Subj : Re: This Area Pt2 To : All From : yl112@cornell.edu Date : Fri Oct 06 2000 12:43 pm From: yl112@cornell.edu Subject: Re: This Area Pt2 On 6 Oct 2000, Ed Williams wrote: > As so plainly stated above, many people feel that Fidonet has dried up, and > that there are no BBS's in their area. > > I suggest that opening a BBS of your own is inexpensive, can easily put your > presence in Fidonet and this area, and can also be a focal point for your own > D&D friends to meet on and actually help bring areas like this back from the > death robes they are in now. With that, we could perhaps have a functional > AD&D Message area and File echo again. Problems with this for my particular situation (though I'd love to see fidonet revived--and to see if the military history echo is at all around anymore!): 1. Inexpensive? Debatable. I have a dying Mac. I live off my boyfriend's computer, but it's also dying. The only reason I have a computer-source is that said boyfriend's father works in computers and therefore gets frequent upgrades, etc. 2. Some of us have no clue how to run a BBS. Plus, tying up the phone line sucks when you've got 3 housemates and one's in a long-distance relationship. (Perhaps this could be generalized to, college students will have a hard time doing this.) 3. Time. Big one right there. I get great discussion on the one really active email list I'm subscribed to (which, alas, isn't this one). Email is quick and convenient and cheap. Running a BBS would eat time that I as a college student don't have; I'm betting the younger gamers (college age and lower) who are stuck in school or various other things might find time a difficulty. 4. xD&D is almost dead at Ithaca. There are other systems that people like a lot better, not to mention systems that people play because they have great settings. The big ones in our area are GURPS, Champions, any of the World of Darkness games, and Legend of the Five Rings. Not to mention the occasional crazy one-shot in Over the Edge. xD&D works as a system 'cause it's well-known, but I remember seeing a bunch of people getting together at gamer's a couple weekends ago and settling on a game of Mage: the Ascension instead of xD&D. OC this will vary from locale to locale, but if I tried to gather together *only* xD&D gamers in the area, I wouldn't find as many people. I've personally always liked hearing about different systems and settings, and have never been enthusiastic about xD&D mechanics or the horrible worldbuilding. > without blinking. I can prove how the way people think is actually hindered by > the nature of the Internet and how it can be much better taken care of by a > decent Sysop who gives a damn. I can also prove how "temporary" a feel that > someone's "homepage D&D site" gives, and how quickly they fall into disrepair > as compared to a BBS. BBS's are set up by people who care what others think. > Homepages are far too often about nothing but what that person thinks, making > your thoughts about as welcome as a Cop in a Teen frat party. Well, I do miss the personal feel of BBS's, but I like also having the internet around. I like the fact that hundreds of constructed languages pages and resources on linguistics are easily found online. I like the fact that I can look up physics/math pages on kink and antikink solitons (and yes, that's a technical term) on the web. I like the fact that you can find amazing fantasy art and lurk on the archives of some active, passionate and astoundingly well-written play-by-email campaigns. As a math major, I feel that anecdotal evidence doesn't constitute proof... But honestly--while there *is* a ton of crap out there, there are also the harder-to-find, very worthwhile websites. Whether mine is one of them is debatable, but I'm a writer and I like sharing my few experiences so others might see some use in them, just as other writers before me put their experiences and advice on the web. (The SFWA homepage and its various links is a great example of this.) I've also seen some great rpg resources online. I should also add that BBS's sometimes aren't bloody feasible for people not in the U.S. or U.K. or various other well-connected places. When I lived in South Korea I was for about a year responsible for 90% of the message traffic from S. Korea. And alas, the two BBS's disappeared because their sysops, both military men (and great people to chat with) were posted elsewhere. Probably the majority of people active on this list are in the U.S. or U.K., but you never know when there's some poor gamer in South Korea or Qatar or elsewhere who really wants this kind of contact and can't get it through a BBS. > But for now, I will gladly search the nodelist for anyone who want's and tell > them of BBS's in their area they can call, and help a Sysop out who cares, or > who can hook them up as a Point or a full fleged node in Fidonet. If you know of a BBS in the Palo Alto, California area I'd love to hear it--I'm planning to go thereabouts for grad school since my kid sister's at Stanford. Finding an Ithaca, NY area BBS is pretty moot since I'm going to leave in less than a year. Cheers, YHL -- |Fidonet: yl112@cornell.edu |Internet: scott@conchbbs.com | | Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own. --- # Origin: (1:106/357.99) * Origin: ConchGate (1:106/357.0) .