F I D O N E W S -- Volume 13, Number 31 29 July 1996

F I D O N E W S -- Volume 13, Number 31 29 July 1996
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" |
| _ | 1-407-383-1372 [1:1/23] |
| / \ | |
| /|oo \ | |
| (_| /_) | |
| _`@/_ \ _ | |
| | | \ \\ | Editor: |
| | (*) | \ )) | Christopher Baker 1:374/14 |
| |__U__| / \// | |
| _//|| _\ / | |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Submission address: FidoNews Editor 1:1/23 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MORE addresses: |
| |
| submissions=> [email protected] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
| obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ |
| please refer to the end of this file. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

FREQ ARTSPEC NOW -- SEND IN AN ARTICLE

Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
How does FidoNews get around? ............................ 1
2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2
DESCENT on the Z1 Backbone - your help is needed ......... 2
Making Fidonet Perform ................................... 2
The Start of Something Good? ............................. 8
Alt.Religions.Scientology - cult spams the network ....... 9
ECROC: Good, Bad, or Ugly ............................... 13
Zone 7 Flame will get international now ? ................ 15
3. FIDONET HISTORY .......................................... 17
FidoNet History 20 Aug 85 [Part 2 of 3] ................. 17
4. COORDINATORS CORNER ...................................... 22
Nodelist-statistics as seen from Zone-2 for day 208 ...... 22
5. NET HUMOR ................................................ 23
FidoNews of the Past with Olympic fever? ................. 23
A different kind of "Dear John [Mary]" letter? ........... 25
6. QUESTION OF THE WEEK ..................................... 27
Who's got the News? ...................................... 27
7. NOTICES .................................................. 28
Future History ........................................... 28
Notice to UK Contributors ................................ 28
8. FIDONEWS PUBLIC-KEY ...................................... 30
9. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 31
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 1 29 Jul 1996

=================================================================
EDITORIAL
=================================================================

According to FidoNet Policy, FidoNews is supposed to be part of the
'glue' that holds us together as a Network. It is also supposed to
be 'made available' to all Nodes by their respective FidoNet
Coordinators [ZC to RC to NC to Node].

Back in the 'dim time', we used to DELIVER the weekly files to our
Nodes if they were local calls and hold them if they were long
distance calls. In the dim time most Nodes were local to their NC
and we didn't have these megaNets with many LD Nodes in their
structure. Even those, however, usually are broken down into Hubs
that are local to NC and hubbed Nodes.

So WHY isn't FidoNews being delivered to the local Nodes? Every Node
in FidoNet should be receiving this weekly update of life and doings
in our Network. It's tough to be the 'glue' if the cap never gets
off of the bottle.

I'm calling upon all FidoNet Coordinators to get FidoNews back into
FULL FidoNet distribution to ALL Nodes. FidoNews relies on the
contributions from the Sysops of FidoNet. We are unlikely to get such
submissions if many Nodes either don't know about FidoNews [how did
that happen?] or don't receive it every week from their Coordinator or
Hub. It is the FidoNet Policy-dictated responsibility of EVERY FidoNet
Coordinator to get the NODEDIFF and the FidoNews to the Nodes under
their coordination. You Coordinators volunteered for this job when
you signed on so how about getting with it?

If you Coordinators have any excuses for why FidoNews isn't getting
out to your Nodes, please send it in to FidoNews as an .ART file for
the next issue. I'd be interested in the alibis. [grin]

I'm also interested in how FidoNews gets outside of Zone 1.

Thanks.
C.B.

NOTE: Another reminder that FIDONEWS Echo is now on the Zone 1
Backbone. Areafix it from your local Echomail source and
join us there for discussion and announcements as well as
being able to send in articles for FidoNews via the Echo.

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

FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 2 29 Jul 1996

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

Descent - A New Echo for those who are hopelessly addicted
Moderated by Jim Sorofty 1:243/75

We are attempting to have a new echo added to the backbone and your
help is urgently needed. The Descent Players Echo (DESCENT) is a
place to discuss all aspects of Descent I & Descent II. It is a
place to meet players close to you and from around the world.

All of the criteria for having this echo added to backbone
distribution have been satisfied. Within the next three weeks the
backbone coordinators will be voting on whether or not this echo
area will be carried. Your help is needed to ensure that your
Regional Echomail Coordinator knows that +you+ are interested in
receiving this area. Please take a few moments to netmail your REC
(with a copy to me at 1:243/75) informing them of your desire to
carry the DESCENT echo and asking that they support its addition in
the upcoming vote.

I am confident that we have the support of REC12 and according to
the guidelines, one more REC's vote (two would be nice) is needed
to accomplish our goal. Please don't delay. If enough support for
this echo is not received to list the echo this time around, the
idea will be dropped.

Thank you for your time, consideration and help. I hope to see you
in the DESCENT Echo soon.

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

Making Fidonet Perform
Damian Walker, 2:2502/666

It may appear to some people that Fidonet has an identity crisis.
Many people regard Fidonet as a collection of BBS's. Some people see
Fidonet as a number of echoes. Others insist that Fidonet has nothing
to do with echoes or BBS's. So what is Fidonet?
In this article I will take a look at existing opinions about what
Fidonet is, look at what it can really do, and muse upon where it
might be going.

Is Fidonet a collection of BBS's? Some people seem to think so.
There is certainly a strong connection between Fidonet and BBS's, if
only because Fidonet actually did start out as a collection of linked
BBS's.
A printed magazine here in the UK has a limited coverage of
Fidonet, and their early articles showed this link between Fidonet and
BBS's quite plainly, with Fidonet and BBS's being regarded as one and
the same thing. They even used the nodelist as a basis for their BBS
directory!
The view of Fidonet as an association of BBS's seems to be found
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 3 29 Jul 1996

with people who run BBS's, and also people who have little to do with
Fidonet or data communications at all.
Is Fidonet all about echoes? A lot of people think so. When
people are talking about Fidonet as a 'friendly' place, especially
when comparing it with the Internet, it is more often than not a
comparison between Usenet newsgroups and Fidonet echoes.
It is true that the main concern of many sysops as Fidonet nodes
is centred upon the availability of echomail. Isn't that why most of
them obtained their node number? Whether it is a personal interest in
reading echomail, or an indirect way of attracting users to a BBS,
echomail seems to hold the central key.
So why do people say that Fidonet has little to do with either?
This seems a political or technical concern rather than a statement of
the principal use or capability of Fidonet. Fidonet is defined by the
nodelist, nothing more.
A node may exist which takes no echomail; perhaps they just wish
to make some files available for request. A node may definitely exist
and function without a BBS-- my own system testifies to this.
However, this minor digression masks the main purpose of this article,
which is to take Fidonet as a whole rather than looking for exceptions
to the norm.

