Fidonews is published weekly by SEAboard, Fido 107/7. You
are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
Fidonews. Article submission standards are contained in the
file FIDONEWS.DOC, available from Fido 107/7.
Disclaimer or don't-blame-us:
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.
How We Do This
I've been getting questions lately about how Fidonews is
created. I know I've explained this before, but perhaps I'd
better go through it again for the benefit of our newer
readers.
Everything in Fidonews is written by you, our readers. I
generally try to cobble up an editorial for each issue, but
everything else is submitted by readers.
You write an article (or a want ad, or a notice, or
whatever) on your own system using your own text editor and
netmail it to us at node 107/7. After mail hour each
morning an external event moves the files from our input
area to a special news area. Every Monday morning another
external event assembles all the articles to make the latest
issue, which is then mailed out by Robot to most of the
major inbound hosts. The whole point of this somewhat
roundabout process is to make sure that the news goes out
every Monday morning without fail.
There are a bunch of technical specs that an article has to
FIDONEWS -- 09 Sep 85 15:25:54 Page 2
meet before it goes into the news. These are summed up in
detail in the file FIDONEWS.DOC, which is available from
node 107/7 (and probably many other places -- we've mailed
it out many times). Most of these can be summed up in a few
statements:
1) Flush left margin (we do the indenting here).
2) Right margin at column 60 or less. Less is tolerable,
but more is not.
3) No funny characters. Not everybody has a graphics
character set. (Not everybody has an IBM.)
You also have to name your file properly. Our system
detects news items by the filename extensions, like so:
.ART An article
.SAL A "For Sale" ad
.WAN A "Wanted" ad
Most submissions are articles, which can get very long. Ads
can't get very big, but they really shouldn't anyway. A few
folks have sent us very long ads that were thinly disguised
as articles, but feedback received to date indicates that
that tends to backfire on the advertiser. Our readers seem
to feel cheated when they work their way through some
lengthy article just to find that it's really a pitch for a
product. The U.S. Robotics ad for the Courier 2400 was
probably the best ad anyone has ever sent us. It was cute,
catchy, flashy, and short.
One last point, and I'll let you get back to reading the
news. Fidonews, like Fidonet itself, is growing by leaps and
bounds. We now have an estimated 30,000 readers. Fidonews
is YOUR way of reaching your fellow users, and they want to
hear from you.
Well thats just bout how I feel at the
moment, I have seem to have burned out on
the idea of bbs and telecomunications! I
used to use my pc everyday now it seems to be
every other day and latley once a weak! I'm
not really sure what is going on either.
After sitting infront of the pc for ten
minutes I start to get sick and looking at it
makes me feel, oh, depressed. (sigh) Maybe
it has to do with the fact school starts for
me on the 4th or maybe the fact that I'm
heart broken? Who knows. It seems that
nothing I do with the computer makes me feel
good. I need a good challenge at the moment.
Something that will be interesting but not to
bland. I think I should stop using it for a
week or two and see what happens. I had
planned to put up a board at one time but
couldn't because I lack the money for a phone
line and my parents permission (sigh again)
hmm one of these days I will get my own
computer or, my parents will get another one
(right) and I will finaly get to put up my
own Fido!!
Mike Ringer
fido 437 net 117
soon to be the sysop of
Ollie's board?
Rives Mc Ginley, N1BIQ
and
Luck Hurder, KY1T
Both on Node 105/Net 101(MassNet)
CAPECOD_FIDO
There is nothing that tickles our hearts better than to
wake up in the morning, put on the coffee, and snuggle up
to Fido to see what has come in via FidoMail from anywhere
in the Country and the World.
The only thing better, we shouldn't talk about, except
it relates to the purpose of this article. We are talking
about Amateur Radio. It seemed to us that with the flexibi-
lity of Fido, and the vastness of the network, perhaps we
can help Amateur Radio and FidoMail increase usage or
traffic if you will.
Amateur Radio has been sending "Traffic" or telegrams
around the world since before 1920. The Traffic handlers,
are dedicated, persistant in getting the message through,
and at the moment feeling a little underworked.
So why can't we of the Fido persuasion, gather some
business so to speak for the Amateur Radio Traffic nets?
The answer is that we can, and quite cheaply.
