• Housekeeping

    From Avon@21:1/101 to All on Sat Jan 28 21:41:07 2023
    Hi all.

    [snip]

    2023-01-28
    Removed Node 4/119 After Hours BBS inactive and has been delisted.

    Removed Node 4/165 w0pr.win BBS inactive and has been delisted.

    Removed Node 4/168 Dales BBS inactive and has been delisted.

    Removed Node 4/175 Mystic Hobbies BBS inactive and has been delisted.

    Added Node 4/107 The X-Bit BBS (USA) please welcome Rob McGee aka xbit who
    has shifted from a QWK connection to fsxNet and now sports a
    FTN node number. The BBS can be reached at x-bit.org use
    port 23 for Telnet and 2222 for SSH.

    [snip]

    Best, Paul

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Zip@21:1/202 to xbit on Sat Jan 28 10:35:30 2023
    On 28 Jan 2023, Avon said the following...
    Added Node 4/107 The X-Bit BBS (USA) please welcome Rob McGee aka xbit
    who has shifted from a QWK connection to fsxNet and
    now sports a FTN node number. The BBS can be reached
    at x-bit.org use port 23 for Telnet and 2222 for SSH.

    Welcome to fsxNet, xbit! Nice to have you here!

    Best regards
    Zip

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to All on Sun Jan 29 10:23:15 2023
    Hi all.

    I turned away for just a second but when I checked back history.txt has again changed. I may need to call Ghostbusters as this keeps happening ;-)

    [snip]

    2023-01-29
    Added Node 1/193 Disconnected by Peer BBS (AUT) please welcome sysop Mario
    Fetka aka geos_one who hails from Graz in Austria. Mario is
    running a Mystic BBS under Linux and you can reach the
    system at bbs.disconnected-by-peer.at via port 23 or 22.
    Welcome :)

    Added Node 1/235 ZorgluBBS (FRA) bonjour to sysop Pierre Pignon aka
    Pitichampi who has started his Mystic BBS based in
    Bordeaux. You can visit his system by heading to
    bbs.pitichampi.fr:2023 Welcome to fsxNet :)

    Added Node 1/236 Lunar Mod (USA) please give a warm welcome to sysop
    David Thielemann aka Apollo based in New Port Richey Apollo
    is running a Talisman BBS that you can visit by heading to
    bbs.beanzilla.net:2323 or use 2222 for SSH. Welcome aboard
    Apollo :)

    Added Node 1/238 The Global Village BBS (NLD) also joining the fsxNet
    community today is sysop Sebastian van der Veen aka dozo
    who is based in Emmen, NLD. The BBS is running Mystic
    and can be reached at the.globalvillagebbs.net:2222 via
    SSH only. Welcome dozo :)

    [snip]

    Please feel free to reach out to these guys and say Hi. I'm encouraging everyone to post to FSX_GEN when they join to confirm they are getting out etc. :)

    Best, Paul

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Zip@21:1/202 to All on Sun Jan 29 17:03:57 2023
    On 29 Jan 2023, Avon said the following...
    I turned away for just a second but when I checked back history.txt has again changed. I may need to call Ghostbusters as this keeps happening
    ;-)

    :-D

    Added Node 1/193 Disconnected by Peer BBS (AUT) please welcome sysop
    Mario Fetka aka geos_one who hails from Graz in
    Austria. Mario is running a Mystic BBS under Linux and

    Added Node 1/235 ZorgluBBS (FRA) bonjour to sysop Pierre Pignon aka
    Pitichampi who has started his Mystic BBS based in
    Bordeaux. You can visit his system by heading to

    Added Node 1/236 Lunar Mod (USA) please give a warm welcome to sysop
    David Thielemann aka Apollo based in New Port Richey Apollo is running a Talisman BBS that you can visit by

    Added Node 1/238 The Global Village BBS (NLD) also joining the fsxNet
    community today is sysop Sebastian van der Veen aka dozo
    who is based in Emmen, NLD. The BBS is running Mystic

    Welcome, Mario, Pierre, David & Sebastian! Nice to have you here!

    Best regards
    Zip

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)
  • From xbit@21:4/107 to Zip on Sun Jan 29 06:01:55 2023
    Re: Re: Housekeeping
    By: Zip to xbit on Sat Jan 28 2023 10:35 am

    can be reached at x-bit.org use port 23 for Telnet
    and 2222 for SSH.
    Welcome to fsxNet, xbit! Nice to have you here!

    Thank you Zip! The switch from QWK > FTN went very well.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The X-Bit BBS - x-bit.org - Forest Grove, Or (21:4/107)
  • From Zip@21:1/202 to xbit on Sun Jan 29 19:12:13 2023
    Hello xbit!

    On 29 Jan 2023, xbit said the following...
    Thank you Zip! The switch from QWK > FTN went very well.

    Glad to hear that!

    FTN is quite a bit different, but nicer when configured. No QWK IDs to worry about, etc... Although QWK is nice for offline mail. =)

    Best regards
    Zip

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/01/27 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Zip on Sun Jan 29 14:35:00 2023
    Hello Zip!

    FTN is quite a bit different, but nicer when configured. No QWK IDs to worry about, etc... Although QWK is nice for offline mail. =)

    FTN + OpenXP is very nice for offline mail!

    Check out https://openxp.kolico.ca ;)


    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From Zip@21:1/202 to Ogg on Mon Jan 30 10:32:07 2023
    Hello Ogg!

    On 29 Jan 2023, Ogg said the following...
    FTN + OpenXP is very nice for offline mail!
    Check out https://openxp.kolico.ca ;)

    Cool!

    Also, for Windows, there's one called WinPoint (http://www.winpoint.org/) which also looks interesting. Haven't tried it, though.

    Best regards
    Zip

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/01/27 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Avon on Mon Jan 30 06:47:22 2023
    Ah! For a bit I was worried that there was only one new BBS and 4 or so removed... but now it's looking better!

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Apollo@21:1/236 to Commodore Clifford on Mon Jan 30 14:06:00 2023
    Ah! For a bit I was worried that there was only one new BBS and 4 or
    so
    removed... but now it's looking better!


    Nope, I'm at least 1 of the new BBSes.

    Take Care,
    Apollo

    --- Talisman v0.46-dev (Linux/x86_64)
    * Origin: Lunar Mod (21:1/236)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Apollo on Wed Feb 1 02:51:42 2023
    On 30 Jan 23 14:06:00 Apollo wrote...

    Ah! For a bit I was worried that there was only one new BBS and 4
    or so removed... but now it's looking better!


    Nope, I'm at least 1 of the new BBSes.

    Take Care, Apollo

    --- Talisman v0.46-dev (Linux/x86_64) * Origin: Lunar Mod (21:1/236)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    I'm kinda recent myself, so welcome to the party!

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From dozo@21:1/238 to Zip on Thu Feb 2 08:49:59 2023
    On 29 Jan 2023, Zip said the following...

    Welcome, Mario, Pierre, David & Sebastian! Nice to have you here!

    Best regards
    Zip

    Thanks Zip, nice to be here!

    dozo

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: (21:1/238)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to All on Sun Feb 5 20:46:15 2023
    Hi there :)

    From history.txt

    [snip]

    2023-02-03
    Updated Node 2/116 Chinwag BBS (AUS) has moved to a new domain name the
    nodelist and systems.txt has been updated to now use
    alterant.bbs.dege.au

    Added Node 3/175 One Ring BBS (USA) welcome to sysop Dylan McIntosh aka
    Cognative who is based in Markle, Indiana. Cognative is
    running a Mystic BBS powered by RPi. The BBS is currently
    being set up and is PVT for now. A warm welcome to you
    Dylan we hope you enjoy your BBS adventures.

    Added Node 2/125 Mystic Hobbies BBS (USA) a warm welcome to sysop Mike Dippel
    from Sun City Center, FL. Mike is running a Mystic BBS
    and you can connect and say hi by heading to
    mystic-hobbies.com - welcome to fsxNet Mike, nice to have
    you as a member of our online community.

    Added Node 3/176 FlipperZero BBS (ITA) Ciao e Benvenuto to Guido Giorgi aka
    Baconlive. Baconlive is running his Mystic BBS using a Rpi
    and you can reach it via bbs.gglab.cloud or use port 2222
    for SSH. Nice to have you as a member of the fsxNet
    community Guido :)

    [snip]

    Welcome guys :)

    Best, Paul

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Zip@21:1/202 to All on Sun Feb 5 10:43:45 2023
    On 05 Feb 2023, Avon said the following...

    Added Node 3/175 One Ring BBS (USA) welcome to sysop Dylan McIntosh aka
    Cognative who is based in Markle, Indiana. Cognative is

    Added Node 2/125 Mystic Hobbies BBS (USA) a warm welcome to sysop Mike Dippel from Sun City Center, FL. Mike is running a

    Added Node 3/176 FlipperZero BBS (ITA) Ciao e Benvenuto to Guido Giorgi aka Baconlive. Baconlive is running his Mystic BBS

    Welcome, Dylan, Mike & Guido! Nice to have you here!

    Best regards
    Zip

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/01/27 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to All on Thu Feb 16 20:18:55 2023
    From history.txt

    [snip]

    2034-02-16
    Added Node 2/134 Splatterhaus BBS (USA) Nolageek has spun up a second BBS
    it's available at splatter.haus:666 and is running Mystic.

    Removed QWK Node SLINKY - system has converted to FTN node.

    Added Node 4/185 Slinky's Place BBS (USA) has shifted to a FTN node number.
    The same contact details for the node still apply.

    [snip]

    Best, Paul

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Digital Man@21:1/183 to Zip on Sun Feb 26 14:27:07 2023
    Re: Re: Housekeeping
    By: Zip to xbit on Sun Jan 29 2023 07:12 pm

    FTN is quite a bit different, but nicer when configured. No QWK IDs to worry about, etc... Although QWK is nice for offline mail. =)

    Who worries about QWK IDs? Maybe you mean QWK conference numbers? They're the equivalent of echo-tags in FTN and once setup, not much to worry about like (like echo-tags).
    --
    digital man (rob)

    Sling Blade quote #1:
    Karl: I've killed Doyle with a lawn mower blade. Yes, I'm right sure of it. Norco, CA WX: 49.1øF, 67.0% humidity, 2 mph SE wind, 0.35 inches rain/24hrs
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (21:1/183)
  • From Zip@21:1/202 to Digital Man on Tue Feb 28 08:50:21 2023
    Hello Digital Man!

    On 26 Feb 2023, Digital Man said the following...
    Who worries about QWK IDs? Maybe you mean QWK conference numbers?
    They're the equivalent of echo-tags in FTN and once setup, not much to worry about like (like echo-tags).

    Sorry, yes, that's what I meant. :-D

    (They're called "QWK Base IDs" -- and the QWK IDs "QWK Packet IDs" -- in Mystic...)

    Best regards
    Zip

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/01/27 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)
  • From Digital Man@21:1/183 to Zip on Tue Feb 28 15:38:55 2023
    Re: Re: Housekeeping
    By: Zip to Digital Man on Tue Feb 28 2023 08:50 am

    Hello Digital Man!

    On 26 Feb 2023, Digital Man said the following...
    Who worries about QWK IDs? Maybe you mean QWK conference numbers? They're the equivalent of echo-tags in FTN and once setup, not much to worry about like (like echo-tags).

    Sorry, yes, that's what I meant. :-D

    (They're called "QWK Base IDs" -- and the QWK IDs "QWK Packet IDs" -- in Mystic...)

