Volume 5, Number 18                                    2 May 1988
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    |        International                          |     | \   \\  |
    |     FidoNet Association                       | (*) |  \   )) |
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    |                                                     (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 1988 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. IFNA may also be contacted
    at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141.

    Fido  and FidoNet  are registered  trademarks of  Tom Jennings of
    Fido Software,  164 Shipley Avenue,  San Francisco, CA  94107 and
    are used with permission.

    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. ARTICLES  .................................................  1
       ## Important Announcement Concerning the Nodelist ##  .....  1
       Echomail -- Some users speak  .............................  2
       Help The Samantha Smith Center!  ..........................  8
    2. COLUMNS  .................................................. 10
       Top Downloads  ............................................ 10
    3. NOTICES  .................................................. 12
       The Interrupt Stack  ...................................... 12
       MetroFire Third Annual Birthday BASH!  .................... 12
       FidoCon '88 -> Call For Papers  ........................... 14
       Latest Software Versions  ................................. 14
    FidoNews 5-18                Page 1                    2 May 1988


    =================================================================
                                ARTICLES
    =================================================================

                             Nodelist Status
                              David Dodell
                        International Coordinator
                        FidoNet 1:1/0 or 1:114/15


    The program that  generates the nodelist,  MAKENL has reached its
    limits in  the generation of  the nodelist.  To  procure a little
    time  till the  program can  be  updated the  following TEMPORARY
    changes  are   being  made   to  the   nodelist  by   the  Region
    Coordinators.


    (1)  All Echomail/Software  Distribution Coordination  nodes have
    been removed from the nodelist.  If more room is needed, the rest
    of the help/administrative nodes will  be removed from the Zone 1
    Administrative area.

    (2) All private  nodes will be removed  from the nodelist.  These
    nodes are  encouraged to  hook into the  net as  point systems to
    their  network hosts.   Private nodes  can be  added to  your own
    nodelist by setting up a private network listing in XLATLIST.

    (3) If necessary, the Zone Coordinators might have to temporarily
    remove  the  other  Zones from  their  nodelist  generation.  For
    example  Zone  1  would  only  receive  a  nodelist  with  Zone 1
    included.  Zone 2 and 3 would have to be added manually.  If this
    happens,  I will  be making  the Zone  nodelists available  on my
    system for file request, for  those that need direct connections,
    vs via the zonegates.

    (4) A TEMPORARY hold in the  issuance of any new node numbers.  I
    hope this will only be in effect for one week till I can evaluate
    how much growth room we have.


    We hope to have the problem solved within the next few weeks with
    appropriate software.   Please bear  with us.   We will  have the
    situation corrected in the sortest possible time.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    FidoNews 5-18                Page 2                    2 May 1988


         RAM-SOFT BBS Echomail Survey Results


    In an effort to determine how Echomail was used by and
    deemed a worthy part of our FidoNet BBS by our users and to
    justify the system downtime to process the mail, we recently
    ran a survey on our BBS. (All callers had to answer Yes or No
    to answering the survey before they could utilize the bulletin
    board).  This article is an overview and some editorial comments
    on the results and some thoughts for those of you who are sysops
    that carry echomail.

    If the editor of FidoNews does not consider it to be too much
    material, a complete copy of the results are elsewhere in this
    this newsletter.  Details on obtaining the results from 135/1
    are listed below.

    As a point of information to help you better understand the
    results, our board has been carrying echomail since it was first
    available so neither our system is new to echomail nor our
    users are new to echomail although some of the areas we carry
    are new.  We carry eight public echomail areas: COMM,CECHO,DBASE,
    TECH,WINDMILL,ECPROG,PASCAL and WORDPERFECT and one private
    echomail area.  At the time the survey started we had around
    600 users, about 45 were new to the board within the last month.
    We have been operating a FidoNet bulletin board since March of
    1986.

    It should be noted that only about 10% (55) of our users even
    bothered to answer the survey indicating to me that echomail is
    not too important to them.  It should be mentioned also that we
    average, according to LogRpt statistics, 250 files a week
    downloaded and as such we are much more of a file oriented board
    than a message oriented board.  We are however a board with many
    long distance or PC-Pursuit users and had at least 5 long
    distance users answer the survey and that should give a broader
    perspective than had only South Florida users answered.  Only
    two sysops responded. (Neither of the RAM-SOFT sysops answered).

