Subj : Re: Where is everybody?
To   : Alonzo
From : tenser
Date : Sat Jun 24 2023 05:46 am

On 23 Jun 2023 at 01:22p, Alonzo pondered and said...
 
 Al> I've had my new BBS set up since last October and the only visitors I
 Al> get are people trying to break in with bots or a lot of key-slapping.
 Al> 
 Al> So where is everybody? It looks like the only people using bulletin
 Al> boards these days are other sysops. Here's the big question: How can we
 Al> get more users? How can we spread the word, other than by using our own
 Al> bulletin boards? Where do you think we can go to advertise? We have a
 Al> lot of bulletin boards, but no one is using them. I think bulletin
 Al> boards are a great means of communication. I had one for about 5 years
 Al> back in the early 1990s and it was quite popular. I know the rest of you
 Al> have some great boards. Let's find a way to get "ordinary" people
 Al> onboard.

This seems to be a perennial problem in the BBS community.

It sounds glib, but the way to get way to get more users
is to offer them something that they cannot get anywhere
else.  The issue, as I see it, is that the thing that a
BBS gives that is unique is just the BBS experience itself
and frankly, most "ordinary people" just aren't interested
in that.   A few enthusiasts and fans of retro systems are.

BBSes had their heyday in the 90s because they sat at the
intersection of computing and telecommunications
availability; the Internet was far more advanced, USENET
was where the technical conent was, but neither was generally
accessible to the average person: BBSes, by design, were.
But once the Internet was opened to commercial use, BBSes
just couldn't compete, so they declined.  Nothing fundamental
has changed in this area, so BBSes will never see a
resurgence in popularity to the levels they once enjoyed.

Honestly?  The best bet for getting a BBS to be popular is
to have some kind of unique hook that users would find
interesting: running on vintage hardware or something that
would appear to some niche.  Aside from that, I just don't
think it would be realistic.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

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