Subj : BBSes
To   : Tegularius
From : The Millionaire
Date : Thu Oct 13 2005 06:16 pm

  Re: BBSes
  By: Tegularius to The Millionaire on Wed Oct 12 2005 09:57 pm

 >   Re: BBSes
 >   By: The Millionaire to All on Wed Oct 12 2005 00:21:00
 > 
 >  > The future of BBSes and where we stand. Are we a race that has become so
 >  > scarce that we will drive ourselves to extinction? I hope not. But I see 
 >  > all around me these days. Less traffic and more BBSes are going up and do
 >  > due to poor turn-outs and that's kind of sad to see and hear. I think BBS
 >  > my opinion are the most funnest way to relax and have fun. Man, I remembe
 >  > days when I used to spend a whole day on the phone line dialing for hours
 >  > sometimes because the bbs was busy. Some nights I remember staying up lat
 >  > too. It was a thrill to be a Sysop as well as a User. Long live the BBS!
 >  >
 > 
 > I, too, was an enthusiastic BBS caller and, eventually, sysop from around
 > 1987 until I sadly pulled the plug on my own dormant board ca. 2001.  It was
 > several years before I even realized that the faithful remnants had just
 > moved to Telnet.  When I discovered that, it was thrilling all over again.
 > 
 > But I must say that at least the first boards I encountered could have done 
 > lot better in terms of outreach via their Web pages.  Visually they were
 > stunning, but in terms of content, merely mystifying.  The message, such as 
 >  was, seemed to be that it was an in-group, cult kind of operation and if yo
 > didn't already know the ropes, screw you.  I'm still not nearly as
 > knowledgeable about the scene as an aspiring sysop should be.
 > 
 > A few words of instruction as to where a novice can find a good Telnet clien
 > set it up, call an address, and log in might work wonders.  It's not that
 > difficult, yet if a random web surfer isn't encouraged and empowered to take
 > those initial first steps, we've probably lost 'em.
 > 
 > 
 > Maybe it's a holdover from the Fidonet philosophy (AKA conversion to
 > Judaism): don't let them know that you want them.  Let the dabblers weed
 > themselves out, sink or swim.  Fidonet gurus felt (probably justifiably) tha
 > people who wanted in should REALLY want it enough to figure things out on
 > their own, and if they got their hands held along the way they often didn't
 > stay.
 > 
 > I like curious, resourceful, self-reliant people very well and have some
 > respect for that approach-- but when it's just callers we are looking for,
 > maybe there is a better way.
 > 
Well said man. I like your style of thinking.

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