F I D O N E W S -- Vol.12 No.17 (24-Apr-1995)
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" BBS |
| _ | +1-519-570-4176 |
| / \ | |
| /|oo \ | Sheep affairs desk: |
| (_| /_) | Doc Logger 1:163/110 |
| _`@/_ \ _ | Rev. Richard Visage 1:163/409 |
| | | \ \\ | |
| | (*) | \ )) | Editors: |
| |__U__| / \// | Donald Tees 1:221/192 |
| _//|| _\ / | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Submission address: editors 1:1/23 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MORE addresses: |
| |
| submissions=>
[email protected] |
| Don --
[email protected] |
| Max --
[email protected] |
| Tim Pozar --
[email protected] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 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..................................................... 2
2. Articles...................................................... 3
Terror Strikes in America's Heartland....................... 3
Subject: Oh how exciting.................................... 4
Random Fido and Internet-related thought.................... 4
Dear Ms. Syvlia,............................................ 7
<ROTFL>..................................................... 7
Computer Users and the Graphic Age.......................... 8
Response to "Who owns an Echo".............................. 10
Following is FIDONEWS 1214 :................................ 11
Comments On ECROC........................................... 12
PGP Signatures and Forgery.................................. 14
EFF AABBS Amicus Brief in Support of the Thomases (Appellant 15
FOXSFTV...Why take half measures?........................... 27
3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 28
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 2 24 Apr 1995
========================================================================
Editorial
========================================================================
Don is forcing me to write an editorial, even though there's a
bowl of popcorn beside the computer. We just watched a Whoopie
Goldberg movie called "telephone", about an actress whose only
connection with reality was through a telephone. She can't pay
her deposit after her phone is disconnected so she goes crazy
and stabs an obnoxious guy who invades her apartment. You SEE
THIS is what happens when people get chopped from the nodelist.
oh gaud, i didn't mean anything about the bomb blast by that.
Don said maybe we should say something about the bomb blast but
i can't becuase it's too horrible and i don't want to puke
popcorn. stupid destruction is everywhere and what can we do
about it? Fortunately this issue contains an article which
rescues this blathering statement WHY the hell would anyone
think anything at all good would come from setting off a bomb?
k. Now it's time to rethink the gun law issue, now that we can
compare guns to bombs. BTW, there was an ad at the back of the
Friday's globe and mail last week for donating used but useful
equipment of all kinds to places where people are struggling to
become consumers. Hopefully the so-called third world, (i guess
by that i mean groups of people who are everywhere but near me
who are poor, or maybe by that i mean places which get lousy odds
from international banking schemes), will make a better job of
becoming affluent than "we" recently did, considering that i
popped a whole lot of popcorn out of an air popper on the
kitchen table so that it flew out over the floor and i thought
it was funny and it never occurred to me that some people are
hungry. Anyway, i thought i'd mention the equipment ad,
because that kind of thing was all i meant by the "be nice and
send used equipment to Cuba" campaign. I merely meant, "hey some
people are trying to help out some other people and here's an
article". I DID NOT mean "i am making a grand statement about
international politics and i am on some particular side or
other". Jeez. I do not like having my brain squeezed into
geography.
i still haven't sorted out the computers, freedom and privacy
conference in my mind, even though i have huge plans for writing
stuff. it was intensely confusing there, but mostly nice. Jane
Radin sounded a lot like Margaret Atwood, and i did not understand
the Esther Dyson lecture, which i only heard from a tape recorder.
She dosn't seem to know that Fidonet technology brought the freedom
of computer communications to the former USSR.
i'm really sorry about the bomb blast. things like that
shouldn't happen. Earth quakes and tidal waves are disasters
too, but the disaster image is especially sad and twisted when
caused by human malice. How completely rotten, that this has
happened, and i'm sorry i have the gaul to even mention it with
my ineffectual words.
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 3 24 Apr 1995
What is worth more, intentions or actions?
Waco was nasty, Oka was nasty, the Levesque crisis wasn't
nastier only because of luck?; the power of governments scares
me a lot. That's why i don't like beurocracy to become too
intense on Fidonet, among other reasons. Beurocracy is great
when it's starting up and everyone is excited and wants to do
things, but when it accumulates upon itself enough to become a
thing rather than a group of people with a plan, it chokes.
But bombs solve nothing. If i were superstitious i would say
"they are evil".
