Hi folks, nice to be contributing again for Door World. Anything gets to be grind after doing it so many times but I kind of missed all the action around here. Believe it or not things have picked up quite a bit since I was last involved with the magazine. Response has been terrific. Huh, maybe it was because I left? Check out the letter below that I cut from the fidonets doorgame echo. It sort of echoes a lot of feelings of sysops these days and is what I would like to talk about this month. Area : DOORGAMES Date : Sat Apr 13, 22:16 Subj : Re: internet vs. bbs's 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 BG> I am glad the bbs has slowed down in a way as I am constantly trying BG> to improve it... and this gets me extra time to do it... I will BG> always have my bbs... for me at least... those that do this hobby for BG> others have no front teeth left... and if they haven't had their BG> teeth kicked in by a kidd user then they must be new ;) I feel the same as you do, here in Toronto MANY sysops are closing down their BBS's.. most of their excuses for doing so are: a) It's no fun to run a BBS.. (anymore) b) the internet is KILLING Us. c) users don't call anymore. Well, I personally have the following to tell to all you sysops who think the same way. 1) Running a BBS is FUN if you do it as a hobby, and you support stuff which YOU like, and not because it makes you "C00L" or you want to make money off of it. I personally run a Music / Art / Sound Card support BBS, and in the last few months I've been getting more calls then EVER before! My highest activity rate to date (in the 2 years the bbs existed) occurred just a few weeks ago! So if you have good message areas, good files, and you have fun running your system.. (To tell you the truth, first thing I do when I get home is scan my mail box, I have netmail, internet mail, and whatnot routed right into the system, it's great!) So if you have fun running the BBS, people will have fun calling you! Oh, and good advertising ALWAYS help, my system is advertised in a local computer paper (I didn't even put it in, but somebody did!) :) 2) The internet is NOT killing the BBS world.. in fact, I think the BBS world is BETTER than the internet (I can hear the boo's and Hisses coming my way). But ever since I got on the net 3 years ago, I didn't like it that much, for the following reasons: - 95% of the WWW is GARBAGE! Who the hell cares what you pet dog's name is and that your goldfish has a camera looking down at him. I go to university now, and when I needed to do a research paper on a SIMPLE topic I found SQUAT on the internet.. it's more balonny than anything else.. once companies will find there is no profit to make off the net, they'll drop it, and it will die just because of it's "freedom"... - The newsgroups are a MESS! Give me a Fidonet area ANYTIME OF DAY! Newsgroups are a mess, takes FOREVER to get a response, and what more so, you get these kids that find it so cool to say the F word every other word.. you'll never get away with in local BBS areas, local nets, and FidoNet! - FTP sites STINK... Sure, I can find what I'm looking for because I'm a highly experienced computer user, but for the masses, who barely know how to connect to the WWW, imagine them trying to use FTP! So they're stuck using the WWW for files.. Oh, here's a good example why the net STINKS. Try to find a good place for online games... or LORD IGM's.. took me 30 minutes until I found that be uniserve place, only problem is that it's all OFFLINE! There's why a BBS is better, its ORGANIZED, and it's ONLINE! - Let's not even START with Gopher.. :) Oh, one last thing, I have the ability to hook my system as a telenet linkup to the internet, so people can telenet.. and it's free for me from my university.. so I left a voting question about who would want it.. only 25% agreed that it would be a good idea! So BBS's are still ALIVE, they're still BETTER, and things such as LORD and interplanetary BRE will still KILL the internet ANY DAY! Leon Kiriliuk [Team OS/2] A Happy 416 Sysop! --- * Origin: The Sight & Sound BBS (416)665-6908 (1:259/532) I saw a few letters like the above on my favorite topic in the Doorgames FidoNet echo, which incidentally is still the best place around to find out what's going on with the world of doors. The letters got me thinking again about the rotten year everyone is having selling doors and BBSes. Everyone is blaming it on the net and I suppose they are correct. Most of these folks myself included up to a while ago were predicting the end of BBSing as we know it. I even went so far as to get my own web page and start one for Door World Magazine as well. Lately however I have begun to hate the slowness of the web and also the fact that it is extremely hard to find what I am looking for. I never seem to come up the exact information I am looking for, more likely I end up with something close enough. It becomes easier to pull out my encyclopedia CD's and use them. The games on the net are a joke. None of the pages I have checked out are interactive and unless some genius comes up with a way to speed things up, the net is going to find it's new found popularity going away pretty quickly. Just where are all the new modem freaks going to find some fun? On their local BBSes that's where! I'm serious, most of the folks who were introduced to the net through AOL or one of it's counterparts have NO idea that BBSes even exist! in fact AOL and CompuServe may have done us a HUGE favor by getting millions of people in to modeming with their advertising that we could never have reached, then giving them a slow and cumbersome product. All we need to do is get the word out to these people that there is something better! Yes, start thinking of what we have as better. Big is not necessarily better. Big is slow and impersonal. In my local area we have one big BBS, which by some standards is not in large. 8 lines and lot's of files. About six months ago the guy who runs it decided to be a local ISP. He is doing quite well with the ISP stuff but has let his BBS fall into ruin. I have what I consider a very good idea and will share it with you. I just hope that he doesn't read this! Now correct me when I am wrong, most folks calling out on a modem are either looking for some fun or they are looking for files. If they can do this and get their E-Mail at the same time then it's a real plus. Once people start growing weary of the net and the hype wears off, internet access, with the exception of E-mail is going to become a mute point if these folks can get the files they are looking for locally. This is not as hard as it sounds. What with companies practically giving hard drives away, one would need only a small amount of investment capital to start a local file depository. Getting the files is no problem. First a bunch of el-cheapo 2x CD's online will give you thousands of files right off the bat. Then for less then a thousand you can get yourself a satellite dish and be instantly hooked up to many files transfer echo's. Most if not all software authors use these echo's to distribute their programs. Wa-la! With a very small amount of cash-o-la up front, much less than someone who starts up as a local ISP you have created a place where people who want files are going to call. These people will soon find that it is much easier to find files on your system then it is on the net. With the exceptions of the computers you have very little overhead. You don't have the price of a T1 line hanging over your head each month. With some creative advertising in the right places (like on your local ISP's web page), the local newspaper and such you will be drawing in the folks who are looking for files and the curious. The curious ones, you may be able to hook with E-mail and some good interactive doors. If you think this is a good idea, you will also need to set up some kind of support line in the evening. Most of these folks have no idea how to unzip an archived file and set it up. But that's OK, because a ten minute phone conversation will earn you a neophyte as a friend for life who will support you. BBSes are not dead! They are just getting started! Dave Wendling 1:332/127 FidoNet mail or dwendlg@bcn.net Or you can reach me from the Door World Home page http://www.bcn.net/~dwendlg �