    The results were somewhat surprising in some areas and others
    quite predictable.  Of the answers, 76% read echomail while
    24% percent do not read echomail.  24% of the respondents
    read an average of 2 message areas, while 22% read 3 areas.
    Only 3% read all eight conferences we carry.

    The most surprising results came in the hypothetical question:
    'What if we charged access to be able to read echomail?'  A
    surprising number, 55% said that they would be more than happy
    to pay for the privilige.  An even more surprising answer came
    when we asked the hypothetical question: 'What if we only made
    echomail available to donating members?'  65% said that they
    would donate.

    The number of people who considered echomail to be important on
    a bulletin board was 95% yet 36% of those could not give a
    coherent reason why it is important.  (Reasons like 'Because
    FidoNews 5-18                Page 3                    2 May 1988


    good bbs important' count as non-coherent as did 'because it's
    important').  The majority of those giving an answer (20%) said
    that echomail expands communications while the second largest
    group (18%) said it was a good source of information.  Three
    people said the reason was because local message sections are
    dull and one person said that echomail was the reason BBS's
    existed.  Approximately 67% would carry echomail if they ran a
    bulletin board.

    It was interesting that 38% of the respondents had never entered
    or replied to echomail.  In the rating of conferences on a 1-5
    scale, the majority (ranging from 53% to 82%) of the respondents
    rated the conferences with a 0.  When the 1-5 scale answers are
    added together they did not come very close to the number of
    people who rated the conference areas with a 0. TECH-Net was
    rated the best with 20% giving it a 5 and 16% giving it a 4.
    ECPROG was second highest with 11% giving it a 5 and 18% a 4.
    The WordPerfect conference would be dropped by 31% if they had
    to.  Eighteen percent would drop dBase if they had to with one
    user commenting that he would not support an archaic database
    system if he were a sysop.

    What exactly are the users saying?  Only they know for sure but
    some ideas can be gained from this survey.  It seems as though
    users have come to expect that bulletin boards must have at
    least two or three echomail areas to be considered a 'good'
    bulletin board but cannot give a good solid reason as to why a
    board should have echomail.  Are they saying that the same
    sysops or authors who told us the 'it's a new protocol, it must
    be good' for downloads story have made echomail a necessity
    without any solid reason?  The fact that the majority could not
    give a good reason for why they thought echomail important makes
    me as a sysop think that they are just going along with the
    crowd - they see everyone with echomail, therefore it must be
    important. I would argue that if the sysops put forth as much
    effort in establishing their local message areas as they did in
    arguing over the IFNA, collecting files, debating fastest
    protocols and other 'trivial' matters, there would be little real
    demand BY THE USERS for national echomail as it currently
    exists.

    The results could also indicate that we at RAM-SOFT have a very
    poor selection of conferences.  Granted, Windmill, WordPerfect
    and dBase are not the most popular of conferences but we have
    our reasons for carrying them.  Specifically, we use Dutchie, a
    very good mailer program and support multiple Dutchie points and
    like the support that Windmill offers us and them. Overall
    though, I feel we carry a good, but small selection of
    conferences that are relative to the computer programmer and
    serious computer hobbyists and that our board has.

    Given that most users only read two or three conferences
    indicates to me that the users do not really care for a large
    number of conferences.  Perhaps the users would rather call
    two or three boards to get 5 or 6 conferences instead of calling
    one system that carries a large amount of conferences.
    FidoNews 5-18                Page 4                    2 May 1988


    The fact that so many people would not rate the conferences with
    anything higher than a 0 indicates that the level of quality on
    these conferences is in serious, if not fatal shape.  One could
    argue that the users are saying that echomail should be routed
    through a small group of boards that monitor messages to see that
    they remain on the related topics but that would be countered
    with the paranoid who would say 'Don't censor echomail -- it's
    a violation of my 1st amendment rights.' (It wouldn't be).  As
    long as the idea that good boards must carry echomail conferences
    and boards must make it available to all, there will always be
    a fairly large amount of garbage.  Perhaps the users are telling
    us sysops to keep echomail alive but get some conferences that
    stick to the subject and actually are worth reading and
    participating in.  I hate to see what the comments would be if
    we carried 15 or 20 sections.

