Quoting August Abolins to Sean Dennis on 11-07-19 21:23 <=-
Yep.. Janis's report is great! I've extolled its virtues in the past. Decker's HPT Daily Report in the STATS echo is pretty good too,
actually. I assume the list ignores the echos with zero traffic to
show only active echos for the day. That keeps the clutter down very nicely.
However, my whole concern is how is a user or non-sysop supposed to
know what echos are worth participating in.
"Hello User! Now that you have accessed the Fidonet echos, watch FIDOGAZETTE and STATS echos for clues to which echos are available.
We leave it up to you to figure out which ones have merely robotic
content and which ones strike up conversations with actual people".
:(
This is why I thought the 5-step method with the "FIDONET ECHO
ACTIVITY TOOL" I put together at: http://kolico.ca/fidonet/echos/future4fido/
...could help, better. The user can narrow down an echo of recent activity by noting the last post date, and take a sneak peak at the content.
It's too bad those Sychronet sites don't display the short/official
echo names. Without it, there is another layer of obfuscation for
the user to decode.
As an example, instead of just this:
The Cats_Meow Sanity Check Echo | 134 | Oct-26-19 17:54
Commodore Computer Conference | 426 | Oct-27-19 22:03
Commercial for Sale Echo | 1 | Dec-09-18 23:53
Classic Computers | 204 | Oct-30-19 10:26
Gossip and chit-chat echo | 101 | Jul-07-19 09:17
An extra column for the official echo name would unify the environment across the many other systems better:
CATS_MEOW : The Cats_Meow Sanity Check Echo| 134 | Oct-26-19 17:54 CBM : Commodore Computer Conference | 426 | Oct-27-19 22:03 CFORSALE : Commercial for Sale Echo | 1 | Dec-09-18 23:53 CLASSIC_COMPUTER: Classic Computers | 204 | Oct-30-19 10:26 COFFEE_KLATSCH : Gossip and chit-chat echo | 101 | Jul-07-19 09:17
For a sysop, decoding tables and stats is a no brainer. But I am approaching this dilema from a first timer's exposure to retro-net <g> Hence my imagining a server database of sorts that identifies active
echos on a minimum of key hub systems on one screen display.
Sysop: | Rempala |
---|---|
Location: | Richlands, NC |
Users: | 106 |
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Uptime: | 21:22:52 |
Calls: | 242 |
Files: | 6 |
Messages: | 111,684 |