F I D O N E W S -- Volume 15, Number 15 13 April 1998

F I D O N E W S -- Volume 15, Number 15 13 April 1998
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet community | "FidoNews" |
| _ | 1-209-251-7529 [1:1/23] |
| / \ | |
| /|oo \ | |
| (_| /_) | |
| _`@/_ \ _ | |
| | | \ \\ | Editor: |
| | (*) | \ )) | Zorch Frezberg 1:205/1701 |
| |__U__| / \// | |
| _//|| _\ / | |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Submission address: FidoNews Editor 1:1/23 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MORE addresses: |
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| submissions=> [email protected] |
| |
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| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
| obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ |
| please refer to the end of this file. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

******* WE NOW HAVE AN IC! ******

Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
2. OFFICIAL NOTICES ......................................... 2
IC ELECTION NOTICE ....................................... 2
3. ARTICLES ................................................. 3
R10C Assumes New Duties .................................. 3
WELFARE for the AMIGA_LC! YES!! .......................... 4
4. COLUMNS .................................................. 6
The Planet of 300 Foot Pinocchios ........................ 6
5. COORDINATORS CORNER ...................................... 14
Nodelist-statistics as seen from Zone-2 for day 100 ...... 14
6. NOTICES .................................................. 15
Future History ........................................... 15
7. FIDONEWS PUBLIC-KEY ...................................... 16
FidoNews PGP Public-Key Listing .......................... 16
8. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 17
9. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 19
FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 1 13 Apr 1998

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

We have a new International Coordinator for FidoNet, it seems.

This brings us to a point to sit back and reflect on a few things,
not the least of which is the ongoing polarization of FidoNet between
those who profess democracy versus those who claim that they are
carrying it out.

What good does it do to foment a _destructive_ anarchy, when a
constructive and cooperative one works so much better?

I note with irony that so many claim to be against the "political
games" and "power trips"...and yet, so many of those complaining are
using those same things that they complain about to obtain exactly
what it is that they claim to be against.

And, as with any other situation, it does help to be a bit more aware
of the _facts_ than to listen to only one side and act.

Perhaps we should all adhere more to the ideas that Tom Jennings put
forth, and as quoted at the end of each issue of FidoNews.

In the News...

Apologies for the delay in releasing this issue, but RanD left me a
heller of a formatting problem...another reason why it is important
to follow the ARTSPEC.DOC format. RanD also submitted another
article, but it was not complete, and has been sent to him for
clarification. Rather that be accused of censorship once more, the
article as received will be posted, with a correction hoped for next
week.

As a consequence, any article not submitted in accordance with
ARTSPEC.DOC will most likely be delayed at least one week from time
of submission, if extensive formatting is required.

The usual diatribes, the ubiquitous "doomsday" clock from Ward, and
a genuine article or two.

-zf-

### 30 ###

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FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 2 13 Apr 1998

=================================================================
OFFICIAL NOTICES
=================================================================

IC ELECTION NOTICE

It is with pleasure to inform all SysOp's, the ZC's have at
long last managed to select a new International Coordinator.

By a majority, current Zone 1 Coordinator Bob Satti, is the
new IC.

We congratulate him.

It took many months to select a new IC and believe me, there
was some heated discussions going on in the ZCC echo during
this time.

The ZCC can now continue with it's task ahead.

Signed by:

Bob Satti Z1C
Ward Dosshe Z2C
Alwyn Smith Z3C
Luis Manterola Z4C
Henk Wolsink Z5C
Kazuyoshi Shinada Z6C

[Submitted by Z5C, Henk Wolsink via E-Mail]

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FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 3 13 Apr 1998

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

R10C Assumes New Duties
by Gerry Calhoun, 1:2004/200 [email protected]

The R10C, Bob Kohl, seems to enjoy taking on new duties. If you
recall he was just recently confirmed by Bob Satti in the past ZEC
election. Soon after that, his REC, David Hallford, submitted his
resignation as R10EC. David was kind enough to give three weeks
notice to Kohl so that Kohl could arrange for a replacement for the
R10EC position. Those three weeks have since passed and Region 10 has
been without a REC in the NODELIST for three additional weeks.

