REPLY: 2:221/1.58@fidonet f83b6a3c
MSGID: 1:3634/12.73 61dad023
PID: GED+LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
CHRS: CP437 2
TZUTC: -0500
TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 17-02-17
 On 2022 Jan 08 23:17:00, you wrote to me:

 ml>> ..i can think of several reasons to have an echotag listed
 ml>> in the echolist without it being distributed... if you
 ml>> can't think of any reasons, perhaps you need to review the
 ml>> last 30+ years of exactly why the echolist existed and
 ml>> what it was used for?

 AA> What precludes another listing with a matching echotag to be
 AA> listed?

because there can be only one entry with the same echotag...

 AA> Basically, the ELIST can be used as a way to broadcast the
 AA> existence of local echos specific to one BBS?

so, let's start at the beginning, ok? from fidonews319...


     Fidonews                     Page 13                  12 May 1986


     =================================================================
                                  WANTED
     =================================================================

     Thomas Kenny, 107/316

     I'm very interested in ECHOMAIL networking.  I know this is a can
     of worms,  since some (many?) think  ECHOMAIL  may  (will?)  ruin
     FidoNet. Well I'm open minded and think it just might work out.

     Now  to  finally  get to the point.  I've been on a few different
     FIDOs across the country and have  discovered  that  the  use  of
     ECHOMAIL is much more widespread then I originally thought!  I've
     seen  several interesting topics being networked,  but would have
     never known about them.  Since there is nobody (as far as I know)
     acting as an ECHOMAIL coordinator  I'd  like  to  volunteer.  I'd
     like  to  do  two  things.  1  Find  out which Sysops are running
     ECHOMAIL and for what topic.  2 Create a wishlist registry.  This
     way  if  a  Sysop  wants to network an ECHOMAIL topic or generate
     interest in a new ECHOMAIL topic there will be a  clearing  house
     for such an activity!

     I  ask  everybody  that is reading this to please send me FidoNet
     mail if you:

     1  Are a sysop running ECHOMAIL (what topic & routing),

     2  know of a system running ECHOMAIL (what net/node & topic),

     3  wish there was somebody else that  shared  a  common  interest
        (what topic).

     Thank you very much, Thomas Kenny, Metatek FIDO, 107/316.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------



and this article by mike fuchs from fidonews533...


     FidoNews 5-33                Page 7                   15 Aug 1988


     Mike Fuchs
     1:1/201

               EchoList - The EchoMail Conference List
                        (It's bAAAAaaaack...)

     Ever wonder what all those EchoMail conferences are about?
     Ever wonder if there was already a conference on some
     specific topic?  Well that's why the EchoList was originally
     created.  And that's why I've resurrected it.

     For those of you who might not be familiar with it, a little
     history...

     The EchoList is an informal listing of EchoMail conferences,
     as described by each conference's moderator.  It is now a
     monthly publication which attempts to document certain
     interesting information about EchoMail Conferences;
     "interesting" to people who would like to participate,
     interesting to EchoMail Coordinators and those who route the
     conference traffic, and potentially interesting to the
     Conference Moderator.  The base product of the EchoList
     database is the detailed Conference listing.  But, as needs
     are identified which can be satisfied with the available
     information, additional reports and analyses can be
     developed.

     The EchoList was originated by Thomas Kenny, who maintained
     it as a text file completely manually.  It was a time
     consuming effort, and was updated on a very sporadic and
     infrequent basis.  The last edition published this way was
     December 1987.

     Several people (myself included) were working with Thomas on
     developing ways to automate the maintenance, and provide a
     structured database that could be used for things other than
     a simple conference listing.  As a result, he assembled a
     specification for submitting messages that would be used for
     updating the list.  Unfortunately, Thomas decided to drop
     out of FidoNet before any of the code was completed.  He
     continues to have my gratitude for all he put in to getting
     the EchoList as far as he did.

     Since I was interested (for purely personal desire) in
     having an EchoList, I picked-up that last 1987 EchoList,
     built an R:base database and application, and keyed the
     whole thing in.  The result is a semi-automated update
     application, and some nice report generation facilities.
     There's a lot more to be done.  It's still a VERY labor-
     intensive task.  But, I'm happy to say I've been able to
     publish all updates received for the last 3 months on-time.
     Now, I'm going to try and ruin that by inviting more
     updates...

