Subj : Easy lesson learned = time saved
To   : alt.bbs.synchronet,alt.bbs.mystic
From : Daniel
Date : Wed Dec 03 2025 19:53:58

From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

Hey folks,

Just sharing an accidental (unintended) discovery about a certain use
case for the BBS. 

First, some history. Occasionally I catch up with Retro Recipes
(perifractic) on youtube and was quite attentive to his purchase of
commodore and his efforts to reboot the C64 platform. Basically, an FPGA
jobber with the original breadbin designed molding, a mechanical
keyboard, wifi and some flashy shit.

For some time, I considered buying one to support his cause but, life is
expensive as it is and I can't justify buying a 40 column device that'll
serve to collect dust. Ultimately, I'm not nostalgic for the C64. Never
had one as a kid, none of my friends did. The schools I attended had
Apple. Bought a C64 mini from gamestop, on sale for $20, some years
ago. The games aren't compelling to me. And, I'm accustomed to MS basic
on my trs-80 laptop. 

So why am I here? Well, peri said that they've sold roughly 15000 new
c64u's. All with wifi. I operated under an assumption that we'd see an
uptick of bbs logins from C64's looking for a petscii theme. So, i began
planning out a petscii theme for my bbs to support them. I figured, by
the time the devices ship, my board would be ready for them. 

During dinner in October, my wife suggested submitting a poll on a
forum. I thought, 'what a brilliant idea.' Lemon64 has huge threads on
this endeavor. Hundreds of thousands of views. i thought it would be a
perfect place to go. 

So I put out the poll at the end of October and set it to go a
month. With threads surrounding my post with views in the thousands,
mine saw a meager number just under 200 views, three responses, and 11
votes. All this in a month on a very active forum. 

So what did I learn from this?

1. It would've been a grand waste of time to do what I thought was a
service to the C64U community. 
2. Roughly 5.6% of their community have interests in bbs'ing on a c64.
3. The userbase isn't nostalgic for our scene, it's about games. As
kids, they were gaming, not using modems. 
4. The existing boards with PETSCII themes probably have their community
already carved out. My entry won't add any 'benefit' to them. 

I'm so glad my wife made the suggestion she did. I, otherwise, wouldv'e
operated under a bad assumption. Keep this in mind if you have similar
thoughts. I mean, I could've just created a petscii theme just for shits
and giggles. True, I'm too lazy for that. 
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
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