-=> Quoting Maurice Kinal to Nancy Backus on 12-11-05  01:29 <=-   
      
    NB> Well... if all the BBS's are gone, then so is Fido,   
      
    MK> That hasn't happened yet but it has happened here in this neck of the   
    MK> woods or at least I haven't heard of one locally.  I can say with some   
    MK> certainty that even one user will often keep the faith of the sysop of   
    MK> any BBS and keep the door open to possibilties.   
       
    NB> So far, that isn't the case, thankfully...  :)   
      
    MK> I noticed that.  Good for you!  Keep that sysop on his/her/it's toes   
    MK> eh?  It is your job as a BBS user.   
       
   Aye, Aye, Sir!  ;)   Seriously, absolutely agreed... :)  There aren't   
   many left physically here where I am, but I do appreciate the magic of   
   telnet to get to ones all over the place...  But I have always felt that   
   it was part of my job as a BBS user to be alert, appreciative and   
   helpful whenever possible, and encourage the sysop to continue.  :)  But   
   I didn't generally stick around the BBS's where the sysop didn't seem to   
   care much whether or not the users were even there... ;/  At the moment,   
   I'm an active user on boards in Rhode Island (where I usually post from),   
   Virginia, Florida, Texas and Arkansas.  There was one here locally that   
   recently emerged from the dead, but he hasn't been responding for a   
   while, since just past Thanksgiving, actually.  Another one locally I   
   just use as a checkpoint, as he doesn't have an offline door, and only   
   has a minimal setup.  I was on one in England, until he decided to take   
   it down.  It's a rare adventure, in any case, and I'm not really ready   
   yet for it to end...  ;>  You may remember I'm in Rochester, NY...?  :)   
      
    NB> Except for email, I have very little to do with the Internet itself.    
      
    MK> Personally it is more ftp then anything.  Without that I have very   
    MK> little personal use for the internet although I do use email.  However   
    MK> email by itself wouldn't be enough to keep my attention for long.   
       
   Most of my email is keeping in touch with friends, sometimes family.    
   And my primary BBS sends me my QWK packets via email... He started doing   
   it when the bbs had to be down unavoidably, and I had no really decent   
   alternative at that time for getting my Fidomail.  Now, it's just   
   convenient, especially when I'm away from the computer for days, to have   
   my packet automagically taken care of and sent to me.   
      
    MK> Right.  That is a toughie since most providers frown upon their users   
    MK> putting up telnet and/or ftp sites which makes it rather difficult, if   
    MK> not impossible, for most.  Then there is the difficulty knowing exactly   
    MK> who your users are for sure.   
       
   I understand there are still ways of tracking them down...  Even on the   
   local dial-ups there were users who tried to hide their identities, and/   
   or who balked at giving their phone numbers, etc.  As to the providers,   
   I unndrstand that with DSL, there's less frowning on the telnet and ftp   
   sites since I thought the main objection was to tying up the service?   
      
   ttyl      neb   
      
   ... BBS?  Yeah, I do bbs.  But I can control it ...   
      
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