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1988-05-01
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Volume 5, Number 18 2 May 1988
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| _ |
| / \ |
| /|oo \ |
| - FidoNews - (_| /_) |
| _`@/_ \ _ |
| International | | \ \\ |
| FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) |
| Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// |
| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
| (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
| (jm) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Editor in Chief Dale Lovell
Editor Emeritus: Thom Henderson
Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings
Contributing Editors: Al Arango
FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet
Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to
submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission
standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from
node 1:1/1.
Copyright 1988 by the International FidoNet Association. All
rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for
noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances,
please contact IFNA at (314) 576-4067. IFNA may also be contacted
at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141.
Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of
Fido Software, 164 Shipley Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94107 and
are used with permission.
The contents of the articles contained here are not our
responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them.
Everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING
received.
Table of Contents
1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
## Important Announcement Concerning the Nodelist ## ..... 1
Echomail -- Some users speak ............................. 2
Help The Samantha Smith Center! .......................... 8
2. COLUMNS .................................................. 10
Top Downloads ............................................ 10
3. NOTICES .................................................. 12
The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 12
MetroFire Third Annual Birthday BASH! .................... 12
FidoCon '88 -> Call For Papers ........................... 14
Latest Software Versions ................................. 14
FidoNews 5-18 Page 1 2 May 1988
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
Nodelist Status
David Dodell
International Coordinator
FidoNet 1:1/0 or 1:114/15
The program that generates the nodelist, MAKENL has reached its
limits in the generation of the nodelist. To procure a little
time till the program can be updated the following TEMPORARY
changes are being made to the nodelist by the Region
Coordinators.
(1) All Echomail/Software Distribution Coordination nodes have
been removed from the nodelist. If more room is needed, the rest
of the help/administrative nodes will be removed from the Zone 1
Administrative area.
(2) All private nodes will be removed from the nodelist. These
nodes are encouraged to hook into the net as point systems to
their network hosts. Private nodes can be added to your own
nodelist by setting up a private network listing in XLATLIST.
(3) If necessary, the Zone Coordinators might have to temporarily
remove the other Zones from their nodelist generation. For
example Zone 1 would only receive a nodelist with Zone 1
included. Zone 2 and 3 would have to be added manually. If this
happens, I will be making the Zone nodelists available on my
system for file request, for those that need direct connections,
vs via the zonegates.
(4) A TEMPORARY hold in the issuance of any new node numbers. I
hope this will only be in effect for one week till I can evaluate
how much growth room we have.
We hope to have the problem solved within the next few weeks with
appropriate software. Please bear with us. We will have the
situation corrected in the sortest possible time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-18 Page 2 2 May 1988
RAM-SOFT BBS Echomail Survey Results
In an effort to determine how Echomail was used by and
deemed a worthy part of our FidoNet BBS by our users and to
justify the system downtime to process the mail, we recently
ran a survey on our BBS. (All callers had to answer Yes or No
to answering the survey before they could utilize the bulletin
board). This article is an overview and some editorial comments
on the results and some thoughts for those of you who are sysops
that carry echomail.
If the editor of FidoNews does not consider it to be too much
material, a complete copy of the results are elsewhere in this
this newsletter. Details on obtaining the results from 135/1
are listed below.
As a point of information to help you better understand the
results, our board has been carrying echomail since it was first
available so neither our system is new to echomail nor our
users are new to echomail although some of the areas we carry
are new. We carry eight public echomail areas: COMM,CECHO,DBASE,
TECH,WINDMILL,ECPROG,PASCAL and WORDPERFECT and one private
echomail area. At the time the survey started we had around
600 users, about 45 were new to the board within the last month.
We have been operating a FidoNet bulletin board since March of
1986.
