Subj : PLEASE ADD status
To   : Dale Shipp
From : August Abolins
Date : Mon May 10 2021 08:17 am

Hello Dale Shipp!

** On Thursday 15.04.21 - 00:19, Dale Shipp wrote to Vincent Coen:

 DS> The Elist has never been a Fidonet only listing.  There
 DS> were always echos from other networks included.  When did
 DS> that change?

It seems to have changed when sysops stopped marketing.

Or.. when fidonet and othernets were more active, maybe users  
managed to do most of the legwork tracking things down? now  
users (the conversationalists) have moved on to the internet  
(forums/chats) and use their smartphones for that.

I hear sysops lamenting the traffic in echos is not as it used  
to be. But today, I see mostly sysops chatting between sysops.

There are a few othernets that could serve users looking for  
conversation/info well. But there isn't any easy way for those  
users to find out what those echos are.

The ELIST bot/system is a good automated way to register echos  
for *any* net.  Then it becomes a nice catch-all for users to  
browse and explore the echos available.

There are two solutions that consolidate fidonet and othernets  
that exist quite well:

[1] Rob Swindell's list of participating Synchronet BBSes in  
the "Networks" column, here:

 http://synchro.net/sbbslist.html

[2] Bryan Ashby's initiative called FTN Networks

 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/
 17pmf7cS9ocU99Rm6qlJD_OncqmbDI5Qj8Yw99A5bgVc/edit?usp=sharing

 https://tinyurl.com/yhnw56n2

Both are excellent one-stop places that document available  
othernets and fidonet.

But what is lacking is something the summarizes echomail areas  
within those nets and where they are available - from a USERS  
point of view.

I see that ELIST could do that.  An entry for FSX_GEN could  
look like this for example in its most minimal form:

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
==> Echo Successfully Identified

TAGname: FSX_GEN                         Group: fsxNET

  TITLe: Chat, Testing + More..

  MODerator:    UNSPECIFIED

  ORIGIN:       21:1/100

                            -=:{ End of Report }:=-
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

And the info could be gleened from an available FSXNET.NA file.

The ELIST system could include copies of the fsxNET info kit.

Then the ELIST echo becomes a good one-stop shop to find  
available echos.

--
  ../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.49
 * Origin:  (2:221/1.58)

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