All we need to do is to aquaint our Fido users about
the Amateur Radio service, and they will slowly over time
use it. You see the reason is that the service is free.
YES ---- FREE
The only "cost" is making the FidoMail call to Node
#105 in Net 101(MassNet), and leaving a message for Luck
Hurder, KY1T. He will then in his amazing morse code "fist"
transmit the message to the radio traffic network, and the
message will be delivered as soon as possible, by telephone
to the addressee.
Amateur Radio has been a wonder of modern electronics
for all these years, why not have Fido, the new front-
runner, add Amateur radio to the list of its services.
After all Amateur Radio can do one thing Fido can't.....de
liver a message to someone who does not have a computer,
and do it for FREE.
Ah ha you say, what is the long list of qualifications
that will keep this idea from being useful? Well.....
there is only one.
Any message sent by FidoGram, must be only personal, no
business use at all. If judged as business use, the Amateur
FIDONEWS -- 09 Sep 85 15:26:01 Page 5
Radio operator passing the traffic will not handle the
message. It will lanquish in the round file.
So what do you think? Is this a reasonable addition to
Fido?
If so send FidoMail to Node #105/Net #101 and by
return FidoMail as well as by FidoGram you will get details
to you for posting on your Fido. We think this is a fun
activity, we are prepared to alert the Amateur Radio
Community and its Media about it, and we think it provides
a free public service that Fido can benefit from.
From: Jim Lynn, Sysop 129/0,129/384
Subject: Rewrite of FIDO Documentation
We here in the Pitt-Net in Pittsburg are attempting the
rewrite of the infamous FIDO Sysop and User Manuals. After
a month of sorting out the original source files from TJ, we
are starting on the rewrite process.
This is a plea for information.... If you know something
that is wrong about the manuals, even though you think that
there must be thousands of other users or operators who are
aware of the problem, send a FIDO-GRAM to me at 129/0!!!!
If everyone thinks that everyone else will let us know about
a bug, then it will be up to us to find and correct them
all.
If you have something that you think should be in the
manuals, drop us a line also. One section that will be
added is a hints and usage section where shortcuts and pit-
falls will be documented.
The finished manuals will be distributed as follows:
USERMNAL.ARC The user's guide to happiness.
SYSMANAL.ARC The light in the dark for sysops.
Both ARC's will include a program which will take any
released updates and automatically incorporate them into
the manuals, adding the update number and date on the
fly-leaf page. This will allow for downloading the
manuals once and from that point on, only downloading
update and correction files. If any one has any thoughts
on this before the software gets too "firm", drop a
line.
As a last word, remember: this is your manual, you have to
use them and your users have to use them to access your
system and the new sysops in your area have to rely on them
to get up and running. Please take an interest and help
with a msg or bit of information.
The KYFHO WILDLIFE BBS is a public service board for
collecting and disseminating information on rehabilitation
of wildlife and the related concerns of habitat
preservation and conservation.
KYFHO WILDLIFE BBS is operated by Bob and PC Hanes of
Austin, Texas under the auspices of Wildlife Rescue, Inc.,
Austin. Basic care information is drawn from the Austin
WRI Rehabilitation Course Manual and the separate works of
its members. The objective of the Board is to provide a
forum for the exchange of information with other groups
and individuals regarding rehabilitation techniques, diets
and problems that may arise from raising orphaned or
injured wild birds and animals.
PLEASE NOTE: The purpose of Wildlife Rescue, a
non-profit, volunteer organization, and KYFHO is
successful rehabilitation and RELEASE of wild creatures.
In no way do we advocate the keeping of wild animals or
birds as pets. This is harmful to the animal and can be
dangerous to human beings.
KYFHO WILDLIFE is a serious public service board. The
sysops will not tolerate abusive or obscene language,
jokes, sexually-oriented material or religious
preachments. We have no public domain software, or hobby
type use sections on this board. A listing of the
information available will be sent upon request.
If you have a question regarding care of a wild animal
or bird, or would like to submit material to be added to
our files for dissemination to other like-minded groups,
we welcome your participation. We will attempt to answer
all questions received over FIDONET on the next mail
period after receipt. Emergency care information is
available on the voice line as listed below.
You can do us and the animals in your area a favor by
providing this information to any group or organization in
your area who would be interested. It might even generate
some net traffic for your board.
