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- F I D O N E W S -- Vol.13 No.13 (25-Mar-1996)
- +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
- | A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
- | FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" BBS |
- | _ | +1-519-570-4176 |
- | / \ | |
- | /|oo \ | |
- | (_| /_) | |
- | _`@/_ \ _ | |
- | | | \ \\ | Editors: |
- | | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 |
- | |__U__| / \// | |
- | _//|| _\ / | |
- | (_/(_|(____/ | |
- | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
- | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
- +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
- | Submission address: editors 1:1/23 |
- +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
- | MORE addresses: |
- | |
- | submissions=> editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
- | Don -- don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
- +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
- | For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
- | obtaining copies of fidonews or the internet gateway faq |
- | please refer to the end of this file. |
- +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
- ========================================================================
- Table of Contents
- ========================================================================
-
- 1. Editorial..................................................... 1
- 2. Articles...................................................... 2
- Open Up..................................................... 2
- Death of Fido?.............................................. 3
- Does FIDONET Need a Tune-Up? - Proposed Policy Change....... 4
- Fido & Politics............................................. 6
- Another damn article! :-).................................. 8
- FidoCon revisited?.......................................... 8
- Upgrading FIDONet........................................... 9
- 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 10
- ========================================================================
- Editorial
- ========================================================================
- FidoNews 13-13 Page: 2 25 Mar 1996
-
-
- I received a rather irate letter a few days back from a user
- that though I was using my position as editor to smother an
- article. It was a simple matter to clear up the difficulty ...
- they did not realize that the snooze is hatched out on sunday
- evening. Officially, by midnight. In fact, it has been as
- early as 6 when I wanted to go out, and as late as 2:00 in the
- morning when I got home late one sunday. I had received the
- articles after the snooze had left, and they were still in the
- inbound for the following week.
-
- Articles are uploaded occasionally into an obscured area
- on the BBS and no note left. They also get sent netmail with
- the name wrong, and I miss them. We do, howver, print what
- articles we get.
-
- Here is the snooze.
- ========================================================================
- Articles
- ========================================================================
- Open Up
- by Bill Whitehouse
-
- Local wags are fond of saying, "Never write it down if you
- can say it, never say it if you can nod."
-
- We nod a lot here in Rhode Island. The nation's smallest
- state, political theater is our only spectator blood sport, the
- only franchise we can field. The more prosaic of us add,
- "Spoken, a word to the wind. Written, a political sin."
-
- I was a newspaper reporter when I fell down fido's rabbit
- hole in search of a news story 8 years ago. The story never
- happened.
-
- I defected instead.
-
- Compared to the U.S. working press, NOTHING is ever
- private, or off-the-record in fidonet. Echomail is public by
- definition. For all practical purposes, so is netmail.
-
- People here always know when you're screwing them.
-
- Every year or so I glance into our system's encryption
- software directory and breathe another sigh of relief. Truth is,
- I'd rather not think about the day we might actually need it.
- Fidonet will no longer exist.
-
- Restricted access network administration has no place in a
- world where there's always an audit trail, a seen-by, a log
- entry and disenfranchised discontent.
-
- It's debilitating, it's counter productive; mostly it's
- just stupid. The node list shrank another 100 nodes last week.
- It'll lose another hundred this week.
- FidoNews 13-13 Page: 3 25 Mar 1996
-
-
- Fidonet has a bright future if it loses this archaic
- nonsense. It is doomed if it doesn't.
-
- Everyone's got something to contribute. Don't exclude
- anyone. If you run private administrative conferences, don't be
- too easily annoyed and open them up now. Before it's too late.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Death of Fido?
-
- By Louie Gonsalves, 1:3604/43
- louie.gonsalves@phosphor.datasync.com
-
- Is Fido Dying?
-
- From reading the recent Snoozes, the answer has to be 'yes.' But is
- it really?
-
- The computer world in general has gone ga-ga over the Internet.
- There's not ONE single magazine that I have read in the past year or
- so that doesn't write about the 'net. Even non-computing magazines
- are cashing in on the Internet craze.
-
- There's precious few BBS magazines... and Board Watch doesn't count.
- There are over 15 Internet-related rags in the local newsstand... is
- there a message there?
-
- Did BBSs and Fido *ever* get this kind of attention? No. And it's
- our fault.
-
- Did we promote the BBS? Did we promote Fido? Sure, every sysop
- advertises in their own little way... but if you ask your average
- Internet or AOL or Prodigy user if they know what a BBS or Fido is...