    Ah, good to know. I do plan to introduce a QWK enhancement to use name-based (rather than number-based) conference identification for QWK networking, at least, to eliviate that historic QWK issue with the management of non-obvious numbering schemes.
    --
    digital man (rob)

    Breaking Bad quote #37:
    only the very best... with just a right amount of dirty. - Saul
    Norco, CA WX: 54.6øF, 64.0% humidity, 4 mph ESE wind, 0.06 inches rain/24hrs --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (21:1/183)
  • From Zip@21:1/202 to Digital Man on Fri Mar 3 17:06:29 2023
    Hello Digital Man!

    On 28 Feb 2023, Digital Man said the following...
    Ah, good to know. I do plan to introduce a QWK enhancement to use name-based (rather than number-based) conference identification for QWK networking, at least, to eliviate that historic QWK issue with the management of non-obvious numbering schemes.

    Sounds like a good idea! Yes, those numbers can be quite a pain...

    Best regards
    Zip

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/01/27 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to All on Mon Apr 3 19:59:48 2023

    From history.txt

    [snip]

    2023-04-03
    Removed Node 1/187 Cosmik Debris BBS (USA) sysop has closed his BBS down.

    [snip]

    We'll have some additional systems to add in the coming days...

    Best, Paul

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to All on Mon Apr 3 20:05:22 2023
    .. this just in... (well it was in a while ago but I am playing catch-up :)

    [snip]

    2023-03-20
    Added Node 3/165 The Underground BBS (USA) welcome back Doug aka The
    Godfather. You can reach the BBS at theunderground.us:10023
    or port 7771 SSH.

    [snip]

    Welcome back Doug :)

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Zip@21:1/202 to The Godfather on Mon Apr 3 18:47:16 2023
    On 03 Apr 2023, Avon said the following...

    Added Node 3/165 The Underground BBS (USA) welcome back Doug aka The
    Godfather. You can reach the BBS at theunderground.us:10023 or port 7771 SSH.

    Welcome back, tG! =)

    Best regards
    Zip

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/03/14 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)
  • From The Godfather@21:3/165 to Zip on Mon Apr 3 19:49:00 2023
    Welcome back, tG! =)

    Thank you Zip! Mucho Appreciated. Now call everyone :) It's lonely over here haha.

    |15-|12t|04G
    |15www|08.|15theun|07dergrou|08nd|07.|08us|15:|0810023

    ... Top secret! Burn before reading!

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/03/14 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: www.theunderground.us Telnet 10023 SSH 7771 (21:3/165)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to All on Mon Apr 10 13:03:50 2023
    From history.txt

    [snip]

    2023-04-10
    Added Node 1/187 CrNet BBS (USA) has moved to NET 1 (was 5/108) as the BBS
    is now connecting to fsxNet via BinkP.

    Removed Node 5/108 sysop has elected to get a BinkP feed for fsxNet traffic.


    2023-04-07
    Added Node 2/145 WalledCTTY (USA) welcome aboard to sysop Thom Miller aka
    Abbub who is back to the 90s with his Tag 2.7d2 BBS running
    under MS-DOS 6.22 and DesqView 2.80 you can reach the BBS
    via telnet at bbs.walledctty.com:1989

    [snip]

    Welcome aboard guys, nice to have you as members of the fsxNet community :)

    Your nodes will appear in the next hatched nodelist at the end of this week.

    Best, Paul aka Avon

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Avon on Sun Apr 9 20:57:43 2023
    Thanks! It's great to be here! :)

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From Zip@21:1/202 to Thom Miller on Mon Apr 10 10:02:01 2023
    On 10 Apr 2023, Avon said the following...

    Added Node 2/145 WalledCTTY (USA) welcome aboard to sysop Thom Miller aka
    Abbub who is back to the 90s with his Tag 2.7d2 BBS running under MS-DOS 6.22 and DesqView 2.80 you can
    reach the BBS via telnet at bbs.walledctty.com:1989

    Welcome to fsxNet, Thom! Nice to have you here!

    (I also used DesqView for some time for my BBS in the 90s. Later went on to OS/2.)

    Best regards
    Zip

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/03/14 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Zip on Mon Apr 10 07:22:14 2023
    *** Quoting Zip to Thom Miller dated 04-10-23 ***
    Welcome to fsxNet, Thom! Nice to have you here!

    (I also used DesqView for some time for my BBS in the 90s. Later went
    on to OS/2.)
    Thanks! It's good to be here. I also ran my original board on DesqView in the 90s and then made the jump to OS/2. This machine I'm running only has 8 MB of RAM, though. If it'd had 16 MB, I probably would have gone with OS/2 2.x. DesqView is working remarkably well, though.

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From vorlon@21:1/195.1 to Thom Miller on Tue Apr 11 10:14:00 2023
    Hi Thom,

    Thanks! It's good to be here. I also ran my original board on
    DesqView in the 90s and then made the jump to OS/2. This machine I'm
    running only has 8 MB of RAM, though. If it'd had 16 MB, I probably
    would have gone with OS/2 2.x. DesqView is working remarkably well,
    though.

    OS/2 will run with 8mb of ram... (Used to run it myself back in the day.
    Still have the CD(s).

    What are you using/doing for the network stack?


    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen


    --- Talisman v0.47-dev (Linux/m68k)
    * Origin: Vorlon Empire: Amiga 3000 powered in Sector 550 (21:1/195.1)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Vorlon on Mon Apr 10 21:51:41 2023
    OS/2 will run with 8mb of ram... (Used to run it myself back in the day. Still have the CD(s).

    Yeah, it'll run on 8 MB, but it'll be a lot happier on 16 MB. :D

    What are you using/doing for the network stack?

    I'm using mTCP, which is a TCP/IP stack that runs under DOS and uses a packet driver to interface with the network card. Pktmux is a muxer for packet drivers that basically allows you to share the packet driver for a NIC among multiple instances of mTCP running in DesqView DOS windows.

    In addition to running tcpser for the two USB serial dongles and shunting telnet connections to the serial ports on the 386, the pi 4 is running binkd and setup to connect to my boss node. Right now it's polling once an hour for new packets.

    Anything that shows up gets zipped up and netcat'd over to the 386, unzipped, and then processed by fastecho. There's also a logout.bat that runs fastecho to collect new messages, zips them up into an outbound.zip, and netcat's them over to the raspberry pi, where they're moved into the outbound directory and sent out by binkd.

    tldr; I'm making heavy, hacky use of netcat. lol

    ... (A)bort, (R)etry, (I)nfluence with large hammer.

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From deon@21:2/116 to Thom Miller on Tue Apr 11 16:11:07 2023
    Re: Re: Housekeeping
    By: Thom Miller to Vorlon on Mon Apr 10 2023 09:51 pm

    Howdy,

    Anything that shows up gets zipped up and netcat'd over to the 386, unzipped, and then processed by fastecho. There's also a logout.bat that runs fastecho to collect new messages, zips them up into an outbound.zip, and netcat's them over to the raspberry pi, where they're moved into the outbound directory and sent out by binkd.

    If you want to do true EMSI, let me know - Hub 3 supports it :)


    ...ëîåï
    --- SBBSecho 3.15-Linux
    * Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Zip on Mon Apr 10 07:06:00 2023
    Zip wrote to Thom Miller <=-

    (I also used DesqView for some time for my BBS in the 90s. Later went
    on to OS/2.)

    How much time did we spend trying to eek out a megabyte or two of RAM
    with QEMM back then?

    I did the same thing, ran Maximus for DOS on a DOS system with 2 MB of
    RAM, then went to Maximus for OS/2 on an OS/2 box with 12 MB of RAM -
    was like night and day.




    ... Adding on
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to vorlon on Tue Apr 11 06:46:00 2023
    vorlon wrote to Thom Miller <=-

    Thanks! It's good to be here. I also ran my original board on
    DesqView in the 90s and then made the jump to OS/2. This machine I'm
    running only has 8 MB of RAM, though. If it'd had 16 MB, I probably
    would have gone with OS/2 2.x. DesqView is working remarkably well,
    though.

    OS/2 will run with 8mb of ram... (Used to run it myself back in the
    day. Still have the CD(s).

    I ran OS/2 2.x. and had a bear of a time installing it on a PS/2 model
    80 with 8 mb of RAM. It'd complain about not having enough memory and
    reboot.

    I was working in an ALL-IBM shop at the time, the
    mainframes, desktops, networks, hubs and servers were all IBM - mostly
    because the VP of IT was ex-IBM.

    This was the time when IBM sold itself on FUD - Fear, Uncertainty and
    Doubt. "Sure, you could go with Compaq or another brand, but do you
    really want to risk not being 100% IBM compatible? If you want
    everything to 'just work', buy IBM..."

    I was one of the test cases to upgrade to 2.1. My PS/2 had 2MB on the motherboard and 6 MB on an IBM add-on card. Every time I booted it, it'd complain about memory. IBM sent a tech out, who verified it. He sent for another tech, who called another senior tech, who called in a hardware
    guy. He fixed it.

    Instead of putting the disk in and flipping the power switch, he turned
    it on, then right when it beeped, quickly put the disk in.

    "Oh, yeah, that happens all the time..."

    There was something about how the PS/2s registered add-on memory that
    was only recognized after the system POSTed. OS/2 booted and installed
    just fine this time, with 5 people standing around.

    But, I got to tell the story about how it took 3 IBM techs and me to
    boot OS/2.





    ... ONE OUT OF FIVE DENTISTS RECOMMEND GUM.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Poindexter Fortran on Tue Apr 11 15:27:58 2023
    If you want everything to 'just work', buy IBM..."

    Hrm...now what does that remind me of in the modern era..? :D

    One of my favorite parts of watching the old 'Computer Chronicles' TV show from the 80s/90s that's on YouTube is (especially in the 80s) how absolutely *fixated* they are on IBM and what IBM thinks and what IBM is doing. Between that and the constant apprehension when it came to the Japanese electronics firms, it gives me some hope when I start to worry about Google, Apple, Facebook, Tiktok, etc. This, too, shall pass.

    ... Stop! Modem police. We clocked your Sportster at over 1900 cps!

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From vorlon@21:1/195.1 to Thom Miller on Wed Apr 12 09:56:16 2023
    Hi Thom,

    In addition to running tcpser for the two USB serial dongles and
    shunting telnet connections to the serial ports on the 386, the pi 4
    is running binkd and setup to connect to my boss node. Right now it's polling once an hour for new packets.

    Have you looked at the DOS version of binkd?

    unzipped, and then processed by fastecho. There's also a logout.bat
    that runs fastecho to collect new messages, zips them up into an

    Be aware that fastecho strip's seen-by's, and that can't be turned off. I
    think there is a DOS version of fmail, that does a better job.



    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen


    --- Talisman v0.47-dev (Linux/m68k)
    * Origin: Vorlon Empire: Amiga 3000 powered in Sector 550 (21:1/195.1)
  • From vorlon@21:1/195.1 to poindexter FORTRAN on Wed Apr 12 10:02:02 2023
    Hi poindexter,

    OS/2 will run with 8mb of ram... (Used to run it myself back in
    the day. Still have the CD(s).

    I ran OS/2 2.x. and had a bear of a time installing it on a PS/2 model
    80 with 8 mb of RAM. It'd complain about not having enough memory and reboot.

    I started with 3.x connect. SO never had the issues with 2.x. Was just
    using a standard clone pc.

    Doubt. "Sure, you could go with Compaq or another brand, but do you
    really want to risk not being 100% IBM compatible? If you want
    everything to 'just work', buy IBM..."

