Subj : promotion, nostalgia, the future To : Charles Pierson From : August Abolins Date : Fri Jan 29 2021 21:12:00 Hello Charles! [cross-posted in FIDONET.TELEGRAM] ** On Tuesday 26.01.21 - 08:48, Charles Pierson wrote to August Abolins: CP> And there is the rub. Any "promotion" of BBSes outside of CP> BBSes is usuallt limited to blogs or other online nostalgia CP> type articles. Even those1 "12 BBSes you should check out CP> Today" type articles are basically Nostalgia tyoe pieces. The new bbs documentary has a fine approach - exploring the relevancy of bbsing TODAY. Maybe a written article about the scene/technology can take the same approach as opposed to a nostalgia/retronews approach. CP> OK, Here is my question on this. Let's say we somehow get CP> an influx of new users, say via TELEGRAM, since that is CP> probably the easiest introduction to FTN style echomail and CP> BBS messages to new people. CP> Regardless if our thoughts on the matter as of yet people CP> in the Fido community don't see Telegram as a BBS in the CP> manner that it is being used here, so you are limited in CP> what echoes you can carry. CP> If a topic of discussion get's moved to an area that isn't CP> connected to Telegram for whatever reason, how do we keep CP> the new Telegram users involved? Well.. First, I would hope that the new Telegram users would stick around in the preliminary echos long enough to share their experience of using the app, and get familiar with other users, ask questions, and learn about BBSes. I didn't think that every fido echo would be suitable for a Telegram experience primarily because of the limited writing window - but that is before I learned that users of smartphones with 16:9 displays could flip their devices to landscape mode. So.. the experience doesn't have to stay limited to the initial "chat" echos afterall. Anyway, as users learn about "echomail" and the new conversation alternative, they can learn how to reach those other echos using the traditional pc software if they have access to the right device. Perhaps more moderators would be open to having their echo available to Telegram initiates. AA>> WvV> I think we've passed that station, fidonet is AA>> slowely WvV> dying... :-( AA>> AA>> Promotion! Maybe we need to offer hats with MEGA (make AA>> echomail great again) LOL CP> Maybe Fidonet is dying. BBS networks have come and gone CP> over the years. Fidonet doesn't need to match the same popularity that it once did. It just needs to be recognized more as a fine alternative network for conversation. But as the main generation of sysop from the 80's die off, there will probably be little interest to sustain the hobby. However, it is nice to learn about some newcomers who are just discovering accessing BBSing, operating a BBS, and participating in echomail now for the first time. CP> It would be upsetting to me, because Fidonet was the first CP> place I started having regular conversations with people CP> from around the world. I played in an RPG over echomail CP> with people from all over. CP> But if Fidonet dies, it's Fidonet's fault. It appears to me CP> that at least what I saw as a big part of what made Fidonet CP> special is not embracedby many people any more. What exactly is the "special" part that you refer to? In the past, even articles to the Fidonews were quite regular. There were quite a few passionate writers at one time. Today, most people are seduced by the instant gratifications of the internet, and video streaming. People are trying to squeeze all those interests into the limited number of hours of the day. There is little time or incentive to devote to sharing their voice to the fidonet community on top of what they are already enjoy doing. AA>> But I had a few other people (ex echomail users) poised to AA>> join us in the generic chat echos. They were under the AA>> assumption that echomail died in 2000 when dial-up died. AA>> Again.. this is all due to unawareness of the current AA>> state of things and the modern internet-way to rejoin AA>> echomail. CP> "Had?" as in no longer interested? What happened? Yes.. they were a couple of ex-echomail participants - so they were quite familiar with using offline mail or writing on a BBS directly. I noticed that they were quite chatty on their new place of gab - Facebook. I thought that since they have moved on to using tablets or notebooks, they might like to try revisiting echomail via the Telegram app. Things started off well, but they got stymied by the cellphone/ sms requirement. I wrongly assumed that they owned cellphones. One of them tried the virtual-number approach and get an sms text sent to their computer, but Telegram is apparently very reluctant to accept some virtual number generators, and the process failed. I am not sure how far the other person has gotten, but they are obviously still not connected. -- ../|ug --- OpenXP 5.0.48 * Origin: Mobile? https://t.me/joinchat/SPBwvE1gkHzEKAkapsHkdQ (2:221/1.58) .