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Copyright 1988 by the International FidoNet Association. All
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please contact IFNA at (314) 576-4067. IFNA may also be contacted
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The contents of the articles contained here are not our
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Everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING
received.
Table of Contents
1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
Intro To FIDO (A Poem) ................................... 2
Sysop Comments on IFNA Statement of Direction ............ 4
National Law Enforcement Conference ...................... 6
2. COLUMNS .................................................. 7
Let's YACK about Vacation Time ........................... 7
3. NOTICES .................................................. 8
The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 8
Latest Software Versions ................................. 8
FidoNews 5-52 Page 1 26 Dec 1988
I am starting a non-backbone echo for the free and open
exchange of information on echos and echo feeds. There
is a need to create an forum for people to be able to
freely discuss what is happening with the various new
backbones that are coming into existence without being
subject to political friction or intimidation. This
requires an echo that does not depend on any particular
backbone for distribution and does not try to impose
any set of values or beliefs on the participants. As
new backbones come into existence this will become
increasingly important.
To do this we need several regional hubs to carry
and distribute the echo. We need one or two
in California, one in the Colorado area, one in the
Southwest, one in the Northeast and one in the
Southeast. The ideal hub will be an echomail junky
who knows the other local echomail junkies.
There will be a modest volume of messages on the
echo but it will contain a lot of valuable informa-
tion about what is happening. It will also be
an ideal place for someone to promote a new echo.
There also seems to be a lot of confusion as to how
and to what extent an echo moderator can maintain
some proprietary right in an echo. That is a question
that I and several other participating lawyers can
answer if there is an interest.
If you are interested in becoming one of the hubs for
this echo please send an netmail message to me at
node 1:115/982 Curtis Sahakian
I was writing a BBS program, you see.
I had a clear goal: make it maintenance-free!
A friend, name of James, ran a beta-test site,
Uncovering bugs and things that weren't right.
One of his questions, it made my heart sink.
"It can, I assume, run underneath Bink?"
"Bink?" I inquired, not wanting to know.
"Yes," he replied, "It's used for Fido".
Fido! That means I've got more work to do.
"Will your users need access, or is it just you?"
"It's just for me, and Binkley does mail.
So write for a 'door' and you're on the right trail."
Ah! I could do that! I've written a door.
But this talk of Fido ... I sought to learn more.
So James said, "It's complex, but you'll get the gist,
if you understand the Fido Node List!"
"Node List? What's that?" I asked. He said, "Well,
that's all the nodes! It's from MakeNL".
"From MakeNL? What on earth does that mean?
Give me a break: be more clear than you've been."
Paying no heed, he said, "Then it's sent to us.
So it arrives, in a form called 'St. Louis'.
Now, you convert it -- I use XlaxNode.
Some other people use different code."
Now I was lost. I was very confused.
My brain, it was spinning; my ego was bruised.
But I took some notes, to make sense of this mess
of Opus and oMMM and of QuickBBS.
And sometime near dawn, I did see the light!
I lived and breathed Fido; I knew ev'ry byte!
Elated, I was, with newly-found smarts.
Fido was great and I knew all the parts.
I learned about SEAdog and TBBS,
Dutchie and more! I knew it ALL -- YES!
But what I heard next ... it made me go pale ...
"Now we will learn all about ... EchoMail!"
-- The BBS mentioned in the poem is Sapphire --
The Zero-Maintenance BBS. You can File Request SAPPHIRE
from 1:167/161, which is the software distribution system
for Pinnacle Software. Any comments to Mr. Campbell can
be sent to the same node. If you cannot File Request,
simply call 514/286-1703, and, without prior validation,
you may download Sapphire.
FidoNews 5-52 Page 3 26 Dec 1988
I have just read Don Daniels article "Problems Between IFNA and
FidoNet ...and a Potential Solution" in FNEWS550.
First off, I would like to commend Don on writing such an
excellent article. The article lays several issues to rest that
I have had with IFNA, and FidoNet.
I have been in the Network now a little over a year. I think
the biggest debate I have seen, is basically broken down to:
"Who says, and by what right does IFNA claim to represent us."
Recently Butch Walker resigned as the ZEC. An election was held
in which only the *C's were allowed to vote. Yet, no-where in
Policy3 is there such an office as ZEC, or NEC. Yet, they were
allowed to vote.
While I understand that many elections from a Node level might
be a bit on the hard side to correlate. I would like to suggest
that possibly, each and every Network in each Zone be required
to have its own constitution.
Under the constitution, the following could be laid out:
1. Method for the NC to poll nodes for opinions of the Sysops
within the Net. The Nets vote count to be on a percentage
of systems. i.e. a small net one vote a large net several
votes. With the NC being required to vote (as close as
possible) the percentage of votes for/against an issue.
2. A means whereby, on what is considered today to be a policy
complaint, be placed before the sysops peers in the net
prior to going up the *C chain on appeals. Thus if there
is a complaint from outside the net, it is presented to the
NC, who presents it to the Net as a whole.
3. With a similar constitution on a regional level and zone
level. These constitutions should also have a means of re-
calling or impeaching a *C if they are not doing their
job.
I agree with Don, Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither was New
York. And while I know it may sound silly or whatever, I think
a good Net-Level constitution, with similar constitutions for
the Regional Level and Zone Levels might be a very good step in
making IFNA a little more palatable for the rest of us.
I think IFNA should be more of a Service/Standards type group.
Meaning keep up the Nodelist, as well as set standards (at the
start, to be moved into a more democratic aspect as it works
FidoNews 5-52 Page 5 26 Dec 1988
out). Once the standards are set, to then see to the mainten-
ance of those standards, and if necessary enforce them.