    Just look how far that got them.

    There was something about how the PS/2s registered add-on memory that
    was only recognized after the system POSTed. OS/2 booted and installed
    just fine this time, with 5 people standing around.

    There are stories out there about how insulated each department at IBM
    was.

    But, I got to tell the story about how it took 3 IBM techs and me to
    boot OS/2.

    Did you have to pay for there time though?



    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen


    --- Talisman v0.47-dev (Linux/m68k)
    * Origin: Vorlon Empire: Amiga 3000 powered in Sector 550 (21:1/195.1)
  • From BitByter@21:4/105 to vorlon on Tue Apr 11 23:19:13 2023
    Hello vorlon!

    12 Apr 23 09:56, you wrote to Thom Miller:

    Be aware that fastecho strip's seen-by's, and that can't be turned
    off. I think there is a DOS version of fmail, that does a better job.

    FastEcho only strips SEEN-BYs when an echomail message crosses Zone boundaries. Therefore it shouldn't be an issue in fsxNet, as that's all one Zone.

    The current versions of FMail are Win32 and Linux; I'm not sure if the DOS and OS/2 versions are still being maintained/updated.

    BitByter

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20230304
    * Origin: Phoenix BBS * phoenix.bnbbbs.net (21:4/105)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to vorlon on Wed Apr 12 06:30:00 2023
    vorlon wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    But, I got to tell the story about how it took 3 IBM techs and me to
    boot OS/2.

    Did you have to pay for there time though?

    No, the sales rep took us all out to lunch at a nice restaurant
    afterwards. Those were the days...



    ... Is there something missing?
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From vorlon@21:1/195.1 to BitByter on Fri Apr 14 10:05:17 2023
    Hi BitByter,

    Be aware that fastecho strip's seen-by's, and that can't be
    turned off. I think there is a DOS version of fmail, that does a
    better job.

    FastEcho only strips SEEN-BYs when an echomail message crosses Zone boundaries. Therefore it shouldn't be an issue in fsxNet, as that's
    all one Zone.

    If Thom wants to join Fionet, then it's going to be a issue. It's best to
    know of the issue before going further down the rabit hole.

    The current versions of FMail are Win32 and Linux; I'm not sure
    if the DOS and OS/2 versions are still being maintained/updated.

    Yes they are, but the last DOS version of fmail would still work and be a better fit.



    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen


    --- Talisman v0.47-dev (Linux/m68k)
    * Origin: Vorlon Empire: Amiga 3000 powered in Sector 550 (21:1/195.1)
  • From vorlon@21:1/195.1 to poindexter FORTRAN on Fri Apr 14 10:09:02 2023
    Hi pointdexter FORTRAN,

    But, I got to tell the story about how it took 3 IBM techs and me
    to boot OS/2.

    Did you have to pay for there time though?

    No, the sales rep took us all out to lunch at a nice restaurant
    afterwards. Those were the days...

    Back in that distant past it was also cheaper to get a decent meal for
    your $$.. Now adays it's like give your left arm. #-(



    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen


    --- Talisman v0.47-dev (Linux/m68k)
    * Origin: Vorlon Empire: Amiga 3000 powered in Sector 550 (21:1/195.1)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Vorlon on Thu Apr 13 20:56:50 2023
    If Thom wants to join Fionet, then it's going to be a issue. It's best
    to know of the issue before going further down the rabit hole.

    Thanks! I do appreciate knowing that there's an issue there. I'm probably
    not going to join fidonet. I was looking for something nice, easy, and relatively low key and fsxnet seemed like (and seems like) a good fit. But if
    I change my mind about fido in the future, it's good to have a heads up.

    I'm (just for fun and because of the discussions around it) checking out a second CF card install of OS/2 for the 386 so I can evaluate how it handles things. If I do end up swapping operating systems, I might investigate a switch. Right now I'm just kind of letting the dust settle before I go and
    make a bunch of other changes.

    (But I have to say, it's been fun poking back around in OS/2 land for the
    last couple of days. Good memories there. A better DOS than DOS, indeed.)

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to vorlon on Fri Apr 14 06:21:00 2023
    vorlon wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    Back in that distant past it was also cheaper to get a decent meal for your $$.. Now adays it's like give your left arm. #-(

    Around Silicon Valley/San Francisco, tech wages have definitely changed
    the dining landscape. Local neighborhood restaurants started going way
    more upscale and charging more - they could have less customers and make
    more money - and there was a customer base to support it. Then Covid
    came. It seems the mom-n-pop restaurants and the restaurants that
    catered to locals and families were repaid with loyalty from customers
    getting takeout. Looking around, the ones that started going upscale
    before Covid have changed hands or folded.



    ... Shut the door and listen from outside
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Thom Miller on Fri Apr 14 06:41:00 2023
    Thom Miller wrote to Vorlon <=-

    (But I have to say, it's been fun poking back around in OS/2 land for
    the last couple of days. Good memories there. A better DOS than DOS, indeed.)

    The things you could do... run multiple network stacks, multiple DOS environments, create DOS virtual machines, run Windows apps...

    All on a box that would run Windows 3.11 just *ok*.





    ... Into the impossible
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to Thom Miller on Sat Apr 15 10:09:51 2023

    On Thursday April 13 2023, Thom Miller said to Vorlon:

    If Thom wants to join Fionet, then it's going to be a issue. It's best
    to know of the issue before going further down the rabit hole.

    Thanks! I do appreciate knowing that there's an issue there. I'm
    probably not going to join fidonet. I was looking for something nice, easy, and relatively low key and fsxnet seemed like (and seems like) a good fit. But if I change my mind about fido in the future, it's good
    to have a heads up.

    The main thing to remember with fido, is that there are some *old* grumpy
    dudes still floating around, so it's best to just avoid those areas. Sadly
    they are in the sysop area's.

    I'm (just for fun and because of the discussions around it) checking
    out a second CF card install of OS/2 for the 386 so I can evaluate how
    it handles things. If I do end up swapping operating systems, I might investigate a switch. Right now I'm just kind of letting the dust
    settle before I go and make a bunch of other changes.

    That's what sysop's do. Go and make changes for the fun of it, or to try
    things out. It's different today though, as back then we mostly only had one
    PC (What ever brand/make/type), but today it's not uncommong to have more
    than one. I can see six just without moving from my desk right now (Only
    three are powerd up). %-&)



    (But I have to say, it's been fun poking back around in OS/2 land for
    the last couple of days. Good memories there. A better DOS than DOS, indeed.)


    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Apr 15 10:16:33 2023

    On Friday April 14 2023, Poindexter Fortran said to vorlon:

    Back in that distant past it was also cheaper to get a decent meal for
    your $$.. Now adays it's like give your left arm. #-(

    Around Silicon Valley/San Francisco, tech wages have definitely changed
    [...]
    Covid came. It seems the mom-n-pop restaurants and the restaurants that catered to locals and families were repaid with loyalty from customers getting takeout. Looking around, the ones that started going upscale before Covid have changed hands or folded.

    I try and support the local business people if I can, no matter what the
    type. But sometimes they just don't have or cant get something that one
    needs and goining online is the only way.

    Ie: I wanted a right angle hdmi adaptor, but couldn't get anything local.
    Had to resort to fleabay and wait longer due to them changing the way
    sellers get paid. The sellers now wait two weeks before they even post the item.


    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Vorlon on Fri Apr 14 20:35:03 2023
    The main thing to remember with fido, is that there are some *old*
    grumpy dudes still floating around, so it's best to just avoid those
    areas. Sadly they are in the sysop area's.

    Yeah, the vibe I get from just checking out fido is that the gatekeeping that always seem to be baked into the network (going back to the early 90s) is
    still there. I've gotten to the point where I'm too old and impatient to deal with that sort of nonsense anymore. The F, the S, and the X of FSXnet were pretty big selling points for me.

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Thom Miller on Sat Apr 15 15:12:30 2023
    On 14 Apr 2023 at 08:35p, Thom Miller pondered and said...

    impatient to deal with that sort of nonsense anymore. The F, the S, and the X of FSXnet were pretty big selling points for me.

    well thanks for taking the time to check it out, appreciate that...

    I'm pondering on the S, trying to revisit soon the number of echos and perhaps change things up there a bit, as it's been sometime since a few echos were added and I've been time poor to revisit the addition/removal of some of those... but that time is approaching ...

    anywhoo glad things are working for you Thom and that you're having a nice time here in the echomail areas etc. the guys are pretty good for the most part and helpful etc. we all have our up/down days and sometime folks can read more into a written reply than is intended (always a possible pitfall) but the folks here mostly do a good job of self moderation and keeping it helpful etc. Something I'm always very appreciate of with respect to this community.

    Best, Paul

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Al@21:4/106 to Thom Miller on Sat Apr 15 00:34:36 2023
    Yeah, the vibe I get from just checking out fido is that the gatekeeping that always seem to be baked into the network (going back to the early 90s) is still there.

    What do you mean by gatekeeping?

    I've gotten to the point where I'm too old and impatient to deal
    with that sort of nonsense anymore. The F, the S, and the X of FSXnet were pretty big selling points for me.

    I am simply an NC in fidonet but I try to make it as simple and painless as possible for anyone looking to join in the area I look after.

    --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Avon on Sat Apr 15 08:10:18 2023
    I'm pondering on the S, trying to revisit soon the number of echos and perhaps change things up there a bit, as it's been sometime since a few echos were added and I've been time poor to revisit the

    Heh. That's funny. I assumed the 'S' was in reference to how open you guys
    are with information about how to join and how forthcoming you are with help.
    I didn't realize you meant the number of echoes. The limited number of echoes is one of the other things I appreciate about it, too, though.

    sometime folks can read more into a written reply than is intended
    (always a possible pitfall) but the folks here mostly do a good job of
    self moderation and keeping it helpful etc. Something I'm always very

    IME that's always been an issue with text only communications. I think it's part of the reason why emoticons and later emojii were invented. I tend to go heavy on the emoticons, especially when I'm just being snarky or making a
    joke.

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From Mcp@21:2/145 to Al on Sat Apr 15 08:18:30 2023
    What do you mean by gatekeeping?

    I mean it in the traditional sense of technical gatekeeping. In my mind,
    fido has always had a certain "read the policy file and if you can't figure
    it out, tough" attitude about it. This isn't from dealing with a particular person, it's just the 'impression' that fidonet.org leaves, IMO.

    I am simply an NC in fidonet but I try to make it as simple and
    painless as possible for anyone looking to join in the area I look
    after.

    That's awesome. I meant nothing personal directed towards anybody in particular, it's just the impression I've always sort of been left with
    by fido, even in the 'old days'.

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Vorlon on Sat Apr 15 09:40:00 2023
    Vorlon wrote to Thom Miller <=-

    That's what sysop's do. Go and make changes for the fun of it, or to
    try things out. It's different today though, as back then we mostly
    only had one PC (What ever brand/make/type), but today it's not
    uncommong to have more than one. I can see six just without moving from
    my desk right now (Only three are powerd up). %-&)

    I'm a big fan of virtualization. I started off running VMWare
    Workstation on my desktop, later moved to Proxmox running on a laptop.
    On that I can spin up an operating system for old-time's sake and run it
    in a window or full screen on my desktop, without the hassle of more
    hardware (and trying to keep old hardware running, which is getting increasingly difficult...)