It should be noted that only about 10% (55) of our users even
bothered to answer the survey indicating to me that echomail is
not too important to them. It should be mentioned also that we
average, according to LogRpt statistics, 250 files a week
downloaded and as such we are much more of a file oriented board
than a message oriented board. We are however a board with many
long distance or PC-Pursuit users and had at least 5 long
distance users answer the survey and that should give a broader
perspective than had only South Florida users answered. Only
two sysops responded. (Neither of the RAM-SOFT sysops answered).
The results were somewhat surprising in some areas and others
quite predictable. Of the answers, 76% read echomail while
24% percent do not read echomail. 24% of the respondents
read an average of 2 message areas, while 22% read 3 areas.
Only 3% read all eight conferences we carry.
The most surprising results came in the hypothetical question:
'What if we charged access to be able to read echomail?' A
surprising number, 55% said that they would be more than happy
to pay for the privilige. An even more surprising answer came
when we asked the hypothetical question: 'What if we only made
echomail available to donating members?' 65% said that they
would donate.
The number of people who considered echomail to be important on
a bulletin board was 95% yet 36% of those could not give a
coherent reason why it is important. (Reasons like 'Because
FidoNews 5-18 Page 3 2 May 1988
good bbs important' count as non-coherent as did 'because it's
important'). The majority of those giving an answer (20%) said
that echomail expands communications while the second largest
group (18%) said it was a good source of information. Three
people said the reason was because local message sections are
dull and one person said that echomail was the reason BBS's
existed. Approximately 67% would carry echomail if they ran a
bulletin board.
It was interesting that 38% of the respondents had never entered
or replied to echomail. In the rating of conferences on a 1-5
scale, the majority (ranging from 53% to 82%) of the respondents
rated the conferences with a 0. When the 1-5 scale answers are
added together they did not come very close to the number of
people who rated the conference areas with a 0. TECH-Net was
rated the best with 20% giving it a 5 and 16% giving it a 4.
ECPROG was second highest with 11% giving it a 5 and 18% a 4.
The WordPerfect conference would be dropped by 31% if they had
to. Eighteen percent would drop dBase if they had to with one
user commenting that he would not support an archaic database
system if he were a sysop.
What exactly are the users saying? Only they know for sure but
some ideas can be gained from this survey. It seems as though
users have come to expect that bulletin boards must have at
least two or three echomail areas to be considered a 'good'
bulletin board but cannot give a good solid reason as to why a
board should have echomail. Are they saying that the same
sysops or authors who told us the 'it's a new protocol, it must
be good' for downloads story have made echomail a necessity
without any solid reason? The fact that the majority could not
give a good reason for why they thought echomail important makes
me as a sysop think that they are just going along with the
crowd - they see everyone with echomail, therefore it must be
important. I would argue that if the sysops put forth as much
effort in establishing their local message areas as they did in
arguing over the IFNA, collecting files, debating fastest
protocols and other 'trivial' matters, there would be little real
demand BY THE USERS for national echomail as it currently
exists.
The results could also indicate that we at RAM-SOFT have a very
poor selection of conferences. Granted, Windmill, WordPerfect
and dBase are not the most popular of conferences but we have
our reasons for carrying them. Specifically, we use Dutchie, a
very good mailer program and support multiple Dutchie points and
like the support that Windmill offers us and them. Overall
though, I feel we carry a good, but small selection of
conferences that are relative to the computer programmer and
serious computer hobbyists and that our board has.
Given that most users only read two or three conferences
indicates to me that the users do not really care for a large
number of conferences. Perhaps the users would rather call
two or three boards to get 5 or 6 conferences instead of calling
one system that carries a large amount of conferences.
FidoNews 5-18 Page 4 2 May 1988
The fact that so many people would not rate the conferences with
anything higher than a 0 indicates that the level of quality on
these conferences is in serious, if not fatal shape. One could
argue that the users are saying that echomail should be routed
through a small group of boards that monitor messages to see that
they remain on the related topics but that would be countered
with the paranoid who would say 'Don't censor echomail -- it's
a violation of my 1st amendment rights.' (It wouldn't be). As
long as the idea that good boards must carry echomail conferences
and boards must make it available to all, there will always be
a fairly large amount of garbage. Perhaps the users are telling
us sysops to keep echomail alive but get some conferences that
stick to the subject and actually are worth reading and
participating in. I hate to see what the comments would be if
we carried 15 or 20 sections.
