Text 45815, 80 rader
Skriven 2006-12-23 17:59:00 av Ed Hulett
     Kommentar till en text av Michiel Van Der Vlist
Ärende: America
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Michiel van der Vlist -> Ed Hulett wrote:
 MvdV> Hello Ed!

 MvdV> On Saturday December 23 2006 06:19, you wrote to me:

 MvdV>>> That is true, but what really made Fido go off as a rocket was
 MvdV>>> echomail. And that is where the users came in as the main
 MvdV>>> source of content.

 MvdV>>> And when the users left for the InterNet, 90% of the echomail
 MvdV>>> areas went dead.

 EH>> And people like Bob Ackley are blaming me and others for all this.

 MvdV> Do they now? Well, I am not blaming anyone for the users leaving. I am
 MvdV> just making the observation.

 MvdV>>> The (estimated) half a million users that left Fido for the
 MvdV>>> InterNet apparently were of different opinion.

 EH>> No, it was the FIDO heirarchy who allowed FIDO to die. They could have
 EH>> made FIDO more attractive than uselessnet, but they didn't.

 MvdV> How?

I don't claim to have the answer. I'm sure someone more creative than me in
that area could come up with something.

 MvdV> I have been the Dutch point coordinator since 1996. Because local calls

Oh wow. I've been using FIDO since the late 70s. A good friend of mine (I
worked with him for years), Mark Blakely, was the FIDO hub for this area for
years. I think he may still be involved, but I haven't talked to him in ages.

 MvdV> are metered here, most of the FidoNet echomail participants did so as
 MvdV> points rather than users. In the haydays of FidoNet there were 5600+
 MvdV> listed points in The Netherlands alone.

In the haydays (1980s) here there were well over 300 full BBSes within q 20
mile radius pulling FIDO from one hub (Mark) over a 1200 baud modem (Mark was
too cheap to upgrade). There were untold tens of thousands of points and users.

 MvdV> Now it is down to a dozen and
 MvdV> none of them are active any more. I have come across ex-points in
 MvdV> usenet, on computer club meetings and other occasions and I have asked
 MvdV> them why they left FidoNet. Contratry to what you and others suggest,
 MvdV> NONE of them ever mentioned the fights or the failing organisation as a
 MvdV> reason for leaving. No, their stated reasons always boiled down to: "the
 MvdV> internet has so much more to offer".

I have never blamed it on fights or failing organization. Usenet is a waste of
time.

 MvdV> I can see it from their point of view.

They just want free pr0n.

 MvdV> I say there is no basis for blaming the FidoNet hyrachie for the demise
 MvdV> of FisoNet.

It certainly can't be blamed on the users. If they had a reason to stay, they
would.

Ed

-- 
"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue,
and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition." -- Thomas Jefferson

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