     HISTORY LESSON OVER...
     That's why I wrote this article.  It has been pointed out to

     FidoNews 5-33                Page 8                   15 Aug 1988


     me that there are a lot of people who don't realize the
     EchoList is available.  Most importantly, there are a lot of
     Conference Moderators who don't know, and as a result their
     conferences aren't in, or will soon be dropped from, that
     list.

     You see, one of things that seems to be widely agreed upon
     is that, in order to be really useful, an EchoList needs
     some control criteria.  Hating bureaucracy as I do, I've
     only implemented two (at this point).  First, in order to be
     listed, a conference must have a responsible party to whom
     questions can be directed; that person is the Moderator.
     Second, since reference information is only valuable if it's
     up-to-date, an EchoList conference entry must be updated via
     message to me on a regular basis.

     So there's the reason for the article.  A number of
     conferences have already been dropped because they had no
     moderator identified.  (How anybody's supposed to join a
     conference when there's no one identified to contact, I'll
     never know, but so be it.)  The other thing is that most of
     the entries' last-update dates are VERY old.  Starting with
     this next EchoList, I will start enforcing a purge criteria.
     An awful lot of conferences will be dropped as a result.
     Many are dead wood anyway.  But there are many such
     conferences I know are alive and well, and I hope this
     article gets the message to those moderators.  If you
     frequent a conference important to you, how about letting
     the moderator know about the EchoList?

     Oh yeah, I lied.  There is one more control, but it is for
     the Moderators themselves.  A Moderator can submit an entry
     that becomes password protected.  From then-on, the
     moderator has some feeling of control over the information
     listed in the EchoList for their conference.

     [...]


i'll stop there for now as these two articles provide the basics and they are
also easily found so one can read them for themselves... how did i find these
articles? i used grep and searched my fidonews archives for "echolist" and
then for "thomas kenny" to find the original article(s) and motivations...

here is a list of all fidonews editions up to Vol 9 Num 52 that contain the
above mentioned search terms...

grep -EiH -e "(thomas kenny|echolist)" fido???.nws | cut -d":" -f1 | sort -u

fido319.nws
fido339.nws
fido407.nws
fido410.nws
fido422.nws
fido423.nws
fido425.nws
fido426.nws
fido429.nws
fido432.nws
fido433.nws
fido439.nws
fido446.nws
fido447.nws
fido507.nws
fido508.nws
fido514.nws
fido533.nws
fido534.nws
fido541.nws
fido626.nws
fido739.nws
fido741.nws
fido817.nws
fido823.nws
fido826.nws
fido829.nws
fido837.nws
fido903.nws
fido904.nws
fido911.nws
fido912.nws
fido930.nws
fido931.nws
fido942.nws
fido950.nws
fido952.nws

i stopped there for a couple of reasons... one was just because... another was
at some point, every issue contains "echolist" in it... these above are the
most important, though, when it comes to the history of the echolist... there
are a few more, as well, but these are the best place to start...

fido410 speaks of the format of the echolist... it even mentions one reason
why a non-distributed echotag may be listed... somewhere around here i have
other documents that speak of maintaining echolist entries of echotags for the
purposes of showing ownership and maintaining that ownership... i'm just the
messenger so please don't anyone start on me about that... it is what it is...
the support areas for WORDSTAR, WORDPERFECT, NOVELL, and others come to mind...

in any case, there's a bit of reading on the origins and use(s) of the
echolist for everyone to enjoy for a little bit...

)\/(ark

"The soul of a small kitten in the body of a mighty dragon. Look on my
majesty, ye mighty, and despair! Or bring me catnip. Your choice. Oooh, a
shiny thing!"
... Five word horror story: Three Billion Devices Run Java
---
 * Origin:  (1:3634/12.73)
SEEN-BY: 1/120 123 14/0 15/0 18/0 90/1 105/81 106/201 116/116 120/340
SEEN-BY: 123/0 25 40 115 131 160 180 200 755 129/305 134/101 135/300
SEEN-BY: 138/146 153/250 757 7715 154/10 222/2 226/30 227/114 229/110
SEEN-BY: 229/200 424 426 664 700 240/1120 5832 249/206 317 400 250/1
SEEN-BY: 261/1466 266/512 275/100 282/1038 292/854 299/6 300/4 301/1
SEEN-BY: 317/3 320/219 322/757 342/11 200 396/45 633/280 640/1321
SEEN-BY: 712/848 3634/0 12 15 24 27 50 119
PATH: 3634/12 153/7715 229/426