[nos-bbs] Bulletins, really?

Michael Fox - N6MEF n6mef at mefox.org
Mon Mar 13 10:24:41 EDT 2017


Does anyone really read bulletins anymore?  If yes, what is the proof?

 

The reason I ask:  

 

I just saw a bunch of 7+ bulletins come through, pumping up the bulletin
mailbox size.  BTW, I know this because of a bug in JNOS that causes the
mailbox to explode in size (10s or 100s of MBs) when using "mbox fbb 2".  So
I wrote a script to monitor mailbox sizes.  I ended up going back to "mbox
fbb 0" for stability, but the script is still running.

 

So, I wondered who even uses this stuff anymore.  In fact, I wouldn't even
know what to do with a 7+ bulletin.  (I know it's some sort of compressed
image, but I don't know how to create one or read one.)  So I checked the
mailbox .usr files.  Out of 225+ users in our user group, we have about 50
who are "regularly active", which I define as connecting at least once a
week.  And in the .usr file for the bulletin mailboxes, I find only 1 user
call sign. 

 

And, for that one user, did he/she actually read anything?  On a regular
basis?  Or did they just connect once, list the mailbox, maybe read one
bulletin, and go away, never to return.  There's no way to know.

 

So it seems to me that a lot of effort and RF bandwidth (worldwide) is used
to push around stuff that no one reads.  (At least, no one around here).  

 

Does anyone have an real data supporting the regular use of bulletins?

 

Michael

N6MEF

 

 

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