How can we as sysops have conferences that stick more to the
topic and are relative to the users? The users may have
answered that by saying that they are willing to pay (either
flat-out or by donating) for the privilege of reading and
entering echomail. Those that argue that echomail has no
security because anyone can logon to a system and enter messages
should be pleased at this idea. Of course those users (and
sysops) who are leeches would argue foul but probably couldn't
justify why they shouldn't have to support echomail in some
way. If only donating users have the ability to enter or read
messages, then the sysop will know who has abused the privilige
and take appropriate actions. The users are telling sysops that
they are willing to help foot the phone bill. Unfortunately
though, as long as some sysops, especially those with WATS lines
or business/government backing (or even 9600's) continue to
offer echomail to non-donating/non-privilege users and/or
sysops spread the idea that non-echomail systems are poorer
systems, there will probably never be echomail that the majority
of users consider superior or excellent.
In summary, the users seem to be saying that they want
echomail, even if they don't know why. They are more
comfortable with a smaller number of conferences and don't
consider many of the conferences to be of much quality. The
willingness to pay either a flat charge or by donating to be able
to read messages is the hardest to interpret. Perhaps they are
tired of waiting for someone to take the active, visible hand
that is necessary to keep echomail conferences on the subject.
Perhaps they are saying they don't mind spending money on their
hobby.
Overall, I'm not convinced that the large numbers of echomail
subjects that exist, at least at a national level, is worth
the tremendous expense and time involved to process it. A
'globaly' available message area (echomail) is a great idea and
worth exploring but I believe only under tight (self-designed)
regulatory efforts. Why should users even bother to weed
through all the junk that is present in these conferences?
Most systems, including ours are too busy for and do not allow
enough online time for users to be able to read every message
FidoNews 5-18 Page 5 2 May 1988
that comes into the system. You almost have to be either a
sysop or a point to reap the full benefit of echomail. That
might be the reasons sysops don't like to hear that echomail
might not be all that great. Perhaps local echomail if there
is a strong active network host or perhaps selective or regional
echomail that has a limited number of boards per conferences is
something to consider.
Comments on this survey and results of your own *surveys* (not
opinions) are welcome via net-mail at 1:135/1.
I might also add that at this time we have no concrete plans
to change the echomail conferences we carry or the way in
which we allow users to participate.
The complete results of the survey, if not present in this
newsletter, are available from the RAM-SOFT Archive Library
BBS, 1:135/1 by file requesting ESURVEY.TXT (No file requests
08:30 - 10:30 UTC). It may also be obtained by first time
callers in file area 12(INFO). If you can do standard
IFNA/FidoNet file requests, we would prefer that you obtain the
file that way as we do require users to answer several questions
before being allowed on to the system and would prefer not have
a bunch of new callers unless you plan to be a part of the
RAM-SOFT BBS.
James Gilbert
Archive Librarian, co-sysop
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-18 Page 6 2 May 1988
Results from the survey on Echomail taken during three
weeks in April, 1988 on RAM-SOFT Archive Library BBS, Miami, FL.
Questions are exact questions. When text answers were required
from those questioned, only a paraphrase of those answers is
given here and only answers of a similar nature or interesting
comments are included.
A total of 55 individuals answered the survey, aproximately 10%
of the total number of users on the day the survey began.
Neither of the sysops of RAM-SOFT participated in the survey.
Question#:
1: Do you read ANY Conference mail areas(Y/N)?
