Subj : Vibes
To   : apam
From : Avon
Date : Wed Jan 19 2022 22:21:02

Hey there :)

 ap> It seems to be the popular thing around BBSing to be condesending and
 ap> negative.

I personally don't think that way of most folks who I see posting in BBS
echos. 

Yes there are some who come over as having a chip on their shoulder about x
or y but I'm kinda glass half full as I have met too many good souls over the
years (do I sound kinda old timer like here? :)) to feel this form of
communication is a lost cause.

I guess too because I like the fact that folks  posting in this medium for the
most part share common or overlapping interests and posting in places like
this it take a modicum of effort to get on to echonet and BBS networks vs
installing an app onto a mobile phone etc.

 ap> FSXnet came about when there were already general nets that were "dead"
 ap> and it's become very popular. 

As the one who started it I can certainly talk to this. I set it up because I
was interested in learning how it was done, so the intent from the get go was
to be experimental in learning (for me in the first instance) how to do it,
keeping it simple speaks to Nigel's (and the wider groups discussions) on the
pros and cons of how many networks or echos does a FTN network need.

I wasn't looking to build a huge networks but to be fair did set some early
goals I think of 50 nodes and the revised that to 100 or more as I started to
see folks join up.

Echomail area wise I started fsxNet with one echo and that was how it was for
ages... and I think that worked well for quite a long time until it didn't :)

To be fair there were at the time a lot of Mystic BBS questions going on so the
Mystic echo spun up and then I think it was your Magica echo (was that right??)
etc. and for a long time I didn't really want to grow the echomail areas too
much for fear of diluting down the volumes of traffic in the established few
echos. I really should re-read my notes in history.txt

More recently (May 2021) I added 12 further echos after soliciting community
views, attempting to offer some additional broader places to chat on fairly
widely distributed topics/subjects. Doing that for me was an uncomfortable
experiment as I worried (and still do a bit) about the merits of creating more
spaces for chat and lowering the volumes of chatter across the other echos
already in play.

What's been interesting has been to see which ones have had some activity and
which have had less. Some topics have engendered more talk than others... the
difficulty for me then becomes do we keep a low volume traffic echo or de-list
it and look to merge some topics into other established echos? I over think
this stuff :) Head hurts :)

 ap> and it's become very popular. It just depends how much effort one is
 ap> willing to put into their net, the energy they put out either will
 ap> attract others or wont.

Being responsive and helpful is certainly part of it, I guess perceptions
about how the network is seen is also a good chunk of it, there are nodes
connected here that started with the network years ago now but I would be
hard pressed to see some of those sysops active in these echos as they have
moved their banter to othernets they joined up later and found a better
space/place that met their needs.

So yeah, that's life and I get that and all but I am always interested too to note that despite that lack of personal involvement in this network those BBS remain connected and taking a feed of it.. my summation is it can't be that bad here or at least the banter taking place must been seen as having some value to those running a BBS that are fine to carry the echos available in fsx.

 ap> To be honest, the negativity in bbsing is more likely to drive people
 ap> away from the hobby, than keep everyone in existing nets or something.
 ap> I've been at the point the last few weeks, where I'm considering just
 ap> turning everything off and washing my hands of it all. The only thing
 ap> that stops me is the handful of friends I've made here, and I'd feel like
 ap> I was letting down people who use my software.
 
I'd be sorry to see you go. You've certainly made your mark on the scene with
your coding/dev skills and the contributions you have made to the scene with
the software you have been amazing, well received and appreciated by so many. So yeah, if you're feeling bummed at the moment I'd vote for taking a break but hopefully circling back if/when you feel moderately interested in the stuff again. That's kinda been my own experience where energy levels ebb and I back off / dial it down for a bit and get excited about stuff again... I wonder if that is something others reading this share too?

 ap> Anyway, good luck to mickey with his blues net.

Same from me, if he wants to have a crack at running / learning this stuff, best wishes to him :). 

I do agree that a multitude of networks and echos will/can dilute the overall volumes of chatter in said networks and echomail areas.

I think this is largely because the overall user base (the sysops who spin up a BBS and post in echomail) are a relatively small group that converse across a number of networks and echos... and that's fine, but yeah if you have only X number of active folks and they are posting/hanging in A - Z nets and echos.. it spreads things out rather widely.

Hmm... that was a bit of a waffle and long winded response, sorry about that! :)

Best, Paul

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/11/06 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

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