    How can we as sysops have conferences that stick more to the
    topic and are relative to the users?  The users may have
    answered that by saying that they are willing to pay (either
    flat-out or by donating) for the privilege of reading and
    entering echomail.  Those that argue that echomail has no
    security because anyone can logon to a system and enter messages
    should be pleased at this idea.  Of course those users (and
    sysops) who are leeches would argue foul but probably couldn't
    justify why they shouldn't have to support echomail in some
    way.  If only donating users have the ability to enter or read
    messages, then the sysop will know who has abused the privilige
    and take appropriate actions.  The users are telling sysops that
    they are willing to help foot the phone bill.  Unfortunately
    though, as long as some sysops, especially those with WATS lines
    or business/government backing (or even 9600's) continue to
    offer echomail to non-donating/non-privilege users and/or
    sysops spread the idea that non-echomail systems are poorer
    systems, there will probably never be echomail that the majority
    of users consider superior or excellent.

    In summary, the users seem to be saying that they want
    echomail, even if they don't know why.  They are more
    comfortable with a smaller number of conferences and don't
    consider many of the conferences to be of much quality.  The
    willingness to pay either a flat charge or by donating to be able
    to read messages is the hardest to interpret.  Perhaps they are
    tired of waiting for someone to take the active, visible hand
    that is necessary to keep echomail conferences on the subject.
    Perhaps they are saying they don't mind spending money on their
    hobby.

    Overall, I'm not convinced that the large numbers of echomail
    subjects that exist, at least at a national level, is worth
    the tremendous expense and time involved to process it.  A
    'globaly' available message area (echomail) is a great idea and
    worth exploring but I believe only under tight (self-designed)
    regulatory efforts.  Why should users even bother to weed
    through all the junk that is present in these conferences?
    Most systems, including ours are too busy for and do not allow
    enough online time for users to be able to read every message
    FidoNews 5-18                Page 5                    2 May 1988


    that comes into the system.  You almost have to be either a
    sysop or a point to reap the full benefit of echomail.  That
    might be the reasons sysops don't like to hear that echomail
    might not be all that great. Perhaps local echomail if there
    is a strong active network host or perhaps selective or regional
    echomail that has a limited number of boards per conferences is
    something to consider.

    Comments on this survey and results of your own *surveys* (not
    opinions) are welcome via net-mail at 1:135/1.

    I might also add that at this time we have no concrete plans
    to change the echomail conferences we carry or the way in
    which we allow users to participate.

    The complete results of the survey, if not present in this
    newsletter, are available from the RAM-SOFT Archive Library
    BBS, 1:135/1 by file requesting ESURVEY.TXT (No file requests
    08:30 - 10:30 UTC).  It may also be obtained by first time
    callers in file area 12(INFO). If you can do standard
    IFNA/FidoNet file requests, we would prefer that you obtain the
    file that way as we do require users to answer several questions
    before being allowed on to the system and would prefer not have
    a bunch of new callers unless you plan to be a part of the
    RAM-SOFT BBS.

    James Gilbert
    Archive Librarian, co-sysop


    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    FidoNews 5-18                Page 6                    2 May 1988


    Results from the survey on Echomail taken during three
    weeks in April, 1988 on RAM-SOFT Archive Library BBS, Miami, FL.

    Questions are exact questions.  When text answers were required
    from those questioned, only a paraphrase of those answers is
    given here and only answers of a similar nature or interesting
    comments are included.

    A total of 55 individuals answered the survey, aproximately 10%
    of the total number of users on the day the survey began.
    Neither of the sysops of RAM-SOFT participated in the survey.

    Question#:
    1: Do you read ANY Conference mail areas(Y/N)?
                                    Yes: 42 (76%)
                                     No: 13 (24%)

    (if yes) How many individual areas do you read:
                   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8  (0)
                   -----------------------------------
          Actual # 5  13  12   4   3   3   0   2  (13)
               (%) 9% 24% 22%  7%  5%  5%  0   4%  24%

    2: Is echomail important on a bulletin board(Y/N):
                                  Yes: 52 (95%)
                                   No: 3  (5%)

    (if yes)Explain why it is important:
                      No real solid reason    (20)  (36%)
                      Good sourc of info      (10)  (18%)
                      Expands Communications  (11)  (20%)
                      Local messages are dull (3)   (5%)
         Good way to send messages to friends (1)   (2%)
                    Cheap way to communicate  (4)   (7%)
                         Creates a subculture (1)
                      That's what BBS are for (1)

    3: If you ran a bulletin board and had to pay the phone bill,
       would your bulletin board carry any conferences(Y/N)
                                  Yes:  37  (67%)
                                   No:  18  (33%)