KYFHO WILDLIFE
FIDO REGION 19 NODE 600
operates 300/1200 24 hours a day at 512/836-6881.
Voice line 512/836-0915, 6:00pm - 10:00pm Central Time.
BULLETIN BOARD ETTIQUETTE
FOR NEW USERS AND OLD TIMERS
Bulletin board etiquette is really no big deal, and
I hope you don't get the impression that I'm trying to make
an issue out of nothing. This is nothing more than an
introduction to the ins and outs of figuring out just how
the hell you have fun on a bulletin board.
Of course, you probably figured out most of it, or
you wouldn't be reading this article.
Last but not least, this is merely my opinion, of
which I have more than my share.
In the dark ages of modems (pre-1982 or so) there
were so few bulletin boards and users that there basically
wasn't a problem. You somehow managed to get a modem
(usually a set of ear muffs for your telephone handset;
autodialers? You must be kidding!) got a bulletin board
number from a friend, and started dialing. You got nervous
and made a mess of the message base, and if you were real
unlucky, crashed the board. Everyone knew you were "new",
and so were tolerant while you learned how to get around.
Crashers and trashers weren't really a problem, since most
modem users were more or less hardcore techie types, and
that was the reason for the things in the first place.
These days, Hayes is probably selling more modems
per month than were sold total to us hobbiests in 1982.
Many are "non business" use, ie. the little sucker you are
using right now. Instead of a trickle of new users, it's a
torrential downpour. New users outnumber old timers on many
boards, and that fact probably won't change. Nor would it
even be desireable! Modem users are getting more and more
diversified in their interests, things like specialty boards
can now get enough support to be viable. Enough tech boards
already!
With the good comes some small problems; the
previous "hack at it 'till you get it right" attitude
doesn't work on today's overloaded boards that might handle
50 or more calls a day. For example, Fido 125/1 gets about
200 new callers per week.
A person who uses a modem for the first time
generally has no idea of what a bulletin board is like; that
is part of the fun! There are thousands of boards, on
almost any subject, each run by an individual with their own
personality and ideas.
FIDONEWS -- 09 Sep 85 15:26:09 Page 10
Unfortunately, it frequently becomes a situation
like a traveler to a foreign country who is totally
unfamiliar with local customs. Visitors embarrass
themselves by saying the wrong thing, or insult the locals
with totally inappropriate reactions. Definitely not the
way to get the locals to show you around and have a good
time.
The purpose of this thing is not to presumptuously
teach you right from wrong, but to introduce you to one
version of "etiquette", or how to get around bulletin boards
minimizing damage. No attempt will be made to tell you how
to run the bulletin board program or your telecom program.
There are too many different ones anyways, and help is
available for that.
In face to face encounters with people that you
don't know well, there are thousands of "unwritten rules"
that just about everyone follows. Things like not
interrupting a conversation, not asking questions that were
just answered, minimizing rude noises, nose picking, not
commenting on personal subjects not under discussion, etc.
The more important ones seem to get even more obscure.
A big problem with modeming is that you miss all
non-verbal communication details; eye motion, facial
expressions, and other cues that help convey otherwise
difficult or embarrassing information. You have to make up
for this in other ways. Since 99.99% of all BBS contents is
text, read everything you can find.
About the only hard and fast rule of BBSing is READ
READ READ READ!!! You cannot read too much; read as many
messages as you can, read the bulletins, read notices.
Don't worry about memorizing the contents, just get familiar
with what the system is like. After you do this on a half
dozen systems you will have a better idea of what the "real
world" (sic) looks like.
Get an idea of what kind of people are typing
things, and a feel for how "touchy" the crowd there is.
People tend to congregate where the find similar sorts; you
may end up on a board populated with grouches, because more
open people left long ago for a friendlier place. Or, you
may have run into that friendly place.
Bulletin boards are no different than a local bar or
whatever; a particular crowd develops, you just have to
choose where you hang out. You may be comfortable in a VFW
Hall, or maybe at the corner of Pine and Polk. Don't get
mad at the people who you do find, just find a more
compatible crowd.
