Subj : In the future..
To : Black Panther
From : August Abolins
Date : Sun Jun 07 2020 10:37 pm
Hello Black!
** On Saturday 06.06.20 - 11:36, Black Panther wrote to August Abolins:
AA>>>> Is there a future for the techonology in FTN?
BP>>> That will depend on us. Do we have any developers left in this
BP>>> hobby? Are they willing to advance the technology?
AA>> Not fair. You can't answer a question with another question!
BP> Actually, I answered it with 2 questions. ;)
That's even worse! LOL
BP> My personal opinion, is the technology will die in the near future.
It seems to be hanging on a thin thread of various elements that require a
lot of human intervention: the nodelist, its distribution, echomail
maintenance, adherance to the lowest-denominator specs.. It also
requires quite a bit of cooperation that may already be strained and may
not get easier.
BP> As we, as Sysops, are shutting down our systems for whatever reasons.
I haven't been monitoring the growth or decline of systems, but
ipingthereforiam purports to report over 1800 telnettable systems.
The arrival of the tv didn't make radio go away.
The arrival of the iphone didn't make watches go away.
The arrival of ereaders didn't make books go away.
The arrival of the internet didn't make BBSes go away.
People just adapted to using all those things above a bit differently.
Maybe the underlying technology for FTN can adapt to the newer ways people
can experience BBSes and echomail.
BP> There are too few developers interested in trying to support legacy
BP> technologies. For those of you that are, I applaud you!
The legacy part is not unlike the challenge of restoring an old beat up
car and making it showroom worthy. But for those of us not investing the
time for that restoration and ownership, they are just a novelty, a photo-
op, and then off we go home.
Maybe the technical parts that most people can agree on that are holding
the hobby at bay can be indentified and nudged to obsolescence.
BP> The younger generations are more interested in the "point-and-click"
BP> world of Twitter, Facebook, or whatever other social medias are being
BP> used now. They want to see pictures, links to websites, and other
BP> 'visual' aspects.
Who says that it has to be purely text based? The front-end can have
icons that represent different BBSes or different echos. Maybe even the
icons can be user-selected for their liking.
Browsing through messages can be point-and-click. Many FTN interfaces
already support clickable links to external sites. But replies would
still require the traditional text input.
BP> I don't see many, if any, even interested in a basically text
BP> environment as this.
Surely you don't mean that FTN systems should have a tworking echo that
supports video clips? LOL
BP> The technology could be made into a more 'visual' environment, but it
BP> would then not be compatible with the legacy software. That is what is
BP> holding this hobby back.
The underpinning tech, the part the moves the messages around from system
to system is not really a problem. The structure of messages and all of
its FTSC documented components is not necessarily the problem either. But
as you pointed out, traditional FTN presentation lacks the visual punch
that people are accustomed to on their tablets and smartphones.
BP> At some point, we need to decide if we just want the hobby and FTN
BP> technology to move forward and stop with the "We need to maintain
BP> legacy support", or we let the technology wither away and become a
BP> footnote in history.
Other than some really old references like 300 baud in the nodelist, what
legacy elements would you be referring to?
../|ug
--- OpenXP 5.0.44
* Origin: The future is not what it used to be. (2:221/1.58)