    4: Have you ever entered a message or replied to a message
       in an echomail conference(Y/N):
                                  Yes:  34  (62%)
                                   No:  21  (38%)

    5: IF we charged access to echomail areas (one fee for all
       areas), would you pay for this privilige(Y/N)?
                                  Yes: 30   (55%)
                                   No: 25   (45%)

    6: As opposed to charging for access, IF we made echomail
      areas only available to donating users, would you donate(Y/N)
                                  Yes: 36   (65%)
                                   No: 19   (35%)
    FidoNews 5-18                Page 7                    2 May 1988


    7-14: On a scale of 0 to 5 with 1 indicating a poor conference
          and 5 indicating an excellent conference, please rate
          your opinion of the following echomail areas.
    15: If you had to drop 2 conference, tell us which of the
        conferences you would drop:

       (Actual number)
                  0   1   2   3   4   5      Drop:
                 ---------------------------------
            COMM: 38  1   2   6   3   5     :   6
           CECHO: 37  0   5   5   4   4     :   6
           DBASE: 42  1   5   2   0   5     :  10
            TECH: 29  0   0   6   9   11    :   2
           DUTCH: 45  3   4   1   1   1     :   9
          ECPROG: 36  1   2   3  10   6     :   4
          PASCAL: 38  2   1   5   4   6     :   7
         PERFECT: 42  2   1   5   0   5     :  17

       (Percentages)
                  0   1   2   3   4   5      Drop:
                 ---------------------------------
            COMM: 69% 2%  4% 11%  5%  9%    :  11%
           CECHO: 67% 0%  9%  9%  7%  7%    :  11%
           DBASE: 76% 2%  9%  4%  0%  9%    :  18%
            TECH: 53% 0%  0% 11% 16% 20%    :   4%
           DUTCH: 82% 5%  7%  2%  2%  2%    :  16%
          ECPROG: 65% 2%  4%  5% 18% 11%    :   7%
          PASCAL: 69% 4%  2%  9%  7% 11%    :  13%
         PERFECT: 76% 4%  2%  9%  0%  9%    :  31%

    16: Enter any additional comments you may have:
        I haven't used it enough (2)
        Public BBS should not charge for echomail (1)
        Wouldn't make much difference if they were gone (1)
        You only need one conference to hold all languages (1)
        Would rather get files from bbs's than read msgs (1)
        If a BBS charged/donations then users would go elsewhere(1)
        Never thought it was worth the effort for sysops. (1)
        Sick of Opus boards (1).
        I prefer Tandy conferences (1)
        I wouldn't support a clumsy database program like DBase (1)


     James Gilbert, survey coordinator, co-sysop, RAM-SOFT BBS.
     (305) 226-3310. 300/1200/2400/?  FidoNet 1:135/1


    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    FidoNews 5-18                Page 8                    2 May 1988


    Bill Paul
    The Think Tank
    OPUS 1:123/7

                           Life After Samantha


         That's the title of an article I just read in the May issue
    of YANKEE Magazine.  The article tells the story of Jane Smith,
    mother of Samantha.  I'm sure you all remember Samantha - she's
    the 11-year old Maine girl who wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov
    expressing concern about Russia and the United States getting
    into a nuclear war.  She subsequently visited Russia, in July of
    1983.  Unfortunately, she and her father were killed in a plane
    crash in 1985.  After her death, she became somewhat of a folk
    hero in Russia.  The Soviet Union named an asteroid, a flower, a
    mountain, and a cruise ship after Samantha.  Her portrait greets
    visitors at the gate to Samantha Smith Alley.

         Apparently, things are not going so well in the United
    States.  Jane Smith began The Samantha Smith Center "to foster
    international understanding in the spirit of Samantha".  The
    Center's projects include an international newsletter for
    children, bringing American situation comedies to the Soviet
    Union, and hosting Soviet children in American summer camps.
    However, for various reasons, the foundation is in need of funds.
    For one thing, the initial founders, who raised $100,000 to get
    the Center started, wanted Mrs. Smith to move the Center to New
    York.  When they refused, and remained in Hallowell Maine, they
    lost some of that support.  In addition, Mrs. Smith's television
    appearances have generated more questions and requests for
    information than financial support.  According to Mrs. Smith, at
    least half the calls they receive are from people wanting the
    Center to help THEM start a similar exchange.  While Mrs. Smith
    agrees that this is wonderful, it also means that there are that
    many more centers competing for the same funding.