I wish i could put this marble that Red gave me yesterday in
your one hand, and this tiny pebble i found on the sidewalk in
your other hand, and ask you what you think of them. The marble
seems to be made of glass. Don was explaining about how glass
is made which he knows about from designing a glass plant. He
said that glass melts like sugar in a pan. As soon as a little
of it starts, then the rest follows quickly. This sounded to me
like people in groups, or Freud and the horde mentality. Then
he said it gets dropped in a chamber, where it forms a perfect
sphere as it falls, due to surface tension. I was amazed to hear
that the tear shape i had been imagining was really a myth, and
that the teardrops are really globes and the falling is really
orbit.
You can see the spin, of worlds, in the marble. The pebble is
the same shape. I do not know which is more precious.
========================================================================
Articles
========================================================================
Terror Strikes in America's Heartland
TERROR STRIKES IN AMERICA's HEARTLAND
john burton
FidoNET 1:147/34
[email protected]
As many of you may know, approximately 0910 CDT, 19 April 1995,
terrorists struck in America's heartland. The Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building in downtown Oklahoma City, OK was rocked by a massive explosion
injuring several hundred and investigators expect the death count to top
100.
Oklahoma City is home to FidoNETs MetroNET, Net147, and we thought
we'd pass on to the BBS community that it's our chance to shine again.
This town has been hit with bad press lately, and we can stand a bit of
"good press".
Currently, the folks in Oklahoma City are in dire need of leather
work gloves, hard hats, sun screen, dry food, disposable diapers, AA and
AAA batteries. The local Merrill Lynch office has set up a fund to help
pay for the burial and care of the many children involved in this
disaster. Their phone number is (405)270-1803, please speak with Debbie
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 4 24 Apr 1995
Lambrecht.
As Network Coordinator of Net147, I've received many calls from
FidoNETters all over the country requesting information. To these
queries I offer the following address. Point your InterNET browser to
http://www.kwtv.com/kwtv for the local CBS television staion's updated
review of what's been going on. I am attempting to get permission to
put an ASCII listing of survivors and other pertinant data from KWTV,
but as yet do not have that permission...
Thanks !!! We appreciate your support
john burton 1:147/34
[email protected]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Oh how exciting
From: Paul Cuni (1:141/515)
Puppy had kittens today. Puppy, for those of you
that are not regular readers, is our cat. There is
nothing like a gaggle of kittens thundering arround a
house to remind one what is important, and what is not.
I am looking forward to watching them discover the
world.
I am not looking foward to having this shit in your crappy
fidonews. The articles in it are long and drawn out. It's like
reading a Novel to express a simple point. I could go on but
I'd just be wasting my breath like your Newsletter wastes my
bandwidth.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Random Fido and Internet-related thought
by Chip Morrow, 1:226/730
I was rummaging around in the extensive "unfinished files" section of
my hard drive (well, ok... so that covers my WHOLE HARD DRIVE).
In the process, I ran across an editorial that I started putting
together for the users here around the first of the year. I never
finished it and put it online, so I'll do it now and send it to
1:1/23 as a Fidonews article instead.
From 12/31/94:
-----
So it's New Year's Eve - a time to reflect on the past and look ahead
to the future. Hardly anyone actually DOES that, but I guess we're
supposed to anyway. And with me being in a rambling kind of mood, I
decided to take it out on you. <g>
Lately I've been looking around me and wondering where bulletin
boards and online services are going to be in another 5 or 10 years.
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 5 24 Apr 1995
At the moment everyone seems to be stumbling all over themselves on
the way to being connected in some way to the Internet, so lets talk
about that.
Simple email gateways aren't enough anymore - it seems like everybody
who's already online wants to *be* there, and yesterday. It's looked
upon as kind of the "end of the road" for data communications. The
ideal thing is "connect here, and you're connected to everybody."
We're not quite there yet, but things sure seem to moving in that
direction.
There's some kind of a strange force at work here... I've been
spending a fair amount of time there myself, including a few nights
long into the wee hours hopping around the WorldWide Web from site to
site, forgetting where I am, and eventually looking up and realizing
that I've been online to France for the last hour. Ending up on a
computer overseas via a local phone call is a strange thing, but it's
surprisingly easy to get used to.
