F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 02 11 January 1999

F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 02 11 January 1999
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet community | "FidoNews" |
| _ | +27-41-515-913 [5:5/23] |
| / \ | |
| /|oo \ | |
| (_| /_) | |
| _`@/_ \ _ | |
| | | \ \\ | Editor: |
| | (*) | \ )) | Henk Wolsink 5:7104/2 |
| |__U__| / \// | |
| _//|| _\ / | |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Submission address: FidoNews Editor 5:5/23 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MORE addresses: |
| |
| submissions=> [email protected] |
| [email protected] |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
| obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ |
| please refer to the end of this file. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
2. GUEST EDITORIAL .......................................... 3
Who Decides - Douglas Myers .............................. 3
3. ARTICLES ................................................. 4
ECHO TALK - David E. Waters on The Real Problem .......... 4
4. NOTICES .................................................. 5
5. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 6
6. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 10
FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 1 11 Jan 1999

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

Greetings,

So much has been written about how much/many Nodes FidoNet is
loosing every week, that I have pleasure showing you a few
messages from previous posted Nodelist stats.

I'm not going to present you with any meaningfull or otherwise
bull here as the figures below, speak for themselves. Please,
regardless whether the figures are correct or not is not the point,
what is the point, it presents some form of demise of FidoNet in
a manner, which is frighting. A hobby in which I and many of you,
have spent many hours in, not to speak of the amount of money we
invested in it.

From a message: 23 April 1996.

Nodelist Robot
| Nl-4 | Nodelist-3 | Nodelist-2 | Nodelist-1 | Current Nl |
------+------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
Zone-1| 14734| 14535 -199| 14572 37| 14457 -115| 14340 -117|
Zone-2| 16478| 16567 89| 16576 9| 16629 53| 16599 -30|
Zone-3| 1154| 1155 1| 1152 -3| 1146 -6| 1124 -22|
Zone-4| 584| 584 0| 584 0| 584 0| 584 0|
Zone-5| 120| 120 0| 120 0| 120 0| 117 -3|
Zone-6| 880| 1226 346| 1229 3| 1228 -1| 1228 0|
------+------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
Total | 33950| 34187 237| 34233 46| 34164 -69| 33992 -172|
------+------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
| Nl-4 | Nodelist-3 | Nodelist-2 | Nodelist-1 | Current Nl |
+------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+

From a message: 3 January 1997.

Nodelist Robot
|Zone|Nl-341|Nodelist-348|Nodelist-355|Nodelist-362|Nodelist-003|%%|
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
| 1 | 10931|10737 -194 |10564 -173 |10452 -112 |10370 -82 |36|
| 2 | 16185|16150 -35 |16127 -23 |16104 -23 |16056 -48 |55|
| 3 | 882| 882 0 | 878 -4 | 876 -2 | 869 -7 | 3|
| 4 | 578| 572 -6 | 413 -159 | 556 143 | 552 -4 | 2|
| 5 | 94| 94 0 | 93 -1 | 93 0 | 93 0 | 0|
| 6 | 1006| 1003 -3 | 1003 0 | 1075 72 | 1073 -2 | 4|
+----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+
| 29676|29438 -238 |29078 -360 |29156 78 |29013 -143 |
+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+

From a message: 3 January 1998

Nodelist Robot
!Zone/Jul!Ndl-339!Nodel.-346!Nodel.-353!Nodel.-360!Nodel.-002!%%!
+--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+
! 1/360 ! 6338 ! 6338 0! 6225 -113! 6199 -26! 6199 0!27!
FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 2 11 Jan 1999

! 2/002 ! 14627 !14654 27!14605 -49!14523 -82!14538 15!63!
! 3/360 ! 591 ! 591 0! 592 1! 580 -12! 580 0! 3!
! 4/353 ! 436 ! 434 -2! 434 0! 435 1! 435 0! 2!
! 5/353 ! 92 ! 92 0! 92 0! 91 -1! 91 0! 0!
! 6/318 ! 1091 ! 1091 0! 1091 0! 1091 0! 1091 0! 5!
+--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+
! 23175 !23200 25!23039 -161!22919 -120!22934 15!
+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+

From a message: 10 January 1999

Nodelist Stats

+--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+
!Zone/Jul!Ndl-345!Nodel.-352!Nodel.-359!Nodel.-001!Nodel.-008!%%!
+--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+
! 1/008 ! 3714 ! 3675 -39! 3660 -15! 3613 -47! 3593 -20!20!
! 2/008 ! 13073 !13127 54!13071 -56!13089 18!12994 -95!72!
! 3/008 ! 345 ! 344 -1! 338 -6! 338 0! 311 -27! 2!
! 4/008 ! 267 ! 267 0! 267 0! 267 0! 267 0! 1!
! 5/008 ! 60 ! 60 0! 60 0! 60 0! 59 -1! 0!
! 6/001 ! 912 ! 912 0! 912 0! 906 -6! 906 0! 5!
+--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+
! 18371 !18385 14!18308 -77!18273 -35!18130 -143!
+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+

As can be seen, FidoNet is loosing Nodes at a rate of some 4000 per
annum. At this rate, we have some 4 years to go, before it's
history. A very sad state of affairs.