- you get a blank stare as an answer. I have a question in my new-user
- survey that reads: 'Do you know what FidoNet is?' About 85% of
- respondents say 'NO.' I try to educate my new users on Fido... I have
- a textfile for download and on-line read... 14 downloads in 6 months.
-
- Fido IS dying, slowly but surely. It's being eaten away by a horrible
- cancer, and WE are the carcinogen! It's a damn shame! This net of
- hobbyists, running in some cases with shoestring budgets and machines
- that were obsolete half a decade ago, has more guts, more character
- and more personality than the largest Internet servers running
- $20,000+ hardware and T1 lines.
-
- What can WE do to fix this? PROGRESS. We are stagnant, like the
- mid-latitude summer doldrums. Sailing ships couldn't move during
- the doldrums... and similarly, Fido and BBSs are stuck. I have
- several ideas to remedy this situation. I'm sure most of you have
- read these before, as they are not my ideas, but a collection of
- countless other sysops that want to preserve Fido and the BBS concept.
-
- 1: Give Fido an IDENTITY. A ASCII/ANSI logo, if you will. Something
- FidoNews 13-13 Page: 4 25 Mar 1996
-
- that the average joe might see in a magazine and say 'WOW! I
- gotta try that!!' Plaster Fido propaganda all over the WWW... WWW
- surfers will do ANYTHING the Web beckons them to... let's use it
- to our own advantage!
-
- 2: Modernize and de-centralize the distribution methods. Planet
- Connect was a God-send some years ago, but now is basically
- obsolete, except in remote rural areas, and places with no Internet
- wires. Imagine this: A network so big, so powerful, so fast,
- that a message can get from Rome, Italy to Rome, Wisconsin (I'm a
- Picket Fences fan) in less than 5 minutes. Psst. Such a beast
- already exists! It was built by the US government and academia,
- and can move our stuff far better than the Bird can. Let's use
- the Internet for our OWN good, or be forever silenced!
-
- 3: Promote, Promote, PROMOTE! (the following is NOT an ad!!) There
- is a comm program called Baby Banana ,it's a terminal that dials
- one number, and one number only... YOURS. It is self-installing,
- much like the AOL client... the newbie sticks the disk in their
- floppy, types a:\install, and boom! A new user, ready to be shown
- the wonders of Fido, BEFORE they fall prey to the Big Services.
- The license is around 70 bucks, and that's an unlimited license...
- make a bunch, and give them to stores so they can hand them out
- with new 'puters and modems... Baby Banana installs itself,
- fishes for the modem and port, and dials on its own. Goto
- http://www.banana.com, or call the Montana Banana BBS at
- 1-406-543-8234. Look for BABYB.ZIP. I'd put it up for Freq but
- my system is down till June.
-
- 4: Make a new Policy. P4 is woefully inadequate.
-
- 5: Promote, Promote, PROMOTE!
-
- If Fido is dying, only we can revive it. We can do it. Let's get off
- our collective duffs and expose Fido and BBSs to the world!
-
- <soapbox mode -- OFF>
-
- Flames to \ra\garbage\bitbuckt\
-
- ... If you promote it, they will come...
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Does FIDONET Need a Tune-Up? - Proposed Policy Change
-
- by Chris Reiter, 1:280/205 - Hark@Clubmet.Metrobbs.Com
- Does FIDONET Need a Tune-Up? - Proposed Policy Change
-
- I was reading the SYSOP echo today, and along came a posting by Kurt
- Weiske, 1:161/418 regarding the need for a new standard for netmail
- routing in FIDONET. Here is his post. I have jammed it together for
- brevity and to save space:
-
- "I've heard quite a few people complaining about the lack of consis-
- FidoNews 13-13 Page: 5 25 Mar 1996
-
- tency with routed netmail in Fidonet. Where's the problem? I've heard
- some people say there are whole regions that you can't route netmail
- into, including Net125 in San Francisco. SF is a strange net, with
- several different echomail schemes, and a co-op collective - the group
- paid for the net box out of their funds, and subsidize the box and the
- echomail costs. According to P4, it's the NC's duty to route inbound
- routed netmail to the hub or leaf node, isn't it? Once it gets to your
- NC, does it route along the same backbone as echomail in Zone 1? IMO,
- I think routed netmail should be fixed - it could make a nice selling
- point to users. Nowadays, the overriding sentiment seems to be to
- crash it if you want it to get there. My testing seems to show some-
- thing more than half of the mails I route getting to their destin-
- ation. Offering routed netmail that works (to users) could be a nice
- selling point for Fidonet in general."
-
- A Network Coordinator has the following responsibilities:
-
- 1) To receive incoming mail for nodes in the network, and arrange
- delivery to its recipients.
-
- etc...
-
- It doesn't say that there is anyone that is supposed to route even
- one piece of outgoing mail. I am very lucky to have Roy Timberman,
- the Western Star, in my net, who routes mail in and out of the net
- for us, and he has been very generous in doing that. However, I have
- noticed that only about half of the pieces of mail that I send out
- are received.
-
- I won't pretend to know everything about mail-routing or even *much*
- about it, but I do know that the mail doesn't get delivered as
- accurately as I would like. I am pretty sure this isn't Roy's fault,
- because (being the Western Star) I would just assume that he and his
- system are designed and set up to carry mail more efficiently and acc-
- urately than most other normal systems. I just think that maybe not
- every net has someone designated to route inbound and outbound mail.
-
- I would like to see either the NC or NEC in every net also route any
- outbound mail to at least one person up in the mail hierarchy. I don't
- believe this is a lot to ask, and I know that many sysops and mail
- runners pay long distance charges out of their own pocket. However, I
- think that if someone in each net accepts the responsibility of taking
- the NC or NEC position, then they should route inbound and outbound
- netmail also. Maybe I'm just spoiled, having someone in my net that is
- willing to do that, for *FREE*, but I would even be willing to
- contribute a little to the person who does it.
-
- What I am proposing to whoever out there that approves changes to the
- policies of FIDOnet, is that there needs to be one person in every
- single net that is designated as the mailperson (to be politically
- correct). This person would route inbound mail to the participants
- of his net, or at least place it on hold for pickup. He would also
- accept routed netmail through his system, from nodes in his network,
- to the person who is one up in the FIDOnet hierarchy. So the
- policy4.txt would read...
- FidoNews 13-13 Page: 6 25 Mar 1996
-
-
- A Network/Network Echo Coordinator has the following responsibilities:
-
- 1) To receive incoming mail for nodes in the network, and arrange
- delivery to its recipients.
-
- 2) To send outgoing routed netmail from all nodes in the network to
- the appropriate designated uplink.
-
- The problems that normally occur with nodes giving problems... mailing
- lists, mass mailings, etc, would be dealt with in the same manner as
- it is normally dealt with, with the ultimate penalty just being loss of
- netmail routing by the network mailperson as opposed to loss of your
- node in the nodelist.
-
- We need to adopt a written policy regarding the flow of netmail if we
- want FIDONET to keep up with...dare I say the "I" word? FIDONET netmail
- policy should be more than just "If you want something done right, do
- it yourself."
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Fido & Politics
- Part 3 of 3
- By Patrick Driscoll (1:372/19)
-
- If you haven't read parts 1 and 2 of this article, I suggest you do
- to get this in context. Part 1 is in fnews9 and part 2 is in fnews10.
-
- Having had a problem putting this in words that don't sound too
- negitive, it has been a couple of issues since I submitted the last
- part of this article. The first part concerned the excessive politics
- involved in Fido and the second part concerned the technological limits
- of our standards. This part is the conclusion to both of these issues.
-
- It seems that many other sysops see the same thing I do with fido. I
- have had over 1100 replies to my series of articles so far, with most
- of them agreeing in general with my observations. The points I tried to
- make, that there is way too much politics involved in Fido and that we
- are falling behind in technology as compared to the Internet and Usenet,
- have sparked many more articles to the Snooze. I believe the purpose I
- have in writing these articles, that people need to take another look at
- how Fido does business, has gotten across to many other sysops. I hope
- that all who have read these articles have at least thought about how
- Fido works and it's advantages and disadvantages.
-
- Ok, back to my rantings. I have done some surveying of systems to
- see what features sysops allow their users in relation to Fido. I have
- found systems that only allow paying users to access netmail features.
- This in itself makes sense. It is too expensive for a small system to
- crash netmail to wherever, mostly due to the limitations of our
- software standards. I also found an interesting situation in one net
- where a system has to pay another system to route mail through the
- second system. Again, this is too expensive for a small system. I
- found a lot of systems that will post netmail to their users to the
- FidoNews 13-13 Page: 7 25 Mar 1996
-
- bbs, but do not allow replies. That is pretty much a waste of time,
- both the users and the sysops. One might as well send it to the user as
- a text file, as it'll do as much good to him as a no-respond message.
- But a majority of the systems that reponded to my queries do not offer
- netmail to their users at all. Some because of software limitations,
- some because of the cost and some because their hub doesn't allow non
- sysop netmail to pass through the system. This is a huge problem with
- Fido. When I suggested that these systems complain on the grounds that
- they should have access to routed netmail for there users, the reponse
- from every one of them was "No, if I do I'll end up losing my node
- number". Politics as usual. If sysops are in constant fear of losing
- thier node number if they "step over the line", they will eventually
- head somewhere else. Many systems have already dropped Fido in favor
- of Usenet and other FTN style nets. Asked why they did this, the answer
- was usually "Less politics and better service". Everytime a system drops
- Fido, we get weaker as a net.
-
- The point here is that we need to take a good hard look at our
- method of moving mail and try to find a better, faster, less expensive
- way to do it. We also need to remove the politics from the mail routing
- systems. If we don't, we will continue to lose systems to the Usenet
- and other nets that have already seen these problems and corrected them.
- Personally, I beleive the above situations sum up the problems with FIDO
- well. Many local segments of Fidonet do a very good job, but we never
- here about them. The few bad apple segments take down the whole net.
- How many articles have you read in the Snooze that concerned a sysop
- who was excommunicated? A bunch. Everytime I read these articles, I try
- to find out what really went on to get this system booted. 75% of the
- systems I have seen booted were booted for not playing by the "rules of
- the day" made up by their NC. These nets that have booted systems for
- no real reason make up net rules as they go, or should I say, the NC
- and his/her buddies make up the rules as they go. We need to stop this
- soon. Every system we cut loose becomes a liability by the way they
- will "advertise" Fido. We lose many potential nodes by this kind of
- advertising. We, the systems that are not having these problems, need
- to push to gain new systems to Fido, and doing whatever it takes to get
- these "bad apples" out of Fidonet. If it requires an independent board
- to determine what should be done, lets do it. If it requires the
- removal of our ZC's and RC's, lets do it. If it requires a complete
- rewrite of Policy4 (an ancient draft version of fidonet policy), lets
- do it. If it requires a complete rework of our technical standards, lets
- do it.
-
- Lets not let Fidonet go the way of many other nets, over political
- and behind in technology, to slowly disappear into obscurity.
-
- Thanks for your time,
- Pat
- 1:372/19
- FidoNews 13-13 Page: 8 25 Mar 1996
-
-
- Another damn article! :-)
- Joe Klemmer
- 1:109/370
- klemmerj@webtrek.com
-
- Ok, why not...
-
- To start with, idiots like CIA need to be shot. They serve
- no useful purpose and are a waste of resources.
-
- Klaus' note was quite eloquent, as was Fredrik's. If I ever
- have to move out of Net-109 I hope it's to somewhere Zone 2.
- The other "Fido/Internet" articles were, as always, good but
- lacking in anything interesting. Anyone with 5 brain cells
- knows that the "issue" of F. vs I. is a non sequitur, as Mark
- and Lee point out.
-
- I did quite enjoy the article from "The Closet Head". Can't
- say that I follow his line of thought 100% but it was sure nice
- to read something that was worth spending the time it took. Oh,
- and Ron's call for Don to split? Hell, Don; take him up on it
- and make him the new editor. Even so it was something different.
-
- Heck, this is more of an editorial, isn't it. Well, I'd
- compose a meaningful article but, as I told Sylvia once, I'm
- about 85% crippled in my hands so if I'm going to endure this
- kind of pain (damn voice recognition still sucks!) it might as
- well be for something inane. The Fido world needs more inanity
- to offset all the rest of the crap.
-
- One last thing. I'm afraid that the end of Fidonet truly is
- here... The "Terminator" thinks the idiots are, and I quote...
- "so many reasonable people in FidoNet" and he wonders "Why won't
- anyone listen to them?"
-
- Gods of all creation help us!!!
-
- Later,
- Joe
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- FidoCon revisited?
-
- by Louie Gonsalves 1:3604/43
- louie.gonsalves@phosphor.datasync.com
-
- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-
- A New FidoCon?
-
- By now, some of you already know that Jack Rickard and Board Wretch
- Magazine have killed off OneBBSCON by renaming it OneISPCON. Rumor
- has it that many BBS vendors have pulled out of the show. I, for one,
- FidoNews 13-13 Page: 9 25 Mar 1996
-
- am glad the BBS vendors have abandoned Board Wretch's BBS (sorry, ISP)
- CON.
-
- It seems to me that now would be a great time to re-introduce FidoCon.
- I envision a conference where the BBS and FidoNet will be the main
- focus of attention, with the internet as an able transport medium.
-
- I, however, have never constructed a conference of any kind. I just
- plant the seed, and see what happens.
-
- Anybody out there think bringing back FidoCon is a good idea? Lemme
- know... Maybe it CAN be done. A FidoCon would give our network a
- much-needed shot in the arm. Lord knows we need it.
-
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Upgrading FIDONet
-
- by Mark Kobussen
-
- This is Part II in my on going quest to come up with a great
- echo mail system for FidoNet. At the moment I have yet to take into
- account the internet, as I am at the moment working on upgrading our
- current setup. What do I have now? Well, I feel I was being pretty
- repetative on my first article, so now I will continue on the same
- path<g>. As of today, the 19th of March, I have started work on an
- external door program to be named (something to do with Fido<g>) which
- handles a to be determined message base format, an all new echomail
- format, designed to be very efficient and space saving (work has
- already begun). Enlisting the help of several other FIDONet sysops, C
- programmers senior to myself (I'm happy just doing the config and
- reader program) to handle devising the actual message base format and
- tosser. My goals are as follows:
-
- - Develop external Mail door capable of reading this special message
- format. High quality, perhaps MORE functionality than normal BBS
- message area functions. Capability for external message editors such
- as IceEdit. QWK capabilities would be a major bonus.
-
- - Develop tosser to handle special message format. Must have capable
- of reading and using assorted BBS message area configurations.
- Message Area & Group Configuration program to be used in
- co-ordination with the reader door. Support for InterMail,
- FrontDoor, Binkley, PoP, etc. type Mailers.
-
- Basically the purpose of this article is to see if anyone has any
- suggestions on any thing, and also to see if there are any C or maybe
- even, ack, Pascal programmers out there that would be willing to lend
- a hand in developing this FREE WARE software packages. I have no doubt
- that shortly I will be expanding this to be able to use the internet as
- means of transportation, but I have no idea on how to do automated
- internet sessions.
-
- FidoNews 13-13 Page: 10 25 Mar 1996
-
-
- ========================================================================
- Fidonews Information
- ========================================================================
-
- ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------
-
- Editor: Donald Tees
- Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
- Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar
- Tom Jennings, Sylvia Maxwell
- "FidoNews" BBS
- FidoNet 1:1/23
- BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS)
-
- more addresses:
- Don -- 1:221/192, don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
-
- (Postal Service mailing address)
- FidoNews
- 154 Victoria St. S.
- Kitchener, Ontario
- Canada
- N2H 2b5
-
- voice: (519) 570-4899
-
- Fidonews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET
- INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation
- of individual articles contributed by their authors or their
- authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation
- does not diminish the rights of the authors. Opinions expressed in
- these articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of
- FidoNews.
-
- Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
- Copyright 1996 Donald Tees. All rights reserved. Duplication
- and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use
- in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or the eds.
-
- OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic
- form may be obtained from the FidoNews BBS via manual download or
- Wazoo FileRequest, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet.
- PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above paper-mail
- address.
-
- INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.fidonet.org,
- in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonet/fidonews.
-
- Anyone interested in getting a copy of the INTERNET GATEWAY FAQ may
- freq GISFAQ.ZIP from 1:133/411.0, or send an internet message to
- fidofaq@gisatl.fidonet.org. No message or text or subject is
- necessary. The address is a keyword that will trigger the automated
- response. People wishing to send inquiries directly to David Deitch
- should now mail to fidonet@gisatl.fidonet.org rather than the
- FidoNews 13-13 Page: 11 25 Mar 1996
-
- previously listed address.
-
- SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
- FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
- ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews BBS, or Wazoo filerequestable
- from 1:1/23 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". Please read it.
-
- "Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
- trademarks of Tom Jennings, and are used with permission.
-
- ' ' disgreement is actually necessary,
- or we'd all have to get in fights
- or semethin to amuse ourselves,,
- and create the requisite chaos."
- -Tom Jennings
- -- END
- -------------------------------------------------------------------