TID: PX/Win v3.0pr5 PX96-0466M2   
   MSGID: 1:123/140 73fc3f64   
   TZUTC: -0500   
   -=> Quoting August Abolins to Sean Dennis on 11-07-19  21:23 <=-   
      
    AA> Yep.. Janis's report is great! I've extolled its virtues in the past.   
    AA> Decker's HPT Daily Report in the STATS echo is pretty good too,   
    AA> actually. I assume the list ignores the echos with zero traffic to   
    AA> show only active echos for the day. That keeps the clutter down very   
    AA> nicely.    
      
   It's a least a good starting point...    
      
    AA> However, my whole concern is how is a user or non-sysop supposed to   
    AA> know what echos are worth participating in.   
    AA> "Hello User!  Now that you have accessed the Fidonet echos, watch     
    AA> FIDOGAZETTE and STATS echos for clues to which echos are available.   
    AA> We leave it up to you to figure out which ones have merely robotic   
    AA> content and which ones strike up conversations with actual people".   
    AA> :(   
      
   My experience has been that there aren't really all that many echoes   
   that I have enough interest in to check out, so it doesn't really take   
   long to figure out which are robotic and which are real people...   
      
    AA> This is why I thought the 5-step method with the "FIDONET ECHO   
    AA> ACTIVITY TOOL" I put together at:   
    AA> http://kolico.ca/fidonet/echos/future4fido/   
    AA> ...could help, better.  The user can narrow down an echo of recent     
    AA> activity by noting the last post date, and take a sneak peak at the     
    AA> content.   
      
   That could be useful... :)   
      
    AA> It's too bad those Sychronet sites don't display the short/official   
    AA> echo names.  Without it, there is another layer of obfuscation for   
    AA> the user to decode.   
    AA> As an example, instead of just this:   
    AA> The Cats_Meow Sanity Check Echo  | 134 | Oct-26-19 17:54   
    AA> Commodore Computer Conference    | 426 | Oct-27-19 22:03   
    AA> Commercial for Sale Echo         |   1 | Dec-09-18 23:53   
    AA> Classic Computers                | 204 | Oct-30-19 10:26   
    AA> Gossip and chit-chat echo        | 101 | Jul-07-19 09:17   
    AA> An extra column for the official echo name would unify the environment   
    AA> across the many other systems better:   
    AA> CATS_MEOW       : The Cats_Meow Sanity Check Echo| 134 | Oct-26-19 17:54   
    AA> CBM             : Commodore Computer Conference  | 426 | Oct-27-19 22:03   
    AA> CFORSALE        : Commercial for Sale Echo       |   1 | Dec-09-18 23:53   
    AA> CLASSIC_COMPUTER: Classic Computers              | 204 | Oct-30-19 10:26   
    AA> COFFEE_KLATSCH  : Gossip and chit-chat echo      | 101 | Jul-07-19 09:17    
      
   That's pretty much something that the bbs software sets up...  In my   
   experience, having gone to many different bbses with all sorts of   
   different softwares over many years, some will have the official echo   
   tag along with an explanation, some only the official tag, and others   
   only the explanation (which as you've found sometimes isn't all that   
   helpful)...   
      
    AA> For a sysop, decoding tables and stats is a no brainer.  But I am     
    AA> approaching this dilema from a first timer's exposure to retro-net      
    AA> Hence my imagining a server database of sorts that identifies active   
    AA> echos on a minimum of key hub systems on one screen display.   
      
   A first-timer's exposure at this stage of the game quite naturally could   
   be overwhelming, granted.... Back in the day, there were many times more   
   echoes available, most of which were actually quite active, so whatever   
   your interest, you probably could find a dozen or more at least that   
   would catch your fancy... which was a different sort of overwhelming...   
   Now, some of the bigger ones are long gone (such as the one that   
   originally snagged me into bbsing, GENEALOGY), and others still hang in,   
   with much smaller populations, but still have a following.... like   
   MEMORIES and COOKING, and others... :)   
      
   ttyl       neb   
      
   ... All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt   
      
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