In his credit, in the past six weeks, Bob has told folks in the
regional admin echo a couple times that he is talking to someone
in Northern California about the position. Not whom he was talking
to or anything else of substance, just that he was talking to someone.

While he has been talking (for 6 weeks), he has decided to take on
another responsibility, that of nodelist editor. He, as R10C, has
decided to remove the NEC from Net 2004. This was not done due to her
not fulfilling her duties as NEC, but rather because she is critical
of his actions and inaction as R10C. His removal of her was done
quickly and efficiently. He simply removed the UNEC flag at the end
of her 1:2004/201 entry in the nodelist. He did not inform either her
or the NC before he took this action.

Kohl's efforts just last February to remove her were opposed by the
former R10EC when Kohl approached David Hallford on this matter. That
was one of the reasons David stated that he could not function as the
R10EC. This action by Hallford showed that he was able to put personal
feelings aside when it came to work as he and the NEC in question
(Ruth Argust) had some quite heated exchanges during the recent ZEC
election campaign. As I understand it, Kohl, upon becoming the Z1EC,
asked as one of his first questions to the RECC, how he could remove
an NEC. I heard that the consensus of the RECC was that he could not.

Kohl seems to think it is important to take care of editing a net's
nodelist segment and that it is one of his duties. On the other
hand, he ignores the fact that one of the nets in his region has a
still nodelisted NC who sent him a message in December giving him
thirty days notice that he was shutting down his BBS. He did so on
December 31,1997. The nodes in that net now have no NC and Kohl
should have either see to a replacement, merged them into another
net or moved them regional. It appears that since Net 204 does not
talk badly about Kohl they are not a problem, the fact that they do
not talk at all is irrelevant.

On the other side of the coin, we have a net with ONE node in it. Net
2003 for some time has had only one node in it. The system listed as
1:2003/2 has had a disconnected number for months. The other nodes
for that net all refer to the same system.

FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 4 13 Apr 1998

While on the topic of the nodelist, it should also be known that Kohl
has taken on a new hat under an assumed name. In Bob's home Net 102
segment, there is an improper flag of NEC with no preceding U. This
in and of itself is not a great cause for concern. However, the fact
that the nodelisted NEC is not in reality the NEC having resigned
sometime ago is a bit questionable. Even more questionable is the
listing for 102/2 that has traditionally been the Net 102 mail
machine. The listing for this node is as follows:
,2,SoCalNet_EC,Los_Angeles_CA,Echomail_Coordinator,1-310-553-6379...
If we were to simply go by the listed system and sysop name, it would
appear that this is the NEC for net 102 and that the NC had simply
overlooked removing the NEC flag after the former NEC resigned.
However, upon closer investigation calling 1:102/2 reports a sysop of
Pat Paulsen, a known "hero" of Bob Kohl, a man whom Kohl admires. In
fact, you may remember that Bob had even made an entry in the nodelist
last year in the R10 regional section for Kohl's phone number with
Paulsen listed as sysop. Further investigation has shown that Kohl is
attempting to run the mail machine from his home, along with all of
his other duties but for almost THREE MONTHS has not been able to get
it functioning because he can not configure the software. Thus, the
Net 102 CRP has no backbone echomail, no local echomail and it has
been reported that their routed netmail is also non-functional.
Almost THREE MONTHS to set up a mailer? I think if you locked twenty
chimpanzees in a room with twenty computers loaded with the software
for a week, one of them would have hit enough of the right keys to
get a mail machine working.

This, folks, is what our new Z1EC has been up to. One of the duties
assigned to him as ZEC per the duty list he had a large hand in
creating, is overseeing the formation of a Zone 1 Echomail Policy.
If you have followed what has happened in FIDOECHOPOL, the echo
created to assist in the formation of said policy, you have seen it
degenerate into chaos because of the rules, published and unpublished
there. The one question that has been repeatedly asked by the
participants is why an echo policy is needed but this has been
declared off topic.

This, my friends, is some of what our R10C and new Z1EC has been up
to and what he has not been up to. It appears he has plenty of time
to work in the backroom without enough time to work in front of us,
doing what he has been charged with for the various positions he
holds. Lately he has been claiming that real life has not been giving
him enough time to perform his FidoNet duties. Let's hope that before
he gives us more of his attention that someone explains to him that
the "C" in his titles stand for COORDINATOR, not CONTROLLER and that
when he devotes more time to us, it is in the front room instead of
the back.