Yes: 42 (76%)
No: 13 (24%)
(if yes) How many individual areas do you read:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (0)
-----------------------------------
Actual # 5 13 12 4 3 3 0 2 (13)
(%) 9% 24% 22% 7% 5% 5% 0 4% 24%
2: Is echomail important on a bulletin board(Y/N):
Yes: 52 (95%)
No: 3 (5%)
(if yes)Explain why it is important:
No real solid reason (20) (36%)
Good sourc of info (10) (18%)
Expands Communications (11) (20%)
Local messages are dull (3) (5%)
Good way to send messages to friends (1) (2%)
Cheap way to communicate (4) (7%)
Creates a subculture (1)
That's what BBS are for (1)
3: If you ran a bulletin board and had to pay the phone bill,
would your bulletin board carry any conferences(Y/N)
Yes: 37 (67%)
No: 18 (33%)
4: Have you ever entered a message or replied to a message
in an echomail conference(Y/N):
Yes: 34 (62%)
No: 21 (38%)
5: IF we charged access to echomail areas (one fee for all
areas), would you pay for this privilige(Y/N)?
Yes: 30 (55%)
No: 25 (45%)
6: As opposed to charging for access, IF we made echomail
areas only available to donating users, would you donate(Y/N)
Yes: 36 (65%)
No: 19 (35%)
FidoNews 5-18 Page 7 2 May 1988
7-14: On a scale of 0 to 5 with 1 indicating a poor conference
and 5 indicating an excellent conference, please rate
your opinion of the following echomail areas.
15: If you had to drop 2 conference, tell us which of the
conferences you would drop:
(Actual number)
0 1 2 3 4 5 Drop:
---------------------------------
COMM: 38 1 2 6 3 5 : 6
CECHO: 37 0 5 5 4 4 : 6
DBASE: 42 1 5 2 0 5 : 10
TECH: 29 0 0 6 9 11 : 2
DUTCH: 45 3 4 1 1 1 : 9
ECPROG: 36 1 2 3 10 6 : 4
PASCAL: 38 2 1 5 4 6 : 7
PERFECT: 42 2 1 5 0 5 : 17
(Percentages)
0 1 2 3 4 5 Drop:
---------------------------------
COMM: 69% 2% 4% 11% 5% 9% : 11%
CECHO: 67% 0% 9% 9% 7% 7% : 11%
DBASE: 76% 2% 9% 4% 0% 9% : 18%
TECH: 53% 0% 0% 11% 16% 20% : 4%
DUTCH: 82% 5% 7% 2% 2% 2% : 16%
ECPROG: 65% 2% 4% 5% 18% 11% : 7%
PASCAL: 69% 4% 2% 9% 7% 11% : 13%
PERFECT: 76% 4% 2% 9% 0% 9% : 31%
16: Enter any additional comments you may have:
I haven't used it enough (2)
Public BBS should not charge for echomail (1)
Wouldn't make much difference if they were gone (1)
You only need one conference to hold all languages (1)
Would rather get files from bbs's than read msgs (1)
If a BBS charged/donations then users would go elsewhere(1)
Never thought it was worth the effort for sysops. (1)
Sick of Opus boards (1).
I prefer Tandy conferences (1)
I wouldn't support a clumsy database program like DBase (1)
James Gilbert, survey coordinator, co-sysop, RAM-SOFT BBS.
(305) 226-3310. 300/1200/2400/? FidoNet 1:135/1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-18 Page 8 2 May 1988
Bill Paul
The Think Tank
OPUS 1:123/7
Life After Samantha
That's the title of an article I just read in the May issue
of YANKEE Magazine. The article tells the story of Jane Smith,
mother of Samantha. I'm sure you all remember Samantha - she's
the 11-year old Maine girl who wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov
expressing concern about Russia and the United States getting
into a nuclear war. She subsequently visited Russia, in July of
1983. Unfortunately, she and her father were killed in a plane
crash in 1985. After her death, she became somewhat of a folk
hero in Russia. The Soviet Union named an asteroid, a flower, a
mountain, and a cruise ship after Samantha. Her portrait greets
visitors at the gate to Samantha Smith Alley.