Hooking up to the net keeps getting cheaper and easier as time
passes, and that's going to continue. If the net doesn't collapse
on itself from the sheer weight of everyone getting online all at
once, this "info highway" thing (I hate that term) is likely going
to end up being available to just about everybody with a PC for next
to nothing. Maybe it'll end up as a option through the cable TV
companies... or maybe it will just be a service you can get through
the phone company, but eventually it looks like it will be a lot
easier to do than it is at the moment.
With operating systems like OS/2 Warp having full Internet access
software included as part of the package, a whole lot of people will
have the tools at hand to get connected. The trick is whether
they'll actually do it, or just talk about it.
Consider what I went through to get my SLIP account going. (For
those of you who don't know what that is, it's a way of hooking your
PC directly to the Internet over the phone line and modem). I got it
in the first place by catching the one of our local Internet
Providers on the voice phone one weekday afternoon (a very difficult
thing to do). After that I spent about a week traveling around the
net picking up various bits and pieces of software that was supposed
to work on a PC. I eventually collected about 10 megabytes of
Windows sofware that was supposed to do the trick, and then spent a
few days figuring out what worked and what didn't.
Eventually I ended up with:
- Trumpet Winsock (the basic Engine that makes the rest work)
- Netscape WWW Browser (A "Mosaic"-like thing)
- The Trumpet newsreader
- WS_FTP for standalone FTP sessions
- EWAN (Emulator Without A Name) for Telnet sessions
- BCGopher for standalone gophering
- WSIRC for IRC (Internet Relay Chat), and
- Various misc utilties to play movies and sound files.
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 6 24 Apr 1995
It all works. Usually. Sometimes. Mostly. But it sure took a
while to find it all and make it work, or even figure out what I was
supposed to do with it once I found it. It has to get easier than
this if the masses are ever going to hook up and make it fly.
But you know what? Some of the most interesting places on the net
are the little backroads and corners, the spots that a single guy
takes care of and maintains. Exploring those little back alleys
brings a smile to my face once in a while. These look like the BBS's
of the future. But instead of numbers in a dialing directory,
they're "bookmarks" of places to go, in a little corner of a BBS that
you're already connected to. And that BBS is the Internet. It
doesn't really matter whether I like it or not, that just looks like
the way it's going to go.
Coming down out of my cloud, I notice that you still have to pick up
your modem and dial a phone number to connect to this little corner
of the world. Maybe someday I'll just be a mouse click on a menu
somewhere. Who knows. But it'll be fun finding out.
-----
Appended 4/23/95:
I don't really know where all of that leaves Fidonet. I notice that
nobody got bent out of shape in the snooze when the nodelist hit 3
megs a while back. You'd have thought the world was going to end
the week it hit 2 megs.
My brain turns to a rather impressive coil of confusion and
conflicting ideas whenever I try to figure out how Fidonet fits into
all this. I don't know how it can ever go completely away, as it
seems like it will always (or at least for the foreseeable future)
be cheaper and easier for someone to allow direct-dial into their
BBS, rather than put together all the hardware and software (and
$$$) to connect it to the Internet. There will always be the
"locals" on any given BBS, and Fidonet is considerably cheaper and
easier to get going than an equivalent Internet link. Fidonet
conferences vs. Internet newsgroups... but you can always hook
newsgroups up to your BBS... and after that, well by golly, I guess
we need to actually get *ON* the net and let the callers do ftp and
telnet and... suddenly we're back to the point one.
So I don't know where it will all lead. But it's something to think
about, and it *will* be fun finding out.
And by the way... it's a very amusing thing the first time you telnet
to a bbs halfway across the country and find as the first thing that
greets you....... a fidonet mailer. :)
We now return you to your regularly-scheduled snooze.
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 7 24 Apr 1995
Dear Ms. Syvlia,
Hi! This is Chris Leung from Hong Kong Net (6:700/0).
Just a little suggestion.
Internet is becoming popular in Hong Kong. The service charge
of many ISPs is affordable for the populace. So, I am thinking
that... if all the internet address of fidonet related site,
such as ftp, nodelist, sds map...etc can be listed on the last
page of fidonews, I think fidonews will become a very
resourceful magazine for fidonet members.
Also, is it possible to add some introduction of windows-based
fidonet software...? Will there be any amendment in the FTSC
documents so that GUI Fidonet software can be invented...??