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

> > > WELFARE for the AMIGA_LC! YES!! < < <

Two old-time echos who have been decaying away without
any traffic are OUT OF TRACTION AND B-B-BACK-IN-ACTION!

FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 5 13 Apr 1998

WELFARE: an all out argue-and-debate over the U.S. welfare
system. Where it was, is, and will be. If its
broken. How to fix it.

AMIGA_LC: using C and C++ on the Amiga. Compliers, libraries,
tips, tricks, and more.

If you aren't areafixing these echoes, WHY NOT?
If you aren't reading these echos, WHY NOT?

Both available on the Z1 NAB.

-- Ronnie Grant at 1:3603/140
or [email protected]

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FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 6 13 Apr 1998

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

The Planet of 300 Foot Pinocchios - by Doc Logger

Dear Editorbeing,

This article is submitted by Doc Logger (163/110) who was
busy trying to decipher the extraterrestrial signals sent by
Bill Whitehorse. As near as could be translated, the
messages said: "Don't talk to plants when the moon is full"
but that could be an error due to Sunspot interference with
the transmissions.

Roll da flic, Zorch.....

Dear Reverend Visage,

The week has passed with the usual amusements provided by
the same cast of Fido elflords. It seems that all of
Fidoland is soon to be ruled by Bob Satti who assembled
enough votes to become IC. It is only a minor trifle that
Satti didn't deign to ask his own zone who they would prefer
and hasn't obtained a mandate to act as Z1C. Ward Dossche,
Z2C, who possessed both an electoral mandate and a consensus
of the Zone 2 sysops was brushed aside in the stampede to
ensure that representative democracy is kept at bay for
another year at least. Triples all round at the ZCC
conference and may the farce be with them.

What is more remarkable about the selection of Satti is that
he was busily mischaracterizing Dossche's position in the
Z1C echo, and then had a minor pouty fit when Dossche posted
corrections to Satti's nosestretchers. Satti wasn't alone
however, because our lil' buddy Dallas "Pinocchio" Hinton,
R17C was trying to defend having stuffed $een-bys into
echomail traffic. Poor Dallas was also caught telling fibs
about the topic of discussions in the Z1REGCON echo but used
the quite incredible explanation for his duplicity that the
Z1REGCON echo wasn't open to the public anyway. Visage,
you've had more experience with Nixon than I have, but is
situational ethics endemic in all walks of political life?
Jerry Swartz, R16C, tried to float the same outrageous
dissemblings and we can only hope that his explanations are
as entertaining as Hinton's.

Not to be outdone, our very own Zorch chose to parse some of
Dossche's messages a little differently than the rest of the
universe and managed to discern hints that Dossche was
trying to stifle free speech. The truly hilarious part of
Zorch's rant is the fact that what he incorrectly accuses
Dossche, Zorch appears to be doing with his warnings to Ruth
FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 7 13 Apr 1998

Argust about flying an appropriate mailer flag on a shared
system. I'm not sure that irony is in Zorch's vocabulary but
it certainly abounds in the splendour of his messages and
editorials.

For this week's Chautauqua I'll lead off with a quote from
Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince" which is a sort of primer
for the expedient and cynical forms of governance.

"How laudable is it for a prince to keep his word and govern
actions by integrity rather than trickery will be understood
by all. Nonetheless we have in our times seen great things
accomplished by many princes who have thought little of
keeping their promises and have known the art of mystifying
the minds of men. Such princes have won out over those whose
actions were based on fidelity to their word."

And one more quote from Dallas Hinton, R17C, writing about
the qualifications for a ZC:

"As far as *I'm* concerned, only a current RC is even
remotely qualified for the job. The average NC could no
more be a successful ZC than walk to the moon."

In the selection of Satti as IC, I think we have seen this
Machiavellian principle employed with predictable
consequences. On the one hand, Satti was bleating that he
couldn't entertain legitimate requests for representative
democracy because he was "saddled with policy" and on the
other hand explaining that the previous IC had been elected
by an "extension" to policy. What was sauce for the goose
apparently isn't sauce for the gander. We had the amazing
spectacle of the Z5C whose Zone numbers 86 sysops, casting
an equal vote to the Z2C whose zone numbers 14,000 sysops.
The Z5C's vote was made even more amusing by the fact that
he was telling the FN_SYSOP mob that he was a keen supporter
of representative democracy. Clearly, he is clueless as to
the meaning of the words.