I personally feel that it is real hard for someone to tell me
that they represent me, when I don't have a darned thing to
say about it. I was in the Net over 4 months before I even
knew there was a Policy3, let alone a complaint channel to go
along with it. And a constitution on a NET level would sure
go along way in seeing that standards are maintained.
As Rick Siegel (I think) is fond of saying:
Just one persons opinion.
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FidoNews 5-52 Page 6 26 Dec 1988
Rick Bates
1:229/101
National Law Enforcement Conference
If you're a law enforcement officer, or have users on your
system that are law enforcement officers, you may be interested
in an Echomail conference specifically set up for sworn officers
(federal, state or local) including retired officers.
The POLICE echo is an area dedicated to discussions of new
enforcement techniques, training and benefit programs available
for officers, and discussions concerning the use of PC's in
law enforcement. Several of the participating boards maintain
file areas dedicated to shareware or public domain software
designed for use in law enforcement.
The area has been running for almost two years now, and became
international over a year ago. Police officers from all over
North America participate in discussions of mutual interest.
The Conference Moderators are (US) Dave Johnson (1:260/204) and
(Canada) Rick Bates (1:229/101). This is a restricted access
conference in that only sworn officers or retired officers are
to be given access. Each sysop carrying the area is expected to
set it up as a barricaded area and verify that any users
requesting access are in fact officers. The echo is available
to any Node operated by qualifying Sysops, and we are especially
interested in Boards run by law enforcement personnel, or people
in similar professions. Several other echoes are hosted by
these police systems, including one in the Toronto area known as
ASKACOP. Here users may ask several experienced police officers
some everyday questions about law enforcement. Users are able
to clear up questions they have on the law, and the officers
have been able to pass on tips regarding various offences, safe
driving, etc. That area, has since expanded and there is also an
area called ASKALAWYER, where users can obtain specific legal
opinions from practicing lawyers.
Together, the private POLICE echo and the two public areas have
created avenues of communications amoungst police officers and
the public that would not otherwise be possible. In addition,
at 229/101, the local Police post weekly Crime Stoppers
bulletins in a read only format. This "online" format is the
first of its kind in the Crime Stoppers program anywhere in
North America. Sysops everywhere are encouraged to contact
their local police agency and speak with the Crime Stoppers
Coordinator for their area.
For more information on any of these areas, contact either of
the moderators listed above.
Well! Here I am, back from vacation! Sorry to miss a few issues
of FidoNews here!
Boy, a vacation does wonders for your mind and body -- even if
you really don't go anywhere! All I did was go skiing for a
weekend and go flying one morning and relaxed around the house
for a day. All of a sudden my interest is back up in work, in
FidoNet, in the EchoMail conferences...in FidoNews.
Maybe that's part of our problem out there in some of the
EchoMail conferences. Maybe we computer hacker types just get
TOO into this FidoNet thing to take a breather once in awhile; we
forget to stop and smell the roses along the way. Maybe that's
why we keep getting so wrapped up in issues that may not mean
much and so easily take offense to the written word on the
screen.
I mean, we're all intelligent people here. We SHOULD be able to
recognize the fact that this electronic media lacks so much of
the expressionism we humans rely upon to make our communication
work. Yet how often do we see messages that are not only flame
but obvious hasty replies to minor sections of messages that only
lead to more flame and wanderings off the original, and possibly
important, subject?
I strongly recommend a vacation for anyone who feels burned out,
even just a little bit, with anything happening in FidoNet. Some
peoples' answer in the past was to "pull the plug". Did that
help them? Probably. But was it the only answer? I say,
probably not. They could've pretended to "pull the plug" by
getting away from it for awhile. They could've possibly just
checked the board each morning to make sure it was running, check
the NetMail area for inbound messages from friends, maybe even
check the local message bases out on behalf of their local users
(remember them?), then say "Good-bye" for the day. In essence,
they'd be taking a vacation from the socio-political environment
of EchoMail and gone and done other things.
Would this have worked? No telling. But I am here to tell you
that a few weeks' break from FidoNet here has refreshed a great
many of my attitudes. And I didn't even leave town!
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FidoNews 5-52 Page 8 26 Dec 1988
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.
Hal DuPrie 1:101/106 Chairman of the Board
Bob Rudolph 1:261/628 President
Matt Whelan 3:3/1 Vice President
Ray Gwinn 1:109/639 Vice President - Technical Coordinator
David Garrett 1:103/501 Secretary
Steve Bonine 1:115/777 Treasurer
IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
DIVISION AT-LARGE
10 Courtney Harris 1:102/732? Don Daniels 1:107/210
11 Bill Allbritten 1:11/301 Hal DuPrie 1:101/106
12 Bill Bolton 3:711/403 Mark Grennan 1:147/1
13 Rick Siegel 1:107/27 Steve Bonine 1:115/777
14 Ken Kaplan 1:100/22 Ted Polczyinski 1:154/5
15 Larry Kayser 1:104/739? Matt Whelan 3:3/1
16 Vince Perriello 1:141/491 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628
17 Rob Barker 1:138/34 Steve Jordan 1:102/2871
18 Christopher Baker 1:135/14 Bob Swift 1:140/24
19 David Drexler 1:19/1 Larry Wall 1:15/18
2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 David Melnik 1:107/233
Membership for the International FidoNet Association
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Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to
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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 second elected Board of Directors
was filled in August 1988. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been
established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your
input to this Conference.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 5-52 Page 11 26 Dec 1988
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