Apparently, things are not going so well in the United
States. Jane Smith began The Samantha Smith Center "to foster
international understanding in the spirit of Samantha". The
Center's projects include an international newsletter for
children, bringing American situation comedies to the Soviet
Union, and hosting Soviet children in American summer camps.
However, for various reasons, the foundation is in need of funds.
For one thing, the initial founders, who raised $100,000 to get
the Center started, wanted Mrs. Smith to move the Center to New
York. When they refused, and remained in Hallowell Maine, they
lost some of that support. In addition, Mrs. Smith's television
appearances have generated more questions and requests for
information than financial support. According to Mrs. Smith, at
least half the calls they receive are from people wanting the
Center to help THEM start a similar exchange. While Mrs. Smith
agrees that this is wonderful, it also means that there are that
many more centers competing for the same funding.
There are other reasons why the center is in financial
distress, too many to list here. A magazine for young people
failed; a movie which Columbia pictures planned to co-produce
with the Soviets appears to have been abandoned; an exchange
which gave ten Soviet teenagers almost a week in a Maine summer
camp (the first time the Soviets had sent their kids to an
American camp) depleted the center's funds. The list goes on...
But I suppose by now you've discovered what this is all
leading up to. Send money! Can we allow the Samantha Smith
Center to fail and still sleep at night? I can't, not if my few
dollars, combined with a few dollars from others, can keep it
going. How many FidoNet systems do we have right now, 3,000+?
And how many users are on those 3,000 systems? If we each sent
one dollar, I suspect it would make a difference. It would also
bring us all together in a small way, and help us feel better the
next time we see a "computer phreaker" article in our local
newspaper (why don't they ever print the good stuff?). Even if
the center fails, at least we'll know we tried. Please, send a
FidoNews 5-18 Page 9 2 May 1988
dollar or two to this worthy cause! I have no idea if it is tax
deductible, nor do I care; my check will be in tomorrow's mail.
If you'd like to know whether your contribution is tax deductible
(or if you want more information, or if you think this is some
sort of prank), I'll provide the center's phone number at the end
of this article. Let's send a buck or two and do something good
for the world! SysOps, if you have a minute, please post this
article on your bulletin board, or at least refer your callers to
this issue of FidoNews. We all know that (alas) it is mostly
SysOps who read FidoNews, let's spread the word even further!
I have no idea if I have violated any copyright laws in this
article. Brief passages from YANKEE Magazine have been quoted
verbatim, as have quotes by Mrs. Smith. Perhaps foolishly, I did
not want to take the time to wait for permission from YANKEE
before writing this article. In any event, if an apology to
YANKEE Magazine and/or Mrs. Jane Smith will keep me out of jail,
please consider it done!
Now, let's get out our checkbooks or wallets and send a
dollar or two. I'm not a writer (did you guess?), so maybe I
haven't stated a very strong case, but let's keep a young girl's
dream alive, shall we? For a much better article by Mel Allen,
pick up a copy of YANKEE Magazine, May 1988. Maybe THAT one will
help loosen those purse strings!
The Samantha Smith Center
9 Union Street
Hallowell, Maine (USA) 04347
(207) 626-3415
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-18 Page 10 2 May 1988
=================================================================
COLUMNS
=================================================================
Top Downloads
A weekly report of the most popular downloads
from contributing systems.
This column will list the more popular downloaded files for the
previous week. I would like this to be a cooperative effort
among several boards that are heavy in file downloads and not
just a listing of this Software Distribution Board's activity.
(See details at the end of this report).
This column will list the top 15 most downloads as reported by
contributing systems. It will also list selected files of
general intereste as well as the the most popular download
methods for files.
(Intro out of the way, here goes.)