Thank you. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Chris Leung
[email protected]
6:700/
[email protected]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
<ROTFL>
by Bob Moravsik 2606/583
I almost fell on the floor after reading Mr. Rice's nonsentical
response to who owns echo. An educated person who gets a
threat of legal action, analyses the source of the threat
and the theory behind it. Mr. Rice justifies his position
because "being in the public eye" <ROTFL>, a property that
is irrelavant. I guess he tried to impress us peons that we
should take him serious...
we don't. "being in the public eye" is just a ineffective
bosterious statement.
A mere threat is just that. One of my hobbies is taking up
threats, not wasting the use of fax machines or bothering
attorneys with utter nonsense. If Mr. Rice gets that many
threats, he must be acting outside the norms of society. His
article is certainly bizzarre. Tossing people out of
Fidonet for uttering legal threats is Draconian. Mr. Rice
has confused OZ with America. "being in the public eye"
<Gag> must have change his ability to look at the world
realistically.
Conferences are not capable of being owned. When I gave an
example, Mr Rice just redid the facts. Mr. Rice...if you
as a moderator were cut out of the conference you
moderate, YOU WOULD HAVE NO Fidonet POLICY 4 remedy. That
was the clear point. It wasn't hard material. In fact it
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 8 24 Apr 1995
was basic stuff. Address that...go ask you lawyers.
<double gag>
Fidonet needs a policy on echomail to
balance the relative rights of the interests. There must
be a review of all decisions. Unilateral action should
be avoided. That was the point. None of Mr. Rice's ravings
had any basis in fact or logic. ECROC is not Draconian, it
provides due process against Rice's Draconia ! Mr. Rice...
YOUR DECISIONS WILL BE REVIEWED ! Fax that you your lawyer;
listen to the laughter. You got mixed up on that issue.
As to editor's being objective...good ones are...poor ones; well
they use the position to push their positions. As to lying...
the analogy to Sadam was just that. Cutting out a person from a
conference amounts to electronic execution in that communication
path. Mr. Rice...calm down...learn about analogies. The point
lack of due process. Again, not hard stuff.
Hopefully these interchanges will point out that there is a need.
A need to put limits on petty dictators like Mr. Rice. Cause
their decisions to be reviewed. That is what ECROC provides.
Fidonet will have a golden day, when ECROC is replaced by
a balanced policy on echomail. Until then....its ALL WE GOT.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Users and the Graphic Age.
by Robert LaPrise 1:282/4098
Computer Users and the Graphic Age.
Having recently turned 30 I am increasingly alarmed at what I
see occuring in our computer world. From a time when one had to be
able to correctly key in the command instructions to achieve any
useful system operations we are now in the age of point and click.
While this opens the computer to those less knowleadgable of
it's operation and helps considerably in the business/work
environment, here in FIDOdom where our computers are our link to each
other, our passion, and (yes admit it) obsession it is becoming a
thorn in our side.
The current hot and heavy issue is that of echo moderation
policy, but let us look at the roots of some of the problems there.
This has more to do with the callers behaviour than that of the
moderators themselves. Here is my observation on this matter.
In todays graphic age, young computer users/BBSer's do not
learn the older more "verbal" methods of communicating with their
system and this trend carries over into their communications skills
with others as well. How many of us have seen the 13 or 14 year old
Sysop (face it, every kid with a modem is eventually a Sysop cause
it's *cool*) who's general message format is about 4 or 5 lines of
misspelled text.
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 9 24 Apr 1995
They are abundant these days and as a result I have gone to an
18 or over access policy on my BBS which led to another discovery.
These same young callers either cannot read, or they are just
to lazy to do so. I have posted conspicuously the age restrictions of
my BBS yet consistently get callers who endure the complete new
account process to then leave me bitch & moan feedback that none of
the menu keys will work for them but the logoff function. These same
callers are also our new generation of programmers growing up not with
GWBASIC or BASICA as many of us did (with the attention to detail it
required helping us to develop our language skills) but with Visual
BASIC and Windows and a general lack of communication skills.
Personally I would be very hesitant to run a program written
by someone who misspells their own name half the time, cannot (or will
not) read the rules and instructions presented them when calling a new
BBS and whose general discourse in a message area consists of topics
like "Well" or "Yea" or best of all "...". Were these same young
computer users to put as much effort into improving their
communications skills as they do into learning the latest cheats for
DOOM perhaps the echos would not have as many of the problems as they
now encounter and the issues of moderation would not be boiling over
as they are.
In a communications medium where the sole impression one
leaves upon those they connect with is that of their message content
and form I for one would be embarrased as hell if I werre to post some
of the messages that I have seen left by our younger callers (and
sadly some of our older ones as well).