         There are other reasons why the center is in financial
    distress, too many to list here.  A magazine for young people
    failed; a movie which Columbia pictures planned to co-produce
    with the Soviets appears to have been abandoned; an exchange
    which gave ten Soviet teenagers almost a week in a Maine summer
    camp (the first time the Soviets had sent their kids to an
    American camp) depleted the center's funds.  The list goes on...

         But I suppose by now you've discovered what this is all
    leading up to.  Send money!  Can we allow the Samantha Smith
    Center to fail and still sleep at night?  I can't, not if my few
    dollars, combined with a few dollars from others, can keep it
    going.  How many FidoNet systems do we have right now, 3,000+?
    And how many users are on those 3,000 systems?  If we each sent
    one dollar, I suspect it would make a difference.  It would also
    bring us all together in a small way, and help us feel better the
    next time we see a "computer phreaker" article in our local
    newspaper (why don't they ever print the good stuff?).  Even if
    the center fails, at least we'll know we tried.  Please, send a
    FidoNews 5-18                Page 9                    2 May 1988


    dollar or two to this worthy cause!  I have no idea if it is tax
    deductible, nor do I care; my check will be in tomorrow's mail.
    If you'd like to know whether your contribution is tax deductible
    (or if you want more information, or if you think this is some
    sort of prank), I'll provide the center's phone number at the end
    of this article.  Let's send a buck or two and do something good
    for the world!  SysOps, if you have a minute, please post this
    article on your bulletin board, or at least refer your callers to
    this issue of FidoNews.  We all know that (alas) it is mostly
    SysOps who read FidoNews, let's spread the word even further!

         I have no idea if I have violated any copyright laws in this
    article.  Brief passages from YANKEE Magazine have been quoted
    verbatim, as have quotes by Mrs. Smith.  Perhaps foolishly, I did
    not want to take the time to wait for permission from YANKEE
    before writing this article.  In any event, if an apology to
    YANKEE Magazine and/or Mrs. Jane Smith will keep me out of jail,
    please consider it done!

         Now, let's get out our checkbooks or wallets and send a
    dollar or two.  I'm not a writer (did you guess?), so maybe I
    haven't stated a very strong case, but let's keep a young girl's
    dream alive, shall we?  For a much better article by Mel Allen,
    pick up a copy of YANKEE Magazine, May 1988.  Maybe THAT one will
    help loosen those purse strings!


                        The Samantha Smith Center
                             9 Union Street
                       Hallowell, Maine (USA) 04347
                             (207) 626-3415



    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    FidoNews 5-18                Page 10                   2 May 1988


    =================================================================
                                 COLUMNS
    =================================================================


                   Top Downloads
     A weekly report of the most popular downloads
     from contributing systems.

    This column will list the more popular downloaded files for the
    previous week.  I would like this to be a cooperative effort
    among several boards that are heavy in file downloads and not
    just a listing of this Software Distribution Board's activity.
    (See details at the end of this report).

    This column will list the top 15 most downloads as reported by
    contributing systems.  It will also list selected files of
    general intereste as well as the the most popular download
    methods for files.


    (Intro out of the way, here goes.)
    Top downloads from for 4/3/88 - 4/10/88
    Contributing systems: 135/1

    File transactions       Average per day
    ----------------------------------------
    Downloads:  309               44.14

        File Download Report -- Top 15

    Rank Area\File Name         # DL's
    -------------------------------------------------------------
    1.   COMM\pcplustd.arc         9   ProComm+ Test Drive (V1.0)
    2.   GAME\moria.arc            5   Adventure game a la Hack
    3.   UNPT\123star.unp          5   Unprotect
    4.   GAME\sorry.arc            4   EGA version of Sorry
    5.   MISC\gc.arc               3   World Time map display
    6.   UTIL\dog101a.arc          3   Disk Optimizer
    7.   GAME\scrabble.arc         3   Scrabble Game
    8.   UNPT\ati.unp              3   unprotect
    9.   UNPT\lotus1a.unp          3   unprotect
    10.  INFO\egademo.arc          2   Demo of EGA graphics
    11.  LANG\conv.bas             2
    12.  MISC\bathelp.arc          2   Help for DOS batch files
    13.  MISC\daylog.arc           2   Keeps a personal log
    14.  MISC\prompt.arc           2   Various DOS prompts
    15.  MISC\shofkeys.arc         2   Displays Function keys


