F I D O  N E W S --                   Vol.12  No.42    (16-Oct-1995)
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|  A newsletter of the       |   ISSN 1198-4589 Published by:          |
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|       | (*) |  \   ))      |        Donald Tees      1:221/192       |
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|             (jm)           |     Newspapers should have no friends.  |
|                            |                    -- JOSEPH PULITZER   |
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                         Table of Contents
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1.  Editorial.....................................................  1
2.  Articles......................................................  3
     Political struggle within Fidonet?..........................  3
3.  Fidonews Information..........................................  3
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                             Editorial
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   There is only one article in the inbound today, and it
appears to be almost a repeat of an article that was in last
week's snooze.  A few revisions, and that is all.  Perhaps the
author got impatient.

   Our local (region 12) sysop echo is full of arguement about
the geographical net boundaries specified in policy.  Again.  Of
all problems in Fidonet, that single issue has probably caused
more problems, arguements and bad feelings than any other issue.

   Remember the German fiasco?  The England fiasco?  The Hong
Kong fiasco?  And locally, the Toronto fiasco? (which never made
the snooze because it is being fought out in the regional arena)

FidoNews 12-42                 Page:  2                    16 Oct 1995

   Every one of those problems could have been solved by simply
telling the people that could not get along to either find some
people they could get along with or to go away.  Every one of
them escalated into a major problem because a single person or a
small group had the power to say "my way or no way".

   The same can be said for 95% of all policy complaints that I
have ever seen.  When it is the responablity of the individual
sysop to find a place they can fit in, there are few problems.
When where they fit in is dictated by someone else, and it does
not work out,  then policy complaints are the result.

   In the beginning, it was quite simple.  You found a hub that
was willing to feed you, and you set up your board.  Yo applied,
via netmail, for a node number.  That was the end of it.  Unless
you annoyed your hub to the point that they refused to feed you
anymore, you were set forever.  If you did annoy your hub to
that point, it was up to you to find a new feed. If found in the
same net, you could keep the node number.  If not, you were forced
to get a new one.

   Then the politicians got into the act.  It Was Decided that
the real purpose of new members was to reduce costs, and they
would be assigned to existing hubs in a manner that contributed
to CRP's so that routed mail and echos would be cheaper for all.

   Nets, new nodes, and sysops became pawns in the great game
of my net is bigger than your net, and my cost for email is
lower than your cost.  Policy 4 was written, and centralized
control became the great solution to everything.  Establish a
net in a geographic area, and you were granted a monopoly on
Fidonet for that area.

   Problem is, that it solved little, and causes most of the
problems.  If left to the marketplace, nets will tend to develope
on a geographical basis because it is cheaper for all.
Enforcing the same thing from above is like trying to regulate
the tides by statute.  It doesn't work.


FidoNews 12-42                 Page:  3                    16 Oct 1995


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                              Articles
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Political struggle within Fidonet?

Political struggles within Fidonet - Is it still a hobby?
By Jeremy Guthrie and Sean Laurent
[email protected] <-> [email protected]

Hello, my name is Jeremy Guthrie.  I used to be NEC of 2207.  Sean
Laurent, the former NC of Net 2207, and I had developed new nodelist
specifications that shrank the 3.3 meg nodelist down to 800K.  I had
every piece of administration software designed: nodediff generators,
update doors, etc... I had api's written in ansi c++ and ansi pascal.  I
had a converter to switch between the new and old formats.  There was a
browser for the new format and much more.  I had a solution for the
nodelist problem.  In fact I was going to release it all as public
domain.  When net 2207 was removed, that all changed.  I will be
copyrighting the code and specifications.

Why am I doing this?  Because, Mark Lynch removed our new net without
even asking our side of an argument.  He just pulled it from us saying
his approval of it was a mistake.  I am a person who likes to be dealt
with personally; I consider it a show of respect to deal with someone on
such a matter.  Mark did nothing of the sort, so with that I refuse to
let specifications go to the public.  I no longer run a board and do NOT
want to return to Net 238, my former net, because I face the same
problems there.  Net 238 follows the same course as Mark did.  Many
there, such as John Hrusovszky (1:238/300), accused us of misleading
Mark, of sending "a bogus net formation request" (whatever that is), and
then the individuals couldn't prove it.

I had a great FREE solution to a big problem of FidoNet, but because
people refuse talk to me or try to be objective, I refuse to help those
who hinder me.

Just thought people had the right to know,

Jeremy Guthrie formerly 1:2207/1 1:2207/110
Sean Laurent formerly 1:2207/0 1:2207/120

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                         Fidonews Information
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FidoNews 12-42                 Page:  4                    16 Oct 1995


------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------

Editors: Donald Tees, Sylvia Maxwell
Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
                 Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar
                 Tom Jennings
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FidoNews 12-42                 Page:  5                    16 Oct 1995

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