Perhaps we should not concern ourselves as exlusivley with who
is running the show as much as who we are letting in to watch it.
And perhaps (as a hopeful future parent to those that
currently are) we should spend more time making sure our younger
generation is developing proper reading and writing skills rather than
patting ouselves on the back because "Our little Johnny just wrote
another program with Visual BASIC. Isn't he wonderful?"
Maybe so but Johnny just logged on to my BBS, and after
entering his birthdate (which placed him at 13) the system locked
the menu functions so he left me feedback cussing me out like a
trucker with every other word spelled wrong.
Robert LaPrise
1:282/4098
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 10 24 Apr 1995
Response to "Who owns an Echo"
by Phillip Murray of 1:3648/12
I've always meant to write something for the snooze, but have
restrained myself until now. I want to tell you about the joys
of being a "regional" [ i.e. "out in the sticks" (actually its
out in a cornfield)] BBS and ask why I should have to
participate in a cost sharing plan which while appropriate to
metro areas, for there you are actually sharing costs, hardly
applies to those outside the "area". I thought the chief thing
about fidonet was the FREE exchange of information, and it only
seems that Planet Connect has blurred this even further, and is
seeking to do to fidonet what cable TV has done to free TV and
public airwaves... but I ramble.
While I mostly agree with much of what Phillip wrote about who
owns an echo [I moderate an echo in another net]
>My point behind all of that is this: A moderator should have
complete >control over an echo
The question then becomes what does this mean? If a writer
becomes unruly, I can suspend/banish/expel him from the echo. To
do so, I depend on the sysop from which the offending msgs
originate. Knowing that most bbs's operate on autopilot for
periods during the year and that routed netmail occasionally
gets lost [I haven't gotten any since Nov. 1994] you have to
give adequate time for a response [say a week or 2]. I have
noticed that people often refer to us as fight-o-net, apparently
because our tempers flare, and on occasion seem out of control.
If I were a commercial network developer, I would want to
encourage this, for as long as fidonet functions for the free
exchange of information, I won't be able to sell the services
that we provide for free. But if people perceive us as lords,
kings and gods, with ego's 10 times larger than our footsize,
why would they want to be part of us, or thank us for the great
job we do in the free exchange of information?
So what happens when a moderator asks a sysop to remove an
unruly poster, and the sysop refuses? Seems like that's when we
pick teams and start fighting.
Problem is that this is not going to resolve the problem of the
unruly poster. Seems like the first thing we need to do is to
see if we can agree as to why we are cooperating together in a
way that makes this network function, and remind each other why
we are in this network. Sometimes its work to cooperate, and we
must work at our cooperation levels. Let me repeat, we must
continue to work, at working together.
All of this brings us back to the next step, if a sysop fails to
handle the problem, then moderators often seem to rush to cut
the offending feed. I have seen this [in another network] all
take place in the span of 24 hours. Moderator reads annoying
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 11 24 Apr 1995
msg, gets ticked, bans the user, sends netmail to that effect,
15 minute later, sends netmail to the sysop wondering why the
user hasn't been banned yet. 30 minutes later sends msg to NEC
saying that sysop is unresponsive. Next day sends msg to REC
saying that NEC is not doing his duty, and asking that the whole
network be cut from feed. This is still not going to solve the
problem, as the resourceful user just finds another bbs in
another net and continues posting [believe me, I have seen this
happen too!] and the problem persists.
I suppose that when it comes right down to it, I do believe that
the moderator does have absolute control over his echo, but by
becoming a member of the fidonet fellowship, the NEC, REC, ZEC
also have an obligation to moderate the moderator and remind
him/her of why it is that we are in a net together, and work
with the moderators so that they can effectively deal with the
problems, and not the symptoms. We have elected all the "EC"
type people to their positions of leadership so that they might
lead us, and help us to cooperate with each other, and work
together, and understand one another. I hope we are electing our
leaders because they posses these qualities, and not for lesser
reasons.
It is therefore my contention that as removing an echo from the
backbone is an exceptional step rarely taken, so also the
removal an entire net from the feed of that echo, would be
something that the leadership would not tolerate from any
moderator without extensive negotiations, and seeking to come to
an understanding, for such actions undermine the whole net, and
the free exchange of ideas.
