PK> mark lewis wrote to Phil Kimble:
ml> 
ml>  PK> Is there anybody out there? I am having an issue importing an
ml>  PK> echolist on 1.46 & 1.46.1. Any words??
ml> 
ml> importing an echolist? what problems?

 PK> I wouldnt call it a problem with FE as much as it is my
 PK> misunderstanding of the import  function. Under FE, the import 
 PK> echlist only imports the descriptions. It does not import the 
 PK> areas & auto-create them based on a templatte area. 

ahhh, yes... this is correct... bringing in the areatags is done by
importing an areas.bbs, IIRC... but a long long long time ago, i found it
easier to allow FE to automatically add areas from my main feed(s) which
are seperated by groups... then, if i want to pull the descriptions in, i
can... however, i've also found that the descriptions leave a bit to be
desired so i basically use only the areatag any more...

for example, i can now tell when i'm in COFFEE_KLATSCH instead of trying to
figure out what area "Gossip and chit-chat echo" represents...
especially when CHATTER ("Mindless Chatter Conference") and
MEMORIES ("NOSTALGIA") exist and carry similar traffic... well,
CHATTER really does carry "mindless" chit-chat ;)  it always
takes me a minute to remember that the description "NOSTALGIA" is
the MEMORIES echo...

 PK> Using Paul's recommendation & some testing to re-learn how it
 PK> really does  work, I use my mail hub to import & auto-create the 
 PK> message areas. Them import the echolist to populate the 
 PK> descriptions. Works pretty well.

yup... and then you get those areas with long descriptions and some tools
that use them (ie: sysop message reader, BBS areas that are imported in the
same way) chop off the descriptions because they have a 45 character limit
or such... all in all, it is a decent idea and it was fulfilled by authors
at the requests of their customers but somewhere along the lines, someone
forgot to create some type of spec document for everyone (ie code authors
and echoarea moderators) to follow so that no descriptions were too long ;)

)\/(ark
member, FastEcho Beta Team