FIDONEWS -- 09 Sep 85 15:26:11 Page 11
If you find a message or two you want to reply to,
see if it has any replies already. This will save the
embarassment of entering a long tedious message answering a
question that was answered months ago. People are peculiar
animals; remember that you are a newcomer. This is no
different than joining a conversation at a party or cafe;
you just can't jump in and blaze away with your wit, unless
of course that's whats happening at the moment, otherwise
it's the "excuse-me-I-have-to-go-to-the-bathroom"-then-leave
situation. Not pleasant.
Keep in mind that some things that are wonderful
person to person can be absolute disasters in print.
Sarcasm for instance. A simple expression like "You jerk!"
is nothing but an insult when they can't see the smile on
your face. A reply to a question, such as "Who knows? Why
don't you look it up?" is also an insult when you can't see
the head scratching, foot tapping and other things that
would tell the person that you had thought for a few minutes
before replying.
Just keep in mind that bulletin board messages are
like someone speaking in a monotone, with no pauses between
words, behind a black curtain, recorded on video tape a week
ago, and played on an out of focus black and white TV set
with a dirty screen. From across the street.
The majority of boards remain technically oriented;
by sheer numbers CP/M and IBM PC dominate (I think, who
knows?), but TRS-80 and just about anything else you can
think of is out there. These are not the places to discuss
philosophy and tell dirty jokes.
There are more and more non-technical boards, which
is a good sign. They are still somewhat limited, but
growing extremely fast. In six months or a year there will
be no shortage. These are not the places to discuss
problems with your disk drive.
Again, bulletin boards are no different than any
other group of people, except the lack of fine detail and
the time difference.
As to messages, only one suggestion: keep it short.
Since long messages scroll off the screen, it's nearly
impossible to remember what the 17th question out of 30 was.
The poor person answering the message needs an eidetic
memory to keep track of it all, and you will usually get a
terse response and a "I don't remember the rest". Better to
enter two messages than one huge one.
Speaking of time differences, keep in mind that
people may call in every day, once a week or maybe never
again. Be patient when waiting for a reply. After a while,
you'll get an idea of who calls in how often, and when you
FIDONEWS -- 09 Sep 85 15:26:13 Page 12
can expect a reply. Don't harrass the guy if you don't see
a reply when you'd like to. Occasionally, people have been
known to do things other than BBSing, as hard as it is to
believe, and it may take them awhile to get around to
checking in.
Though I won't go into downloading files here, if
you are very new you should get as many lists of other
bulletin board systems as you can. Most are just text, so
you should be able to download or "capture" them on whatever
you are using to call with. There are enough BBS's these
days that you should have many to choose from, within your
local calling area.
No, I haven't forgotten the sysop. The sysop is the
troll who happens to own the machine you are playing with.
Most sysops are very strange people. Who else would do
something like run a bulletin board?
Depending on the person running the board you're on,
the sysop may be involved on a daily basis or not at all.
He may be standoffish, or run a tight ship, breathing down
your neck. Be reasonable in making requests of the sysop.
Usually there is no problem, but remember that after a
while, running a BBS can get to be a drag (first hand
observation here) and the sysop may be "on vacation".
Getting angry at the sysop for not answering like you want
him to is not the thing to do. Most bulletin boards are run
as a hobby, and take a back seat to the sysop's real life.
Personally, my involvement on Fido #1 varies from
every day to once a month on and off. The more outside
things I have to do or want to do, the more I ignore Fido.
Also, if I know there are ten thousand questions awaiting
me, I tend to avoid checking in. Sometimes I just want to
do nothing at all, so that's exactly what I do.
Also, again, remember that there is a human out
there somewhere. Sysops are saints and assholes like
everyone else, and they have the responsibility of keeping
the system up and running. Getting angry at the sysop for
not answering a request as quickly or as thoroughly as you
want is definitely not the way to get in good graces on that
board.
Belaboring a point, (almost the end of the article
anyway, just hang on) the only thing that makes a board
interesting is the people who call it. I hope I didn't
discourage you from taking part in the madness on a board;
really, do just the opposite. Most people who peruse the
message bases are looking for interesting people to "type"
to, so if you have anything to say, even nothing, say it!
Most conversations start with "hello".
