Hello Android8675,
On 28 Dec 13 17:36, Android8675 wrote to Nightfox:
...what do you mean there are less Fidonet boards than there was back
in the day... well yeah, everyone went to the web. QWK networks have
been around a while, but compare the nodelist for Fidonet with the boardlist of Dovenet.
Compare that Fidonet nodelist to the amount of actual active posters in Fidonet once. I'd bet there's more contributions from _different_ people on Dovenet than there is Fidonet - or pretty damn close even.
I may be wrong, but I think there's still more boards on Fido. Z2
seems to be pretty big still... Dovenet is certainly active and
probably one of the best "othernets", but Fido is still the
mothership.
Sure. If you can speak Russian, that part of Fidonet is still huge. But take a look at the zone 1 list, and out of that pretty decent sized list, how many of those people actually post? Better yet, try connecting to some of those systems. I'd bet 50% of them aren't even hooked up anymore. There's some lazy *Cs that don't check their nodes and update their nodelist segments - or would rather have a bigger list under their net even though most of the systems are down or have been gone for quite some time.
I think having access to Fidonet is still pretty cool and something
that BBSs today should have access too. I mean you don't have to pull
in a ton of echos if you don't want too, but Fidonet is a network
thats kind of unique. Microsoft calls their XBox Live Network a
"Closed Garden" meaning it's a network that works on the Internet, but there are barriers in place that restrict access. In MS's case, you
have to be on an XBox to get onto XBLive.
A BBS can still be very successful without Fidonet. It's a nice added feature to your system, but most of the time you're reading a bunch of 60+ year olds bicker at each other like they're in gradeschool. What's the good in that?
Fidonet is in the same/similar state, it's a closed garden that
benefits from the connectivity of the Internet, but is only accessable
via a BBS with a Fido Mailer and a working uplink.
I'm willing to bet more than 50% of the Fidonet nodelist don't even run BBSs. so, it's not _only_ accessible via a BBS. For example, right here I'm posting from a mail only node, which is setup with a mailer, tosser, and a sysop editor (GoldEd). There is no BBS on this node.
Some people run a mailer, tosser, and NNTP server, and access it with their favorite news reader. Still no BBS there.
Of couse Fidonet isn't really that closed because all the echos are crossposted to usenet and other networks, so it's more of an open garden....
True. Still haven't figured out if that actually helped Fidonet, or ruined it, or if people just don't care anymore. :)
Regards,
Nick
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