So, what can Fidonet do? We've already seen two uses: Linking
BBS's and providing echomail. However, there are some other things
which are currently going on, which are connected with neither: files
and games, for instance. Let's take a quick look at some of the
capabilities of this network.
BBS's are an obvious place to start, and need no explanation here.
They provide an easy interface for beginners to many of the other
things available in Fidonet. Even long-standing comms enthusiasts
find the BBS interface a comfortable way of accessing Fidonet.
Echomail should need no introduction either. Most networks and
on-line services provide some form of conference mail, be it Fidonet,
the Internet, Compuserve or some other proprietary bulletin board
system. Conference mail is the principal means of communicating with
others in most networks, and in Fidonet it remains the most often used
medium for advertising activities and services (such as BBS's, echoes
and things non-comms related).
Games are another popular use of Fidonet. I'm not just thinking
of door games here, most of which could be regarded as an integral
part of a BBS. There are, however, some games which offer inter-BBS
connectivity between BBS's, and these are of more interest to us in
our guise as Fidonet enthusiasts (rather than BBS sysops).
Other games of interest are the PBM (play-by-mail) games which are
played on the Internet, and to a lesser extent, on Fidonet. Many
games players will have heard of VGA Planets, specifically designed
for PBM. Stars! is another example of this type of game.
Fidonet provides not only an excellent way of exchanging the game
data for these games, but also (through echomail) a means of finding
opponents. The same holds true of most games providing a play-by-mail
option. The only thing we are currently lacking is a game which
supports Fidonet directly, although many utilities are available for
one of the games already mentioned, to allow automatic interface with
a BBS.
Bulletins are something which are increasingly making use of
Fidonet technology. 'Bulletins' is probably the least used section of
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 4 29 Jul 1996

most BBS's, and yet this is sometimes the most direct and appropriate
way to offer information to users. Bulletins are invaluable for
specialist systems who could offer information on their chosen
interest.
As well as being an option or section on most BBS's, bulletins are
now being increasingly offered across the network, via netmail. Take
a look at my article in last week's Fidonews for one example of this.
This allows hobbyists to share information on a one-to-one basis with
each other no matter which BBS they regularly call, wherever they live
in the world. Bulletins can also be distributed using regular file
request availability (as with ARTSPEC).
File echoes are a way of distributing files in Fidonet, and
provide a facility much like the 'ftp' mirrors on the Internet,
ensuring that the latest versions of files related to a certain
subject or product are available at a number of sites.
That sums up all the broad categories of use in Fidonet which I
can think of at the time of writing (if I've left anything out, be
sure to write to FidoNews and tell us about it!)

But what of the future? With the shrinking of the nodelist, the
future is something which we need to look at with more cognitive
effort than before. We really need to think of something if our part
of the data communications hobby isn't to be taken from us by the
increasing popularity of other communications systems. The reasons
why people are leaving Fidonet is beyond the scope of this article,
but further development of various aspects of the network can help to
keep it alive, and perhaps to even grow once again, if chosen
carefully.
BBS's are Fidonet's first contact with most people. With their
simple software and hardware requirements, and often an easy-to-use
menu interface, they are already an ideal way to introduce new users
to the wonders of Fidonet.
How can they be improved? Aesthetics is one way people have tried
to improve BBS usage. Some people take advantage of increasing
communications speeds by making their ANSI menus pretty with colour
and animation. Others take advantage of the increasing use of GUI's
to provide a graphical interface, sometimes using HTML in the
interests of standardisation. Some might say that this is just
pandering to those who need pretty colours to keep their attention.
But perhaps this forms the majority of new users, who are not easily
attracted by technical details and a 'quaint' hobbyist atmosphere.
Who knows? Improving the visual effect of our interface is certainly
one way to go.
General ease of use is another step towards improving BBS's. Some
people have suggested a way of standardising the BBS interface,
although few if any BBS's have followed these concepts through (if you
know of an instance where standardisation across BBS's has worked, it
may make an interesting article for FidoNews, hint hint). Although it
has been said that this approach will lose the individuality of BBS's,
standardisation of keypresses along with individuality of screen
design might provide a suitable compromise.
Next we move on to echomail. How can this be improved? Although
many people see echomail's friendliness as an advantage in its own
right, there have still been many suggestions for improvement (as an
aside, I wonder how many people promoting Fidonet's friendliness read
sysop echoes).
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 5 29 Jul 1996

Some people would like to see the universal acceptance of high
ASCII. This is a controversial point, as although this would allow
accented characters and pretty 'graphical' signatures, there are a
number of disadvantages. Even leaving the point that some machines
cannot cope reliably with 8-bit ASCII characters, there is not yet a
network-wide standard for these characters, meaning users of different
platforms still see different characters. Possible future
developments in this direction are many and varied, and too numerous
to go into detail about here.
Moderation is definitely an advantage to build on. Views on
methods of appointing conference moderators, and actually performing
moderation duties, vary considerably, and so it would be nice to see
coherent approaches and methods of moderation which would satisfy the
reason of having moderators (to keep echoes on topic and legal) whilst
keeping the disadvantages (of despotic moderators from hell) to a
minimum. Perhaps technical improvements giving moderators and
echomail co-ordinators more control over echomail and echolists is
something which could be considered.
Areas of Fidonet other than BBS's and echomail, which are already
fairly well developed, provide the most scope for improvement.
Games form a large part of BBS and Fidonet use, probably taking
third place to files and echomail. There are a great many 'door'
games for BBS's available, which although less visually attractive
than stand-alone games, offer a level of interaction between players
which is difficult to surpass-- especially given the hardware platform
requirements of such games.
Many door games could be much improved if a link to other BBS's
was added; some door games already work this way. Thus, if a BBS only
has a handful of players interested in a game, these players could
join with those on another BBS to give a much more exciting
competition. Games which already work in this way have a large number
of enthusiastic players who already possess the hardware to play Doom,
Quake and other visually exciting games-- thus is their appeal.
There are many other games which are played using Fidonet
technology which are not door games, as has been mentioned. Few of
these interface directly to Fidonet, so their use and sysop appeal
could be much more widespread if interfaces to standard netmail (for
file attach of their game files) were developed. Interfacing with
Fidonet netmail is no great task for a competent programmer-- if I
managed it then anybody can!
Something I would personally like to see in Fidonet is the
existence of games in the traditional PBM style. Such games usually
communicate from host to players in straight text; the traditional PBM
game is played on paper, with orders sent to the host via snailmail,
typed into the automated host, and results are printed on paper. The
electronic equivalent uses email for the purpose, with players sending
their orders to the host using text-adventure style commands.
I have not seen any games of this type available in Fidonet, which
is a pity. They are very popular on the Internet, and some games have
attracted so much interest that there are waiting lists for
prospective players! A major hurdle to the production of this type of
game is the size of routed netmail (the Galaxy PBM generates upto 40k
per message). However, the use of direct (crash or hold) netmail for
larger messages would help in this respect, as would drastic economies
in the size of the game's output. The C source code for some Internet
PBM games are available; if anyone is interested in obtaining them for
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 6 29 Jul 1996

porting to Fidonet then let me know via netmail.
Bulletins are another area in Fidonet which leaves a great deal of
room for improvement. Being the developer of a document server
myself, I am loathe to suggest too many ideas on the technical side
lest someone asks me to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak.
However, using existing technology there is much that could be
done to improve the use and availability of bulletins on a
network-wide basis. The advertising of bulletins in echomail is one
way to alert people to information available, although this begs the
question, why not just post the bulletin into the echo. Where a
bulletin is too large or too regularly updated for a regular echo
posting, however, this approach is quite acceptable-- providing you
advertise in a suitable echo! Advertising a bulletin in FidoNews
could be a good idea too (see my article in FidoNews 1330). Time will
tell whether this way actually works.
Another route to the increased promotion and use of bulletins is
co-operation between the bulletins' authors (remember, they don't all
have to be sysops). For instance if two BBS's in different parts of a
country, or the world, have the same speciality, the bulletin of one
system could refer users to the other, and vice versa. As such
documents become more widespread it may be a good idea to make sure
you refer to at least one other document of interest in each of your
own documents; if this becomes more widespread then in turn you will
find other people's documents referring to your own.