Moderators might have absolute control of their echo, but they
must also make allowances for the fact that their echo exists
inside a network, and without the network, the echo probably
ceases to be an echo. Moderators need the network to make the
echo successful. Networks need the moderators. We need to work
at cooperation, [with patience and understanding].
regards
Richard Jordan - sysop 1:14/624@fidonet
[
[email protected]]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello ,
Following is FIDONEWS 1214 :
- These law can protect the human rights.
- These law can block the people to do some illegal things
in network world.
- These law can make the network citizen have a equal opportunity
to use "Information Highway".
- These law is easy to execute.
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 12 24 Apr 1995
- These law can up-date very easily.
- These law can make some pressure to every ISP provide better
services in the acceptable prices.
"Information Highway" is a turning point of human history,
"Information Highway" development is another important
revolution of human history.I hope every government in the world
can use the suitable policy to welcome this revolution, don't do
any stupid thing to welcome.
What is Information Highway ? How to connect it ? Can FidoNews
add one column is talking about Software News ? I hope you can.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Law
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments On ECROC
Comments On ECROC
by Kay Shapero (1:102/524)
The following is a series of quotes from the text posted recently,
followed by comments of my own enclosed in ##s. "Backbone" is here
used to refer to Zone 1 FIDOnet backbone echoes specifically, and any
similar structures that may exist in other zones.
"ECHOMAIL ROUTING CODE v 1.05
1. Preface: This is a voluntary code which a router of echomail may
adopt to insure that echomail links, routing and procedures are
consistent."
##Any voluntary code that isn't adhered to by everybody may cause more
confusion than anything else. Either we should create something at
least as binding as Policy 4 (well.. you know what I mean. :->) on at
least the zonal level or leave it alone.##
"Conferences are operated and routed for the benefit of the
participants. They are generally topic oriented and the topic is an
expansion of the AREA: tag. The routing of echomail is subject to
policy 4 of Fidonet as if the messages are NETMAIL. The AREA tag does
not change that."
##Looks about right, with the proviso that actual delivery of backbone
echoes is the province of the *EC structure, not the *C structure.
Other echoes, of course, are delivered in whatever way those involved
care to come up with.##
"2. Coordination: All coordination of traffic in a NET is under the
supervision of the NC. To fulfill these responsibilities he may
delegate all responsibilities except the resolution of disputes to any
node or group of nodes. They may function as conference coordinators
echomail coordinators or any title the NC determines to assign."
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 13 24 Apr 1995
##Codifying the *EC structure makes more sense here at least for zone
1 - after all, it already exists...##
"3. Routing: Any node may agree with any other node to accept or
provide netmail messages, which are further identified by AREA tags.
If a node has more then one address in a routing file (generically
known as an areas.bbs file) then he is functioning in the capacity of
a router."
##With the proviso that any node receiving a backbone echo from
outside their own net should be very careful not to set up a dupe
loop. Not difficult, but very important.##
[skipped some stuff I've no particular comments on]
"b. Deleting a link: If you are requested to delete a link, you
should ask that some explanation is given:"
"1. If the person is a conference moderator, look in the latest
issue of the ELIST available at 1/201. If the person is the Elisted
moderator (or alternate moderator), request the conference rules, any
messages that break them and at least proof that two netmail warning
were given."
##This is possibly the most incomplete segment of the document. Most
importantly, it makes no provision for handling cuts due to technical
problems. If someone is generating dupe loops in something like the C
echo (which had over a thousand posts per day when I last read it
several years ago), or crosslinking alt.sex.stories into TEEN, there
may not be time for discussion. It's simple enough to cut the feed
while messaging the sysop, then bring it back up as soon as the
problem is fixed. Remember - this is one of the reasons moderators
exist; to spot things like this while they're still small. The *Cs
and *ECs are busy enough just keeping the traffic flowing without
having to try to read it all. And so are most sysops.
Also there are times when notification is impossible. For example, a
system which appears to accept inbound netmail, only to drop it into
the bit bucket due to an unsuspected technical flaw before the sysop
ever sees it. I know of one case where after several attempts at both
direct and routed echomail, a moderator attempted to log on directly
and leave a message, and even that didn't work. If the node is
causing the sort of serious trouble that would warrant asking the feed
to be cut, it may be necessary to proceed without warning, if none can
be delivered.