    ... ZIMA TASTES BETTER WHEN IT'S ILLEGAL
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Poindexter Fortran on Sat Apr 15 11:10:00 2023
    I'm a big fan of virtualization. I started off running VMWare
    Workstation on my desktop, later moved to Proxmox running on a laptop.
    On that I can spin up an operating system for old-time's sake and run
    it in a window or full screen on my desktop, without the hassle
    of more hardware (and trying to keep old hardware running, which
    is getting increasingly difficult...)

    That's one of the great things about the hobby, IMO. There are all different approaches and interests. I very specifically did not want to run new
    software, or run old software on new hardware (in a VM or otherwise). I had a 386 that was sitting on a shelf not getting much use, and thought, "Man, it'd be cool to get that thing on-line and have it function like it did in the old days." I wanted to run old software on old hardware, and see if I could get
    it to talk to 'new' software. To me, the tinkering (both with the software
    and the hardware) is a big part of the fun.

    There's no right or wrong way. That's true of the 'retro computer' scene
    in general, I think. If emulators, virtual machines, FPGA, or vintage
    hardware get you where you want to go, I think it's awesome, even if your chosen method to get there isn't the one that I'd have taken.

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From Al@21:4/106 to Mcp on Sat Apr 15 13:45:48 2023
    What do you mean by gatekeeping?

    I mean it in the traditional sense of technical gatekeeping. In my mind,
    fido has always had a certain "read the policy file and if you can't figure it out, tough" attitude about it. This isn't from dealing with a particular person, it's just the 'impression' that fidonet.org leaves, IMO.

    Yes, I have the same impression. It depends on who you talk to.

    I am simply an NC in fidonet but I try to make it as simple and
    painless as possible for anyone looking to join in the area I look
    after.

    That's awesome. I meant nothing personal directed towards anybody in particular, it's just the impression I've always sort of been left with
    by fido, even in the 'old days'.

    That document (policy4) is still in force by it is looked at as a guide today, or should be.

    It is still required that you can send and recieve netmail. Without that there isn't really any point in joining fidonet (or any net).

    In most cases I hear from people wanting to join by email today so we communicate by email initially and get the node and session and other passwords setup through email.

    That just takes a little back and forth and in most cases nodes are setup and running in a day or two.

    That's what my experience has been. In most cases new nodes are up and running in a matter of hours.

    I wish there were more new nodes!

    --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Thom Miller on Sun Apr 16 09:20:14 2023
    On 15 Apr 2023 at 08:10a, Thom Miller pondered and said...

    Heh. That's funny. I assumed the 'S' was in reference to how open you
    guys are with information about how to join and how forthcoming you are with help. I didn't realize you meant the number of echoes. The limited number of echoes is one of the other things I appreciate about it, too, though.

    well to be fair I've never pondered the S overly deeply but yeah one aspect was to try to keep the echo area numbers to a reasonably limited number. When I started the network it was just FSX_GEN ..

    IME that's always been an issue with text only communications. I think it's part of the reason why emoticons and later emojii were invented. I tend to go heavy on the emoticons, especially when I'm just being snarky or making a joke.

    Yes agreed. I also use a lot of :) to infer emotion/intent and I see some other do too...

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Thom Miller on Sat Apr 15 16:38:32 2023
    Re: Re: Housekeeping
    By: Thom Miller to Poindexter Fortran on Sat Apr 15 2023 11:10 am

    That's one of the great things about the hobby, IMO. There are all different approaches and interests. I very specifically did not want to run new software, or run old software on new hardware (in a VM or otherwise). I had a 386 that was sitting on a shelf not getting much use, and thought, "Man, it'd be cool to get that thing on-line and have it function like it did in the old days." I wanted to run old software on old hardware, and see if I could get it to talk to 'new' software. To me, the


    That's a great idea; I'd love to recreate my old environment, it's just that multi-node would be a pain.
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Al on Sat Apr 15 16:41:22 2023
    Re: Re: Housekeeping
    By: Al to Mcp on Sat Apr 15 2023 01:45 pm

    In most cases I hear from people wanting to join by email today so we communicate by email initially and get the node and session and other passwords setup through email.

    I get people applying via email that never get around to polling. At least with the /9999 approach, the prospective sysop had figured out how to get a nodelist and to configure his/her mailer. The people who apply via /9999 always seem to stick with it.

    I wish there were more new nodes!

    True.
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Roon@21:4/148 to Thom Miller on Sun Apr 16 01:46:53 2023
    Hello Thom,

    15 Apr 23 11:10, you wrote to Poindexter Fortran:

    I'm a big fan of virtualization. I started off running VMWare
    Workstation on my desktop, later moved to Proxmox running on a
    laptop. On that I can spin up an operating system for old-time's
    sake and run it in a window or full screen on my desktop, without
    the hassle of more hardware (and trying to keep old hardware
    running, which is getting increasingly difficult...)

    That's one of the great things about the hobby, IMO. There are all different approaches and interests. I very specifically did not want
    to run new software, or run old software on new hardware (in a VM or otherwise). I had a 386 that was sitting on a shelf not getting much
    use, and thought, "Man, it'd be cool to get that thing on-line and
    have it function like it did in the old days." I wanted to run old software on old hardware, and see if I could get it to talk to 'new' software. To me, the tinkering (both with the software and the
    hardware) is a big part of the fun.

    There's no right or wrong way. That's true of the 'retro computer'
    scene in general, I think. If emulators, virtual machines, FPGA, or vintage hardware get you where you want to go, I think it's awesome,
    even if your chosen method to get there isn't the one that I'd have
    taken.

    big +1. i am a big fan of using old hardware in a modern world :)

    Regards,
    --
    dp

    telnet://bbs.roonsbbs.hu:1212 <<=-

    ... Uptime: 8d 17h 47m 31s
    --- GoldED/2 1.1.4.7+EMX
    * Origin: Roon's BBS - Budapest, HUNGARY (21:4/148)
  • From Khronos@21:2/153 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Apr 15 19:59:54 2023
    I get people applying via email that never get around to polling. At least with the /9999
    approach, the prospective sysop had figured out how to get a nodelist and to configure his/her
    mailer. The people who apply via /9999 always seem to stick with it.

    What happens if more than one application comes in at a time with the 9999 dummy node method?

    Tom
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: (21:2/153) (21:2/153)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Roon on Sat Apr 15 18:19:07 2023
    Re: Housekeeping
    By: Roon to Thom Miller on Sun Apr 16 2023 01:46 am

    big +1. i am a big fan of using old hardware in a modern world :)

    I'm a huge virtualization fan, but in a quick minute I'd put a Sun Sparcstation II and 19" CRT on my desk.
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to Thom Miller on Sun Apr 16 11:19:59 2023
    Hi Thom,

    On Friday April 14 2023, Thom Miller said to Vorlon:

    The main thing to remember with fido, is that there are some *old*
    grumpy dudes still floating around, so it's best to just avoid those
    areas. Sadly they are in the sysop area's.

    Yeah, the vibe I get from just checking out fido is that the
    gatekeeping that always seem to be baked into the network (going back
    to the early 90s) is still there. I've gotten to the point where I'm
    too old and impatient to deal with that sort of nonsense anymore. The

    Yeah. I'm a more than a few years past 50 and find that they should know better. It's just not worth it. I'm posting more in FSXNet than any other.

    In saying that I'm in fido, and act as the NC for southern Australia, but
    stay away from posting to the sysop echo's.




    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Apr 16 11:29:26 2023

    On Saturday April 15 2023, Poindexter Fortran said to Vorlon:

    That's what sysop's do. Go and make changes for the fun of it, or to [...]
    from my desk right now (Only three are powerd up). %-&)

    I'm a big fan of virtualization. I started off running VMWare
    Workstation on my desktop, later moved to Proxmox running on a laptop.
    On that I can spin up an operating system for old-time's sake and run
    it in a window or full screen on my desktop, without the hassle of more hardware (and trying to keep old hardware running, which is getting increasingly difficult...)

    Oh, I am as well.. I manage a couple of VM hosts's and one's not even in the same state and is half way up the east coast of Australia. Just love the out
    of band stuff that's built into real server hardware.

    Some things though just don't like being run in a vm enviroment, and work better on real hardware!




    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From deon@21:2/116 to Vorlon on Sun Apr 16 12:33:42 2023
    Re: Re: Housekeeping
    By: Vorlon to Thom Miller on Sun Apr 16 2023 11:19 am

    In saying that I'm in fido, and act as the NC for southern Australia, but stay away from posting to the sysop echo's.

    Or learn to ignore the BS that goes on. The BS is only alive because people keep it alive. Once you understand the motiviation of some of the people there, that'll help you decide whether you engage with it.


    ...ëîåï
    --- SBBSecho 3.15-Linux
    * Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Poindexter Fortran on Sat Apr 15 23:17:52 2023
    That's a great idea; I'd love to recreate my old environment, it's just
    that multi-node would be a pain.

    Yeah, in the current setup, I have two nodes on USB serial dongles and then a third one on an actual modem. I've got the ability to add one more, but it's not like there's traffic demanding it. If I make the jump to OS/2, it's even easier because then you just setup virtual modems using the SIO comm package.

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Avon on Sat Apr 15 23:24:05 2023
    well to be fair I've never pondered the S overly deeply but yeah one
    aspect was to try to keep the echo area numbers to a reasonably limited number. When I started the network it was just FSX_GEN ..

    I think it's a great idea. I've been on a few boards with a staggering number of message areas, and they feel like a ghost town because what traffic they
    get is spread across so many areas. I think it's one of the reasons why Level 29 seems to have such a high rate of traffic...there's only one message area! lol. (And it helps, I suppose, that they highly to the retro community.)

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Poindexter Fortran on Sat Apr 15 23:26:18 2023
    I'm a huge virtualization fan, but in a quick minute I'd put a Sun Sparcstation II and 19" CRT on my desk.

    I have a SPARCStation 20 that's pretty heavily upgraded that I pull off the shelf and play with occasionally. It's ridiculously powerful compared to the consumer-grade computers I have that are from the same era.

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Thom Miller on Sun Apr 16 09:05:00 2023
    Thom Miller wrote to Poindexter Fortran <=-

    I have a SPARCStation 20 that's pretty heavily upgraded that I pull off the shelf and play with occasionally. It's ridiculously powerful
    compared to the consumer-grade computers I have that are from the same era.

    Back in the mid '90s, my company had a Sparc 20 as the mail and file
    server, and my desktop was a Sparc 2 with a Weitek CPU that I sold as
    needing a backup in case the 20 failed. :)

    Loved that box.



    ... It's all more or less the same.. but it's all different now.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to deon on Tue Apr 18 09:53:28 2023
    Hi Deon,

    On Sunday April 16 2023, Deon said to Vorlon:

    In saying that I'm in fido, and act as the NC for southern Australia,
    but stay away from posting to the sysop echo's.

    Or learn to ignore the BS that goes on. The BS is only alive because
    people keep it alive. Once you understand the motiviation of some of the people there, that'll help you decide whether you engage with it.

    I do read those area's, but seldom post. It's just not worth the pain. $-)

    Vorlon
    aka
    Stephen


    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Ogg on Fri Apr 21 18:39:51 2023
    Re: Housekeeping
    By: Ogg to Thom Miller on Fri Apr 21 2023 08:56 pm

    I posted about this already, but to reiterate: the harm is decision
    fatigue for your users, and the fact that lots of echos only make
    sense when there are lots of users.

    "decision fatigue"? that's silly. If someone is interested in
    a specific topic, they can find it.

    Decision fatigue might be another term for the "paradox of choice". It's a thing.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice

    https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_the_paradox_of_choice

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Al@21:4/106 to poindexter FORTRAN on Fri Apr 21 19:00:00 2023
    I've suggested consolidation of echoes, but never gotten any traction.

