Hello Sean!

** 07.11.19 - 00:48, Sean Dennis wrote to August Abolins:

 SD>Janis publishes stats about active echoes based on traffic through her
 SD>system in every issue of the FG. Also, you can take a look at the
 SD>STATS echo for other reportd from other systems in Fidonet.

Yep.. Janis's report is great! I've extolled its virtues in the past.

Decker's HPT Daily Report in the STATS echo is pretty good too, actually.  
I assume the list ignores the echos with zero traffic to show only active  
echos for the day. That keeps the clutter down very nicely.

However, my whole concern is how is a user or non-sysop supposed to know  
what echos are worth participating in.

"Hello User!  Now that you have accessed the Fidonet echos, watch  
FIDOGAZETTE and STATS echos for clues to which echos are available. We  
leave it up to you to figure out which ones have merely robotic content  
and which ones strike up conversations with actual people".

        :(

This is why I thought the 5-step method with the "FIDONET ECHO ACTIVITY  
TOOL" I put together at:

        http://kolico.ca/fidonet/echos/future4fido/

 ...could help, better.  The user can narrow down an echo of recent  
activity by noting the last post date, and take a sneak peak at the  
content.

It's too bad those Sychronet sites don't display the short/official echo  
names.  Without it, there is another layer of obfuscation for the user to  
decode.

As an example, instead of just this:

The Cats_Meow Sanity Check Echo  | 134 | Oct-26-19 17:54
Commodore Computer Conference    | 426 | Oct-27-19 22:03
Commercial for Sale Echo         |   1 | Dec-09-18 23:53
Classic Computers                | 204 | Oct-30-19 10:26
Gossip and chit-chat echo        | 101 | Jul-07-19 09:17


An extra column for the official echo name would unify the environment  
across the many other systems better:

CATS_MEOW       : The Cats_Meow Sanity Check Echo  | 134 | Oct-26-19 17:54
CBM             : Commodore Computer Conference    | 426 | Oct-27-19 22:03
CFORSALE        : Commercial for Sale Echo         |   1 | Dec-09-18 23:53
CLASSIC_COMPUTER: Classic Computers                | 204 | Oct-30-19 10:26
COFFEE_KLATSCH  : Gossip and chit-chat echo        | 101 | Jul-07-19 09:17


For a sysop, decoding tables and stats is a no brainer.  But I am  
approaching this dilema from a first timer's exposure to retro-net  

Hence my imagining a server database of sorts that identifies active echos  
on a minimum of key hub systems on one screen display.



  ../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.40