Hello Charles!

[cross-posted in FIDONET.TELEGRAM]

** On Tuesday 26.01.21 - 08:48, Charles Pierson wrote to August Abolins:

And there is the rub. Any "promotion" of BBSes outside of
BBSes is usuallt limited to blogs or other online nostalgia
type articles. Even those1 "12 BBSes you should check out
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.

OK, Here is my question on this. Let's say we somehow get
an influx of new users, say via TELEGRAM, since that is
probably the easiest introduction to FTN style echomail and
BBS messages to new people.

Regardless if our thoughts on the matter as of yet people
in the Fido community don't see Telegram as a BBS in the
manner that it is being used here, so you are limited in
what echoes you can carry.

If a topic of discussion get's moved to an area that isn't
connected to Telegram for whatever reason, how do we keep
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.

I think we've passed that station, fidonet is

slowely WvV> dying... :-(

Promotion! Maybe we need to offer hats with MEGA (make
echomail great again) LOL

Maybe Fidonet is dying. BBS networks have come and gone
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.

It would be upsetting to me, because Fidonet was the first
place I started having regular conversations with people
from around the world. I played in an RPG over echomail
with people from all over.

But if Fidonet dies, it's Fidonet's fault. It appears to me
that at least what I saw as a big part of what made Fidonet
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.

But I had a few other people (ex echomail users) poised to
join us in the generic chat echos. They were under the
assumption that echomail died in 2000 when dial-up died.
Again.. this is all due to unawareness of the current
state of things and the modern internet-way to rejoin
echomail.

"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
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