    This is a good idea, but it's problematic.

    Instead of dead Commodore and Atari echoes, make an 8-bit echo. We used
    to have ARGUS, RADIUS and TAURUS echoes - all FTN mailers based on the
    same code-base, and consolidated everything to ARGUS now.

    I only have ~200 areas here but I am connected to many more that haven't recieved traffic. I recieved mail in TERMINAT a few days ago so I added the area. I don't know if that was a good idea. Terminate is a great terminal. It includes a great FTN point setup that I used back in the day but it is all dial-up. I don't think it will be used (much) today.

    I have many dead or probably dead areas but nodes are linked. If I remove the dead or probably dead areas those links get broken and linked nodes don't recieve that traffic, not nodes who are linked here.

    When that happens to an echo it causes the area to malfunction and this is why I am reluctant to remove some of these old probably dead areas.

    If we could somehow narrow the list of active areas it would be a good thing but this issue with dead or probably dead areas gets in the way.

    There is no good way to determine what areas are active/dead.

    I think it falls on the shoulders of sysops/bbs operators to determine what areas they include on their board based on the list of areas they are presented with.

    --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Ogg on Sat Apr 22 05:34:55 2023
    "decision fatigue"? that's silly. If someone is interested in a
    specific topic, they can find it.

    I mean...there's nothing really silly about it. It's a pretty well known psychological issue, and one that certainly has ramifications in software and systems design. Someone might be 'interested' in a specific topic, but not interested enough to sift through 100 *other* topics to find the one they're interested in.

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From Thom Miller@21:2/145 to Nightfox on Sat Apr 22 05:36:19 2023
    Decision fatigue might be another term for the "paradox of choice".
    It's a thing.

    Exactly this.

    ---
    * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Vorlon on Sat Apr 22 06:11:04 2023
    Re: Re: Housekeeping
    By: Vorlon to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Apr 22 2023 10:07 am

    It dosn't help that the Editor/Modertaor of that area is a total d*ck, and likes to heap sh*t on other zones. Also that there are *no* news item's posted. I thought that the job of the editor was to find things to put

    Hey, I posted an article last week!
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Thom Miller on Sat Apr 22 15:23:00 2023
    Hello Thom Miller!

    ** On Friday 21.04.23 - 22:34, Thom Miller wrote to Ogg:

    I mean...there's nothing really silly about it. It's a pretty well known psychological issue, and one that certainly has ramifications in software and systems design. Someone might be 'interested' in a specific topic,
    but not interested enough to sift through 100 *other* topics to find the one they're interested in.

    Then.. simply organize the echos by category, or use CTL-F to
    look thru the echo descriptions to enable your users and
    yourself to find the echos that are of interest.

    One BBS that I've visited in the past organizes the echos
    across ALL the different othernets in such way. I think that's
    brilliant. So, instead of one long list of echos in
    alphabetical order, the user is presented with a more useful
    palette to work with.

    Eg.

    [GENERAL CHAT]

    CHAT ANYTHING_GOES ASIAN_LINK COFFEE_KLATSCH CANACHAT
    ALASKACHAT MEMORIES

    [COMPUTERS, TECHNOLOGY]

    INTERNET WINDOWS MOBILE WIFI CYBER-DANGER SECURITY IPV6
    PKEY_DROP PUBLIC_KEYS

    [ENTERTAINMENT]

    MOVIES MUSIC AUDIO FUNNY HOROSCOPE LITRPG

    [DOMESTIC]

    COOKING HOME_N_GRDN

    [SCIENCE]

    ESSNASA EARTH

    [ANIMALS]

    DOGHOUSE CATSMEOW

    [FIDONET RELATED]

    GOLDEN XPOINT AFTERSHOCK FIDONET.TELEGRAM FIDO_UTIL FTSC_PUBLIC
    FUTURE4FIDO POINTS HOTDOGED NET_DEV

    [POLITICS]

    POLITICS FIDONEWS

    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From Gamgee@21:2/138 to Ogg on Sat Apr 22 15:43:00 2023
    Ogg wrote to Thom Miller <=-

    Hello Thom Miller!

    If the intent is to provide access to echos to your visitors, then
    what's the harm in making as many echos as possible availble?

    I posted about this already, but to reiterate: the harm is decision fatigue for your users, and the fact that lots of echos only make sense when there are lots of users.

    "decision fatigue"? that's silly. If someone is interested in
    a specific topic, they can find it.

    Nope, I have to agree, "decision fatigue" is a real thing.

    I'd define it as having to parse/page down through a seemingly
    never-ending list of echos to read. After a few pages most people will
    just give up and exit.



    ... Beauty is in the eyes of the beer holder!
    === MultiMail/Linux v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (21:2/138)
  • From Atreyu@21:1/176 to Vorlon on Sat Apr 22 17:06:35 2023
    On 22 Apr 23 10:11:23, Vorlon said the following to Atreyu:

    But I seriously doubt it could ever die, not in my lifetime, many Sysops
    in Russia and eastern Europe take Fido very seriously.

    They have no other way to get past state censorship! @-(

    I heard that much is true. Some noise was made in Fido not long ago about increasing the security/encryption of the BinkD system... Its interesting though that that the worst-case scenario for the network is moving mail
    via "sneaker net".

    Atreyu

    --- Renegade vY2Ka2
    * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (21:1/176)
  • From Utopian Galt@21:4/108 to Atreyu on Sat Apr 22 15:56:15 2023
    BY: Atreyu (21:1/176)

    |11A|09> |10If you mean the Fido echo moderators, yes I would agree. One huge|07
    |11A|09> |10problem is|07
    |11A|09> |10the many echoes devoid of any content beyond robot-rule nonsense.|07
    I wish the backbone could be purned.


    --- WWIV 5.8.0.3681[Windows]
    * Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)
  • From Atreyu@21:1/176 to Utopian Galt on Sat Apr 22 21:57:28 2023
    On 22 Apr 23 08:56:15, Utopian Galt said the following to Atreyu :

    If you mean the Fido echo moderators, yes I would agree. One
    huge
    problem is
    the many echoes devoid of any content beyond robot-rule
    nonsense.
    I wish the backbone could be purned.

    Problem is its impossible to really nuke an echo...

    Atreyu

    --- Renegade vY2Ka2
    * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (21:1/176)
  • From Utopian Galt@21:4/108 to Atreyu on Sat Apr 22 23:01:57 2023
    BY: Atreyu (21:1/176)

    |11A|09> |10Problem is its impossible to really nuke an echo...|07
    |11A|09> |07
    Backbones refuse to carry it?


    --- WWIV 5.8.0.3681[Windows]
    * Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)
  • From Michael Borthwick@21:3/179 to Utopian Galt on Sun Apr 23 19:23:32 2023
    Backbones refuse to carry it?

    But any node can carry an echo and act as a hub for that echo... if they really wanted to.

    ... The person who snores the loudest will fall asleep first

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: third rock bbs: bbs.thirdrockbbs.au (21:3/179)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to Ogg on Sun Apr 23 23:16:22 2023

    On Friday April 21 2023, Ogg said to Vorlon:

    ... It's just as bad in the BBS add's area's.. Posting the same add
    every day or two is just overdoing it.

    Are you refering to ECHO_ADS? I don't see the same echo info posted "every day or two" at all. At most, a couple of them are a week apart.
    Others are two weeks apart.

    I see the same add in multiple echo's multiple times a week.


    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Apr 23 23:17:27 2023

    On Friday April 21 2023, Poindexter Fortran said to Vorlon:

    It dosn't help that the Editor/Modertaor of that area is a total d*ck,
    and likes to heap sh*t on other zones. Also that there are *no* news
    item's posted. I thought that the job of the editor was to find things
    to put

    Hey, I posted an article last week!

    You did.... I wasn't taking any noticed due to the noise level being a
    9 by 9...

    What was it about?

    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to Atreyu on Sun Apr 23 23:22:11 2023
    Hi Atreyu,

    On Saturday April 22 2023, Atreyu said to Vorlon:

    But I seriously doubt it could ever die, not in my lifetime, many
    Sysops in Russia and eastern Europe take Fido very seriously.
    They have no other way to get past state censorship! @-(

    I heard that much is true. Some noise was made in Fido not long ago
    about increasing the security/encryption of the BinkD system...

    That'll go back to the normal bickering as always.... %0(*

    Its interesting though that that the worst-case scenario for the network is A> moving mail via "sneaker net".

    To much manual work required, and crossing borders..


    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From Atreyu@21:1/176 to Utopian Galt on Sun Apr 23 11:51:07 2023
    On 22 Apr 23 16:01:57, Utopian Galt said the following to Atreyu :

    Problem is its impossible to really nuke an echo...

    Backbones refuse to carry it?

    The concept of backbones is outdated. Anyone can start an echo and have others pick it up. Anyone can be a Hub. That part of it is a good thing.

    But it complicates echo management somewhat. New echo additions are really no problem as most people run software with auto-add capabilities, but deleting is something else. That requires manual intervention and the cooperation of everyone to do so... and taking everyone's word for it.

    I have downlinks posting messages in echoes that have long since been deleted, everyone "agreed" it was dead, but one Sysop believed it to be active.

    I like BAYWATCH as much as the next guy but c'mon...

    Atreyu

    --- Renegade vY2Ka2
    * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (21:1/176)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Vorlon on Sun Apr 23 15:15:00 2023
    Hello Vorlon!

    Are you refering to ECHO_ADS? I don't see the same echo info posted
    "every day or two" at all. At most, a couple of them are a week apart.
    Others are two weeks apart.

    I see the same add in multiple echo's multiple times a week.

    Ah.. you mean ads in the echos themselves. Got it. I guess I
    don't view the same fidonet echos that you do. Why not pipe up
    to the poster and suggest fewer ads?

    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Vorlon on Mon Apr 24 15:32:00 2023
    Vorlon wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-


    Hey, I posted an article last week!

    You did.... I wasn't taking any noticed due to the noise level being a
    9 by 9...

    What was it about?

    Homelabs and BBSes.





    ... HACK THE PLANET!
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Atreyu on Mon Apr 24 15:54:00 2023
    Atreyu wrote to Vorlon <=-

    I heard that much is true. Some noise was made in Fido not long ago
    about increasing the security/encryption of the BinkD system... Its interesting though that that the worst-case scenario for the network is moving mail via "sneaker net".

    I knwo Synchronet supports binkp over TLS, and some othernets have
    implemented VPN links between systems using apps like ZeroTier.

    I'm all for security, but back-hauling security onto open protocols like
    bink and telnet seem pointless unless you're going to deprecate the
    insecure protocols.



    ... Canned Air is GLUTEN FREE.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From fusion@21:1/616 to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Apr 24 23:13:29 2023
    On 24 Apr 2023, poindexter FORTRAN said the following...

    I'm all for security, but back-hauling security onto open protocols like bink and telnet seem pointless unless you're going to deprecate the insecure protocols.

    this stuff is just for fun. if you start giving the boot to people who can't (or won't) run the secure stuff, that's not fun.

    *shrug*

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi (21:1/616)
  • From Utopian Galt@21:4/108 to Atreyu on Sun Apr 23 22:27:12 2023
    BY: Atreyu (21:1/176)

    |11A|09> |10I like BAYWATCH as much as the next guy but c'mon...|07
    Is it Ward and friends in Zone 2 dominating the posts there?


