TID: Mystic BBS 1.12 A45   
   MSGID: 1:227/702 66b5c7a6   
   TZUTC: -0400   
    AA>  DC> I'm about ready to go back to a land line as well.   
    AA>    
    AA> Why?   
    AA>    
      
   August,   
      
   We both kind of prefer the written word then Tick Tock right?  I think I've   
   read you discuss that.  We are to a point in society where people look at   
   their phones in the middle of a conversation with you and never look up.  My   
   wife texts me from the other room.  My Dad facebook messages me a quick   
   update on his schedule rather then calling.  Customers use text as a day   
   planner, invasivly texting on weekends in the late evening hours, or during a   
   family movie night.  It's getting to the point where when people need to   
   solve a problem they email, or text.  But dare ask them to pick up the phone   
   and they act afraid and or inconvenienced.  My wife, and I love my wife,   
   don't get me wrong, it's just easier to use real reference then point fingers   
   .. her dad wants to buy us a chest freezer for her past birthday.  She'll get   
   online and see that it says "call store for details, no online orders," and   
   she'll call her dad and simply say "They don't have any."  Instead of simply   
   calling the store and inquiring.  Or If there is a problem with an inaccurate   
   charge to her account from a retailer, she'll send a quick email, forget   
   about it, and never get it resolved.  Or, my past clients, would ask "why do   
   I have weeds?"  Well .. that requires a lot of questions, a lot of   
   explanation to type within email.  So I'd try to call -- they won't answer.    
   So I used to spend over an hour compiling an email explaining their   
   situation, after reviewing their home, and it would go unread.  I'm to a   
   point, until I own another business (Learning HTML right now ..) that if   
   someone wants to talk to me they can call.  I don't reply to texts from   
   family or friends, other then BBS friends.  But not those that I've known for   
   years.  I don't reply to their emails either.  They wanna talk -- call.    
   There is no substitute then hearing my dads voice, or seeing him face to   
   face.  Not to mention that if not careful, people read tone into written   
   communication, most of the time inaccurately.  I literally could have taken a   
   lot out of context to my newbie questions on FSXnet, but has not trained   
   themselves to read with postive intent, they usually read tone into messages   
   incorrectly.  So, while I'm joking about a land line .. albeit their dang   
   cheap right now ... I treat my cellpone as one while unemployeed.  Oh, and   
   younger generations want to do a job interview via text too .. I never hired   
   those that did.     
      
   Now smart phones have their place.  I love the instant access to stocks, or   
   weather, or my schedule, alarms, etc.... but not a replacement for human   
   interaction, nor a rude distraction to someone who is genuinly trying to   
   communicate with me.   
      
    AA> He's found a purposeful activity.  Keep encouraging it.  FB is fairly     
    AA> simple.   I steered my mom to FTN echomail in the pre-FB days.  She     
    AA> mastered the quoting and cleaning up of wrapped lines very nicely.  She     
    AA> participated in a few online forums too.   
    AA>    
      
   Yeah ..... Oddly he did not find a purposeful activity .. he grudgenly   
   adopted it and now uses it annoyingly, assuming everyone is able to see his   
   messages.  When I try to show him stuff like that .. he becomes a grump.    
   lol!  He's a "self sustained living, retired minister" who lives in a town of   
   no more than 50 people.  He's funny, but when my children tried to connect   
   with him via the "Child Safe Facebook Messenger" feature .. he immediatly   
   assumed it a scan and scalded us for having enough technology to deal with   
   and how it was likely a scan to steal his credit card information.  lol!  God   
   love him ...   
      
    AA> That is one of the annoyances of FB for me..  lack of proper S)earch in   
    AA> a regular personal account. Otherwise, FB resembles one long continuous     
    AA> toilet-paper roll of meaningless crap: photos of food, stupid shared     
    AA> memes/jokes, etc.   
    AA>    
    AA> But I found out that a Group account does allow S)earches.  Maybe have a   
    AA> group account for your dad.   
    AA>   
      
   See my FSXnet reply to the above, however a quick add .. I started a facebook   
   group to do videos and text on all things turf care.  I have tons of videos   
   to edit and upload.  And they are much more user friendly then the general   
   news feed.     
      
    AA> This echo, COFFEE_KLATSCH, is a good home-base to start from.  Then,   
    AA> find another echo that might interest you, and try to steer people to   
    AA> that to continue those specific topics.   
    AA>    
      
   Took your advice -- the DAD echo.  I'm starting a FidoNet All Pro Dad group,   
   so any dads reading, go check it out.  It's an excellent program that I'll be   
   coordinating the material of for you to enjoy with your kids.  It was onlyh   
   $50 for the year to be a "Captain," but was able to establish it as a FidoNet   
   All Pro Dad Chapter .. and allows me access to all of the Family first   
   content.  Next up August -- Lawn Care.  But my HTML online class has consumed   
   my time to write the material in text for a BBS format.     
      
    AA> Put out posters in your community at places like grocery stores,     
    AA> laundromats, post offices.   
    AA>    
      
   Thats a cool concept I had not thought of.  My sister, Mary, is a 40 year old   
   Hippie stil hanging out at the Festivals with the 20 somethings.  However,   
   she's an incredible artist, very well known in her scene, and is at those to   
   either display her paintings, or kinda odd to me, but paints on stage with   
   the bands playing .. Apparently it's a thing and she's requested every   
   weekend year round.  I'll speak to her regarding that.  She'd have the hook   
   ups.  But I do feel that the Millenials are very into Retro / Nostalgia, and   
   have more in common with us GenX / Boomers that BBS then we think -- they too   
   value their privacy, want annonymity, like to speak their minds, enjoy retro   
   stuff, and prefer local community feel.  And they too hate facebook ;)   
      
   You, I'm sure very much rember, the day of each SysOp sending $5-$10 a month   
   to the hub to make the long distance call out of state for networking?  What   
   if we did that for facebook, snap chat, or other ads?  I've also noticed that   
   a lot of BBS pages are set up as archive/historical purposes, and/or are not   
   clean and user friendly; beit in UI or or in the nomenclature used to   
   describe what a BBS is.  While it's silly to think we can reinvent acronymns,   
   when hitting a landing page, maybe using the word "Apps" instead of "Files,"   
   or "Games" instead of "Doors," or "Blogs" instead of "Echos" would be   
   examples of ways to modernize the URL facing marketing toward BBS's. In   
   addition, to your point, there are grass roots marketing that is simple and   
   free, and could collect a few users.  However, as a busines owner, you know,   
   frequency and debth witin marketing is what creates the most clicks and   
   traffic.  Which also leads me to whether or not we are utilizing google (is   
   it called ad words?) correctly?  I think, totally unrelated words:  COVID,   
   TRUMP, etc... included within our text can surely draw more clicks then   
   "founded in 1989, My BBS was ..."  Being strategic in how URL's are created,   
   with click tracking tools can assist greatly.  Lastly, I know two guys that   
   can redirect web traffic (albeit not always for long) to their website as   
   opposed to another ... I don't like those dirty tactics.  However, I think we   
   have an excellent, relevant, and very much alive format of "Social Media"   
   that people crave from the mainstream tech companies out there; without the   
   flaws .. however minus the photos ... which some just won't ever get or   
   understand.   
      
    AA> Your "Breaking News" write-up at telentbbsguide.com is very good!    
      
      
   Thank you!  Can't wait till you call!  :)  I'll work on being less wordy.  I   
   free write.  I don't have the patience to sentence combine, and reduction lol!   
      
   Glad I finally got the rescan on this echo ... love these types of   
   conversations!   
      
   --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)   
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