Subj : Re: qwk and/or points
To   : August Abolins
From : Dale Shipp
Date : Fri Apr 05 2019 01:33 am

 -=> On 04-04-19  18:54,  August Abolins <=-
 -=> spoke to Alan Ianson about qwk and/or points <=-

 AA> I could never quite understand why points never seemed to catch the  
 AA> imagination of message/echomail users in NA.

As has been explained to me by various Z2 folks, the reason had mostly
to do with the way telephone companies charged.  In Europe, calls were
time metered -- i.e. you paid for the time you called.  In the USA, that
was not the case for local calls.  Depending on your plan with the
telco, you either paid a flat rate for each call or all local calls were
free.  Long distance calls did charge based on the time of the call (and
the distance).

I'm not totally sure that explanation is completely true.  Many users in
the USA would call a BBS, download a mail packet, and then read that
mail packet offline.   Seems to me that would take no more time than
accessing via point software.

 AA>  Maybe it was the timing
 AA> of   internet access coming into town and drawing people away to that.

I think that may well be the reason for the loss of members of Fidonet.
Folks moved away to other means of talking etc.

 AA> Myself, I had about 12 or 15 dedicated points up to about year 2004.  
 AA> People loved the short-sessions and efficiency moving messages over  
 AA> dialup.

Ditto for downloading a QWK or BlueWave packet.

Another factor with respect to points -- as some has said, a point is
really a sysop in training.  At least as far as operationg a mail only
system is concerned.  Here in the US, we have a number of users of BBSes
who have no intention of becoming sysops.  They are happy with
communicating in the echos via a BBS.

                               Dale Shipp
                  fido_261_1466 (at) verizon (dot) net
                              (1:261/1466)


.... Shipwrecked on Hesperus in Columbia, Maryland. 01:43:18, 05 Apr 2019
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