We also have the quote from Hinton, R17C, who demonstrates
an utter disdain for the abilities of NCs, and one wonders
what opinion he actually holds about sysops. Hinton was one
of the Great Minds who ensured that Satti wouldn't need to
suffer the *inconvenience* of a sysop vote.

I think what was more tragic about the IC election is that
it could have provided a mechanism to chart the course of
Fidonet's future. The issue of the declining nodelist and
the reasons for sysop disenchantment could have been
addressed and perhaps remedied. Unfortunately, we are now to
be "led" by Satti whose imagination appears limited to the
non-responsive, monosyllabic grunts which have become his
means of communication in the Z1C echo. It was probably too
much to hope for that the ZCs would at least spend some
FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 8 13 Apr 1998

effort on the future of Fidonet rather than entrenching
another elflord who will replace insight with an orison that
he is bound by policy.

Since humility was never one of my vices, I'd like to
suggest that one of the most pressing problems confounding
Fidonet is the quality of messages that are entered. How can
we ever hope to compete with the eye-candy of Internet when
we are creating vistas of sludge in our echos with their
antfarm collections of quotes and emoticons sandwiched
between words that rarely resemble full sentences or
sentient thought. Does no one have any pride in what they
write? Does no one possess the skills to write a cogent
thought in a coherent fashion? Will someone please tell me
that Forrest Gump hasn't been cloned and set loose on
thousands of computers?

At this juncture I would like to include the full text of
two messages that I sent to Zorch Frezberg. As the
Snoozlord, I'm sure that he will have the first and last
word on the issue but I feel that the entirety of my
messages should be reproduced.

"To: Zorch Frezberg
Subject: Zorched earth policy?

If you read FIDOECHOPOL you might notice that after I raised
my initial concerns, I stopped posting in that echo because
I didn't have anything more to say. Incredibly, I agree
that arguing over a "blank page" is futile other than
advancing the first belief that the page should remain
blank.

I do have a genuine concern about Fidonet. I also realize
that it is relatively easy for you to discount what I say
by trivializing it as "rabble rousing" for the hell of it.
I guess it depends on which side of the wall you happen to
be on when the arrows start flying.

I was as vociferous about the various OBO, NAB, BOFAQ
"policy" initiatives as I am about the current infestation
of policymongers. When the ZEC tried to take echomail out
from *C control, I saved my wit and worked to establish
alternative routing to do an end run around the bastards.

I don't agree with removing the Tom Jennings trademarks but
I see the issue as meaningless anyway. Tom is the only one
who could assert claims to those trademarks and he has
publicly declared that he doesn't intend to do so, other
than speaking up to preclude someone else from claiming that
right. You are wrong, by the way, about "violating
international treaties and accords." Since my legal weasel
was already inclined to rack up billable hours on my
behalf, I had her research the issue. The Berne Convention
FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 9 13 Apr 1998

applies *if* trademarks are registered in the applicable
countries. The convention merely prevents someone else from
registering his trademarks in Germany, but until Jennings
*does* register them, they have no effect and - read closely
here - falsely asserting a trademark in Germany (or Canada,
or England, and perhaps others) is illegal.

I am dismayed that Fidonet has been partially usurped by
commercial entities, but since there are a number of them,
monopoly control hasn't happened. In fact, with FTP
connections, the limited *potential* for control has been
diminished substantially.

You mischaracterize my motives when you say that my actions
indicate "an effort to cause destructive chaos." Anarchism
doesn't mean chaos. Perhaps you and I disagree on our
levels of optimism. You apparently subscribe to Burke's
theory of governance where the "swinish mob" shouldn't be
trusted with their own choices, whereas I subscribe to
Paine's notion that choice is an inalienable right. (The
Constitutions of your country and mine tend to enshrine the
rights of which I speak.)

