Subj : Re: Bad behaviour not wanted.
To : Nigel Reed
From : Ward Dossche
Date : Wed Nov 09 2022 10:49 am
Hello Nigel,
NR> Huh, I thought this was a sysop only group. If it's not, my bad. Maybe
NR> explains the dwindling node numbers then.
Over the past 20 years or more we have regurgitated that subject over and over again.
The dwindling numbers are explained by technology leaps, the non-plug-and-play of things ... An absolute moron can pick-up a device in a store and be on-line in minutes yelling and insulting people. In Fidonet it's different ... you need a certain level of IT-knowledge in order to participate and hence our yelling here and our insults are of a different category than mainstay-internet.
We also know about the participants, it's not that anonymous. For example we know that Dan Clough has nothing to say, therefor no-one is really worried when he opens his mouth and out comes that gibberish that can be interpreted any which way one wants.
But we also sometimes care about people ... when I don't see Janis posting I've got the urge to find out if something's wrong on her side ... A while ago Sean Dennis announced his departure. In the meantime nothing was heard anymore from him while his system continues autoposts... Is he alright? Nobody seems to have an answer ...
You don't have that on the internet ... even the Russian propaganda in Fidonet about the Ukrainian war is totally unconvincing (true, outside Fidonet it's just the same).
The Fidonet numbers have dwindled because the developers of old, the technology guru's, the people that developed the technology have gone to different, more attractive pastures ... Bob Hartman (Binkley) was scooped-up by Micro$oft for example, I don't know what Randy Bush is doing and Tom Jennings is cleaning toilets somewhere in California.
We all are "us" and there's not just a single reason or single person's fault that the numbers went down. They just did and there's nothing we can do about it.
The sexyness of Fidonet has gone, some people still try to do interesting things ... D'Bridge (of course), WinPoint, Binkd (without it, Fidonet would already be dead), Mystic, Aftershock, Rob Swindell, ...
OK, we are down 97.5% from around 1995 ... just saying that if yelling and bad words would be a contributing factor the light would have been switched-off a long time ago ...
Well, in the end there's always Gert ... of course.