It is a popular opinion that some sort of improvement is necessary
to guarantee the survival of Fidonet, and thus the survival of
free-of-charge communications on a world-wide scale. I hope that this
article has provided food for thought, especially to those of you who,
before now, regarded Fidonet as merely a collection of BBS's or a
method of transferring conference mail. Because the basic Fidonet
standard concerns itself only with the nodelist, and the transfer of
netmail and of any type of file, it is clear that Fidonet can be much,
much more.

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

* 10 cents a Dance

10 cents a Dance
by Michele Stewart, 1:369/21

Okay, okay... so this article is not really about dancing. But it is
about some of the best echos in Fidonet. <grin> I moderate three
really exciting echos I'd like to tell you about. Let me start with
the first, and one of the oldest. Started in 1989, this echo is for
the computer nerd in all of us...

PC_ADDICT Echo
--------------

GEEK ALERT! GEEK ALERT! GEEK ALERT!

If you are on your computer for more than 4 hours a day, outside of
your work hours, then you've got a minor problem and probable PC
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 7 29 Jul 1996

Addiction. But if you think your computer is your best friend, you've
got a serious problem and probable Geek infestation!

To get rid of those cumbersome, tiresome, boring, repetetive, anal
retentive geeks, you need to write intelligent, thought provoking,
humorous messages to other PC Addicts.

Remember:

Your computer is NOT your best friend. She only provides you the
means to making alot of them.

Your computer is NOT better than a date. She only provides you with
the means for actually meeting someone strange enough to want to go
out with you.

Your computer is NOT your whole life. She only provides you with the
means to expand your interests and share your hopes, dreams, likes and
dislikes with real people.

Now, get rid of those annoying, pesky geeks and come join us in
lively discussion, fun banter and social intercoursing (no that's not
a dirty word) in the PC-ADDICT echo! The only place where you can
complain about your addiction and perpetuate it at the same time!
<hysterical laughter echoing down corridor>

Areaname: PC_ADDICT
Distribution: BACKBONE

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Okay, now on to the next echo which is another of my favorites...

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
BBSCON Echo
-----------

If you're attending, thinking of attending or just interested in any
BBS Convention or trade show, then there's a backbone echo you can
join to find or share the latest info. It's a place for keeping each
other informed of who's going where, what's going on, where to write
for more info, who's joining in a convoy, who's flying, etc., ad
nauseum.

With the demise of Cyber.Xpo.96 and the change in focus of One BBSCon
to One ISPCon, many of us dialup BBS system operators are feeling left
out of the loop with no where to go. Small Regional conventions and
gatherings, as well as other trade shows are still being discussed
though.

Information about the conventions, hotels, day trips, BOF get
togethers, special events and everything else can be posted here.
We're not worried about redundant postings either so you are
encouraged to share something that you might have read elsewhere.

Discussion of all BBS related conventions, whether professional or
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 8 29 Jul 1996

amateur, is welcome in the echo. If you are planning a mini-con for
your area, you're welcome to discuss it here.

If interested please consider linking up and sharing this echo with
your users as well as fellow sysops.

AREANAME: BBSCON
DISTRIBUTION: BACKBONE

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

And lastly, a new echo, still awaiting backbone status but of
importance to all of us as sysops and people concerned with making the
online experience even better!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

AOP Echo
--------

The Association of Online Professionals is YOUR Association and now
they've got an echo.

The conference is dedicated to issues that affect the management and
maintenance of online services. Hosted by members of the Association
of Online Professionals, it will present information and discussion
about legislation and regulation; marketing of BBSs and other online
services; customer service; system design and development; and news
and information about the AOP and benefits of membership.

Link to the AOP echo today for up-to-date information concerning your
hobby, avocation, vocation and/or chosen profession.

AREANAME: AOP
DISTRIBUTION: BACKBONE PENDING (Ask your NEC!)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I hope to see you online!

Michele Stewart
(Moderator/Originator)
1:369/21

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

A Call For Programmers Of A New Common BBS Interface
by David Rye, 1:3649/10

Despite seeing all the ads listing Web pages for various companies,
despite being told that the internet is going to make all our lives
perfect, despite seeing how the days of the BBS are numbered... do all
of you really believe this?

I often wonder how thrilled with the new technology people will be
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 9 29 Jul 1996

when they receive their first bill from a service provider; that is,
after Junior has discovered some Butt Bunnies From Beverly Hills web
page, and then used Dad's 14,400 baud to view all six-hundred photos
they have digitized on-line.

Back in the prehistoric times when I programmed for recreation, I
spent quite a bit of time writing tools for my BBS. Things to make
life easier for myself, or my users. Half of the time I would end up
writing something because I couldn't afford someone's $79 fee for
registering a program that sorted the file listings, or that allowed
the user to download a catalog of the echoes my BBS offered. Looking
back on the many things that I spent writing, I could have converted
that into something a little more useful had I just possessed an easy
means of writing something that would work with other systems. The
multiple formats for everything from file listings to message bases
prevented me from doing that without going to extraordinary means.

If the backyard BBS is really to provide something that will attract
the more novice users who expect to be able to do anything one hour
after setting the system up, then they must unite to provide a common,
easy, standardized format for the transmission of information. This
all sounds familiar, right? Well, instead of just sighing and shaking
our heads over each user that will never have the fun of signing onto
a local BBS, why can't some of us get together and start working on
some practical code that will allow a user to log onto a graphics
oriented system, even if said user couldn't find their mouse with two
hands and a flashlight?

With some of the more common tools available today, it shouldn't be so
hard to get something up and running; both in terms of a BBS, and a
user interface that could be given away to anyone that was willing to
take a disk. The use of something along the lines of Borland's Delphi
would allow much faster, much neater, and much more standardized code
amongst a group of persons interested in doing the aforementioned
task.

Why sit on our thumbs and bemoan the loss of users when one possible
solution is within our grasp if we are willing to put forth the
effort? Surely some of you remember the task of putting together a
BBS, trying to get compatible software to help you run it, and so
forth? If this process could be made invisible to the end user it
would make it much easier to go through those struggles again as a
whole new line of programs was started.