I see the process of establishing accountability of *Cs as
constructive. As far as I know, I'm only "acting in
concert" with people because they share the same goals. My
only *power* is one of suasion, whereas the *Cs who are
balking at accountability are armed with their presumptive
powers to control the nodelist. As a small footnote, I am
occasionally more embarrassed by the people who agree with
me, than those who oppose me...but anyone who accepts
democracy or anarchism acknowledges the right of others to
say what they please. On that same note, you might also
have noticed that I have been very quick to chastise those
cretins who would join a lynch mob to remove you as the
Snoozlord.

Your point is well taken that there may be a majority of
sysops who are happy with the status quo. I don't presume
to speak for them, but I do seek to *persuade* them. In
almost all cases, I could blithely ignore the *Cs because
their influence on my enjoyment of the hobby is minimal. My
recent emergence from somnolence has *everything* to do
with the fact that the ZC was musing about nuking our
entire net from the nodelist over the childish antics of a
few sysops. It occurred to me that if the *Cs were prepared
to be that Draconian in their response, then perhaps it was
time to disarm the *Cs so that their lack of wisdom
wouldn't be inflicted on me.

In truth I don't know if Dossche is a wolf in sheep's
clothing because my only evidence is reading a few
messages. What I *do* know is that you and a few others
have consistently mischaracterized his position, and resort
to vile insults, which leads me to conclude that he
represents more promise than his detractors. You seem to
FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 10 13 Apr 1998

see "control" devolving to Europe, as though the sysops
there represent some sort of block. I see "control"
devolving to sysops and it matters little to me where they
live. One of the promises of Fidonet was that it would
create a community of sysops who lived all over the planet.

To: Zorch Frezberg
Subject: brimstone and sulfur

I think as a first premise in our discussion we should agree
that neither of us represent a lumpen group for whose
actions we're personally responsible. What the rest of
net163 chooses to do is beyond my control, and also beyond
my desire to control. Similarly, it wouldn't be appropriate
to include Reg10 sysops as something for which you are
responsible. As a matter of record, there are a great many
things that net163 sysops do or have done that I don't
agree with but I adamantly defend their right to do as they
choose.

On ECHPOLOL: You haven't answered a very simple question
which is: what problems will be solved by the creation of
more policy? Until you do that, common sense seems to
indicate that you're riding a headless horse which *may*
produce a happy result but the odds are against it. I've
read your posts, including the one which appeared today,
and you seem to begin with an a priori assumption that a
document is required. I remain unconvinced, and as I said,
I'm not posting in the echo because I have nothing
substantive to say on that issue.

You said "You *have* a wall to hide behind." Which wall
would that be?

You also said that don't have friends to hide behind. I
agree with you there and I don't recall ever asserting
otherwise.

I'm not sure it would be illuminative to trade war stories
about which people we've respectively *battled* over the
history of Fidonet, but on the issue of the OBO/ NAB/
BOFAQ, you merely have to read back issues of the Snooz to
obtain my opinions that were expressed at the time. (One in
particular, titled "Who *are* those guys?" might help you.)

If you could quote me the relevant section of the WIPO
treaty I would be pleased to tell my lawyer that she has
given me incorrect advice. My message did indicate that the
trademark copyright problem occurs in Germany so perhaps
they aren't yet signatories?

John Souvestre *controls* echomail only to the extent that
people choose to use his services for routing. For a good
part of 1995 I was sending the whole Backbone direct to
Montana so that they wouldn't have to contend with a local
despot. I sent a good chunk of the backbone to Vienna on my
FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 11 13 Apr 1998

dime in the early 90's for exactly the same reasons. If
either you or I felt that any of the echomail relays were
misbehaving, it would be a trivial exercise to pick up the
entire backbone via Internet connections.

I would guess that your private netmail from Dossche is more
"threatening" than his public messages. Even the snippets
that you posted in FIDONEWS don't support your assertion
that he was filing a policy complaint. Just so's you know,
the characterizations of Dossche as being some sort of
fascist aren't born out by his public messages. You don't
understand the meaning of the word if you believe that
exercising his mandate from his Zone, with their specific
approval on the IC issue, constitutes any sort of totalism.