Top downloads from for 4/3/88 - 4/10/88
Contributing systems: 135/1
File transactions Average per day
----------------------------------------
Downloads: 309 44.14
File Download Report -- Top 15
Rank Area\File Name # DL's
-------------------------------------------------------------
1. COMM\pcplustd.arc 9 ProComm+ Test Drive (V1.0)
2. GAME\moria.arc 5 Adventure game a la Hack
3. UNPT\123star.unp 5 Unprotect
4. GAME\sorry.arc 4 EGA version of Sorry
5. MISC\gc.arc 3 World Time map display
6. UTIL\dog101a.arc 3 Disk Optimizer
7. GAME\scrabble.arc 3 Scrabble Game
8. UNPT\ati.unp 3 unprotect
9. UNPT\lotus1a.unp 3 unprotect
10. INFO\egademo.arc 2 Demo of EGA graphics
11. LANG\conv.bas 2
12. MISC\bathelp.arc 2 Help for DOS batch files
13. MISC\daylog.arc 2 Keeps a personal log
14. MISC\prompt.arc 2 Various DOS prompts
15. MISC\shofkeys.arc 2 Displays Function keys
File Download Report -- Selected area files
Area\Name #DL's
-----------------------------------------------------------
BBSP\chg2node.arc 1 Change file name to node #
LANG\arc50sc.arc 1 C Source to Arc 5.0
EDIT\e88-42.arc 2 Text editor
FidoNews 5-18 Page 11 2 May 1988
SHEL\amenu40.arc 2 AutoMenu, DOS menu/shell
APPL\aseasy30.arc 1 Spreadsheet similar to 123
EDUC\matrix.arc 1 To teach Matrix math
ARCS\arc521.com 1 The ARChiver from SEA.
Transfer methods total
-----------------------------
SEAlink download/upload 89
Telink download/upload 39
Xmodem download/upload 147
Ymodem download/upload 35
Zmodem download/upload 12
External download/upload 0
(External is defined as any add-in protocol available to Opus
ie. Kermit as well as Modem7 on our system).
(end of report)
I would encourage any other systems that run LogRpt on a weekly
basis *OR* can send me data in a similar format (minus the area
names) and would like their stats included in this list, please
drop a net-mail note along with your system's download data
to 1:135/1. If using LogRpt, don't use paths in the output all
I want is filenames and total downloads. If any thing is of
particular interest or you have changed a filename, mention
that. I MUST have the report by Monday's net-mail time in order
to get the stats edited. This should give you Saturday and
Sunday to get the previous 7/8 days together. If the report is
longer than 10 days, I don't think it will be possible to
include it. (We can accept net-mail anytime of the day and
are PC-Pursuitable).
James Gilbert
135/1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-18 Page 12 2 May 1988
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
The Interrupt Stack
16 May 1988
Digital Equipment Corporations Users Society Spring Symposium.
Will be held May 16-May 20 in Cincinnati, OH.
29 May 1988
MetroFire Third Annual Birthday Bash and Floppy Disk Throwing
Contest. ALL FidoNet Sysops and their families are invited.
Contact Christopher Baker at 135/14 for more details. Details
available by SEAdog file request as FPICMAP.ARC or BASH.
18 Jun 1988
Area Code 407 takes effect in East/Central Florida. All Sysops
should adjust their Nodelist entries immediately.
25 Jun 1988
EuroCon II starts in Tiel, Holland. Sponsored by the Dutch
Hobby Computer Club. Will run for 2 days. Contact Hans
Lichthelm at 2:2/999 for information.
16 Jul 1988
A new areacode, 508, will form in eastern Massachusetts and
will be effective on this date. The new area code will be
formed from the current areacode 617. Greater Boston will
remain areacode 617 while the rest of eastern Massachusetts
will form the new areacode 508.
