Hi ED,   
      
    In a message dated 07 Feb 17 you wrote to ALL :   
      
    EK> Just a one time post to hopefully bring more bbs callers to our hobby.   
      
    EK> Doc's Place BBS has been online since 1991 and was one of the first   
    EK> internet bbses when dial up bbses were going offline.   
    EK> http://www.was-ist-fido.de/doks/fnews/fido1733.txt   
    EK> A post similar to this one back in 2000 revived a dead board, and I'm   
    EK> hoping to attract new callers.   
      
   Well, although it´s very unlikely that I´ll follow your invitation to visit   
   your BBS, I think you bring up an interesting point: Advertising Fidonet in   
   general.   
      
   I´ve been thinking about advertising Fidonet for some days before your   
   post. What is written in that Fidonews article fido1733.txt is still true   
   today: the Internet is more of a global community, whereas Fidonet and   
   BBSes are more of a local community. I really enjoyed meeting up with my   
   points and other sysops in the 90s on a monthly basis.   
   I think this local community thing is something that can be advertised,   
   although I don´t know yet how to do this in a good way that really attracts   
   people.   
      
   For example I thought of placing BBS ads in local newspapers. Often   
   newspapers offers small advertisments for free. Why not use that and place   
   ads there from time to time?   
   Maybe you can get more attention by this kind of ads than posting to a   
   website. I did so on Debian Planet (see original articles on my blog:   
   https://blog.windfluechter.net/category/344/tags ), but in contrast to   
   other Debian related posts, I only got a few reads on them while Linux   
   related articles usually get hundreds of reads in short time. So, maybe the   
   Internet has not the right audience to place ads.   
      
   Additionally, and I included those arguments in my second blog post as   
   well, Fidonet offers some advantages over the Internet in these times were   
   some regimes think you can shutdown the Internet in their countries if the   
   like. Fidonet with dialin access and bundled messages can offer those   
   people in those countries an alternative to access free and uncensored   
   media.   
      
   And although most traffic in Fidonet is nowadays handled by Internet   
   connections, nobody needs to fear the cost implications anymore, even when   
   they are using dialin connections. At least over here in Germany most phone   
   carriers provide flat rates for national calls.   
      
   And yes, I really love that sound of my modem when someone connects. Still   
   today! :-)   
      
   --    
   Ciao...             //    email: ij@2017.bluespice.org   
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    * Origin: AmigaXess - back in FidoNet after 17 years (2:2452/413.2)