Subj : Re: Housekeeping
To   : Michael Borthwick
From : Thom Miller
Date : Fri Apr 21 2023 08:09 am

 > I just subscribed to 490ish that my hub carries, probably two thirds
 > have 0 traffic. By the time you take away the echo's that are just
 > robot posts there probably are only a handful that have actual human
 > traffic.

This is why I think it's a mistake for a network to have so many feeds, and
for a bbs to carry so many feeds. I get that, from the perspective of the
sysop, you feel like you're providing your potential users with a variety of
choices. What you're really providing them is a ghost town, a sense of
'nobody uses this'. You're also providing a nice dose of decision fatigue for
anyone who decides they *might* want to use it. "I just want to post a
message and see how this works, but there are like...100 different places to
post. Which one should I use?"

.. In the old days, when there were 3000 boards with 300,000 callers,
it made sense to spread the conversation out and keep echos more focused.
Today, when there are 300 boards with 3000 callers, it just doesn't
work. (I just made those numbers up, but I'd be surprised if the scale is
that far off.) I'm a big advocate of less echoes with more conversation. I
think it makes for a much healthier system.

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 * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)

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