Not so happy reading,

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

FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 3 11 Jan 1999

=================================================================
GUEST EDITORIAL
=================================================================

Who Decides - Douglas Myers

Who Decides?
D. Myers, 1:270/720

One of the consequences of being an internationally-known Fidonet
Busybody is that I am occasionally confused with someone with
actual influence. Such was the case recently when Catalin Bradu of
Romania, the RC of Region 53 sent me information he really wanted to
get to Bob Satti.

He was under the mistaken impression that I would have the email
address of Fido's Top Cop. All I have is a calling plan which lets
me call in the US and Canada for a dime a minute, so crashing
netmail is almost trivial. If I'd been smart, I'd have just sent it
along and let it go.

It was stuff I didn't want to hear about. He was excommunicating
someone named Gabi Andrei for Excessively Annoying Behavior in
proselytizing his particular brand of religion. Though he
apparently had the support of his region, his ZC, Ward Dossche
ordered him to reverse his ruling. A few days later, Ward removed
him as RC, placing someone in charge who didn't support the EAB
action.

Now who wants to get involved in this? Who wants to support someone
proselytizing in netmail and echomail? But then, who wants to
support the nasty business of excommunication? Especially in
far-off Romania?

Who should be making these decisions anyway? Should Excessively
Annoying Behavior be determined by the folks in the region where it
occurs, or is it the province of the Zone Coordinator?

For that matter, who decides when a popularly-elected Regional
Coordinator should be removed. Is it the province of his
electorate, or is it up to the Zone Coordinator?

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

FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 4 11 Jan 1999

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

ECHO TALK - David E. Waters on the Real Problem

. -- -- -- -- -- ECHO TALK -- -- -- -- -- .
| Food for thought from Fido's echomail. |
| Purloined without permission by D Myers |
` -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- -- -- '

David E. Waters on The Real Problem:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
There is no depth in Fido. For instance, there is no school for
future Sysops. When we all die, thats it it's over. Nobody is
trained to take over any of the "Jobs" in Fido. How many know the
politics of how to get mail from N.A. to Austraila? (Show of hands
please.)

Sysoping will very quickly become a lost art like "canning" (you
know those jars our Grandmothers had full of stuff when we were
kids). The unreleased version of Trade Wars is a prime example, it
ties directly through a server and does not need a BBS to run.

I know I am a "Johnny come lately" and most folks figure I do not
whats going on and for the most part they are right. I am also a
locksmith and there are no new people (Kids, teenagers & young
adults) training behind us at least not enough to keep open all the
shops that are out there now. Which means the fewer there are the
resource gets more expensive (think about that the next you call 2-3
locksmiths for an estimate, what if there was only 1?).

I'm 52 and no I do not know how old anybody else is and it really
does not matter, we ALL die sometime. All of us better figure out
how to solve this part first or the who is doing what will not
matter if there is no what to do, because the mail and files will
have stopped because somebody died and nobody could take thier
place.

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

FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 5 11 Jan 1999

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

Future History

16 Feb 1999
13th Anniversary of the introduction of EchoMail by Jeff Rush.

12 May 1999
12th Anniversary of Fido Operations in Zone 4;
10th Anniversary of the creation of FidoNet Zone 4.

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

9 Jun 1999
Tenth Anniversary of the adoption of FidoNet Policy 4.07.

10 Sep 1999
10th anniversary of Zone 5 operations.

26 Oct 1999
Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles.

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.

21 Sep 2000
10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR)

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 16-02 Page 6 11 Jan 1999

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

This is a list of all FidoNet-related sites reported to the
FidoNews Editor as of this issue; see the notice at the end.

FidoNet:

Homepage http://www.fidonet.org
FidoNews http://www.fidonews.org [HTML]
http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html [ASCII]
WWW sources http://travel.to/fidonet/
FTSC page http://www.goldware.dk/ftsc
Echomail [pending]
General http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html
http://www.nrgsys.com/orb/foti
List servers:
http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/fidonet-discussion

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

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:

Net 264: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm

Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/

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

Region 19: http://www.compconn.net/r19

Zone 1 Elist http://www.baltimoremd.com/elist/

Not sure where the following should be placed:

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/snwvlly/fido.html

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

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

ZEC2:
Zone 2 Elist: http://www.fbone.ch/echolist/

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

Region 23: http://www.fido.dk (in Danish)

Region 24: http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (German)
FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 7 11 Jan 1999

Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/~lbehet/fido (English/German)