Instead of giving up, why not give it a try? We all did it before if
I remember correctly. Anyone that has an interest in trying to
develop new software with a published data format that will allow the
point and click, graphic based BBS is more than welcome to contact me
at my FidoNet address of 1:3649/10.
David Rye

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

Fredric Rice
The Skeptic Tank
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 10 29 Jul 1996

(818) 335-9601

Clocking in on the "Just-when-you-thought-they-couldn't-
get-any-lower" port:

As most members of FidoNet and Internet know, the "church" of
Scientology has been engaged in a war against Internet and BBS
SysOps around the world in an attempt to silence both their
critics as well as those (usually ex-Scientologists) who
continually expose both the contents of and criminal activities
of the "church." The focus of their war against the networks
has always been alt.religion.scientology and, to a far smaller
extent, a few FidoNet forums, yet they have also tried to silence
critics out in the real world.

Time Magazine, the Washington Post, television news, and even
makers of Public Broadcasting documentaries which have exposed
the activities of the cult have been attacked, both in the
courts as well as physically in person. (Members of the cult
even vandalized the automobiles of PBS employees in an attempt
to silence them.)

In the past (as reported by newspapers and magazines around the
world) the cult has repeatedly tried to illegally remove the
alt.religion.scientology forum from Internet, forging messages
to do so. Additionally, unknown members of the cult have been
assigned ("Hatted" in the jargon of the cult) to systematically
forge cancellation messages of other participants' messages.

The latest low to which the cult had stooped to has been to try
to spam the forum with _thousands_ of pointless, meandering,
we've-seen-it-all-before propaganda messages daily.

Those who may be new to FidoNet or Internet might not know how
the two technologies are different. In FidoNet messages are
created on thousands of systems, collected and grouped by echo
tag, and sent to a series of centralized locations and messages
which are dropped into the datastream are not recallable by
the author.

On Internet, however, an individual may cancel a posting at a
later date which has the effect of requesting that all systems
which have the designated message identification number be
deleted. A system then has the option of removing the canceled
message or not.

Additionally, in FidoNet we employ AreaFix to turn on or turn
off subscribed echo forums whereas in Internet, a rmgroup is
sent to a centralized location to have the entire group removed
from all the mail servers which honor the rmgroup.

The last way in which the two are different is the control of
message spamming. In FidoNet a disruptive influence is quite
easily removed simply by asking the SysOp or the SysOp's
network coordinator to remove someone. (Unless said someone is
Steve Winter. <wink> <wink> )
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 11 29 Jul 1996

Internet doesn't have that ability. Internet Service Providers
must be asked to remove a disruptive individual from a newsgroup
yet, if it's a commercial account, most ISP's don't _like_
removing someone from having access to newsgroups based simply
upon a rash of complaints filed against them. The primary
reason for not wishing to remove disruptive individuals seems
to be the cries of censorship which plagues ISPs these days.
(While America Online has no ethical or moral qualms against
imposing censorship, nearly every other ISP does to different
degrees.)

FidoNet and Internet do share a common problem with removing a
disruptive individual, however, and members of the Scientology
cult have been putting this failing into good use: Someone who
is ejected from a FidoNet newsgroup may simply locate another
system which carries the echo and thus continue to post until he
is once again ejected from that system. It then becomes an easy
exercise to go through a list of systems known to carry the
echo and an individual can live a long, long time -- provided
they are willing to expend the time, money, and effort.

The Scientology cult has been picking up free hours from a broad
spectrum of Internet Service Providers and posting thousands
upon thousands of messages -- until the ISP puts a stop to it
at which point another account is used on the same ISP for the
same network abuse or another ISP is used altogether.

The Scientology cult has drawn attention to itself around the
world, even prompting a report from Taz. Cornelius Krasel, U
Wuerzburg, (Dept. of Pharmacology, Versbacher Str. 9 D-97078
Wuerzburg, Germany, email:
<a href="mailto:[email protected]">
[email protected] </a>)
offered a translation of the article:

[the office]
Robots suffocate the discussion

Since several weeks, the usenet newsgroup
"alt.religion.scientology" is being flooded by anonymous
nonsense contributions.

Shouting down used to be not quite so easy: one needed a
majority on their side. It has become more convenient in
the Internet. The automatical electronic down-shouter
squashes any discussion - without any majority.

In the usenet group alt.religion.scientology followers and
adversaries of the science-fiction author, L. Ron Hubbard,
discuss enthusiastically about his odd teachings. Recently,
somebody has been trying to squash this discussion. His
method, "vertical spamming", is easy: in a short period of
time, a huge amount (in this case almost 10.000) of
meaningless, computer-generated messages are posted in the
group.

FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 12 29 Jul 1996

This is supposed to overload the computers, but especially
the participants of the discussion which have to work
themselves first through hundreds of robot-letters before
being able to read a sensible contribution. Unnerved, many
finish the discussion.

It is almost impossible for the net community to defend
itself against this kind of attack. The nonsense would have
to be sorted out by hand, short-lived throw-away accounts
hide the true originator. Nevertheless, the American Jon
Noring ([email protected]) believes to have found the true
cause: the Church of Scientology itself. He has placed a
petition in the internet which is supposed to lead
Scientology to cease the spamming (to sign the petition,
send an empty email to [email protected] until June
30th). Noring's clues for the sect's authorship: all the
jamming contributions are pro-scientology, nothing but short
excerpts from a Scientology publication, and all start with
the same introductory sentence which states that "a lot of
wrong information about Scientology is being distributed
in alt.religion.scientology".

When, some time ago, "secret" teaching documents of the sect
had been published on the net, Scientology had used similar
"throw-away-accounts" and normed texts to take the
publications back - why, Noring asks, remains the sect
silent this time, although large parts of the injected
postings contain a copyright mark? The silent approval would
speak for a participation of the money-greedy organization.
In addition, Noring thinks that Scientologists planned such
spamming for a long time - the secret plan can be found
in his directory at

<a href="ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/no/noring/spamplan.txt">
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/no/noring/spamplan.txt
</a>

<a href="mailto:[email protected]">
Stefan Kuzmany: [email protected]
</a>

TAZ Nr. 4953 of 06/20/1996 page 12
Internet 77 lines
TAZ report Stefan Kuzmany

More information on the attack can be found at:

<a href="http://daemon.apana.org.au/~fjc/scn/spam.html">
Spam Information at
http://daemon.apana.org.au/~fjc/scn/spam.html
</a>

<a href="http://www.bway.net/~keith/spam/spam.htm">
More Spam Information at
http://www.bway.net/~keith/spam/spam.htm
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 13 29 Jul 1996

</a>

It's important, I feel, to get a broad-spectrum exposure of what
is being done to Internet out into both FidoNet and the real
world as I can expect the success or failure of the attacks to
be an object lesson for others who might feel the need to
emulate the Scientology cult's activities. In FidoNet we have
yet to experience this level of attack -- we have safeguards.

Knowing what type of activities "hatted" members of the cult
are expected to engage in before hand will doubtless keep most
people from joining the cult. Knowing that technological fixes
for such abuse exists and that spamming to silence critics is
a futile and embarrassing prospect should also help to keep
this type of abuse down.

