with back in the late 70s and early 80s was the local
EH> FIDO hub (Mark Blakely). I have no idea if he's still involved. 

YEp, he's still in the nodelist, still has dial up too.
Crashed him netmail a few months ago.

BAck in my fairly busy hub days we had those who did that
too, just got the board configured, plugged in fidonet or
their favorite qwk network and let it run.  But, usually
their disinterest meant they didn't share the costs of
bringing in fidonet echoes reliably, so they had to seek
their feed elsewhere paying their own long distance charges. THeir users
soon went elsewhere too, because when things
didn't work that the users expected then they got
disappointed.  Yah yah I know, only a hobby and all that,
but the busy boards I always found were those whose sysops
paid attention, made sure that user options worked, cleaned
things up and even took the time to coach the newbies and
show 'em around a bit.  But then, that was 1992-97 when
there were still a lot of newbies getting their first
computer, and their first modeming experience.  Kinda like
ham radio used to be, the good ham radio clubs were those
with the ELmers that helped show the new guys the ropes, and in doing so
recruited new active club members.  THese days
too many folks just go to an instant ham class or two, or
even worse, just memorize by rote the correct answers to the multiple guess
questions thanks to qrz.coom.  THey learn
nothing about the culture of ham radio, or public service
operating or ...

THese days you can't get folks interested in something like
that.  NO instant gratification available.

Regards,
           Richard
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+