FIDONEWS -- 09 Sep 85 15:26:15 Page 13
A good point was brought up by Dean Gengle (sp?) of
Communitree in an article in Dr. Dobbs Journal (June 85 I
think). Bulletin boards are not necessarily the totally
anonymous things you may assume they are. Usually
everything you see on your screen is also displayed on the
bulletin board computer's screen; even messages you decided
not to save. This may not be important, but is something to
keep in mind.
I have been doing my best to keep up with the BBS
Law updates that are being circulated, and let me state
that I agree, we must do our best to state our case, that
Remote Bulletin Board Systems are a valid and important
facility in our society. Not only are they important
because they offer us the opportunity to expand our
computing skills and abilities, but also because they
enable us to express ourselves freely and at little
expense to such a large and widely diverse a group of
people.
The news has recently featured reports of certain
groups of individuals using BBS's for their own unlawful,
and immoral purposes. The abuses have been highlighted,
rather that the benefits. This kind of
`mis-information' tends to cause the public to develop a
prejudiced sentiment towards the subject matter, since
most of us are forced to rely on the media for
information from which we unavoidably and inevitably draw
conclusions as to the morality, if you will, of a given
subject or situation.
The aspect of this situation that I would like to
concentrate on now is the involvment of the Conservative
element of our population, of which I am a member as I am
sure are many of yourselves.
The abuses of BBS's which have been reported most
frequently seem to be those involving a BBS that was for
the use of pedophiles (child molestors). This is a
subject that strikes close to the heart of all of us, and
is of great concern to the membership and supporters of the
Moral Majority. In a nutshell, rather than becoming
upset with the Moral Majority, let's do our best to educate
them along with the rest of our nation, as to the benefits
that BBS's carry with them. Why not point out to them how
much a Fido BBS could do for their communications? How
great an impact they might effect through a BBS in their
community, and in fact, the U.S. as a whole? If the Moral
Majority is interested in making changes for the better,
and I believe they are, surely they will be quick to `go to
bat for us' once they too see the potential for good in a
BBS. Why not suggest to them that they get involved and
help them set up a Fido System of their own?
If no great General has said it, he should have,
"Don't make an enemy out of someone if you can make him
your friend with a few kind words."
FIDONEWS -- 09 Sep 85 15:26:18 Page 15
I may be reached for comment or question at Fido
900/15 PCjrUserGroup (918) 496-2055. 2400 baud
Mention has been made in previous issues of Fidonews
about the flat-rate long distance service from GTE Telenet
called PC-Pursuit. It uses a ringback scheme, which makes
sense from GTE's point of view, but makes it pretty
unacceptable for Fidomail. It has a great potential as a
side method of transferring files, however, and could be very
valuable in getting things like the nodelist and Fidonews
distributed more widely and cheaply than at present.
Following is a message to Tom Jennings on Fido #1 discussing
it.
--******--
The ringback and menu rigamarole can take from 1 to 4
minutes. Not too awfully bad for a connect, but a real waste
for a busy. Only reasonable way to use it is with a script
file to answer the prompts and do the waiting while you do
something else. I'm surprised they're not targeting
individuals & small businesses that presently send stuff via
MCI Mail, etc that could be done with Pursuit instead.
The 11 cities besides San Francisco are:
Atlanta Denver New York
Boston Detroit Philadelphia
Chicago Houston Wash D.C.
Dallas L. A.
Unfortunately, it's one area code per city, so New York
means 212, even though half the city is 718. Ditto for the
LA area. Even at that, all that's necessary is to ship new
stuff to one or two nodes in each area. Ideally, they would
be volunteers that would mail the files to all local nodes
and ideally they'd be different nodes than the already busy
hosts. What I'll do is send a copy of this msg to Fidonews
and see if there is any interest in doing it. Main thing is
to do it without putting any additional work on you or any of
the hosts.
-harv
--******--
Anyone using PC-Pursuit, or anyone in one of the above
cities that is willing to receive files and pass them on to
local Fidos, please send a message to Harvey Nehgila on Fido
125/77. If your system doesn't recognize that node, you're
dealing with an outdated nodelist, and that's the very reason
for setting up a distribution net for updates! (Use node
FIDONEWS -- 09 Sep 85 15:26:20 Page 17
125/1 if 125/77 is not yet on your list). Volunteers need
not necessarily be running a Fido themselves, but an
autoanswer modem and a host program that will receive XMODEM
uploads are required.