        File Download Report -- Selected area files
    Area\Name               #DL's
    -----------------------------------------------------------
    BBSP\chg2node.arc         1  Change file name to node #
    LANG\arc50sc.arc          1  C Source to Arc 5.0
    EDIT\e88-42.arc           2  Text editor
    FidoNews 5-18                Page 11                   2 May 1988


    SHEL\amenu40.arc          2  AutoMenu, DOS menu/shell
    APPL\aseasy30.arc         1  Spreadsheet similar to 123
    EDUC\matrix.arc           1  To teach Matrix math
    ARCS\arc521.com           1  The ARChiver from SEA.


    Transfer methods total
    -----------------------------
    SEAlink  download/upload  89
    Telink   download/upload  39
    Xmodem   download/upload 147
    Ymodem   download/upload  35
    Zmodem   download/upload  12
    External download/upload   0
    (External is defined as any add-in protocol available to Opus
    ie. Kermit as well as Modem7 on our system).

    (end of report)

    I would encourage any other systems that run LogRpt on a weekly
    basis *OR* can send me data in a similar format (minus the area
    names) and would like their stats included in this list, please
    drop a net-mail note along with your system's download data
    to 1:135/1.  If using LogRpt, don't use paths in the output all
    I want is filenames and total downloads.  If any thing is of
    particular interest or you have changed a filename, mention
    that.  I MUST have the report by Monday's net-mail time in order
    to get the stats edited.  This should give you Saturday and
    Sunday to get the previous 7/8 days together. If the report is
    longer than 10 days, I don't think it will be possible to
    include it.  (We can accept net-mail anytime of the day and
    are PC-Pursuitable).

    James Gilbert
    135/1


    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    FidoNews 5-18                Page 12                   2 May 1988


    =================================================================
                                 NOTICES
    =================================================================

                         The Interrupt Stack


    16 May 1988
       Digital Equipment Corporations Users Society Spring Symposium.
       Will be held May 16-May 20 in Cincinnati, OH.

    29 May 1988
       MetroFire Third Annual Birthday Bash and  Floppy Disk Throwing
       Contest.  ALL FidoNet Sysops  and their families  are invited.
       Contact Christopher Baker at 135/14 for more details.  Details
       available by SEAdog file request as FPICMAP.ARC or BASH.

    18 Jun 1988
       Area Code 407 takes effect in East/Central Florida. All Sysops
       should adjust their Nodelist entries immediately.

    25 Jun 1988
       EuroCon II starts in Tiel, Holland. Sponsored by the Dutch
       Hobby Computer Club. Will run for 2 days. Contact Hans
       Lichthelm at 2:2/999 for information.

    16 Jul 1988
       A new  areacode, 508, will  form in eastern  Massachusetts and
       will  be effective on  this date.  The  new area  code will be
       formed  from the  current  areacode 617.  Greater Boston  will
       remain areacode 617  while the  rest of eastern  Massachusetts
       will form the new areacode 508.

    25 Aug 1988
       Start  of the  Fifth  International  FidoNet Conference, to be
       held  at  the Drawbridge Inn  in Cincinnati, 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.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------


                          ATTENTION ALL FidoNet Sysops:

     This is the Official MetroFire Third Birthday BlowOut Bulletin!!

    This event will take place deep in the heart of Florida's
    FidoNews 5-18                Page 13                   2 May 1988


    wonderland, The Everglades.

            NO ONE will be admitted WITHOUT an 8-10 pound bag of ICE!

    (This should not pose a hardship for anyone since a bag of ice is
    only 69 cents at Publix. Hardship cases should apply to the Sysop
    for relief via Netmail [grin].)

                                 ***********
    This is the story, so far...

             WHEN:     Sunday, 29 May 88
             TIME:     1400 - 2000

             WHERE:    LimeLite Farms on the Edge of the Everglades

             WHY:      To Celebrate the Survival and Growth of
                       MetroFire, 135/14, and needing an
                       excuse to have a party.

             WHAT:     A B.Y.O.E. (Bring Your Own Everything)
                       Picnic with Games and Shop Talk and Lie
                       Swapping. Musical Instruments and Non-
                       destructive Outdoor Games are Solicited.

             NEED:     Folding Tables, Chairs and Ventilation
                       Equipment and a Portable PC w/2 drives.

