PUBLIC_KEYS pre-Backbone topology

[tomj@f111.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG (tomj)]

Here's a nerd message from PUBLIC_KEYS echo conference showing
activity and growth. This conference has been around about three
weeks.


GLOSSARY:

        node            host
        conference      newsgroup
        echo            newsgroup
        message         article
        1:222/333       FidoNet address (ie. host site address)
        backbone        a somewhat formal high-throughput systems
                        that carry a large proportion of echos. 
                        Only very popular echos are carried on the backbone;
                        low traffic ones the member sites deliver their
                        own mail (we don't ahve corp. sugardaddies like
                        most internet/uucp sites, I pay Pac Bell each month...)


The hideous unreadable gunk is a sort of 'traceroute' of generated
message traffic during some period of time, and tends to show the
topology. Echomail is a completely distributed, redundant database.
Moderation is not physically possible (there is a thing called
groupmail that is, but we're not using it). It shows who connects to
whom. There is at least one human reader/poster at each node (the
sysop); my guess would be about 1.5 average for this subject.



Why did I mail this to cypherpunks list? To show the amount of
interest in PGP, and demystify FidoNet somewhat.






here's the current report from msgs posted here:
 
PATHS: Maintain and report PATHS a message takes within an echo
       Copyright (C) 1991, Graham J Stair. All rights reserved.
       Release 1b for DOS (16th June 1991, 15:59) {-? for help}
 
Message directory   :  \msg\pkey\
Checked on          :  Sat Oct 24 18:13:40 1992
 
Number of nodes     :  53
Number of messages  :  778
Earliest message    :  Sat Oct 03 20:04:12 1992
Latest message      :  Sat Oct 24 17:06:42 1992
Messages per week   :  260.9
 
1:374/14  (180 of 774)
  |-}1:374/26  (44 of 53)
  |    |-}1:322/603  (5 of 5)
  |    |-}1:374/12  (1 of 1)
  |    |-}322/6  (4 of 4)
  |-}1:216/21  (32 of 53)
  |    |-}216/80  (0 of 21)
  |         |-}273/219  (0 of 3)
  |         |    |-}1:273/219.4  (1 of 1)
  |         |    |-}1:273/937  (1 of 1)
  |         |    |-}1:273/219.1  (1 of 1)
  |         |-}1:143/269  (18 of 18)
  |-}1:374/98  (3 of 6)
  |    |-}1:374/46  (3 of 3)
  |-}1:100/520  (11 of 11)
  |-}1:285/27  (26 of 44)
  |    |-}30102/20  (18 of 18)
  |-}1:170/109  (18 of 18)
  |-}1:105/36  (20 of 39)
  |    |-}1:105/68  (6 of 6)
  |    |-}1:105/290  (13 of 13)
  |-}135/71  (0 of 19)
  |    |-}1:135/907  (19 of 19)
  |-}1:396/1  (5 of 8)
  |    |-}203/23  (0 of 2)
  |    |    |-}125/125  (0 of 20)
  |    |         |-}125/20  (0 of 11)
  |    |         |    |-}1:125/209  (8 of 8)
  |    |         |    |-}1:125/54  (3 of 3)
  |    |         |-}1:125/33  (1 of 9)
  |    |              |-}1:308/60  (8 of 8)
  |    |-}109/25  (0 of 1)
  |         |-}1:2601/100  (1 of 1)
  |-}1:234/1  (40 of 40)
  |-}1:377/14  (56 of 78)
  |    |-}1:377/3  (19 of 19)
  |    |-}377/15  (0 of 2)
  |    |    |-}1:377/15.1  (2 of 2)
  |    |-}1:377/33  (1 of 1)
  |-}163/438  (3 of 9)
  |    |-}1:163/518  (3 of 3)
  |    |-}1:243/3  (3 of 3)
  |-}1:125/180  (54 of 112)
  |    |-}1:125/111  (38 of 38)
  |    |-}1:125/185  (2 of 2)
  |-}1:2200/101  (2 of 2)
  |-}1:135/340  (52 of 52)
  |-}1:312/2  (16 of 16)
  |-}1:106/7550  (33 of 33)
  |-}2:253/513  (2 of 2)
  |-}1:261/1136  (1 of 1)
  |-}374/92  (0 of 1)
       |-}374/13  (0 of 1)
 
 
Notes:
If a node does not appear in this report, it could mean...
   a) It did not have a message entered from it.
   b) It did not have a message pass through it to get to the top node.
   c) Its mail processor doesn't update the ^APATH: kludge with its address.
If any feeds change, the report will be unreliable.
 
[converted from high ASCII lines to low ASCII characters by CONV004.ZIP]
 
-30-
 
if we show up in FIDONET.NA tomorrow, everyone stand-by to switch over
to Backbone feeds. this ALWAYS take a couple weeks to settle down. cut
your direct links as soon as you get confirmation of link from your
Backbone source. if you don't get confirmation first, you will
probably miss traffic as the Backbone doesn't do rescans. we will get
a few dupes. this is inevitable with a private to Backbone changeover
and no one should get excited about it.  just be sure to pull your
direct plug as soon as traffic flows from your Backbone source or you
get confirmation of feed, whichever comes first.  

thanks.
 
TTFN.
Chris

--- DB 1.50/001027
 * Origin: Rights On! - Privacy #1 Right! - Titusville_FL_USA (1:374/14)
SEEN-BY: 106/1555 109/25 124/1 125/20 28 33 111 125 180 185 1212 170/610 203/1
SEEN-BY: 203/23 205/10 209/209 374/14 396/1
;;;
--  
tomj - via FidoNet node 1:125/555
    UUCP: ...!uunet!hoptoad!kumr!fidogate!111!tomj
INTERNET: tomj@f111.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG