Volume 5, Number 2 11 January 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 1987 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. 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. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 How FidoNews gets out .................................... 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 3 Adios, Thom Henderson .................................... 3 The FidoNet Sysop's Bill of Rights! ...................... 8 Price Structure On 80286 Motherboard Upgrades ............ 11 REDCON An EchoMail Idea follow-up ........................ 12 Jon Sabol on AlterNet .................................... 13 3. NOTICES .................................................. 16 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 16 Latest Software Versions ................................. 16 Notes from International FidoNet Coordinator ............. 16 FidoNews 5-02 Page 1 11 Jan 1988 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= How FidoNews works and a brief summary on how to submit articles to FidoNews After taking a look at my mailer's logs for this past week, I thought I'd go over how things work here at 1/1. Hopefully this will avoid some of the confusion I've seen over the past week. One of the first things I should go over is how FidoNews is put together. Every week I run a program (MakeNews) that takes your submissions and creates a finished FidoNews. It's a nice automated program that is very flexible. If you submit three articles named JIM1.ART, JIM2.ART, and JIM3.ART; MakeNews would put JIM1.ART in the first week, JIM2.ART in the second week and so on. This allows you to write a entire series of articles and submit it at once, while only "printing" one article each week. MakeNews is run every Monday morning just after midnight, so don't try file requesting FidoNews on Sunday unless you want last weeks issue. During the two hours after putting it together, 1/1 is busy trying to send FidoNews out to the Regional Coordinators. Phil Ardussi at 157/1 is also helping send FidoNews out, this should let my machine be accessible a little more quickly. Because of this, I'd appreciate it if no one tried to file request FidoNews during this time. I'd suggest any time after National Mail Hour for convenience. While I understand that many of you want to get the latest edition hot off the presses, there's an awful lot of you and we're trying to reach as many people as quickly as possible. 1/1 itself is running SEAdog 4.1 and TBBS 2.0S. You can currently file request any issue of FidoNews from Volume 4 Issue 9 up to the present. I've got a full set of FidoNews on their way for those who are interested and will let everyone know when they've arrived. If you're only interested in the latest edition of FidoNews, I've set up the "magic filename" of 'FIDONEWS' for your ease. This means if you file request 'FIDONEWS' with no file extension or volume number, you're assured of getting the latest edition. Keep in mind that I'm running SEAdog and can't handle the Opus style file requests, you'll have to be using SEAdog, Dutchie or BinkleyTerm if you want to file request FidoNews from me. It is available in a bulletin on my bulletin board as soon as it's generated and can usually be found for normal downloading sometime Monday evening. There also seems to be some confusion on how to submit an article for FidoNews. This is going to be real easy. The articles should be in straight ASCII, no high-bit flags or other unusual characters (including the TAB character). I know this is a little hard for some who aren't familiar with how to generate an ASCII file from their word processor, but it's the only standard that FidoNews 5-02 Page 2 11 Jan 1988 everyone can support. All lines should start at the first column as a general rule. If you're trying to show a chart or indent a paragraph, use beginning spaces. Just don't try and center the text on the page, MakeNews will indent every article the same amount. This makes for a consistent layout (usually). The only other constraint is that no line should be longer than 65 characters. The file name should have an extension of .ART for an article, .COL for a column, and .NOT for a notice. If you adhere to these rules, your article should be published in one to two weeks from the time I receive it. If I'm paying strict attention to what's coming in, I try to send you a short message telling you that your file did indeed arrive here and all is well. If you want you article to be listed in the table of contents, your first line should read "* (however you want it listed)." The asterisk tells MakeNews to generate a listing for the article in the table of contents and this line does not appear in the "published" article. After the table of contents line, if any, it is common practice to include a title of some sort along with your name and net/node number. I personally prefer this to be centered, but it's your article do as you wish. That's about all I'm going to go over this week. I'd like to thank all of you who have wished me good luck as the new editor. I wish I could list all of you, but unfortunately it would take too many pages. If you have any questions on any of this, please feel free to drop me a line. Once again I'm going to list a whole bunch of ways you can reach me, and I want to encourage all of you to contact me whichever way is easiest for you. Your Editor, Dale Lovell 1:1/1 (1:157/504) 216/642-1034 (data) Home Work 3266 Vezber Drive Parma Computer Center Seven Hills, OH 44131 5402 State Road 216/524-1875 (voice) Parma, OH 44134 216/661-1808 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-02 Page 3 11 Jan 1988 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= (Editor's Note: I came across this message in the SYSOP echomail conference this past week and felt that it was well worth sharing with all. Please note the time of the message and remember that it took Thom over 2 hours to write this.) 01/01/88 06:44:00 From: THOM HENDERSON To: ALL Subj: ADIOS The old year is gone, the new year is just beginning. And here I sit, up way too late (and with perhaps a tad too much bourbon) sitting at my keyboard. It seems a propitious moment for me to say farewell. There are many of you out there who have become my friends in these past few years. You I will miss. It is for you that I write this. Many of you out there dislike me, for reasons both real and imagined. Some of you have disliked me before you even knew me as an individual, but only knew SEA as the company that published ARC. Others have disliked me only since you've heard me express myself, and found that you sometimes disagreed with me. This is not adressed to you, for nothing that I might say will dissuade you from your hard-fought beliefs. But many of you I count as friends, and to you I owe an explanation. Why am I leaving FidoNet? I would think that obvious, but perhaps you do not. I have seen a growing cloud of misinterpretation and misrepresentation. Perhaps you have disagreed with me about particular goals or directions, but I have always felt that I was working towards the betterment of amateur electronic mail as a viable hobby. Maybe I have been wrong -- certainly I have been wrong my share of times, and perhaps more -- but I have never felt that I was evil. Nor have I felt that others who disagreed with me were evil. For two people can disagree (perhaps even vehemently) without either being evil. But I have fought for my vision of what is right for over two years, and I grow weary. I am weary of the scorn and ridicule I have harvested. I am tired of the shaded truths, the half truths, the misdirection, and the outright lies that abound these days. You've all heard the lies, and a gratifyingly large number of you have recognized them for what they are. Certainly it is not surprising that I am tired of continually refighting that battle. FidoNews 5-02 Page 4 11 Jan 1988 Do you mind if I tell you a little story? I hope not. About three and a half years ago my partner and I were working on a project we called (at that time) ComLink. The idea was to automate file transfers between PC's. At about that time we stumbled across a fledging FidoNet, numbering about 50 nodes. The way Fido did it seemed as good a way as any (and incidentally gave us a good test target), so we adopted it. We set up a test network of our two machines plus another two machines at client sites and named them "SEAdog One", "SEAdog Two", and so forth (being the SEA "dogs", as it were). My own machine, as head of the private network, was named "SEAdog Leader" (from watching too many episodes of "Black Sheep"), and that was the machine I did the initial testing and development of ComLink on. But before long we found ourselves referring to "my SEAdog" and "your SEAdog", and thus the name "SEAdog" as the name of the package was born. (There is still no part of the SEAdog system that is actually named "SEAdog".) In truth, the SEND and GET commands are about what we originally had in mind. Along the way we found ourselves getting more and more involved with FidoNet, and at some point we collaborated with Tom Jennings to get the FTSC started, because we all realized that there was a potential in what we were doing that transcended anything any of us had originally supposed. In particular, I think that TJ and I both envisioned some sort of public domain email standard for amateur systems running on any sort of hardware, so we were both willing to limit what we would do in order to further that standard. I say "limit" because the essence of establishing a standard lies in limiting it. In the act of saying to any new software developer, "This which we have documented WILL work", one limits how one may change that in the future. I saw that as a viable tradeoff. I still do. But all of this is hopefully a side point. At least, only future events will show if this is a side point or not. I earnestly hope that it will remain aside point forever. I see faint marks of handwriting on the wall that a technical battle over standards is forthcoming for FidoNet (which I do not wish to participate in), but I most sincerely hope that I am wrong. But regardless, I see factionalism growing in FidoNet. I see a dichotomy between FidoNet and IFNA that I don't think ought to exist. I feel that we once had a sense of camraderie and mutual trust that no longer seems to exist. Those who read Policy3 with a discerning eye will see that it implicitly assumes a body of sysops working together for a common goal, and TRYING to work together. I'm not sure that we have that anymore. Inevitable disclaimer for the inevitable few who will choose to misinterprete: I didn't say it isn't there. I said I'm not sure it's there. But this is addressed to you, my friends out there. So to FidoNews 5-02 Page 5 11 Jan 1988 you I will address a few answers to the flames, innuendos, and lies you are sure to hear once I am gone. Am I choosing between FidoNet and AlterNet? No, I am not. To quote from a better man than I (I've often copied my betters, and I've never had a problem with attributing my sources), Ben Baker said that he resigned for "reasons of health, sanity, and marriage". The same applies to me. I would be leaving FidoNet in any case. My resignation as elected Region 13 board member paved the way, and got the same response (domestically) as my resignation as Region 13 coordinator and FidoNews publisher. (For those of an historical bent, I'm the last of the original ten Regional Coordinators to resign.) Do I leave with no regrets? Of course not. Whether I liked it or not (and by and large, I did) I was the FidoNews publisher for almost three years, longer than I've held any other offiicial or unofficial post in FidoNet. Thus I break a Chinese committment akin to when I started my school's first newspaper back when I was in sixth grade (this meaning nothing to you, I am sure, but having no small significance to me, this New Year's day). So no, I am not choosing between FidoNet and AlterNet. I am choosing between AlterNet and pulling the plug. As Ryugen Fisher so aptly put it, "AlterNet is a network of burnouts." I find myself addicted to this vice of electronic mail, so I will give AlterNet a try. The alternative to me is going "cold turkey", as it were, for I am surely leaving FidoNet. If AlterNet fails, then I will be out of it altogether. Will AlterNet be "Henderson's network"? Or, as someone put it, am I jumping to be a big frog in a small pond? Apt wording that, because Ryugen (the Old Frog) is the one who talked me into joing AlterNet. Granted that AlterNet draws something (not much, but something) from the Alliance Bylaws that I wrote for FidoNews some time ago, but aside from the name of the Alliance and a few titles, it bears little resemblance. Pull out the issue with the Alliance bylaws, compare them with the Chivalry docs (both are in the published FidoNews index), and know the liars for what they are. Far from being "my" network, AlterNet will not have me in any important position. I will be a "grunt sysop" in AlterNet. The highest position is the Archduke, who will be Phil Becker. The equivalent of RC of my region is the Duke of Middle Atlantis, who will be Michael Connick. The equivalent of NC for my network is the Count of Metro on Hudson, who will be William Bertholf. The equivalent of our local hub will be the Baron of North Jersey -- a position that was offered to me, but I refused (I don't know who will take it). I will have no position in AlterNet other than a plain ol' sysop. So once again, you now know the liars for what they are. Is the Alliance a "for-profit" corporation? Yes, but anyone who trys to tell you that this is a big deal either doesn't know what he's talking about, or he's trying to sell you a bill of goods. One of the painful lessons we've learned from IFNA is that it FidoNews 5-02 Page 6 11 Jan 1988 isn't always a good idea to shoot for tax exempt status. For one, to be tax exempt one must follow all sorts of rules and stipulations that one might not wish to follow. For another, a tax-exempt MUST by law act primarily for the good of the public. A corporation that acts primarily for the good of its members CANNOT be tax exempt. The Alliance is intended to do good primarily for sysops, and hence CANNOT be tax exempt! If we tried to make it so, then anyone involved could be in for serious felony charges a few years down the road (something for IFNA board members to keep in mind!) Are AlterNet sysops going to steal FidoNet echomail conferences? Well, it kind of depends on what one means by "steal". I've no doubt that at the beginning a certain amount of leakage will occur, even though I myself see no point to it. FidoNet conferences are one of the main things that have made me sick and tired of FidoNet, so I myself can see no reason to port them over. But no doubt the faint of heart will, at least in the early stages. I expect that AlterNet will quickly grow its own conferences of equal or greater merit and have no need of FidoNet conferences. Gee (as in golly), the Alliance sounds awfully elitist. Why is that? Well, it's really very simple. The Alliance IS elitist. We're not saying that we are de-facto better than everyone else. We're saying that we're going to try darned hard to BE better than we once were. I know that for myself at least that isn't going to be easy, but I sure intend to try! Will it cost money to be in AlterNet? Yes, as I read it. The Council of Dukes sets the tithe, and all Knights are expected to stay current on all tithes. Also, a local Count might lay a local tax to pay for outbound mail service. Meanwhile, it is mandated that the tithe pays for a legal defense fund. BUT! Don't ANYBODY bother to tell me or ANYONE ELSE that they disagree! NOBODY has to join! If you disagree, then stay right where you are! How does AlterNet affect me? If you do not join the Alliance, then I don't see how it affects you at all. The Alliance is of no concern at all to those who do not join. Why should I join the Alliance? If you want or need someone to tell you, then you should not join. AlterNet and the Alliance most definetely are NOT for everyone. If you are burned out and thinking of pulling the plug, then you won't be asking -- you'll be joining. As for everyone else, ignore it. Remember what Ryugen so eloquently said, "AlterNet is a network of burnouts." Anyone who tries to "sell" you on joining the Alliance should probably rethink his own motives. Are you concerned about keeping your existing contacts and your existing echomail links? If so, then stay right where you are. Neither faint heart nor false heart ere won a fair maiden. (If you don't get the reference, I apologize. Darned few got the "King Log/King Stork" reference either.) FidoNews 5-02 Page 7 11 Jan 1988 Does this mean no more support for SEAdog? Crass commercialisim raises its head once again. You still have our mailing address, our customer support BBS (201-473-1991, a number that has never been in the nodelist), and our voice number printed on your SEAdog manual cover. The SEAdog conference in FidoNet (assuming it continues) might not be attended by us, but it will at least exist as much as it was originally intended to exist. That is, it was established to provide tech support for SEAdog without our input in return for IFNA getting a substantial discount for SEAdog for IFNA members. In other words, the SEAdog conference was never supposed to be moderated by us. Does this constitute abandonment? I don't think so. Near as I can tell, we continue to provide better support than most software publishers. Ah, well, no way can I anticipate all that you'll hear about us in the coming weeks. Suffice to say that a great deal will be, shall we say, somewhat less than wholly accurate. Of that I am sure. But you have our phone number (it's printed on the SEAdog manual cover, and widely distributed otherwise), so please feel free to call us anytime you are in doubt. (Oh, boy! Can I see ways that THAT can be misinterpreted! [at least, by those who wish to do so]) There's no need to take the word of those who have shown themselves to be somewhat less than reliable, as they say. Just call us up and ask! It's even later now than I ever would have imagined that I might stay up typing this, else I'd never have started. Near as I can figure, I have about ten hours before our mail relay converts to the AlterNet node list. Hopefully this will reach you before then. Much to my chagrin (unless a VERY late change came in) I won't be in the first AlterNet list after all, but hopefully it won't take long. To those of you, my friends that I leave behind, I'll not forget you. You're all that's made this worthwhile. And it HAS been worthwhile, by and large. As I said in my final FidoNet editorial, by and large it's been fun. How do I end a three and a half year relationship gracefully? I don't know. If you've stuck with me this long, through all these words I've entered, you must be one of my friends. So maybe I can say this now. (Or at the least, I won't have to hear any ridicule.) Typing these messages at this keyboard has often been an emotional experience, but it's never before brought tears to my eyes. Goodbye. I'll miss you. Editors Comments: Thank you very much for these parting words Thom. I too have have had many an emotional experience at this keyboard, but this last message of yours has been the most emotional of all. Good luck in whatever you do. You will be missed. -- Dale ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-02 Page 8 11 Jan 1988 The FidoNet Sysop's Bill of Rights! Or ... How to Make the Net Truly Democratic By Randy Edwards 132/555 This part of the article in the back of FidoNews #501 (by Don Daniels) started me thinking: > Essentially, each coordinator operates as a sort > of "dictator" with full responsibility for his domain. > You have no direct control over how he operates - the only > mechanism you have (short of dropping out of his domain) to > attempt any control over him is to convince his "boss" > coordinator (who in many cases made the appointment in the > first place) that your coordinator is not doing the job. > No easy task. Don's right, it's no easy task. And if you look at most of the present and recent controversies in the Network they can be directly related (or caused!) by this 'problem.' So thinking about this I came up with the following: (comments are welcome in the IFNA, SYSOP of POLICY4 echos) [*] THE FIDONET SYSOP'S BILL OF RIGHTS [*] [1] No node may delete or modify (except modification by recognized netmail utilities) intransit netmail unless it is obviously illegal in nature. Copying or recording of intransit messages is forbidden. An exception to this right is prior agreement between all parties. [2] No node may delete or modify (except modification by recognized net/echomail utilities) intransit echomail unless it is obviously illegal in nature. An exception to this rule is an agreed-upon conference moderator. All nodes must do any local modification or deletion ('chopping' or 'ed- meeseing') of echomail after it is scanned. [3] Every node has the right to choose to be listed in either the local geographic network, or as an independent node in the local geographic region. [4] Every network will have an Election every 12 months. The election will be held in June, in honor of the month the original FidoNet converted nodelists. Every node in the network will have one vote towards the position of Network Coordinator. Elections are won by straight majority, but elections that are not won by more than 5% are submitted to an automatic revote within 30 days. This is to ensure the winner of an election has enough support to work effectively and to help prevent controversial election results. FidoNews 5-02 Page 9 11 Jan 1988 The Network Coordinator, upon election, will name an assistant and served until the following June when a new election will be held. The Network Coordinator will act as a combination 'Prime Minister' and 'Representative' of the Net in addition to any other duties outlined in Policy4. Additionally, if there are 5 or more independant nodes in a Region, (termed a 'Group') they are also encouraged to have similar elections as above selecting one person to be thier Representative, though their position will be in an unofficial capacity (see below). [5] If at any time during a Network Coordinators term of office, if 34% of the nodes in the network agree they can submit a Request for Recall to the Network and Regional Coordinators, who will have 2 weeks to verify the Request for Recall and respond to the plantiffs. Within 60 days of the Request for Recall a new election will be held (unless the June election is within 60 days). [6] Every region will have an Election every 12 months. The election will be held in August, in honor of the month the first FidoCon and the birth (or abortion? B-) of IFNA. Every Network Coordinator in the Region will have one vote towards the position of Network Coordinator. Additionally, if a Region has 5 or more independant nodes in it and the nodes have elected a Representative (see above), then that Representative is given one vote in Regional elections. The Regional Coordinator, upon election, will name an assistant and served until the following August when a new election will be held. The Network Coordinator will act as a combination 'Prime Minister' and 'Representative' of the Region, in addition to any other duties outlined in Policy4. [7] If at any time during a Regional Coordinators term of office, if 34% of the Network Coordinators (plus one vote for a qualified 5+ elected independant regional Representative) in the region agree they can submit a Request for Recall to the Regional and Zone Coordinators, who will have 2 weeks to verify the Request for Recall and respond to the plantiffs. Within 60 days of the Request for Recall a new election will be held (unless the August election is within 60 days). [8] Every zone will have an Election every 12 months. The election will be held in September, in honor of the month the first St. Louis nodelist. Every Regional Coordinator in the Zone will have one vote towards the position of Zone Coordinator. The Zone Coordinator, upon election, will name an assistant and served until the following September when a new election will be held. The Zone Coordinator will act as a combination 'Prime Minister' and 'Representative' of the Zone in addition to any other duties outlined in Policy4. Additionally, if there are 5 or more qualified Groups in a Zone, they are also encouraged to have similar elections FidoNews 5-02 Page 10 11 Jan 1988 as above selecting one person to be thier Representative, though their position will be in an unofficial capacity (see below). [9] If at any time during a Zone Coordinators term of office, if 34% of the Regional Coordinators (plus one vote for a qualified 5+ Group) in the zone agree they can submit a Request for Recall to the Zone and Int'l Coordinators, who will have 2 weeks to verify the Request for Recall and respond to the plantiffs. Within 60 days of the Request for Recall a new election will be held(unless the August election is within 60 days). [10] An amendment or deletion to this Bill of Rights can be done by a Constitional Convention. The exact procedure is this: If a node wishes an amendment or deletion (which should be thought out carefully, for it is a very serious matter) he must write up a Proposal for the amendment or deletion stating the reasons for a change. The Proposal is then submitted to each of the Regional Coordinators and to the Zone Coordinator. Upon receipt the Regional Coordinators have 60 days to vote on the Proposal and notify the Zone Coordinator of their vote. The Zone Coordinator will then tally the votes and notify the RC's and the Node who submitted the proposal of the RC's vote. If the RC's vote 90% in favor For the amendment or deletion then the Proposal is submitted for a Zone Constitutional Vote. The Zone Constitutional Vote (ZCV) is done in June. Every Node in the Network votes on a ZCV. The ZCV is done by placing the Proposal on each individual Network's (and qualified Regional Group's) ballot for Network Coordinator. Each Network Coordinator will then tally his/her Network's ZCV vote and submit it to the Zone Coordinator who has 30 days to add up the total ZCV vote and report it to the RC's and NC's. The ZCV vote is won on a straight majority count of votes - but for a change to this Bill of Rights to take place the Proposal must 'win' the vote by at least 5% - if the proposal wins, but does not win by 5% then the Proposal is considered too controversial and is held over for an automatic revote the following June. --- End of the Bill of Rights. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-02 Page 11 11 Jan 1988 From 107/246 - Effective Until 01/31/88 Description Ram List Special 1) 7.2 Mhz Motherboard Upgrade 0K $ 419.00 $ 329.00 2) 7.2 Mhz Motherboard Upgrade 1024K $ 589.00 $ 499.00 3) 8.0 Mhz Motherboard Upgrade 0K $ 589.00 $ 398.00 4) 8.0 Mhz Motherboard Upgrade 1024K $ 629.00 $ 549.00 5) 10.0 Mhz Motherboard Upgrade 0K $ 559.00 $ 452.00 6) 10.0 Mhz Motherboard Upgrade 1024K $ 739.00 $ 644.00 7) 12.5 Mhz Motherboard Upgrade 0K $ 629.00 $ 499.00 8) 12.5 Mhz Motherboard Upgrade 1024K $ 889.00 $ 762.00 A) 12.5 Mhz (AT) Motherboard 0K $ 919.00 $ 699.00 B) 12.5 Mhz (AT) Motherboard 1024K $1179.00 $ 950.00 Item 2 Comes With 1 Megabyte of 150 Ns Ram. Item 4 Comes With 1 Megabyte of 120 Ns Ram. Item 6 Comes With 1 Megabyte of 100 Ns Ram. Item 8 Comes With 1 Megabyte of 80 Ns Ram. Item B Comes With 1 Megabyte of 80 Ns Ram. All motherboards come with a 2 way warranty. There is a full money back warranty for 30 days. Each board is also covered by a full 2 year warranty against defects. Prices quoted above are in United States funds. Surface delivery and insurance are included within the United States. Shipments outside of the United States you must add $20 for shipping, handling, and insurance. All motherboards have been tested before shipment. These are brand new products NOT rejects or customer returns. While no one can guarantee 100% compatibility, we have not run into any major software packages that do not run. Of course, IBM BASIC and BASICA will not run due to the fact that they read the IBM ROM chip. The BIOS is current (September 1987) and is completely compatible with Monochrome, CGA, and EGA displays. The boards have a built in disk cache which uses the Ram from 640k to 1024k. Contact 107/246 via Netmail or call 516-328-7064 (modem) for more details. These prices are available to Fidonet Sysops and users until January 31, 1988. We reserve the right to cancel this offer at any time. We reserve the right to refuse any order at our sole discretion. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-02 Page 12 11 Jan 1988 Ben Mann / Amnon Nissan OPUS 151/1000 [R]aleigh,NC [E]chomail [D]ata [CON]centrator [G]reensboro,NC [E]chomail [D]ata [CON]centrator REDCON/GEDCON have been going thru several changes in recent months. REDCON now handles over 200 ECHO's. It's a full time job keeping up with the changes. REDCON is now running AUTOECHO to help with some of the work. Because REDCON is in a PC Pursuit city the traffic has been very heavy. All weekend long the machine sends and receives traffic. Thanks to the efforts of all the users feedback loops in the echomail paths have been, for the most part, avoided. GEDCON has been slower to develop. Because GEDCON's users are billed for the time on the system monthly. An accounting program had to be written. That is now done. Also an automatic billing system is in place. So as time permit we will be adding users again. To other ECHOMAIL BACKBONE(tm) sysops. Please contact us so we may better coordinate our efforts to provide ECHOMAIL services to the nodes of an even stronger FidoNet. A list of the ECHOMAIL handled by REDCON/GEDCON is in a file REDCON.ARC which may be requested from 151/100 or 151/1000. Soon AUTOECHO will respond to the QUERY option and send a message to any requesting system all the echo's available. Now let's see... A ten jewel lazer ... Amnon got any spare 10 meter dishes ????? Signals have been bounced off the moon before.... ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-02 Page 13 11 Jan 1988 Thoughts on AlterNet Jon Sabol I'm still here although I don't say much. Just thought I'd post my ideas on what's going on and how I think AlterNet should be dealt with. Don't know if the opinion carries any weight any more, but what the hell. This IS supposed to be a forum to discuss things like this. The creation of something like AlterNet has been inevitable since the formation of IFNA. TechNet was the forerunner of this, but it wasn't quite as radical. TechNet was a parallel network; AlterNet is an entity which seems to be trying to replace FidoNet while still maintaining ties to the current base of people running FidoNet compatible boards. TechNet was a reasonable approach. It provided the security of an alternate network while not imposing ideals and practices on the current network. AlterNet seems to be an attempt to create an environment favorable to its peers, with no real regard of the current status of affairs in the Net. This is unhealthy. The whole premise of FidoNet, and its main function is to allow as many people who are interested in telecommunications to use it as a tool to pass ideas amongst themselves. In this aspect, FidoNet serves the purpose quite well. Fragmentation of the network is inevitable. If AlterNet does not branch off, then there will be other groups that choose to leave the established structure to form groups which appear to be more advantageous either technically or politically. This is only the effect caused by bringing a number of highly independant people together in an organization. The founders of AlterNet cite 'flames' as being the reason to split into a separate group. They say that things aren't 'fun any more'. I think its closer to the truth to say that they are having a hard time dealing with dissention. Its hard to feel what you are saying is right when you get scathing replies from other folks. Its even harder when people base their reactions on previous events - i.e. hold grudges. That part of the problem is our fault. Its far easier to create a masterpiece of debate that rips your opponent to pieces than it is to sit back and ask a few questions to see if what you read is really what the other person typed. The biggest problem with this media is that what is read is sometimes different from the typed word. Even the spoken word on a telephone imparts more of the author's meaning than what is portrayed in a conference message. ( I'm in Shackelford mode again :->) Most of the personality conflicts in the network stem from the impersonality of the media. The same words spoken face to face more often than not would not be offensive. Its hard to realize that your own opinion is not the only one when all you FidoNews 5-02 Page 14 11 Jan 1988 see are differing opinions that are stated more like personal attacks than logical rebuttals. This is the aspect of the problem that needs to be worked on. You'll never get a group of 3000 people together that totally agree on everything. We should concentrate on teaching people the proper etiquette for public debate, not encourage personal attacks and confrontations. AlterNet refers to 'the good ol' days'. Times when there weren't such heated arguments and personality clashes. The reason that things are as they are now is the medium the folks in this conference are supposed to be helping with - EchoMail. Almost two years ago, this means of communicating was formed. Until EchoMail's inception, there was no real forum for discussion amongst the Net. How many of you actually used FidoNet to the extent you do now before the idea of conferencing came about??? I bet your message volume was at most one tenth of what it is today. We have grown a lot, and we are still growing. Unfortunately, our ability to deal with other people has not kept up with the explosion of forums and topics available. Until we learn to treat each other as human beings, and until we can deal with problems impersonally, we will continue to see offshoots from the organization we belong to now. This is the real problem. There is nothing wrong with the structure currently - we just can't seem to manage to disagree in a reasonable fashion. That's what needs to be worked on. AlterNet has some aspects that I absolutely cannot agree with, nor condone. IFNA is in the same boat. We should work together to build something that is agreeable with the majority instead of striking out on our own to do what we feel is right. Leaving the system is a cop out. Its saying 'well, if you won't play my way, I'll take my ball and go home'. The proper approach is to try to convince the players to agree to play differently. The political aspects of AlterNet could very well influence the current state of affairs of FidoNet adversely. We can prevent this by limiting its ability to communicate to the general forums. As Ray says, we should not be forced to spend money to support the transmission of messages from an entity that is profiting from our expense. We should not allow the conferences carried on AlterNet to intermingle with those established in FidoNet. We can prevent this if we try. By allowing it, we are condoning the fragmentation of the entity that is the basis of our fraternity. When someone decides to 'take their ball and go home', you don't respond with 'well, if you're going, you might as well take this bat with you'. The group of people that form the backbone and the EchoMail Coordinators is the grass roots faction of FidoNet. We all have very differing political views, but we realize that without this means of communication, there is not enough interaction between the various people to warrant any type of organization. We are in desparate need of SOME sort of central coordination to oversee the rapid growth we are experiencing. The keys here are FidoNews 5-02 Page 15 11 Jan 1988 'amateur', 'hobby', and 'free'. Let's see if we can't help keep the group together, instead of promoting splintering according to point of view. --- Jon ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-02 Page 16 11 Jan 1988 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 25 Aug 1988 Start of the Fifth International FidoNet Conference, to be held at the Drawbridge Inn in Cincinnatti, 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.80* EditNL 3.3 ARC 5.21 Fido 12e* MakeNL 1.10 ARCmail 1.1 Opus 1.03a Prune 1.40 ConfMail 3.3* SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.85* EchoMail 1.31 TBBS 2.0M MGM 1.1 * 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- David Dodell FidoNet: 1:1/0 or 1:114/15 Usenet: {ihnp4|hao|decvax} !noao!asuvax!stjhmc!ddodell Bitnet: ARDSD @ ASUACAD Several short items of interest: o Bob Morris will be remaining on a Zone 1 Region 16 Coordinator. o All Region Coordinators in Zone 1, plus the Zone 2 and 3 coordinators have received Version 2.0 of MAKENL. Please try to obtain this latest edition if you are a Network Coordinator. FidoNews 5-02 Page 17 11 Jan 1988 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-02 Page 18 11 Jan 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 5-02 Page 19 11 Jan 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___________________________ -----------------------------------------------------------------