We can trade invective all day about whether my admiration
for anarchy is "destructive" or "constructive." I think
what we need are specifics in terms of what you think it
will destroy and then perhaps I can respond by estimating
whether the loss is a good or bad thing. To start off, I
think that it will create cooperation out of necessity.

I don't recall accusing someone of molesting animals or
children or was your reference to those issues some sort of
Straw Man that was meant to subdue my arguments?

I admit that I am given to hyperbole and a belittling tone
in a number of my messages. I don't suffer fools gladly and
I'm not shy about telling people that. If you can give me
an example of something that I have "mischaracterized"
about you, then I'd be happy to correct it.

I don't apologize for my education nor for using knowledge
in my messages. I don't feel inclined to "dumb down" my
discourse for a presumed lowest common denominator. Your
"Whoopee do" paragraph was what? Faint praise? Jealousy?
Gawd knows what it was. We both agree that Paine believed in
choice as an inalienable right to the extent that your
rights didn't intrude on mine. Can you point out where I've
said otherwise?

You should read the Snooz more often, but the quote from
Paine speaks specifically to the issue of "governance" and
where "governance" obtains its legitimacy. I suggest you
read the whole book by Paine because he has a great deal to
say about whether "governance" is grandfathered upon future
generations simply because one generation formed a compact
to be governed.

No, your choice of two public posts does not prove that
Dossche believes in the suppression of free speech. You
also ought to read his message in the Z1C echo where he
also took pains to explain that his concerns should be
addressed but not be the cause for excommunication. I
believe in free speech - specifically your right to use
value-laden language likening Dossche to a Nazi regime. I
FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 12 13 Apr 1998

also believe that your use of such terms is vile, just as I
believe that using the "n" word to describe blacks or the
"k" word to describe Jews; are vile. Your value system
differs from mine, which is fine, and I would also defend
your right to say those things while maintaining my right
to tell you that the words are despicable.

On the matter of my naivete about Dossche. When his posts
started showing up they looked reasonable. I netmailed ten
sysops (more or less randomly chosen) in his Zone and asked
questions. I got 8 responses, all of which were positive. I
netmailed Dossche directly and got answers to my questions.
On that basis, I ascertained that his platform was worthy
of support. What more could I do to educate myself? Now,
contrast that with my experiences with Satti who rarely
answers a question in a straightforward manner and has no
substance to his platform and no mandate to advance what
little he offers.

I find it exceptionally difficult to believe that you would
feel intimidated by anything let alone a presumed threat of
a policy complaint. I don't know what its like on your end
of the political spectrum but I count it as a slow week if
my Snooz articles don't generate at least a couple of policy
complaint threats and the odd threat of personal injury.
Hell, socially maladroit people have been known to threaten
policy complaints over the mailer where a message
originated (cough).

I don't claim to *represent* the "common man." I represent
an idea which I hope will be appealing and I fully expect
other sysops to act according to their beliefs. It bears
repeating that the only tool in my arsenal is one of
persuasion - I'm a <RETURN> key away from being powerless.
The idea that I support is the one that founded Fidonet and
worked very well for Fidonet until the first infestation of
policymongers.

I've often joked about the fact that you and I are similar
in temperament but just happen to live on opposite poles of
the political spectrum. My ideal version of Fidonet
suggests that there is not only room for both of us, but
that we both have the freedom to express our opinions. Where
we essentially disagree is in the extent to which we are
willing to give up freedom to either "policy" or *Cs. When
I joined Fidonet, there was no requirement to give up
freedoms to either of those "authorities" and I'd like to
see Fidonet returned to that condition.

I'll grant that the current crop of elflords are pissants
compared to the totalist ambitions of Dodell or Kashuba in
the past, but they still haven't seemed to grasp what role
they ought to have in Fidonet.

This whole discussion has centered around form in Fidonet as
opposed to substance. I believe that the most significant
FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 13 13 Apr 1998

issue to be faced by Fidonet is the content and style of
messages. (Just so you don't get alarmed, I am adamantly
opposed to any sort of compunction with respect to content
or style.) The echomail that is moved, and the political
landscape through which it flows are trivial compared to
examining *what* is being moved.