Other problems like the difficulty of "proving" a message was
delivered (or even written), or folks who come across a new and
improved way of being obnoxious that isn't yet against the rules
because nobody thought anybody would do it (sorta like the kid who
tries to flush the tablecloth down the drain because "nobody said not
to.") or even the problem of the poor router having to figure out
whether some esoteric post breaks a set of equally esoteric rules on
an echo on a subject he knows nothing about also come to mind. There
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 14 24 Apr 1995
are ways of dealing with these, but the above does not do so.##
"2. If the person is OTHER then the Elisted Moderator or co-
moderator, refer them to your NC."
##Or directly to the bit bucket. Some method for dealing with echo
hijacking and the One True King syndrome does seem to be required, but
wishing it on the poor NC seems a bit much.##
"Quite often a request to cut a link is done in the heat of a strong
debate. You as a router serve to "time" the parties out for a cooling
off period. You are well within your right to refuse to cut a link
UNLESS the linked node has been excommunicated."
##Cooling off period? Not if the feed is maintained, and nothing is
done to mitigate the apparent offense. More likely you'll find you're
just providing more time to get a really nasty flamewar going as the
regular users of the echo find it impossible to resist flaming back at
the guy posting hate literature or starting up one of the Permanent
Floating NetWars (Homosexuality, Abortion, Gun Control, and Whatever
the Government is Hiding from Us for example) in a place where it's
manifestly off topic. Some things have to be dealt with quickly, and
by the time the question of cutting a link comes up the sysop has
already refused to cut off the problem user (or *is* the problem
user), and thus it's already been going on for quite some time.
Cutting the feed does provide a true cooling off period; whatever
offense was going on in public stops instantly, while the feed can
easily be reactivated later if necessary.##
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
PGP Signatures and Forgery
by Frank J. Perricone
It has come to my attention that a SYSOP has taken to forging my name
and address and sending netmail in this guise, in an attempt to avenge
himself on me for having his access to an echo I moderated until
recently. I know he has told one person to apologize in public to
him, and attempted to banish another from the echo. I am sure that he
will be, if he hasn't already, sending fake messages to uplinks and
NECs to get feeds actually cut; sending insulting and offensive posts
in my name in an attempt to get me in trouble; etc.
I therefore request that if you receive anything ostensibly from me,
you check it against the PGP signature I am now using on ALL my posts.
I would post my public key here; but of course you have no way to know
that this isn't really him writing this article. The way to be sure
is to FREQ the file PGP from my system; he can't have his BBS answer
my phone, so the file you get is trustworthy. I know that it's a pain
to have to FREQ a file just to read a message, but I see no other
solution.
It seems to me that there is no recourse against this. Even if my
FidoNews 12-17 Page: 15 24 Apr 1995
complaint against this behavior (if this isn't excessively annoying,
what is?) causes the ultimate punishment -- excommunication -- that
does NOTHING to stop him from doing this again and again. No one can
take away his BBS software, and nothing else is required. Even if he
couldn't forge my name because everyone read this article and knew I
used PGP, he could start forging other people's names.
I know it seems like a lot of hassle to start signing EVERYTHING with
PGP, and a lot of cost to carry around those extra five or six lines
on the bottom of EVERY message. God knows we moderators (or in my
case ex-moderators) have complained enough about less! But I see no
other way to prevent this. Right now, one person armed with nothing
but some BBS software and a few serious chemical imbalances, is able
to hold all of North America FidoNet hostage for the cost of a few
long distance calls. Surely there must be a second person as petty as
he, in all of North America, and still more in other zones. I have no
illusions of perfect security, but even so: is it right that one
disgruntled SYSOP could be able to ruin another's reputation -- or in
fact, the reputation of anyone in the net? Something must be done.
PGP-signing everything is the only solution I can see. If you wait
until he (or his ilk) come for you, it'll be too late, as it may well
be for me.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.2
Comment: FREQ the file PGP from my system any time for a trusted
public key.
iQBVAwUBL5qhheVfXP3Fmh31AQHZtgIAuy4jBFsGFDMRlC9w3f6wLF7LjjbkEdGx
bT3ohybL5C6jkAXUuFntaRZeofpUc1NGaECxbOvQCF9/cApRn28l7g==
=DaPw
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
----------------------------------------------------------------------
respectfully "borrowed" from:
Computer underground Digest Wed Apr 19, 1995 Volume 7 : Issue 31
From: Stanton McCandlish <
[email protected]>
EFF AABBS Amicus Brief in Support of the Thomases (Appellants)
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 21:06:40 -0400 (EDT)
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
