
Date : Dec 02 '94, 23:30                                                       
From : Roy J. Tellason                                         1:270/615
To   : All                                 
Subj : a few thoughts on "othernets"...                                      


I've been browsing this area for a while,  and while there were a few things
that caught my interest,  there are also an awful lot of things that completely
turn me off.  If you're thinking about posting a message in here about your net,
starting a net,  or whatever,  then _maybe_ the following would be of interest
to you.

1.  Too frequent postings.  This is by far the biggest turnoff of all in here.
There are some folks who are posting the same stuff with only a few days having
gone by since they last posted.  What a waste of my hard drive space.

2.  Nodelists,  apps,  and basically sticking your info pack here in the echo.
This is also inconsiderate and a waste as far as I'm concerned.  If your posted
ad is well written and grabs my interest,  then I'll freq the bloody info pack
and if not you're wasting my and everybody elses time and drive space.

3.  No info at all.  Too much of this stuff is talking about nets,  things that
they want me to spend my long distance money on,  and yet there really isn't
enough info in the post to give me any reason whatsoever to want to get involved
in it.  I've seen posts in here whose bulk was described in #2 above who *still*
didn't really tell me enough about the net they were trying to promote to grab
my interest.

4.  Focus,  or lack of it.  If I want a wide variety of echos I've got fidonet
here.  If I'm going to be troubled with setting up another net here on my
system,  I've gotta have something that's going to set it apart from the rest of
the stuff that's out there.  A couple of good examples of this are
business-oriented nets,  "adult" nets,  etc.  Yet I saw a net in my reading
earlier this evening which was ostensibly about "freedom" and yet listed
conferences in that post which included such things as playing BRE and ansi art.
That's focus?  I don't think so...

5.  I don't see "no real names" as being an asset to things.  Optional is a
little different...

6.  Likewise,  I see lack of moderators,  lack of rules,  etc. as being not much
of an asset either.  I carry one net here like that,  mostly handles, nobody
bothering to stick messages where they might have anything to do with the topic
of the conference,  etc.  I keep it on my system for kids who want that sort of
thing,  and seldom even find the time to read the sysop conferences,  much less
the rest of them.

If you run a net that's not what I just got done describing,  feel free to drop
me some netmail.  I'm a hub for two nets of the four I carry here at the moment,
quite comfortable with adding more to my software,  and would be willing to talk
at least,  but it's gotta have enough of a focus to give me some incentive to do
so,  or I'm not going to bother...

Just my NTBHO,
ttyl

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 * Origin: TANSTAAFL BBS (1:270/615)