I don't know if it has occurred to you that you are a rarity
in Fidoland. You write in whole sentences (most of the
time,) you engage subjects with a certain amount of
thought, and you obviously devote energy to what you write.
Contrast your writings with much of what fills echomail
conferences. The poor moderators who might have been
educators have been reduced to kindergarten teachers
adjudicating petty squabbles. Place any 100 messages from an
echo in front of the average literate person and explain
that it represents the best and the brightest of
International discourse on the echomail topic... and then
try to figure out why sysops are leaving in droves and why
users avoid Fidonet like the plague. The answer will be
self-evident in those 100 messages with their screenfuls of
quotes, their trophalactic grunts, their emoticons, and
their general level of utter gibberish.

If I had to saddle up Pedro and tilt at a significant
windmill, it would be on the issue of convincing sysops and
users to raise their levels of communication beyond the
dreck which gets posted now. Perhaps, on this issue we
might happily find ourselves on the same side of the fence?"
/ / / /

I must go, Visage. The El Nino current has washed
video-cassettes of Gerry Springer shows onto the beach. Your
secretary has taken up fisticuffs and is pummeling the
filing cabinet. I fear that if we don't distract her, the
contents of the cabinet - which is some of the finest Scotch
- may be disturbed in their slumber. As the good and decent
people that we are, we should send her immediately to Moose
Meadow, Saskatchewan.

Regards,
Doc Logger,
Furlang Island, South Pacific

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FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 14 13 Apr 1998

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

Nodelist-statistics as seen from Zone-2 for day 100
By Ward Dossche, 2:292/854
ZC/2

+--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+
!Zone/Jul!Ndl-072!Nodel.-079!Nodel.-086!Nodel.-093!Nodel.-100!%%!
+--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+
! 1/100 ! 5620 ! 5578 -42! 5512 -66! 5512 0! 5446 -66!25!
! 2/100 ! 14066 !14219 153!14215 -4!14130 -85!14085 -45!66!
! 3/093 ! 526 ! 523 -3! 520 -3! 517 -3! 507 -10! 2!
! 4/093 ! 402 ! 401 -1! 400 -1! 398 -2! 398 0! 2!
! 5/093 ! 87 ! 87 0! 87 0! 86 -1! 86 0! 0!
! 6/093 ! 934 ! 934 0! 934 0! 908 -26! 920 12! 4!
+--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+
! 21635 !21742 107!21668 -74!21551 -117!21442 -109!
+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+

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

FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 15 13 Apr 1998

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

Future History

30 Apr 1998
Queens Day, Holland.

17 May 1998
Independence Day, Norway.

22 May 1998
Expo '98 World Exposition in Lisbon (Portugal) opens.

14 Sep 1998
Start of International BBS Week [thru 20 Sep 98].

22 Sep 1998
First anniversary of the FidoNews domain of www.fidonews.org.

1 Dec 1998
Fifteenth Anniversary of release of Fido version 1 by
Tom Jennings.

24 Jul 1999
XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99].

31 Dec 1999
Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed.

1 Jan 2000
The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec.

1 Jun 2000
EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens.

15 Sep 2000
Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens.

1 Jan 2001
This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E.

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

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

FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 16 13 Apr 1998

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

FidoNews PGP Public-Key Listing

[this must be copied out to a file starting at column 1 or
it won't process under PGP as a valid public-key]

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.6.2
Comment: Democracy Requires A Free And Uncensored Press.

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File-request FNEWSKEY from 1:1/23 [1:205/1701] or download it from
IKVHFoT! BBS at 1-209-251-7529 anytime Zone 1 ZMH at 300-9600+ V34.
The FidoNews key is also available on the FidoNews homepage listed
in the Masthead information.

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

FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 17 13 Apr 1998

=================================================================
FIDONET BY INTERNET
=================================================================

This is a list of all FidoNet-related sites reported to the Editor as
of this appearance.

NOTE: I am looking for a comprehensive list of Telnet, VMODEM, BinkP,
Argus and other TCP/IP based nodes operating FidoNet on the
InterNet, either by Zone or worldwide, to post here as well.
- Ye Editor

============

FidoNet:

Homepage http://www.fidonet.org
FidoNews http://www.fidonews.org [HTML]
http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html [ASCII]
WWW sources http://www.scms.rgu.ac.uk/students/cs_yr94/lk/fido.html
FTSC page http://www.portal.ca/~awalker/ftsc.htm
Echomail http://www.portal.ca/~awalker/index.html
WebRing http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker84/fnetring.html [TFN]
General Info http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html
Read Echoes http://newn.com/messages.html

============

Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org

Region 10: http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html

Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/

Region 13: http://www.smalltalkband.com/st01000.htm

Region 14: [disappeared?]