    --- WWIV 5.8.0.3681[Windows]
    * Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to Ogg on Tue Apr 25 20:49:08 2023
    Hi Ogg,

    On Sunday April 23 2023, Ogg said to Vorlon:

    Others are two weeks apart.
    I see the same add in multiple echo's multiple times a week.

    Ah.. you mean ads in the echos themselves. Got it. I guess I don't
    view the same fidonet echos that you do. Why not pipe up to the poster and suggest fewer ads?

    It's just not worth it, when more that one sysop is doing it.
    When I go through area's on the hub system, I just skip to the end of the
    list in Golded... On the bbs system's I don't even read those area's.


    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From NuSkooler@21:1/121 to poindexter FORTRAN on Tue Apr 25 18:50:33 2023

    On Monday, April 24th poindexter FORTRAN was heard saying...
    I'm all for security, but back-hauling security onto open protocols like bink and telnet seem pointless unless you're going to deprecate the insecure protocols.

    This. Note also that there isn't anything you can do about exporting to other systems other than "policy". ie: secure FTN, but exported to the web/Gopher/NNTP/QWK/whatever.


    --
    |08 â–  |12NuSkooler |06// |12Xibalba |08- |07"|06The place of fear|07"
    |08 â–  |03xibalba|08.|03l33t|08.|03codes |08(|0344510|08/|03telnet|08, |0344511|08/|03ssh|08)
    |08 â–  |03ENiGMA 1/2 WHQ |08| |03Phenom |08| |0367 |08| |03iMPURE |08| |03ACiDic
    --- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.0.14-beta (linux; x64; 16.16.0)
    * Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.l33t.codes:44510 (21:1/121)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to fusion on Tue Apr 25 14:05:00 2023
    fusion wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    On 24 Apr 2023, poindexter FORTRAN said the following...

    I'm all for security, but back-hauling security onto open protocols like bink and telnet seem pointless unless you're going to deprecate the insecure protocols.

    this stuff is just for fun. if you start giving the boot to people who can't (or won't) run the secure stuff, that's not fun.

    *shrug*

    Agreed, and to clarify, a lot of the additions/features have an
    attraction - they interest me. I run binkps, want to add SSL to IRC, and
    will probably set up Zerotier - not because of security concerns, but
    because it could be done.



    ... THE SEVEN JOURNEYS TO ITSELFNESS
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Ogg on Wed Apr 26 03:13:42 2023
    On 21 Apr 23 08:53:00 Ogg wrote...

    Hello Commodore Clifford!

    I've been trying to get COFFEE_KLATSCH going again. I think if everyone picked a "pet" echo and posted there we'd get some
    more activity. It's a downward spiral, many sysops go to the
    STATS echo and only carry echoes with traffic.

    Yeah, I did the same... and found that mostly that the "traffic"
    is the monthly posting of the rules.

    OK.. but why can't that echo contain a posting from YOU? ;)

    --- OpenXP 5.0.57 * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Because if the moderator isn't interested in trying to drum up some
    activity for their echo, I'm not interested either.

    I have my own projects to promote... I'll help someone, but I'm not
    driving herd for them.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Thom Miller on Wed Apr 26 03:28:22 2023
    On 21 Apr 23 08:09:49 Thom Miller wrote...

    I just subscribed to 490ish that my hub carries, probably two
    thirds have 0 traffic. By the time you take away the echo's that
    are just robot posts there probably are only a handful that have
    actual human traffic.

    This is why I think it's a mistake for a network to have so many
    feeds, and for a bbs to carry so many feeds. I get that, from the perspective of the sysop, you feel like you're providing your
    potential users with a variety of choices. What you're really
    providing them is a ghost town, a sense of 'nobody uses this'. You're
    also providing a nice dose of decision fatigue for anyone who decides
    they *might* want to use it. "I just want to post a message and see
    how this works, but there are like...100 different places to post.
    Which one should I use?"

    . In the old days, when there were 3000 boards with 300,000 callers,
    it made sense to spread the conversation out and keep echos more
    focused. Today, when there are 300 boards with 3000 callers, it just doesn't work. (I just made those numbers up, but I'd be surprised if
    the scale is that far off.) I'm a big advocate of less echoes with
    more conversation. I think it makes for a much healthier system.

    --- * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Exactly... When I go to a PC BBS that has every net out there, it's
    actually a struggle to find new active messages. Especially for new
    callers. On top of that, there are people who are "serial net starters"
    who literally start net after net... and you never hear from them.

    Ogg... the "They" I was referring to are the echo moderators. If they
    can't promote and drive conversation to one echo why are you insisting
    that I should be the one to do it for them? I have my own things I'm responsible for. I don't feel sorry or bad about it.

    And why not have hundreds of empty echo areas and newsgroups? This is
    why. I don't want my users seeing tons of empty nothing. On top of
    that, I run on actual vintage Atari hardware (and have no intention of
    changing that). Having hundreds of useless echos bogs the system down.

    So you're entitled to your opinion on the matter, just as I'm entitled to
    mine.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Thom Miller on Wed Apr 26 03:29:22 2023
    On 21 Apr 23 08:13:23 Thom Miller wrote...

    If it's because you just burned your hand on the soldering iron
    for the 5th time tonight and the damn thing still isn't working
    right... not so much.

    I just spent the better part of three days wrestling with OS/2 on a
    386 that was just *full* of intermittent, seemingly random errors.
    Turns out one of the cache chips was bad, but it took me far longer
    than I'd like to admit to figure it out. I was like, "I have *no*
    memory of OS/2 being this unstable." Now that I've got it up and
    running without issues, though, I'm very pleased. It was worth the
    effort.

    --- * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Yeah... it's always great when you're victorious!

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Thom Miller on Wed Apr 26 03:30:58 2023
    On 21 Apr 23 08:17:14 Thom Miller wrote...

    If the intent is to provide access to echos to your visitors,
    then what's the harm in making as many echos as possible
    availble?

    I posted about this already, but to reiterate: the harm is decision
    fatigue for your users, and the fact that lots of echos only make
    sense when there are lots of users.

    --- * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Absolutely.... tons of dead nets... tons of dead echos... I give up and
    don't call back.

    This is actually the #1 reason I don't call "Modern" PC based BBS's.
    Graffiti ANSI screens that go on forever and the struggle to find an
    actual active conversation.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to poindexter FORTRAN on Wed Apr 26 03:35:40 2023
    On 21 Apr 23 08:05:00 poindexter FORTRAN wrote...

    Commodore Clifford wrote to Ogg <=-

    Not my job to resurrect Fidonet.

    If they can't even keep things as active as FSXNet... I'm good
    with disconnecting and letting it die.

    I've been in Fidonet since 1991. I got a lot out of Fido over the
    years, especially in the 1990s. Managing a region and moving mail is
    just my way of paying it back. I find parts of it as annoying as most
    other people, but just try to ignore the people who are re-arranging
    deck chairs on the Titanic, so to speak.



    ... YORGAMAK HAS ARRIVED AND WILL INITIATE DESTRUCTIMATION. --- MultiMail/Win v0.52 * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is
    power. (21:4/122)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Yeah... I started about 1993 and was part of the group that brought Net
    2215 to Akron. There were some good times... and then when I brought it
    back as a telnet BBS in 2013, there was still some stuff here and there.

    But now, even those echos that were "active-ish" are actually gone!

    It's sad to see.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to poindexter FORTRAN on Wed Apr 26 03:39:30 2023
    On 21 Apr 23 08:19:00 poindexter FORTRAN wrote...

    Vorlon wrote to Commodore Clifford <=-

    There's no active atari area's but there are others. Find one
    that's of intrest and start posting to it. Unfortunally there
    are many dead area's. IT's not like the old days when a echo had
    many hundred messages a day....


    I've suggested consolidation of echoes, but never gotten any
    traction. Instead of dead Commodore and Atari echoes, make an 8-bit
    echo. We used to have ARGUS, RADIUS and TAURUS echoes - all FTN
    mailers based on the same code-base, and consolidated everything to
    ARGUS now.

    Less echoes with more traffic is better.

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    I absolutely agree with this....

    Especially now that even many of the die-hards are owning multiple
    systems. The war is over and the old soldiers drink together at the bar.
    I was an Atari guy all these years, but now I have the
    Apples/Commodores/etc. Why not have one place? And if the echo gets
    "too big" then break it up again.

    That's the other reason I really like FsxNet... It resists the urge to
    get too big for its own usefulness.

    After all, who needs 20 echos for the same topic, each from a different
    net?

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Atreyu on Wed Apr 26 03:45:44 2023
    On 21 Apr 23 14:27:37 Atreyu wrote...

    On 20 Apr 23 21:38:50, Commodore Clifford said the following to Ogg:

    Not my job to resurrect Fidonet.

    If they can't even keep things as active as FSXNet... I'm good
    with disconnecting and letting it die.

    If you mean the Fido echo moderators, yes I would agree. One huge
    problem is the many echoes devoid of any content beyond robot-rule nonsense.

    But I seriously doubt it could ever die, not in my lifetime, many
    Sysops in Russia and eastern Europe take Fido very seriously.

    Atreyu

    --- Renegade vY2Ka2 * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about
    gladiators? (21:1/176)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Too bad we can't combine the zones by having a translator gateway.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Ogg on Wed Apr 26 03:51:02 2023
    On 21 Apr 23 20:56:00 Ogg wrote...

    Hello Thom Miller!

    If the intent is to provide access to echos to your visitors,
    then what's the harm in making as many echos as possible
    availble?

    I posted about this already, but to reiterate: the harm is
    decision fatigue for your users, and the fact that lots of echos
    only make sense when there are lots of users.

    "decision fatigue"? that's silly. If someone is interested in a specific topic, they can find it.

    --- OpenXP 5.0.57 * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    It's not silly at all. It's why I don't bother with PC BBSs.

    Yeah, you're interested in that topic. You go to the area. You see 100 messages that are all the monthly rules postings going back 10 years and nothing else.

    You do this a few times... you get excited! A message posted by someone
    that isn't a rules post!

    "Is anyone here? Is this echo dead?" - no responses.

    Then you leave, and you don't go back.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Ogg on Wed Apr 26 03:52:16 2023
    On 21 Apr 23 21:07:00 Ogg wrote...

    Hello pF!

    The FIDONEWS echo used to be a place to discuss articles posted
    on FidoNews, but now it's turned into yet another bickerground. FIDONEWS would be a good place to write and article rallying
    support for resurrecting an echo.

    I always had the impression that a moderator acted as a kind of
    editor, finding news to report to stir conversation. FIDONEWS was nurtured like that in the past, but not since BF took over. Now the newsletter itself is just an automated bot output of stuff with
    nothing fresh to read. And the echo diverges from the topic of the newletter contents very fast.

    As for "write an article rallying support for resurrecting an echo" ..that's what I thought ECHO_ADS was for. :/


    It might be interesting to see a moderator chime in, wanting to
    have his say in how people resurrect "his" echo.

    Not sure what you mean. For resurrection and support, I meant for
    people to speak up in ANY echo and mention other echos where people
    could go to continue a specific topic of discussion.

    --- OpenXP 5.0.57 * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Last time I saw a copy they were still listing the Atari Fido software...
    and old versions of it at that (and there haven't been any new versions
    of anything since probably 2000).

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Thom Miller on Wed Apr 26 03:54:02 2023
    On 21 Apr 23 22:34:55 Thom Miller wrote...

    "decision fatigue"? that's silly. If someone is interested in
    a specific topic, they can find it.

    I mean...there's nothing really silly about it. It's a pretty well
    known psychological issue, and one that certainly has ramifications
    in software and systems design. Someone might be 'interested' in a
    specific topic, but not interested enough to sift through 100 *other* topics to find the one they're interested in.