Spread the word.

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

ECROC: Good, Bad, or Ugly
By Troy H. Cheek, 1:362/708.4

"The real world is what I see. The real world is what you see.
Strangely, they are never the same real worlds." -JMS of B5

Our good friend Bob Moravsik of 2606/583, in the guise of injecting
some reality into the ECROC discussion, basically tells us that
anybody who doesn't think ECROC is a good idea is some kind of
"immature" "control freak." As someome who thinks ECROC is a good
idea with a bad implementation, I guess that makes me a *mature*
control freak. :-)

Bob also tells us that moderators exist only to serve the posters.
This is certainly true, from a certain point of view. Civil servants
such as the police exist only to serve the populace. However, this
doesn't mean that if you don't like a particular law and want it
changed, you can ignore the police in the meantime.

Bob says that ECROC "doesn't put a router in the position of judging."
Sorry, but that's _exactly_ what it does. 'Here, Mr. Router, take
these rules and these messages from an echo you probably have no
experience with and tell me this person doesn't deserve to have his
access cut.' That isn't judging?

Bob says that ECROC "stops the Robbins/Winter/Johnstone/Milner/Degan
mentaility of making up rules as you go and enforcing them unequally.
He left out Gerber/Benge/Frezberg. And me, I guess, since I've been
compared to some of these for engaging in such sandbox antics like
reminding users that profanity is not allowed, such marble-grabbing
tactics as asking that off-topic conversations be moved to other
echoes, or the big-frog-in-a-small-pond horror of disallowing personal
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 14 29 Jul 1996

attacks. I'm also supposedly on the receiving end of a civil rights
suit for interfering with a poster's right to Free Speech, and there's
reportedly a 20-sysop team in Canada working furiously to get my right
to be a moderator revoked.

"All" ECROC requires, Bob says is that the moderator produce:

1. The text of the rule that was broken

if your echo even has written rules, or rules more specific than "play
nice and stay on topic." A crooked moderator could easily write a
rule later and claim it was in effect when a certain message was
posted. A crooked poster could claim the moderator did just that. A
moderator could still selectively enforce rules by only attempting to
cut feeds to certain posters, or even writing rules that only affect
certain posters.

2. The message(s) that broke the rules

if you keep copies of every message posted in the echo, never have a
floppy eaten, and never have a hard drive crash. A crooked moderator
could fake messages. A crooked poster could claim the messages were
faked by the moderator or someone else.

3. Two netmail warnings

that you can't prove the poster ever received. A crooked moderator
could write warnings after the fact, or write them and never send
them. A crooked poster could claim he never received them. With
routed netmail being as unreliable as it is and some systems not
accepting "crashed" messages, who's to say?

4. The text of messages that show that a person has ignored the
warnings

that he claims he never received or were even sent. See above.

I don't know where Bob got statistics that say that "[q]uite often a
request to cut a link is done in the heat of a strong debate." Do
you?

I won't argue that ECROC wouldn't at least slow down most of the
excessive moderators, possibly stopping many. I will argue, however,
that it will hamstring the efforts of many honest moderators who want
nothing more than to keep things running reasonably smoothly.

I mean, take the not unreasonable hypothetical situation of a sysop
connecting to an echo and immediately begin uplinking a dozen
objectionable messages a day. Maybe it's commercial advertisements,
totally off-topic rants, personal attacks, or accounts of sexual
escapades so raunchy that even your oversexed brother is blushing.

What then? If I'm reading ECROC right, and I invite anyone to point
out where I might be getting it wrong, I'd first have to make sure the
rules of the echo didn't allow these posts. Then I'd have to netmail
a warning. After a suitable amount of time to see if the warning was
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 15 29 Jul 1996

heeded, I'd have to send a second. Again after waiting a suitable
amount of time, I'd netmail his router with a link cut request, a copy
of the rules, and a sample of the offending material. Then I have to
wait a few days while the router judges the validity of my request.
If he rules against me, I have to start the same process all over
again with him...

We're talking a *minimum* here of a couple of weeks, and possibly a
couple of months, of the echo being disrupted. Without ECROC, it's a
matter of a few days.

But enough of that. As I said above, I think ECROC is a good idea,
but don't care for the current proposed implementation. In order that
ECROC properly serve all the affected parties, I'd like to suggest the
following changes:

1) Until ECROC is approved and becomes mandatory, consider it null
and void. Some systems living by ECROC while others ignore it
will only add to the confusion.

2) ECROC must recognize that the job of moderating an echo falls on
the moderator, and not on routers or sysops or end users.

3) Initial link cut requests, once confirmed as genuine, must be
honored immediately.

4) Cut links will have, say, two weeks to appeal the link cut order
to the router, who will of course contact the moderator. *Then*
they can debate rules and violations and warnings. Within a
reasonable amount of time (say, a month or so) the links will be
restored, or not, as the case may be.

The upshot of my suggestions is that, unlike the current proposed
ECROC, disruptive posters don't get to continue posting disruptive
messages while the moderator tries to prove that they are indeed being
disruptive. However, those who were cut unfairly still get a chance
to tell their side and get reinstated.

Finally, Bob quotes that "You are well within your right to refuse to
cut a link..." Again, only if the router is asked to serve as the
judge of the rightness of the moderator's request is this true.

Later,
Troy

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

Zone 7 Flame will get international?

Mikhail Ramendik
2:5020/230.4, [email protected]

When I got my first Fidonet Point Address back in Fall '93, the
sysop echos were full of flame about Zone 7. It ended quietly
when the Moderators became tired of the wars and declared them off
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 16 29 Jul 1996

topic.

I was a newbie then. And it was much of a surprise to me when I saw
the leaders of the factions peacefully drinking beer together...

Now the flame is gone, and the Zone 7 proponents have established an
othernet which they believe to be the start of a new zone. The
opponents just don't take it seriously. The matter is gone. Or WAS -
until the #29 of Fidonews, which proposed Zone 7 over again!

Will the flame come back in the snoozie? We shall see... I'm only a
Point anyway, and I can probably get an FTPoint even in z1 if really
needed (perhaps I'll try it in the fall). I can just stay away and
not care. Let the big guys fight. Just you wait until they return
from vacations...

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

FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 17 29 Jul 1996

=================================================================
FIDONET HISTORY
=================================================================

FidoNet History 20 Aug 85
by Tom Jennings and others

This is Part Two in the history of FidoNet. It turned out that
the original FIDOHIST.DOC (now called FIDOHIST.DC1, or just "Part
One") was useful, and many people read it. Unfortunately, by the time
everyone read it, it became totally obsolete. Oh well. Here is Part
Two.

FIDOHIST.DOC covered the early history of FidoNet, why it was
done, how it was done, and the reasons for the organization and
obscure rituals surrounding node numbers. If you haven't read it yet,
I suggest you do now, because I'll probably refer to things that won't
make any sense otherwise.