Region 15: [disappeared?]

Region 16: http://www.tiac.net/users/satins/region16.htm

Region 17: http://www.portal.ca/~awalker/region17.htm
REC17: http://www.westsound.com/ptmudge/

Region 18: http://techstop.pdn.net/fido/

Region 19: http://www.compconn.net

============

Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org

ZEC2: http://www.proteus.demon.co.uk/zec.htm
Zone 2 Elist: http://www.fbone.ch/z2_elist/

FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 18 13 Apr 1998

Region 20: http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish)

Region 23: http://www.fido.dk/

Region 24: http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (in German)

Region 25:
http://www.trak-one.co.uk/net254

Region 27: http://telematique.org/ft/r27.htm

Region 29: http://www.rtfm.be/fidonet/ (in French)

Region 30: http://www.fidonet.ch (in Swiss)

Region 33: http://www.fidoitalia.net (in Italian)

Region 34: http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm (in Spanish)
REC34: http://pobox.com/~chr

Region 36: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7207/

Region 38: http://public.st.carnet.hr/~blagi/bbs/adriam.html

Region 41: http://www.fidonet.gr (in Greek and English)

Region 48: http://www.fidonet.org.pl

============

Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org

============

Zone 4: (not yet listed)

Region 90:
Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (in Spanish)

============

Zone 5: http://w3.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/index.htm

============

Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org

Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html (China)

============

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

FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 19 13 Apr 1998

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

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

Editor: Zorch Frezberg

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

"FidoNews Editor"
FidoNet 1:1/23
BBS 1-209-251-7529, 300/1200/2400/9600/V.34/V.90

more addresses:
Zorch Frezberg -- 1:205/1701, [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

(Postal Service mailing address)
FidoNews Editor
P.O. Box 642
Fresno, CA 93709-0642
U.S.A.

voice: 1-209-446-9038 [voice mail = 'blind' numbers not returned]

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

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 1998 Zorch Frezberg. 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
FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 20 13 Apr 1998

back Issue filenames in distribution format [FNEWSFnn.ZIP] for a
particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP
where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the
current year [8], i.e., FNWSJAN8.ZIP for all the Issues from Jan 98.

Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number
1 - 15 for 1984 - 1998, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in
size from 48K to 1.4M.

INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via:

http://www.fidonews.org
http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm
ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/
ftp://ftp.aminet.org/pub/aminet/comm/fido/
ftp://ftp.irvbbs.com/fidonews/

*=*=*

You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to:

[email protected]

with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist

and no message in the message body. To remove your name from the email
distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist with no
message to the same address above.

*

You may retrieve current and previous Issues of FidoNews via FTPMail
by sending email to:

[email protected]

with a Subject line of: help

and FTPMail will immediately send a reply containing details and
instructions. When you actually make a file request, FTPMail will
respond in three stages. You find a link for this process on
www.fidonews.org.

*=*=*

You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at:

http://www.fidonews.org

STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request -
Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from:

ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/

Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents
FIDONEWS 15-15 Page 21 13 Apr 1998

for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 13 Megs.

=*=*=*=

The current week's FidoNews and the FidoNews public-key are now also
available almost immediately after publication on the FidoNews Editor
homepage on the World Wide Web at:

http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html

There are also links there to jim barchuk's HTML FidoNews source and
to John Souvestre's FTP site for the archives. There is also an email
link for sending in an article as message text. Drop on over.

=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=

A PGP generated public-key is available for the FidoNews Editor from
1:1/23 [1:205/1701] by file-request for FNEWSKEY or by download from
IKVHFoT! BBS at 1-209-251-7529 as FIDONEWS.ASC in File Area X. It
is also posted twice a month into the PKEY_DROP Echo available on the
Zone 1 Echomail Backbone.

*=*=*=*=*

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 [1:205/1701] 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, P.O. Box 410923, San Francisco, CA 94141,
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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