25 Aug 1988
Start of the Fifth International FidoNet Conference, to be
held at the Drawbridge Inn in Cincinnati, OH. Contact Tim
Sullivan at 108/62 for more information. This is FidoNet's big
annual get-together, and is your chance to meet all the people
you've been talking with all this time. We're hoping to see
you there!
24 Aug 1989
Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
If you have something which you would like to see on this
calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
ATTENTION ALL FidoNet Sysops:
This is the Official MetroFire Third Birthday BlowOut Bulletin!!
This event will take place deep in the heart of Florida's
FidoNews 5-18 Page 13 2 May 1988
wonderland, The Everglades.
NO ONE will be admitted WITHOUT an 8-10 pound bag of ICE!
(This should not pose a hardship for anyone since a bag of ice is
only 69 cents at Publix. Hardship cases should apply to the Sysop
for relief via Netmail [grin].)
***********
This is the story, so far...
WHEN: Sunday, 29 May 88
TIME: 1400 - 2000
WHERE: LimeLite Farms on the Edge of the Everglades
WHY: To Celebrate the Survival and Growth of
MetroFire, 135/14, and needing an
excuse to have a party.
WHAT: A B.Y.O.E. (Bring Your Own Everything)
Picnic with Games and Shop Talk and Lie
Swapping. Musical Instruments and Non-
destructive Outdoor Games are Solicited.
NEED: Folding Tables, Chairs and Ventilation
Equipment and a Portable PC w/2 drives.
HAVE: Charcoal and the First Five Pounds
of Genuine (accept no substitutes)
Sabrett Hot Dogs will be provided.
COST: Your Time, Effort and Gas to Krome Ave.
ENTRANCE
FEE: One 8 to 10 pound bag or block of ICE!
PER Person (bring more if you like).
REWARDS: Sharpen your Survival Skills and Become
One with Your Natural Surroundings.
Plenty of Precious Calories and Many
Anecdotes to Pass on to Posterity.
BRING: Deep Woods OFF! (if the Rain picks up,
so will the Mosquitoes.) Don't wear
Perfume if the Mosquito report is
Hostile (THEY love it!).
Something to Sit on.
DON'T
BRING: Firearms, Fireworks, Animals or Drugs.
SMOKERS: Smoking outside, only.
WHO: ALL MetroFire Users, Families and Guests
and ALL FidoNet Sysops and Families, and
Local non-FidoNet Sysops and Families.
FidoNews 5-18 Page 14 2 May 1988
Everyone is invited to bring a gustatory specialty for sharing.
Make it something simple, Coquilles St. Jacques, Baked Alaska,
Salmon Mousse, etc. We will keep track of the comestibles
volunteered on 135/14. I will begin the tote with BBS Bakered
Beans.
For more details, file request FPICMAP.ARC or BASH from 135/14.
Out-of-town Sysops, RSVP to 135/14 or call Christopher Baker at
(305) 596-8576, Tue-Sat, 1430-2230.
We will attempt to line up some accomodations with our users to
save you the cost of a hotel. Transportation to the site will be
arranged upon request.
See you there!
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Tim Sullivan 108/62
FidoCon'88 Chairman
---->---->----> CALL FOR PAPERS <----<----<----
We are still searching for speakers and topics for this year's
conference. If you would like to speak, or have an idea for a
topic, please contact Mark Walker at 108/50.
FidoCon can only be a success with your involvement. We're doing
a great job preparing for the conference here in Cincinnati, but
we still need your input!
(btw: How many of you use FidoNet technology in your workplace?
We're interested in finding out. If you currently use: Seadog,
Fido, Opus, Binkley, Dutchie, dBridge, or anything else I've
forgotten in you job/profession, drop Mark a note at 108/50.
Thanks!)
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Latest Software Versions
BBS Systems Node List Other
& Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version
Dutchie 2.81* EditNL 3.3 ARC 5.21
Fido 12g* MakeNL 2.03 ARCmail 1.1
Opus 1.03b Prune 1.40 ConfMail 3.31
SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.86* EchoMail 1.31
TBBS 2.0M MGM 1.1
BinkleyTerm 1.40*
QuickBBS 2.00*
FidoNews 5-18 Page 15 2 May 1988
* Recently changed
Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by
reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list
all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity.