The original FidoNet was organized very simply; each FidoNet
system (each node) had a number that served like a phone number,
uniquely identifying it. The NODELIST, generated by the folks in St.
Louis that had all FidoNet nodes in it, contains information on all
known FidoNet systems. Every system in FidoNet had a current copy of
the NODELIST, which served as the directory of systems.

(In the interests of brevity I'm leaving out huge amounts of
information; I hope you have read FIODHIST.DOC by now ...)

FidoNet has been growing steadily since it started by accident
in May 84 or so. The node list continued to get out of hand; the
original FIDOHIST.DOC was written to try and help smooth things out.
It is impossible to overemphasize the amount of work involved in
keeping the node list accurate. Basically, the guys in St. Louis were
keeping track of hundreds of FidoNet systems in Boston, Los Angeles,
London, Stockholm and Sweden, and publishing the results weekly. There
has never been such a comprehensive and accurate list of bulletin
board systems generated.

We talked for many months as to how we could possibly find a
solution to the many problems; it was at the point where if a solution
was not found in a few months (by Aug. 85 or so) that FidoNet would
collapse due to the sheer weight of it's node list.

The newsletter, FidoNews, was, and still is, an integral part
of the process of FidoNet. FidoNews is the only thing that unites all
FidoNet sysops consistently; please keep up to date on it, and stock
it for your users if you have the disk space. And contribute if you
can!

There were many constraints on the kind of things we could do;
we had no money, so it had to be done for zero cost. Centralization
was out, so obviously localization was in; just how to do it was a
total unknown. We thought of going back to having people in different
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 18 29 Jul 1996

areas handle new node requests in their area, but that always
generated confusion as to who a person should go to, how to avoided
having someone requesting a node number from different people
simultaneously, etc., etc.

The old method of routing was very different than the current
method, and much more complex; instead of Fido automatically routing
to hosts, each sysop had to specify (via the ROUTE.BBS file) how all
routing was done in the system. The was done originally by hand, later
by John Warren's (102/31) NODELIST program.

Then of course there was the problem that no matter what we
did, it would not be done overnight. (ha ha.) It would take many weeks
at the least, possibly months, so that whatever we did had to be
compatible with the old method as well.

We went through probably hundreds of ideas in the next few
months, some possibly useful, some insane. Eventually the insanity
boiled down to a pretty workable system. We chatted by FidoNet and by
voice telephone. Eventually, we settled on the two part number scheme,
like the phone company does with area codes and exchanges. It
accommodated backwards compatibility (you can keep your present node
number) and the new "area code" (net number) could be added into an
existing field that had been set to zero. (This is why everyone was
originally part of net #1).

When a fortunate set of circumstances was to bring Ezra
Shapiro and me to St. Louis to speak to the McDonnell Douglas
Recreational Computer Club on XXXX 11th, we planned ahead for a
national FidoNet sysops meeting that weekend. Ken and Sally Kaplan
were kind enough to tolerate having all of us in their living room.

The people who showed up were (need that list) The meeting
lasted ten continuous hours; it was the most productive meeting I (and
most others) had attended. When we were done, we had basically the
whole thing laid out in every detail.

We stuck with the area code business (now known as net and
region numbers) and worked out how to break things up into regions and
nets. It was just one of those rare but fortunate events; during the
morning things went "normally", but in the afternoon solutions fell
into place one by one, so that by late afternoon we had the entire
picture laid out in black and white. Two or three months of
brainstorming just flowed smoothly into place in one afternoon ...

What we had done was exactly what we have now, though we
changed the name of "Admin" to "Region", and added the "alternate"
node and net numbers. (We still seem to be stuck with that terrible
and inaccurate word, "manager". Any ideas?) I previously had a buggy
test hack running using area codes, and the week after the meeting it
was made to conform to what we had talked about that Saturday.

When version 10C was done, it accomplished more or less
everything we wanted, but it sure did take a long time. 10C was
probably the single largest change ever made to Fido/FidoNet, and the
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 19 29 Jul 1996

most thoroughly tested version. At 10M, there are STILL bugs left from
that early version, in spite of the testing.

Once the testing got serious, and it looked like we had a
shippable version, St. Louis froze the node list, and started slicing
it into pieces, to give to the soon-to-be net and region managers.
(That word again.) This caused a tremendous amount of trouble for
would-be sysops; not only was it difficult enough to figure out how on
earth to get a node number, once they did they were told node numbers
weren't being given out just yet. Explaining why was even harder,
since FIDOHIST.DC2 (ahem) wasn't written yet. (I have to agree, this
thing is a little bit late) It was a typical case of those who already
knew were informed constantly of updates, but those in the dark had a
hard time. Things were published fairly regularly (am I remembering
"conveniently" or "accurately" on this part?)

Eventually, 10C was released, and seemed to work fairly well,
ignoring all the small scale disasters due to bugs, etc. We couldn't
just swap over to the new area code business until very close to 100%
of all Fidos were using the new version. This was (for me) an
excruciating period, basically a "hurry up and wait" situation. There
had not been a node list release for a month or two, and for all
practical purposes it looked like FidoNet had halted ...

Finally, on June 12th, we all swapped over to the new system;
that afternoon, sysops were to set their net number (it had been "1"
for backwards compatibility), copy in the new node list issued just
for this occasion, and go. I assumed the result was going to be
perpetual chaos, bringing about the collapse of FidoNet. Almost the
exact opposite was true; things went very smoothly (yes, there were
problems, but when you consider that FidoNet consists of
microcomputers owned by almost 300 people who had never even talked to
each other ...)

Within a month or so, just about every Fido had swapped over
to the area code, or net/node architecture. With a few exceptions,
things went very smoothly. No one was more surprised than pessimistic
I. At this time, August, I don't think there is a single system still
using the old node number method.

This is all well and fine as far as the software goes, but it
made a mess for new sysops. For us sysops who have been around for a
while, there was no great problem, as we saw the changes happen one by
one. However, new sysops frequently came out of the blue; armed with a
diskette full of code, they attempted to set up a FidoNet node.

Actually, I don't understand how anyone does it. The
information needed is not recorded in any place that a non sysop could
find. On top of that, most of it is now totally wrong! If you follow
the original instructions, it said "call Fido #1 ..." if you found a
real antique, or "call Fido #51 ..." if it is more current. Of course
now it tells you to find your region manager. "Region manager???"
Well, a list of region managers was published in FidoNews, but unless
you read FidoNews, how does anyone ever find out? I'll probably never
know.

FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 20 29 Jul 1996

ANYWAYS ... the original reason for all the changes was to
DECENTRALIZE FidoNet. It just wasn't possible for Ken Kaplan to keep
accurate, up to date information on every Fido in the US and Europe.
The decentralization has been more or less a total success. The number
of problems introduced were negligible compared to the problems
solved, and even most new problems are by this time solved.

It is interesting to note that with the hundreds of systems
there are today, the national FidoNet hour is less crowded than it was
when there were only 50 nodes.

Please, keep in mind that no one has done anything like this
before, we are all winging it, and learning (hopefully) as we go.
Please be patient with problems, none of us is paid to do this, and it
is more and more work as time goes on. Somehow it seems to all get
done ...