With minimal time from a few volunteers, we can use
Pursuit to make the latest version of Fidofiles available to
all the nodes for little or no expense. The nodelist and the
newsletter are the two things that tie the net together.
It'd be very nice if as many nodes as possible were using the
latest versions. Timely distribution of updates of Fido and
associated utilities could also be accomplished with Pursuit.
Any takers?
Recently I sent the new program RENUM (in the file
RENUM.ARC) to all host nodes in the FidoNet. This program
was a replacement for Tom Jennings' original version of
RENUM which would not renumber the user list when it was
finished renumbering the messages. Unfortunately the
version of RENUM distributed has one minor bug in it. This
bug causes the user list renumbering to be off by (usually)
one message. Fortunately, it is off on the low side, and
the worst that happens is that a user reads a message twice.
This problem has been corrected in version 1.3 which is
available for download from my Fido. If you are using this
program and would like to update it, either call my board
and download it, or send me FidoNet mail, and I will send
you the latest version.
An Update on the Current State of Rover
by Bob Hartman
Sysop 101/101
The UN*X Gateway
and Home of Rover
First of all, the standard introduction to "what is Rover?"
Well, Rovermsg is a standalone Fido Message Base system.
It is usually run by the sysop of a Fido system from the
console (or remotely via the '0' command).
It is exactly like Fido with these exceptions:
1. The E)dit command from the Enter-Msg menu.
If for message editing, you wish to use a standard editor
that creates an ASCII text file (rather than a standard
word processor file that has special types of characters
in it), use the -e option for ROVERMSG.
2. The C)hange-Msg command from the Msg: or Edit-Msg menus.
This option allows a user to edit an already existing
message, thus avoiding the usual state where a message
has been saved, and is dead wrong.
3. The '!' command available at the NET/NODE prompt when
entering a RoverNet message.
This command allows searching for a given string in the
nodelist. It is a case-insensitive search, and it will
look at the node name, city, and phone number.
4. The special node names */0 and n/*.
The first will send a message to all hosts in all nets,
and the second will send a message to all nodes in net
#n.
5. When replying to messages the subject of the new message
is automatically formed as 'Re: old-subject'. The
subject can be changed with the subJ)ect command.
Now for the real point of the article:
I know, I know - I have been really screwing you all up
with versions of Rovermsg coming out too fast. Well, I
tried to delay this one as long as possible, but several
events arose which made it impossible to delay it any
longer. First of all, Fido version 11 will soon be out,
and the old version of Rovermsg (2.0) will not be
compatible with it. Secondly, (for those of you that
experienced it) I really think that I tracked down the
'Goodbye' bug (it was obliging, and happened to hit me when
I was running a debugging version of Rovermsg). Thirdly,
I finally realized why Rovermsg would not run on certain
non-IBM compatibles. The reason was that Rovermsg tries
to change the timer interrupt. For non-IBM compatibles,
this was not the same interrupt number, so when it got
changed your machine would go south. If you are not using
an IBM compatible, please use the '-t 0' option to disable
the Rovermsg timer. Finally, the new version is 2.10 and
FIDONEWS -- 09 Sep 85 15:26:24 Page 20
it has the above mentioned problems fixed (the fix of using
'-t 0' on non-IBM's will not work in version 2.0, just 2.1).
If you call my board to download Rovermsg, you might also
want to download RENUM.ARC which is a command line driven
version of the Sysop only 2 and 8 commands. It is smarter
than the original RENUM written by Tom Jennings in that it
does in fact renumber the user list, and it can be used to
delete old or received messages. I run it as an external
event once a week to clear old messages from my board.
If you are a Fido Sysop that uses Rovermsg, please send me
a FidoNet message so that I can add you to my master Rover
mailing list. I know that there are at least 25-30 sysops
that user Rovermsg, and I only have about 115 in my master
list. Also, please download the latest version from my
board so that you don't get bitten by bugs that have been
fixed. I placed this article in the FidoNews just so that
all of you would see it and therefore not have the excuse
that you did not know that you were supposed to send my a
FidoNet message if you are a Rovermsg user.
For a limited time only, this Fido sysop will be engaged -
then onto bigger and better things! In only twelve short
months, it will be the end of bachelorhood forever! Lets
face it guys - Fido is nice but females are fabulous!