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FidoNews 5-18 Page 16 2 May 1988
OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION
Ken Kaplan 100/22 Chairman of the Board
Don Daniels 107/210 President
Mark Grennan 147/1 Vice President
Dave Dodell 114/15 Vice President - Technical Coordinator
Tom Marshall 107/524 Secretary
Leonard Mednick 12/1 Treasurer
IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
DIVISION AT-LARGE
10 Steve Jordan 102/2871 Don Daniels 107/210
11 Bill Allbritten 11/301 Hal DuPrie 101/106
12 Leonard Mednick 12/1 Mark Grennan 147/1
13 Rick Siegel 107/27 Brad Hicks 100/523
14 Ken Kaplan 100/22 Ted Polczyinski 154/5
15 Jim Cannell 128/13 Kurt Reisler 109/74
16 Vince Perriello 141/491 Robert Rudolph 261/628
17 Rob Barker 138/34 Greg Small 148/122
18 Chris Baker 135/14 Bob Swift 140/24
19 Vernon Six 19/0 Larry Wall 15/18
2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 Gee Wong 107/312
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FidoNews 5-18 Page 17 2 May 1988
__
The World's First / \
BBS Network /|oo \
* FidoNet * (_| /_)
_`@/_ \ _
| | \ \\
| (*) | \ ))
______ |__U__| / \//
/ Fido \ _//|| _\ /
(________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm)
Membership for the International FidoNet Association
Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
pays a specified annual membership fee. IFNA serves the
international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to
increase worldwide communications.
Member Name _______________________________ Date _______________
Address _________________________________________________________
City ____________________________________________________________
State ________________________________ Zip _____________________
Country _________________________________________________________
Home Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________
Work Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________
Zone:Net/Node Number ____________________________________________
BBS Name ________________________________________________________
BBS Phone Number ________________________________________________
Baud Rates Supported ____________________________________________
Board Restrictions ______________________________________________
Your Special Interests __________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
In what areas would you be willing to help in FidoNet? __________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in
US Funds to:
International FidoNet Association
c/o Leonard Mednick, MBA, CPA
700 Bishop Street, #1014
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813-4112
USA
Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to
insure the future of FidoNet.
Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization
and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the
membership in January 1987. The first elected Board of Directors
was filled in August 1987. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been
established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your
input to this Conference.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-18 Page 18 2 May 1988
INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION
ORDER FORM
Publications
The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido
1:1/10 or other FidoNet compatible systems, or by purchasing
them directly from IFNA. We ask that all our IFNA Committee
Chairmen provide us with the latest versions of each
publication, but we can make no written guarantees.
Hardcopy prices as of October 1, 1986
IFNA Fido BBS listing $15.00 _____
IFNA Administrative Policy DOCs $10.00 _____
IFNA FidoNet Standards Committee DOCs $10.00 _____
SUBTOTAL _____
IFNA Member ONLY Special Offers
System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____
SEAdog price as of March 1, 1987
ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member
Fido Software's Fido/FidoNet $100.00 _____
Fido/FidoNet price as of November 1, 1987
ONLY 1 copy Fido/FidoNet per IFNA Member
International orders include $10.00 for
surface shipping or $20.00 for air shipping _____
SUBTOTAL _____
HI. Residents add 4.0 % Sales tax _____
TOTAL _____
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER IN US FUNDS:
International FidoNet Association
c/o Leonard Mednick, MBA, CPA
700 Bishop Street, #1014
Honolulu, HI. 96813-4112
USA
Name________________________________
Zone:Net/Node____:____/____
Company_____________________________
Address_____________________________
City____________________ State____________ Zip_____
Voice Phone_________________________
Signature___________________________
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