HOW TO GET A NODE NUMBER AND ALL THAT

This is by necessity a very general idea of how it's done, and
you were warned earlier that this may be obsolete this very minute;
with that, here's the "current" process for starting up a new FidoNet
node.

You can of course skip all or part of this if you've done this
before; if you haven't, well, be prepared for a lot of searching and
asking questions.

Of course, you need to have your Fido BBS system running
first. It's probably best that you play with it for a while, and get
some experience with how it all works, and whether you have the
patience to run a BBS. It can get exasperating, and you will never
find time to use the computer ever again.

Obtain the most recent copy of the nodelist possible; this may
take some searching. If you get totally lost, you can always contact
Fido 125/1 or Fido 100/51; though these are very busy systems, they
both usually have the very latest of anything, and can direct you to
the right place.

The big problem here is to find out if you are in a net or
not, and if not, then who your region manager is. If you are in a
large city (Los Angeles, Cincinnati, etc) then there is probably a net
in your area. Look through the node list (use the N)odebook command in
Fido, or a text editor) for the right area code or city.

If there is no net in your area, then you are part of a
region. This is a little harder, because regions are large, and
sometimes cover many states. Look at all the regions in the node list,
you should find a region that fits you.

Once you find this, you have to contact the net or region
manager to get your node number. Exactly how this is done depends on
who the manager is, and how sticky they are for details. A near
universal requirement is that you send your request via FidoNet, not
by manually; this isn't done to make your life difficult, but to
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 21 29 Jul 1996

ensure that your system is really working right. IF you manage to get
a FidoNet message to the manager, its usually safe to assume that
you're system is working OK. If you get a reply in return, then you
know both directions work.

It is usually each sysops' responsibility to go get the latest
nodelist and newsletters; they are not distributed to all systems
because of the expense. (Though, I'm trying to get them distributed to
more places than they are now, it's sometimes very difficult to get a
copy of the nodelist!)

Again, read the FidoNews newsletter regularly; it is about the
only way to stay in contact with the rest of the net. Programs,
problems, services, bugs and interesting announcements can always be
found there. FidoNews articles don't come out of thin air; send in
anything you think might be of interest. They don't have to be
lifetime masterpieces, or even well written.

Please remember the entire network is made of the sysops;
there is no central location from which good things come, the net
consists entirely of the sysops and their contributions. If you don't
do it, chances are no one else will!

Tom Jennings
20 Aug 85

Ken Kaplan Fido 100/51 314/432-4129
Tom Jennings Fido 125/1 415/864-1418
Ben Baker Fido 100/10 314/234-1462

[end of Part 2 of 3]

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

FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 22 29 Jul 1996

=================================================================
COORDINATORS CORNER
=================================================================

Nodelist-statistics as seen from Zone-2 for day 208
By Ward Dossche, 2:292/854
ZC/2

The table below depicts the growth of the world nodelist as
seen through the eyes of someone in Zone-2. Delays in pro-
cessing inbound zone-segments are possible.

Administrative entries as well as Pvt, Hold and Down are ommitted.
Percentages have been rounded.

This article is produced by auto cut-and-paste of outputs from
T-NSTAT by Bo Bendtsen, ROBO 0.37 by Tom Kashuba and GW-BASIC 3.20
(C) Microsoft 1986 and MS-DOS 6.22 (C) MicroSoft 1994. It will
automatically be produced on a weekly basis.

+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
|Zone|Nl.180|Nodelist.187|Nodelist.194|Nodelist.201|Nodelist.208|%%|
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
| 1 | 13286| 13177 -109| 13105 -72| 12910 -195| 12799 -111|40|
| 2 | 16539| 16497 -42| 16551 54| 16536 -15| 16520 -16|51|
| 3 | 1066| 1066 0| 1046 -20| 1029 -17| 1029 0| 3|
| 4 | 648| 648 0| 656 8| 643 -13| 644 1| 2|
| 5 | 112| 112 0| 112 0| 112 0| 112 0| 0|
| 6 | 1228| 1228 0| 1228 0| 1228 0| 1018 -210| 3|
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
| 32879| 32728 -151| 32698 -30| 32458 -240| 32122 -336|
+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+

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

FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 23 29 Jul 1996

=================================================================
NET HUMOR
=================================================================

--- Following message extracted from NETMAIL @ 1:374/14 ---
By Christopher Baker on Wed Jul 24 15:57:25 1996

From: Michael McCabe @ 1:297/11
To: Christopher Baker @ 1:374/14
Date: 20 Jul 96 15:26:50
Subj: Olympics
============================================
* Original to : All
* Forwarded on : Jul 24 96 at 06:21
* Forwarded from: 14_REC
* Forwarded by : Mike Riddle
============================================

Greetings All!

F I D O N E W S -- | Vol. 9 No. 32 (10 August 1992)

Welcome to the FidoNet Olympics
by Dave Bealer (1:261/1129)

The echoes are kind of quiet these days. Maybe everyone is glued
to the Olympics Triplecast. For those of us that aren't, why not have
our own Olympics on FidoNet? Here is a summary of suggested events:

}} Local BBS Events {{

>> 14.4K Protocol Negotiation <<
The winner is the first user who can stay awake during the entire
protocol negotiation sequence between a V.32bis modem and a tin can.

>> 110-step Registration Hurdles <<
The gold medal goes to the user who completes the "simple"
registration procedure in the shortest time. Contestants are advised
not to wear glasses or contacts while competing in this event, as they
might interfere with the online laser retina scan.

>> Modern Hexadecimalon <<
Competitors attempt to break 16 different FidoNet policies and/or
draconian local sysop rules in a single logon session.

>> Download Ratio Balance Beam <<
Users attempt daring massive downloads without (hopefully) losing
their download privileges.

>> Door Exercises <<
The gold goes to the user who can enter and play the most door games
in a 45 minute logon session.

>> Echolocation <<
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 24 29 Jul 1996

The winner is the user who can find the echo he is looking for in the
fewest BBS accesses.

}} Echomail Events {{

>> Verbal Gymnastics <<
You won't believe how these competitors can twist and turn the English
language into almost unrecognizable shapes.

>> Greco-Roman Thread Wrestling <<
Wrestling for control over the direction an echo conference thread
will take. Moderators are ineligible for this event.

>> Marathon Messaging <<
Contestants enter 75 messages in a single echo in one session. Each
message must have at least three lines and at least one line must be
original (not quoted). The one who enters the 75 messages in the
shortest time wins. Penalties will be assessed for each message which
actually pertains to the topic of the echo. The use of offline
readers is prohibited.

>> Power Quoting <<
The winner will have made the longest continual quotation with the
shortest vaguely pertinent reply. The current world record is 382
lines of quotes with a five word reply.

>> Tagline Topping <<
Medals are awarded in the following categories: Annoying, Childish,
Funny, Gross and Stupid. There is also a special all-around medal for
the tagline which best combines all five attributes.

>> Volley Message <<
The gold medal goes to the first pair of correspondents who nest their
quotes so deeply that the leading initials force the message text off
the screen entirely.

