Re: Conference Traffic

> least initially IMO.  This would be support for a simple blog, online store,
> RSS feeds etc..
>   Take a look at this quote from wikipedia about Gcomm
>  "This release finally focused on an active html web-based community that cou
> have been a home run if the company had pursued it rather than the
> client-server strategy three years earlier". wikipedia
> Accoring to wiki, Gcomm went down before switching to a nice web based system
> They say it could of been a home run?  I sit here to thinking WHY has nobody
> picked up the ball and ran with this idea.. It's beyond me..  It is so obviou
> that a simple well planned WEB/Telnet BBS would be a hit if the "philosophy"
> and "direction" of the BBS software are in the right direction.
> If there is any doubts think about this:  The current internet infrastructure
> has two fatal flaws where BBS infrastrucute is/or can be better
> 1.  The current organization of the internet is horrible for supplying
> individuals with the information they want.  There is alot of information on

The demise of Galacticomm is an interesting story.  AOL is what essentially
killed theBBS.  More specifically, when AOL went from pay-perphour to
unlimited, the masses were introduced to "the internet" as AOL offered it.
For many years and still today people refer to AOL as "the internet".  Of
course we all know that ARPA net and the Internet existed 30 years before
AOL, however with the masses comes money.  Now WorldGroup was in direct
competition with AOL, as were a few other BBS systems (Excaliber, PowerBBS).
The main flaw with BBS systems is the localized style that it offers.  I know
we all prefer this, but to the average user ( where the $ is) do not prefer a
system with no people.  The offering of a Central Hub in which all users
connect and can Chat is why (i think) that AOL dominated.  The chat system
offered people the reality of chatting directly to their friends, or othe
rpeople.  Tim Stryker (MBBS creator and leader of Galacticomm) saw this too
late I think and simply lacked the capital to market his products againt
america online, who obviously sent millions and millions of CDs to people for
years.  So, its not that nobody has or had your idea, its just the idea was
shot down by a central style model and also by a huge corporation's
marketing.  Ultimatly Tim Stryker commited suicide and since then all of
GComm's products are in a  whirlwind.  Two companies claim the rights to
WorldGRroup.  NetVillage and World Group Wre.  One claims to have purchsaed
it from the bank which Gcomm owed tons of money to, tthe others claim some
other means.  But the ideas you guys are throwing out are great in theory,
but that model is in place now in the BBS community.  Each "Village/BBS" is
frequented by only a handfull of people and generates external competition,
which eventually causes people to get frustrated because nobody wants to play
a game with only 3 people.  Just like AOL wouldnt have been as sucessful if
only 3 people had been on to chat with.