    --- * Origin: WalledCTTY (21:2/145)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    I'm starting to think that Ogg has made up his mind. I know I've made
    mine up. I'm just not going to support someone else's dead stuff. It's
    not my place to care for the success of someone else's effort more than
    they do to the point where I'm putting in more effort than they are.

    And that's pretty much where I'm going to leave it.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to fusion on Wed Apr 26 04:02:48 2023
    On 24 Apr 23 16:13:29 fusion wrote...

    On 24 Apr 2023, poindexter FORTRAN said the following...
    I'm all for security, but back-hauling security onto open
    protocols like bink and telnet seem pointless unless you're
    going to deprecate the insecure protocols.

    this stuff is just for fun. if you start giving the boot to people
    who can't (or won't) run the secure stuff, that's not fun.

    *shrug*

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32) * Origin: cold
    fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi (21:1/616)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    The real problem is that there are a lot of actual retro hardware BBS's
    that can't necessarily re-write their mailers (the juice isn't worth the squeeze as some would say) and I think that is also a part of the
    activity problem.

    Many of the "retro" BBS's that I call are way more active than some of
    the networks I receive.... As in individual BBS's getting more "local" messages a day than I get from the net combined.

    But these systems are too "retro" for some of these nets. I'm only here because I finally decided to break down and do a BinkD mailer on a linux
    box.

    These users could be a benefit if they could connect with their old
    mailers... but even finding a successful telnet feed is nearly impossible anymore.

    And some nets don't even support that much. I tried joining "RetroNet"
    of all nets some 10 or so years ago. My system was "too retro for
    RetroNet". (No loss really, but the irony is amusing).

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Commodore Clifford on Wed Apr 26 05:44:00 2023
    Hello Commodore Clifford!

    "Is anyone here? Is this echo dead?" - no responses.

    Then you leave, and you don't go back.

    Echos are not live chats. You gotta give them time to
    distribute.

    A central or more common chat echo is a good place to "start
    here". Post your queries/hello message in one of those. Then
    if the topic you are interested in exists, invite people to
    follow you there.


    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Commodore Clifford on Wed Apr 26 05:55:00 2023
    Hello Commodore Clifford!

    Ogg... the "They" I was referring to are the echo
    moderators. If they can't promote and drive conversation
    to one echo why are you insisting that I should be the one
    to do it for them? I have my own things I'm responsible
    for. I don't feel sorry or bad about it.

    Noted. I would agree as to the role of a moderator should be
    to foster conversations to a certain degree. But some
    moderators just intend to step in when things steer off-topic
    otherwise they choose to be invisible.


    And why not have hundreds of empty echo areas and
    newsgroups? This is why. I don't want my users seeing
    tons of empty nothing. On top of that, I run on actual
    vintage Atari hardware (and have no intention of changing
    that). Having hundreds of useless echos bogs the system
    down.

    But conversations need to start "somewhere", so a general topic
    chat echo is a good place for that. Then, when the personal
    intoductions are made and the participants clarify what topic
    they are interested in, they can agree to populate the
    appropriate echo to make it "undead".




    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From Atreyu@21:1/176 to Commodore Clifford on Wed Apr 26 06:25:12 2023
    On 25 Apr 23 20:45:44, Commodore Clifford said the following to Atreyu:

    But I seriously doubt it could ever die, not in my lifetime, many
    Sysops in Russia and eastern Europe take Fido very seriously.

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Too bad we can't combine the zones by having a translator gateway.

    Technically there is no reason today for requiring Zones or Regions, even Nets could all be merged into one.................. technically.

    I do agree with your other thread about dead Othernets. I hated joining a net with all kinds of areas to find a total wasteland. Or worse... robot-rules. In the days of polling mail long-distance, if a Net was not cutting it, it was very quickly dropped from my system.

    One that I find somewhat amusing lately is Spooknet. The guy running it really puts an effort, even if it comes across as a little bit batshit-crazy.

    Atreyu

    --- Renegade vY2Ka2
    * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (21:1/176)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Commodore Clifford on Wed Apr 26 14:02:00 2023
    Commodore Clifford wrote to Ogg <=-

    Because if the moderator isn't interested in trying to drum up some activity for their echo, I'm not interested either.

    That was my take on the role of a moderator as well. I've moderated a
    couple of echoes over the years and promoting discussions and tempering
    arguments is a part of the job.




    ... FOR TECHNICAL HELP DIAL 0909 87900222
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Commodore Clifford on Wed Apr 26 14:04:00 2023
    Commodore Clifford wrote to Thom Miller <=-

    This is actually the #1 reason I don't call "Modern" PC based BBS's. Graffiti ANSI screens that go on forever and the struggle to find an actual active conversation.

    I had *7* ANSI screens on my BBS, reduced them down to a single screen
    chosen at random. It was a nice exercise to write a randomizer, after
    years of not coding.


    (I was a computer science major in college, but I got better...)



    ... Walk without rhythm and you won't attact the worm.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Commodore Clifford on Wed Apr 26 14:07:00 2023
    Commodore Clifford wrote to Atreyu <=-

    Too bad we can't combine the zones by having a translator gateway.

    Given the current size of Fidonet and the ability to send packets
    overseas via the internet, I'd suggested getting rid of zones
    altogether.

    That spun into an argument whether the combined zone should use zone 1
    or zone 2, and at that point became a geographic squabble powered by
    decades old feuds.



    ... Walk without rhythm and you won't attact the worm.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From deon@21:2/116 to Commodore Clifford on Thu Apr 27 20:28:15 2023
    Re: Re: Housekeeping
    By: Commodore Clifford to fusion on Tue Apr 25 2023 09:02 pm

    But these systems are too "retro" for some of these nets. I'm only here because I finally decided to break down and do a BinkD mailer on a linux box.

    These users could be a benefit if they could connect with their old mailers... but even finding a successful telnet feed is nearly impossible anymore.

    Binkp is not the only used mail transfer mechanism. If you want to do EMSI, I should be able to help with that.


    ...ëîåï
    --- SBBSecho 3.15-Linux
    * Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Atreyu on Thu Apr 27 04:21:36 2023
    On 25 Apr 23 23:25:12 Atreyu wrote...

    On 25 Apr 23 20:45:44, Commodore Clifford said the following to
    Atreyu:

    But I seriously doubt it could ever die, not in my lifetime, many Sysops in Russia and eastern Europe take Fido very seriously.

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Too bad we can't combine the zones by having a translator gateway.

    Technically there is no reason today for requiring Zones or Regions,
    even Nets could all be merged into one.................. technically.

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Well, language barriers... I'm not going to find much useful conversation
    in Russian message bases.

    Now if it's translated into English... and then my comments translated
    back into Russian... now we have a party.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Atreyu on Thu Apr 27 04:22:24 2023
    On 25 Apr 23 23:25:12 Atreyu wrote...

    I do agree with your other thread about dead Othernets. I hated
    joining a net with all kinds of areas to find a total wasteland. Or worse... robot-rules. In the days of polling mail long-distance, if a
    Net was not cutting it, it was very quickly dropped from my system.

    One that I find somewhat amusing lately is Spooknet. The guy running
    it really puts an effort, even if it comes across as a little bit batshit-crazy.

    Atreyu

    --- Renegade vY2Ka2 * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about
    gladiators? (21:1/176)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Might have to try Spooknet... I'm assuming it's more of a "spy" than "halloween" theme?

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Apr 27 04:24:10 2023
    On 26 Apr 23 07:04:00 poindexter FORTRAN wrote...

    Commodore Clifford wrote to Thom Miller <=-

    This is actually the #1 reason I don't call "Modern" PC based
    BBS's. Graffiti ANSI screens that go on forever and the struggle
    to find an actual active conversation.

    I had *7* ANSI screens on my BBS, reduced them down to a single
    screen chosen at random. It was a nice exercise to write a
    randomizer, after years of not coding.

    (I was a computer science major in college, but I got better...)



    ... Walk without rhythm and you won't attact the worm. ---
    MultiMail/Win v0.52 * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is
    power. (21:4/122)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    I have a few myself... all Star Trek themed of course. And I also only
    show one... but what I was trying to get at... mine are only 20 lines or
    so long... not 300 or so.... :) Some of them just seem to go on and on
    and on.

    Sure, sometimes you can ^c them, but it's just.... why?

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Roon@21:4/148 to deon on Fri Apr 28 07:33:29 2023
    Hello deon,

    27 Apr 23 13:28, you wrote to Commodore Clifford:

    Re: Re: Housekeeping
    By: Commodore Clifford to fusion on Tue Apr 25 2023 09:02 pm

    But these systems are too "retro" for some of these nets. I'm only
    here because I finally decided to break down and do a BinkD mailer
    on a linux box.

    These users could be a benefit if they could connect with their old
    mailers... but even finding a successful telnet feed is nearly
    impossible anymore.

    Binkp is not the only used mail transfer mechanism. If you want to do
    EMSI, I should be able to help with that.

    my system is capable for telnet (emsi) as well.

    Regards,
    --
    dp

    telnet://bbs.roonsbbs.hu:1212 <<=-

    ... Uptime: 20d 16h 18m 49s
    --- GoldED/2 1.1.4.7+EMX
    * Origin: Roon's BBS - Budapest, HUNGARY (21:4/148)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to deon on Fri Apr 28 18:56:03 2023
    Hi deon,

    On Thursday April 27 2023, Deon said to Commodore Clifford:

    These users could be a benefit if they could connect with their old
    mailers... but even finding a successful telnet feed is nearly
    impossible anymore.

    Binkp is not the only used mail transfer mechanism. If you want to do
    EMSI, I should be able to help with that.

    That was one reason why I used to run MBSE, as it supported those... In the
    end 99.99% of connections came from binkp... The other was people just
    testing. I gave up mbse due to some other bugs/fetures not being there.

    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Vorlon on Fri Apr 28 13:57:00 2023
    Vorlon wrote to deon <=-

    That was one reason why I used to run MBSE, as it supported those... In the end 99.99% of connections came from binkp... The other was people
    just testing. I gave up mbse due to some other bugs/fetures not being there.

    I keep my old licensed copy of internet Rex around for just such an
    occasion, as it'll do transx and I used to have a downlink who used it.

    RADIUS (and Argus/Taurus) supported ifcico and telnet, but I don't think
    anyone ever connected with those in the years I ran it.



    ... Only one element of each kind
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Apr 29 16:30:19 2023
    Hi Poindexter,

    On Friday April 28 2023, Poindexter Fortran said to Vorlon:

    That was one reason why I used to run MBSE, as it supported those...
    In the end 99.99% of connections came from binkp... The other was
    people just testing. I gave up mbse due to some other bugs/fetures not
    being there.

    I keep my old licensed copy of internet Rex around for just such an occasion, as it'll do transx and I used to have a downlink who used it.

    I feel sorry for you, rex is so many workarounds in other software to get
    past it's bugs/features.... ^->

    RADIUS (and Argus/Taurus) supported ifcico and telnet, but I don't
    think anyone ever connected with those in the years I ran it.

    One of my uplinks was running Argus for a long time, before switching to binkp... It wasn't as bad as rex in receiving or making connections
    though...

    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From Oli@21:3/102 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Apr 29 15:47:55 2023
    poindexter wrote (2023-04-21):

    If you're just
    keeping a dead echo alive, that doesn't do service to the net. To the contrary, a network full of dead echoes doesn't encourage a new caller
    to stick around, whereas a smaller number of echoes with message traffic will retain callers.