>> Platform Diving <<
Each contestant ascends to the soapbox and attempts to make insulting
comments about everyone and everything in FidoNet. Timing is
critical, as the competitor must dive off the platform before his/her
access to the net is revoked.

>> Heavyweight Ego Lifting <<
In this event the posturing which procedes the lift can be more
important than the lift itself.

>> Full Contact Flaming <<
What would a FidoNet Olympics be without its symbol, the flame?

}} Sysop Events {{

>> 5 MB Packet Toss <<
The gold medal goes to the Sysop whose system can dearchive, toss,
sort, link and julienne a 5 MB mail packet in the shortest time.
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 25 29 Jul 1996

>> Echo Looping <<
The winner is the Sysop who can cause the most dup-loops in the most
different echoes in one day of operation.

>> Synchronized Polling <<
The winning Sysop pair will be the one whose systems synchronize
their polls to each other the longest (without getting through).

***

After the events are over everyone will be hanging out at the Olympic
Village BBS, chatting online about the competitors who failed their
drug tests. And we won't have parted with $125 for the privilege.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Later...MM...
([email protected])

Origin: Golden Country* on Bull Shoals Lake, Missouri (1:297/11)

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

Could this happen to YOU?
By Unknown

Dear John [Mary].....

To my darling Husband [Wife].

I am sending you this letter in a bogus software company envelope
so that you will be sure to read it. Please forgive the deception,
but I thought you should know what has been going on at home since
your Node Coordinator position entered our lives two years ago.

The children are doing well. Tommy is seven now and is a bright,
handsome boy. He has developed quite an interest in the arts. He
drew a family portrait for a school project. All the likenesses were
good but yours was excellent! The chair and the back of your head are
very realistic. You would be very proud of him.

Little Jennifer turned three in September. She looks a lot like
you did at that age. She is an attractive child and quite smart. She
still remembers that you spent the whole afternoon with her on her
birthday. What a grand day for Jen, despite the fact that it was
stormy and the electricity was out.

I am also doing well. I went blond [met a blond] about a year ago
and was delighted to discover that it really is more fun!

Lars [Laura] , I mean Mr. [Ms.] Swenson, my department head, has
taken an interest in my career and has become a good friend to us all.
I have discovered that the household chores are much easier since I
realized that you don't mind being vacuumed but that feather dusting
made you sneeze.

FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 26 29 Jul 1996

The house is in good shape. I had the living room painted last
Spring. I'm not sure if you noticed it. I made sure the painters cut
air holes in the drop cloth so you wouldn't be disturbed.

Well, my dear, I must be going. Uncle [Aunt] Lars [Laura], Mr.
[Ms.] Swenson, I mean, is taking us all on a ski trip and there will
be packing to do. I have hired a housekeeper to take care of things
while we are away. She'll keep things in order, fill your coffee cup,
and bring meals to your desk, - just the way you like it. I hope you
and the computer have a lovely time while we are gone. Tommy, Jen and
I will think of you often. Try to remember us while your Nodelists
are compiling.

Love, Mary [John]
(Your Wife) (Your Husband)

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FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 27 29 Jul 1996

=================================================================
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
=================================================================

FidoNews has been publishing for over ten years. Except for a few
missed Issues, that's close to 600 Issues.

The Question of the Week is:

Does anyone have ALL the FidoNews Issues in one place and if so,
WHERE is that place and are they all available for file-request
or download or ftp via the InterNet?

Respond to FidoNews or via Netmail or in the FIDONEWS Echo now
available on the Zone 1 Backbone and in Zones 2 and 3 last I heard.

Thanks.

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FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 28 29 Jul 1996

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

Future History

1 Aug 1996
Confederation Day, Switzerland

15 Aug 1996
Liberation Day, South Korea

28 Sep 1996
Confucius' Birthday.

29 Oct 1996
Republic Day, Turkey.

5 Nov 1996
Election day, U.S.A.

5 Nov 1996
Guy Fawkes Day, England.

1 Dec 1996
Thirteen Anniversary of release of Fido version 1 by Tom Jennings.

19 Dec 1996
Gallileo takes close-ups of Europa to resolution
of 20 meters at the equator.

26 Jan 1997
Australia Day, Australia.

16 Feb 1997
Eleventh Anniversary of invention of Echomail by Jeff Rush.

26 Jul 1997
FidoNews Editor turns 48.

6 Dec 1997
Gallileo takes close-ups of Europa to resolution
of 11 meters at the north pole.

If you have something which you would like to see in this
Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor.

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Notice to UK Contributors
Damian Walker, 2:2502/666

If you are in the UK and you wish to contribute to FidoNews, you are
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 29 29 Jul 1996

welcome to drop your FidoNews articles at Centurion (2:2502/666).
These articles will be forwarded to the FidoNews editor early each
Saturday morning (around 0530 GMT).

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FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 30 29 Jul 1996

=================================================================
FIDONEWS PUBLIC-KEY
=================================================================

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FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 31 29 Jul 1996

=================================================================
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
=================================================================

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

Editor: Christopher Baker

Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar,
Tom Jennings, Sylvia Maxwell,
Donald Tees

"FidoNews Editor"
FidoNet 1:1/23
BBS 1-407-383-1372, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(ds)

more addresses:
Christopher Baker -- 1:374/14, [email protected]
[email protected]

(Postal Service mailing address)
FidoNews Editor
P.O. Box 5921
Titusville, FL 32783-5921
U.S.A.

voice: 1-407-264-2994 [1400-2100 ET only, please]
[1800-0100 UTC/GMT]

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

FidoNews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET
INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation
of individual articles contributed by their authors or their
authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation
does not diminish the rights of the authors. OPINIONS EXPRESSED in
these articles ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS and not necessarily those of
FidoNews.

Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
Copyright 1996 Christopher Baker. All rights reserved. Duplication
and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For
use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or
the editor.

OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic
form may be obtained from the FidoNews Editor via manual download or
file-request, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet.
PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above postal
address. File-request FIDONEWS for the current Issue. File-request
FNEWS for the current month in one archive. Or file-request specific
back Issue filenames in distribution format [FNEWSDnn.LZH] for a
particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP
where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the
FIDONEWS 13-31 Page 32 29 Jul 1996

current year [6], i.e., FNWSMAY6.ZIP for all the Issues from May 96.

INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via:

http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm
ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/

Anyone interested in getting a copy of the INTERNET GATEWAY FAQ may
file-request GISFAQ.ZIP from 1:133/411.0, or send an internet message
to [email protected]. No message or text or subject is
necessary. The address is a keyword that will trigger the automated
response. People wishing to send inquiries directly to David Deitch
should now mail to [email protected] rather than the
previously listed address.

SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews Editor, or file-requestable
from 1:1/23 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators also have
copies of ARTSPEC.DOC. Please read it.

"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings, and are used with permission.

"Disagreement is actually necessary,
or we'd all have to get in fights
or something to amuse ourselves
and create the requisite chaos."
-Tom Jennings

-30-

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