Region 25: http://www.bsnet.co.uk/net2502/net/

Region 26: http://www.nemesis.ie
REC 26: http://www.nrgsys.com/orb

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

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

Region 30: http://www.fidonet.ch (German)

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

Region 34: http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm (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 (Greek/English)

Region 42: http://www.fido.cz

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

Region 50: http://www.fido7.com/ (Russian)
Net 5010: http://fido.tu-chel.ac.ru/ (Russian)
Net 5015: http://www.fido.nnov.ru/ (Russian)
Net 5030: http://kenga.ru/fido/ (Russian & English)
Net 5073: http://people.weekend.ru/soa/ (Russian)

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

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

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

Zone 4:

Region 90: http://visitweb.com/fidonet
Net 903: http://www.playagrande.com/refugio
Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish)

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

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

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

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

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

FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 8 11 Jan 1999

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

Pages listed above are as submitted to the FidoNews Editor,
and generally reflect Zone and Regional Web Page sites. If
no Regional site is submitted, the first Network page from
that Region is used in its place. Generally, Regional pages
should list access points to all Networks within the Region.

TCP/IP accessible node access information should be submitted
to the FidoNews Editor for inclusion in their Region or Zone.

-----------oOo-------------

Fidonet Via Internet Hubs

Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed | Basic Rate
-----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------
1:12/12 | Ken Wilson | FTP | T1 | $24mo.
1:13/25 | Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo.
1:106/1 | Matt Bedynek | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 64k | $5/$15mo.
1:106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin | FTP,VMoT | 64k | $5/mo.
1:107/451 | Andy Knifel | FTP, VMoT, UUE | 33.6 | n/c
1:124/7008 | Ben Hamilton | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 64k | $10/$20mo.
1:140/12 | Bob Seaborn | FTP | T1 | $5/$20
1:270/101 | George Peace | FTP | T1 | $30mo.
1:271/140 | Tom Barstow | UUE | T1 | n/c
1:275/1 | Joshua Ecklund | UUE | 28.8 | $10/yr.
1:280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo.
1:2401/305 | Peter Rocca | FTP,UUE | T1 | unkn
1:2424/10 | Alec Grynspan | FTP,UUE | T1 | n/c
1:2604/104 | Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo.
1:2624/306 | D. Calafrancesco | VMoT | 33.6 | $15yr.
1:345/0 | Todd Cochrane | FTP | T1 | n/c
1:346/250 | Aran Spence | FTP,UUE | T1 | $10mo.
1:396/45 | Marc Lewis | UUE | 33.6 | $26/yr.
1:3651/9 | Jerry Gause | FTP,VMoT | 33.6 | $3/$6
1:396/1 | John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1 | $15mo.
2:33/505 | Mario Mure | VMoT,UUE | 64k | n/c
2:254/175 | Alex Kemp | UUE | 56k | n/c
2:284/800 | Jeroen VanDeLeur | FTP,UUE | 64k | n/c
2:335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c
2:469/84 | Max Masyutin | VMoT | 256k | n/c
2:2411/413 | Dennis Dittrich | UUE | 64k | n/c
2:2474/275 | Christian Emig | UUE | 64k | unkn
3:633/260 | Malcolm Miles | FTP | 33.6 | n/c
4:905/100 | Fabian Gervan | VMoT, UUE | ??? | n/c
5:7104/2 | Henk Wolsink | FTP | 28.8 | n/c
--
* FTP = Internet File Transfer Protocol
* VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various)
* UUE = uuencode<->email type transfers
[I'm only cataloging transfer methods, eg, ftp, email, telnet.
Specific programs using these protocols are no longer being listed.
Contact the system operators for details of which programs they have
available.]

FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 9 11 Jan 1999

Compiled by C. Ingersoll, 1:2623/71, (609)814-1978, [email protected]
Posted on the 1st of every month in FN_SYSOP, R13SYSOP and Fidonews.

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

FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 10 11 Jan 1999

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

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

Editor: Henk Wolsink

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

"FidoNews Editor"
FidoNet 5:5/23
BBS +27-41-515-913, 2400/9600/V.34/V.90

more addresses:
Henk Wolsink -- 5:7104/2, [email protected]

(Postal Service mailing address)
FidoNews Editor
P.O. Box 12325
Port Elizabeth,
6006
South Africa

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

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 and/or the Editor.

Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
Copyright 1998 Henk Wolsink. 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 [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.

FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 11 11 Jan 1999

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.irvbbs.com/fidonews/
ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/Fidonet/Fidonews

And in non-English formats via:

http://www.hvc.ee/pats/fidonews (Estonian)
http://www.fidonet.pp.se/sfnews (Swedish)

*=*=*

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 16-02 Page 12 11 Jan 1999

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.

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

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 5:5/23 [5:7104/2] as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators
should 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

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