    But what is a dead echo? There are some BBS / FTN support echos which seems to be dead for months or a year, but then someone is starting a conversation. Also the previous messages (archive) is often also worth keeping.

    I think "dead" or low-traffic echos are mostly a usability / user interface problem. A low-traffic echos does no harm by itself, but I agree that a long list of useless echo is not encouraging for the user.

    â‚

    ---
    * Origin: This site requires JavaScript (21:3/102)
  • From Oli@21:3/102 to Vorlon on Sat Apr 29 16:06:18 2023
    Vorlon wrote (2023-04-22):

    Hi Poindexter,

    On Friday April 21 2023, Poindexter Fortran said to Ogg:

    The FIDONEWS echo used to be a place to discuss articles posted on
    FidoNews, but now it's turned into yet another bickerground.
    FIDONEWS

    It dosn't help that the Editor/Modertaor of that area is a total d*ck, and likes to heap sh*t on other zones. Also that there are *no* news item's posted. I thought that the job of the editor was to find things to put
    into a newsletter, and not just place the same old boiler plate/content each week.

    Nope. The job of the editor is to publish articles / news that others provide in Fidonews. As this is not happening or only very occasionally (once in a year?) the echo is now kind of the FSX_GEN of Fidonet, only much more stupid. Like Björn wrote:

    "Since the advent of most article contributors leaving, this echo now has an "anything goes" policy, just to keep it alive.
    Feel free to make some contributions, to put the echo back on track. If you don't, you have no right to complain."

    If Björn is a total dick, how would you call the people who reply with "Go fuck yourself you swedish meatball" or an ASCII art of 🖕 (middle finger)?


    â‚

    ---
    * Origin: This site requires JavaScript (21:3/102)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to deon on Sat Apr 29 09:45:30 2023
    On 27 Apr 23 13:28:15 deon wrote...

    Re: Re: Housekeeping By: Commodore Clifford to fusion on Tue Apr
    25 2023 09:02 pm

    But these systems are too "retro" for some of these nets. I'm
    only here because I finally decided to break down and do a BinkD
    mailer on a linux box.

    These users could be a benefit if they could connect with their
    old mailers... but even finding a successful telnet feed is nearly impossible anymore.

    Binkp is not the only used mail transfer mechanism. If you want to do
    EMSI, I should be able to help with that.

    ...ëîåï --- SBBSecho 3.15-Linux * Origin: I'm playing with
    ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    I thought we tried that extensively without success. :(

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Vorlon on Sat Apr 29 09:47:06 2023
    On 28 Apr 23 11:56:03 Vorlon wrote...

    Hi deon,

    On Thursday April 27 2023, Deon said to Commodore Clifford:

    These users could be a benefit if they could connect with their
    old mailers... but even finding a successful telnet feed is
    nearly impossible anymore.

    Binkp is not the only used mail transfer mechanism. If you want
    to do EMSI, I should be able to help with that.

    That was one reason why I used to run MBSE, as it supported those...
    In the end 99.99% of connections came from binkp... The other was
    people just testing. I gave up mbse due to some other bugs/fetures
    not being there.

    \/orlon aka Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5 * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net
    Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    I was actually going to set up an MBSE to try to become a hub for some of
    the other retro systems out there... guess I shouldn't put the time into
    that.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Apr 29 09:48:24 2023
    On 28 Apr 23 06:57:00 poindexter FORTRAN wrote...

    Vorlon wrote to deon <=-

    That was one reason why I used to run MBSE, as it supported
    those... In the end 99.99% of connections came from binkp... The
    other was people just testing. I gave up mbse due to some other bugs/fetures not being there.

    I keep my old licensed copy of internet Rex around for just such an occasion, as it'll do transx and I used to have a downlink who used
    it.

    RADIUS (and Argus/Taurus) supported ifcico and telnet, but I don't
    think anyone ever connected with those in the years I ran it.



    ... Only one element of each kind --- MultiMail/Win v0.52 * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Thanks for the suggestions (and the retro love). I remember the
    "RetroNet" guy just telling me "too bad". :(

    Right now, things are "stable" enough, but I do want to revisit it. Just
    have a few things I need to tackle before then.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Vorlon on Sat Apr 29 14:40:00 2023
    Vorlon wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    One of my uplinks was running Argus for a long time, before switching
    to binkp... It wasn't as bad as rex in receiving or making connections though...

    Radius wasn't bad, I switched when I was considering a move to Linux. I
    do miss the GUI, though - as a hub it's nice to see who stopped polling.



    ... Repetition is a form of change
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Oli on Sat Apr 29 14:46:00 2023
    Oli wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    I think "dead" or low-traffic echos are mostly a usability / user interface problem. A low-traffic echos does no harm by itself, but I
    agree that a long list of useless echo is not encouraging for the user.

    My point entirely is that new people come on, can't find any echoes
    with traffic and move on.




    ... Repetition is a form of change
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From deon@21:2/116 to Commodore Clifford on Sun Apr 30 16:59:05 2023
    Re: Re: Housekeeping
    By: Commodore Clifford to deon on Sat Apr 29 2023 02:45 am

    Binkp is not the only used mail transfer mechanism. If you want to do EMSI, I should be able to help with that.

    I thought we tried that extensively without success. :(

    We did?

    Spectre uses EMSI quite successfuly - and I use it to my Portal of Power/Ezycom BBS as well. Both are EMSI/ZModem, not tried EMSI/Hydra.

    One of the tricks with EMSI is whether the mailer is aware of telnet or not (or the fossil), since a "telnet" session needs to be handled correctly so that telnet IACs codes are not absorbed by the telnet session. (Only becomes an issue when transferring files.)

    For that I have qico and ifcico running - qico does the EMSI/telnet and ifcico does the EMSI/TCP. Clrghouz only does EMSI/TCP as well.

    If you wanted to have another go, we could debug it and figure out why it isnt working. It is unreliable though when using ZModem, since ZModem assumes and sync speed which is often not the case.



    ...ëîåï
    --- SBBSecho 3.15-Linux
    * Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to Oli on Sun Apr 30 17:42:44 2023
    Hello Oli,

    On Saturday April 29 2023, Oli said to Vorlon:

    If Björn is a total dick, how would you call the people who reply with
    "Go fuck yourself you swedish meatball" or an ASCII art of 🖕 (middle finger)?

    People have gottent so sick of his bull***t and jab at other countries.

    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to Commodore Clifford on Sun Apr 30 17:44:35 2023

    On Saturday April 29 2023, Commodore Clifford said to Vorlon:

    99.99% of connections came from binkp... The other was people just
    testing. I gave up mbse due to some other bugs/fetures not being
    there.

    I was actually going to set up an MBSE to try to become a hub for some
    of the other retro systems out there... guess I shouldn't put the time into that.

    Oh it funstions great as a hub system if you don't want to use the bbs side. That was what I had done with my install, when moving to another bbs
    package. The bug that affetced the hub setup was with areafix. Yes I did
    report the bug.

    As a hub *needs* areafix, it was time to change to someting else..
    (HPT/Binkley in this case)..



    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Apr 30 17:57:21 2023
    Hi Poindexter,

    On Saturday April 29 2023, Poindexter Fortran said to Vorlon:

    One of my uplinks was running Argus for a long time, before switching
    to binkp... It wasn't as bad as rex in receiving or making connections
    though...

    Radius wasn't bad, I switched when I was considering a move to Linux. I
    do miss the GUI, though - as a hub it's nice to see who stopped
    polling.

    If running HPT the 'showold.pl' script works well.. But it's not a constant thing or like a WFC screen....



    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon May 1 02:40:00 2023
    Hello poindexter FORTRAN!

    I think "dead" or low-traffic echos are mostly a
    usability / user interface problem. A low-traffic echos
    does no harm by itself, but I agree that a long list of
    useless echo is not encouraging for the user.

    My point entirely is that new people come on, can't find
    any echoes with traffic and move on.

    That is why a moderator/creator of an echo should perhaps take
    a more active role in such echos and post something new and
    unique every few days to help stir interest to participate.

    Also, since sysops are the curators and maintainers of their
    systems, they could participate in the echos that they'd LIKE
    to see active.

    In addition, it might be wise to never completely expire
    messages, but keep at least a few month's worth of fresh
    messages so that curious visitors have an idea what the echo
    actually contains.


    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to deon on Tue May 2 06:46:42 2023
    On 30 Apr 23 09:59:05 deon wrote...

    Re: Re: Housekeeping By: Commodore Clifford to deon on Sat Apr 29
    2023 02:45 am

    Binkp is not the only used mail transfer mechanism. If you
    want to do EMSI, I should be able to help with that.

    I thought we tried that extensively without success. :(

    We did?

    Spectre uses EMSI quite successfuly - and I use it to my Portal of Power/Ezycom BBS as well. Both are EMSI/ZModem, not tried EMSI/Hydra.

    One of the tricks with EMSI is whether the mailer is aware of telnet
    or not (or the fossil), since a "telnet" session needs to be handled correctly so that telnet IACs codes are not absorbed by the telnet
    session. (Only becomes an issue when transferring files.)

    For that I have qico and ifcico running - qico does the EMSI/telnet
    and ifcico does the EMSI/TCP. Clrghouz only does EMSI/TCP as well.

    If you wanted to have another go, we could debug it and figure out
    why it isnt working. It is unreliable though when using ZModem, since ZModem assumes and sync speed which is often not the case.



    ...ëîåï --- SBBSecho 3.15-Linux * Origin: I'm playing with
    ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Actually, yeah.... I need to sort out a couple other projects first, but
    I'd like to try some other options.

    I know there have been some extensive studies using the WiModem232 that
    we use for file transfers.

    Might be worth it.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Vorlon on Tue May 2 06:47:26 2023
    On 30 Apr 23 10:42:44 Vorlon wrote...

    Hello Oli,

    On Saturday April 29 2023, Oli said to Vorlon:

    If Björn is a total dick, how would you call the people who
    reply with "Go fuck yourself you swedish meatball" or an ASCII
    art of 🖕 (middle finger)?

    People have gottent so sick of his bull***t and jab at other
    countries.

    \/orlon aka Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5 * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net
    Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Actually that's part of why I disconnected the FN SysOp echo long long
    ago.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Vorlon on Tue May 2 06:49:08 2023
    Ok... so maybe I'll still look at MBSE. I wasn't intending for it to
    really be an active BBS... like you said, just a hub system.

    The STar Fleet Communications Relay to be precise.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ BBS - bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to Commodore Clifford on Wed May 3 17:44:34 2023
    Hi,

    On Monday May 01 2023, Commodore Clifford said to Vorlon:

    If Björn is a total dick, how would you call the people who
    reply with "Go fuck yourself you swedish meatball" or an ASCII
    art of 🖕 (middle finger)?
    People have gottent so sick of his bull***t and jab at other countries.

    Actually that's part of why I disconnected the FN SysOp echo long long ago.

    Yes, and his very extream cutting of quoted text...

    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195.5 to Commodore Clifford on Wed May 3 17:46:20 2023
    Hi,

    On Monday May 01 2023, Commodore Clifford said to Vorlon:

    Ok... so maybe I'll still look at MBSE. I wasn't intending for it to really be an active BBS... like you said, just a hub system.

    It does things very well... The areafix bug might have been a side affect of
    my setup having been moved from system to system.. It was very good at what
    it does. Very Remote Access vibe to the UI...



    \/orlon
    aka
    Stephen

    Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

    --- Zeus BBS 1.5
    * Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/195.5)