             HAVE:     Charcoal and the First Five Pounds
                       of Genuine (accept no substitutes)
                       Sabrett Hot Dogs will be provided.

             COST:     Your Time, Effort and Gas to Krome Ave.
             ENTRANCE
             FEE:      One 8 to 10 pound bag or block of ICE!
                       PER Person (bring more if you like).

             REWARDS:  Sharpen your Survival Skills and Become
                       One with Your Natural Surroundings.
                       Plenty of Precious Calories and Many
                       Anecdotes to Pass on to Posterity.

             BRING:    Deep Woods OFF! (if the Rain picks up,
                       so will the Mosquitoes.) Don't wear
                       Perfume if the Mosquito report is
                       Hostile (THEY love it!).
                       Something to Sit on.

             DON'T
             BRING:    Firearms, Fireworks, Animals or Drugs.

             SMOKERS:  Smoking outside, only.

             WHO:      ALL MetroFire Users, Families and Guests
                       and ALL FidoNet Sysops and Families, and
                       Local non-FidoNet Sysops and Families.
    FidoNews 5-18                Page 14                   2 May 1988


    Everyone is invited to bring a gustatory specialty for sharing.
    Make it something simple, Coquilles St. Jacques, Baked Alaska,
    Salmon Mousse, etc. We will keep track of the comestibles
    volunteered on 135/14. I will begin the tote with BBS Bakered
    Beans.


    For more details, file request FPICMAP.ARC or BASH from 135/14.

    Out-of-town Sysops, RSVP to 135/14 or call Christopher Baker at
    (305) 596-8576, Tue-Sat, 1430-2230.
    We will attempt to line up some accomodations with our users to
    save you the cost of a hotel. Transportation to the site will be
    arranged upon request.

    See you there!

    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    Tim Sullivan 108/62
    FidoCon'88 Chairman


            ---->---->---->  CALL FOR PAPERS  <----<----<----


    We are still searching for speakers and topics for this year's
    conference.  If you would like to speak, or have an idea for a
    topic, please contact Mark Walker at 108/50.

    FidoCon can only be a success with your involvement.  We're doing
    a great job preparing for the conference here in Cincinnati, but
    we still need your input!


    (btw: How many of you use FidoNet technology in your workplace?
    We're interested in finding out.  If you currently use: Seadog,
    Fido, Opus, Binkley, Dutchie, dBridge, or anything else I've
    forgotten in you job/profession, drop Mark a note at 108/50.
    Thanks!)


    -----------------------------------------------------------------

                         Latest Software Versions

    BBS Systems            Node List              Other
    & Mailers   Version    Utilities   Version    Utilities   Version

    Dutchie        2.81*   EditNL          3.3    ARC            5.21
    Fido            12g*   MakeNL         2.03    ARCmail         1.1
    Opus          1.03b    Prune          1.40    ConfMail       3.31
    SEAdog         4.10    XlatList       2.86*   EchoMail       1.31
    TBBS           2.0M                           MGM             1.1
    BinkleyTerm    1.40*
    QuickBBS       2.00*
    FidoNews 5-18                Page 15                   2 May 1988


    * 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.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    FidoNews 5-18                Page 16                   2 May 1988


           OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION

    Ken Kaplan       100/22   Chairman of the Board
    Don Daniels      107/210  President
    Mark Grennan     147/1    Vice President
    Dave Dodell      114/15   Vice President - Technical Coordinator
    Tom Marshall     107/524  Secretary
    Leonard Mednick  12/1     Treasurer



                        IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

        DIVISION                               AT-LARGE

    10  Steve Jordan     102/2871        Don Daniels     107/210
    11  Bill Allbritten  11/301          Hal DuPrie      101/106
    12  Leonard Mednick  12/1            Mark Grennan    147/1
    13  Rick Siegel      107/27          Brad Hicks      100/523
    14  Ken Kaplan       100/22          Ted Polczyinski 154/5
    15  Jim Cannell      128/13          Kurt Reisler    109/74
    16  Vince Perriello  141/491         Robert Rudolph  261/628
    17  Rob Barker       138/34          Greg Small      148/122
    18  Chris Baker      135/14          Bob Swift       140/24
    19  Vernon Six       19/0            Larry Wall      15/18
     2  Henk Wevers      2:500/1         Gee Wong        107/312

    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    FidoNews 5-18                Page 17                   2 May 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 5-18                Page 18                   2 May 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___________________________

    -----------------------------------------------------------------