»CL6:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- »CL0: The (Not So) Reliable Swapper Chart »CL6:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Written by »CL5:Darkhawk »CL6:of »CL5:IRIS »CL1:Ahh yes, sadness. despair.. emptiness. Feelings of vast desolation and dejectedness overcome me. In other, and more plain words. Lack of support! Yes, I am partly responsible for this, naturally, as the main editor it is my task to secure support by whatever means possible, and I neglected to do that this time. Instead, »CL8:I foolishly waited for support to come, but no, no support came (no letters came either, which might explain the first).»CL1: And I noticed this too late (like.. 1 day before I have to finish all articles, ehr).. In the end, I did get letters back, swapping was not completely dead, but sadly, no one had any recommendations for me.. »CL7:So, what to do? Well, I might write an article about the current state of the swapping scene instead»CL1: (I sent out the EC43 as the last thing I did, and now, 5 months later, I have gotten 5 replies to my 21 sent letters. This is the strongest indication I have ever had about the swapping scene being wrecked), but no! (Ahh, you feared I would, did you not?) I already wrote such an article for DISC #12, although if I wrote it now, it would not be as positive as that one. Instead, »CL8:I will write about the 5 swappers I swap with, who ARE infact reliable,»CL1: that means, I will list those who wrote me back, and whom I can count on. I might even be cruel, and list some of those who did not answer back, but let us see.. Bear in mind that this means it is only I, who rate these swappers and no one else. »PIC:4.iff» »PIC:4.iff» »PIC:4.iff» »CL4:Angeldust »CL1:Yes, he is reliable and writes long letters. That is still true, although his 'delay' gets longer than in the past, which is worrying . However, I still have faith in Angeldust, he is not likely to quit, so he is still one of those solid rocks you can count on. »CL6: Markus Nimtz Noellestraße 22 29646 Bispingen Germany »CL4: Kempy »CL1:Kempy is steady and writes good, long letters too. He also delayed a bit before answering me this time though. This, along with him getting a bit more sad about the lack of letters he gets, does not bode well either, but well, he is still active and engaged. He, like the rest of us, just needs more activity (=letters) to hit him, so write him if you want a reliable and interesting contact. »CL6: Pshemo Kowalkczyk Kopernika 13/14 34-100 Wadowice Poland »CL4: Makak »CL1:Makak is friendly, writes long letters, and is also one of the faster repliers usually. This came true this time also, him being the second one who replied to my last letter. Well, a reply time of 2 months is the same speed as I have (when I am fast, ehr), but it is the standard speed now. Makak is certainly a cool swapper, whom everyone should be in touch with. »CL6: Maciej Nowicki Slonecznikowa 5/7 15-669 Bialystok Poland »CL4: Powerslave »CL1:He has been the fastest of my contacts for 3 or more years, and very steady too, although the latest letter from him was somewhat slow in coming. I am not too worried though, as he has been very fast and steady otherwise, and every now and then, we are all (some of us most of the time, eh) a bit delayed. Powerslave has been swapping since 1991, so he has some good credentials, would you not say? »CL6: Nick 37 Hayfell Ave Heron Hill Kendal Cumbria LA9 7JH England »CL4: Zerox »CL1:Here we have one who sends me 2-3 letters every time I send him 1. Apart from giving me a bad conscience, this also shows how engaged and active he is, since he started swapping again. He is also the only one ever to have sent me a 400kb+ letter (yes! In reply to my poor 200kb letter.. Now you know why the two of us do not release 4 mags each extra , we are busy writing letters, ehehe), and well, he is definitely worth writing a letter to, but since I think he wants to give up swapping again, it is probably not the time to write him, sadly. Therefore, I will just have to tell you all, now, that »CL8:Zerox is the best swapping contact I have ever had (we have swapped steadily without any interruption since 1994,»CL1: after all, that is some years), and well, without contacts such as him, I am not sure I would still continue to swap. So, a special note of thanks and respect to you Frode! In addition, I got something as rare as a contact letter the other day! Hooray, I was pretty happy, and it was of a nice length too. It was Corrector from dpt+eng+rad+attic+void (man, do I hate people being in more than one group, but that is another old story, hehe) who sent it, and hey! You can be sure to get a reply, hopefully with this mag included. Naturally, I cannot comment on Corrector's reliability yet, but these days, sending a contact letter counts for much too! »CL8:Roover/Nah-Kolor dropped swapping and the scene, too bad, he made it into the first issue of the Reliable Swapper chart,»CL1: but when I sent him a contact letter, I got only silence in return. Seems like he had lost his motivation already back then. »CL7:Two others who seem to have lost their swapping motivation are Evan and Punisher.»CL1: I have not heard from Evan since March I think, and although Punisher is still around I have not received a letter from him since February (ok ok, I did not send out a reply to either of them before July myself, so I am also bad). The sad thing is that there are also other swappers, I have not heard from since then. Well, in any case, there might be hope for both Evan and Punisher, scene-wise, but maybe not in regards to swapping? The way it is going these days, we might as well soon make a united statement, and declare swapping definitely dead? Wait, there is one more positive news bit. »CL8:Although Lahve of Scoopex, had a huge HD crash after the party he held this autumn, and this has slowed down his swapping quite a bit,»CL1: he is still alive and swapping. He also complains about the low number of sends he gets these days though. Seems like everything is slowing down in the swapping business, and that is quite understandable, since most swappers have got Internet too and might meet up there. »CL7:It gets harder and harder for them to see any point in sending out a 'real' letter (yes, the point is the long letter and the friendship, however, it is hard having this in mind all the time, when having the Internet, especially if one lacks time, for many it seems like a waste of time to swap then).»CL1: Anyway, if you still want this alternative chart, please send in some support, by mail or email, I do not care which. Otherwise, I can either close it down or write only about my own experiences.... We will see.