F I D O N E W S         Volume 16, Number 25             21 June 1999
    +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
    |  The newsletter of the     |   ISSN 1198-4589 Published by:        |
    |    FidoNet community       |   "FidoNews"                          |
    |          _                 |        +27-41-581-5913   [5:5/23]     |
    |         /  \               |   June Publication:     1:270/720     |
    |        /|oo \              |                                       |
    |       (_|  /_)             |                                       |
    |        _`@/_ \    _        |                                       |
    |       |     | \   \\       |   Editor:                             |
    |       | (*) |  \   ))      |        Henk Wolsink    5:7104/2       |
    |       |__U__| /  \//       |   Editor Pro Tem (June 99)            |
    |        _//|| _\   /        |        Douglas Myers   1:270/720      |
    |       (_/(_|(____/         |                                       |
    |             (jm)           |   Newspapers should have no friends.  |
    |                            |                    -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
    +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
    |             Submission address: Douglas Myers 1:270/720            |
    +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |  MORE addresses:                                                   |
    |                                                                    |
    |    submissions for June: [email protected]                          |
    |                                                                    |
    +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
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    |    obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ        |
    |    please refer to the end of this file.                           |
    +--------------------------------------------------------------------+


                       Table of Contents
    1. EDITORIAL  ................................................  1
       Candidate Evaluations  ....................................  1
    2. GUEST EDITORIAL  ..........................................  3
       Moderator Rights - The Super-Bitches  .....................  3
    3. ARTICLES  .................................................  5
       Small Article - Ray Brown, R14C  ..........................  5
       Zone 1 Coordinator, Election Information  .................  5
    4. NET HUMOR  ................................................  7
       God Speaks in one-liners  .................................  7
    5. COMIX IN ASCII  ...........................................  8
       Cows in the Election  .....................................  8
    6. ADVERTISE YOUR FREE SERVICE/EVENT  ........................  9
       Editor Pro Tem Special  ...................................  9
    7. NOTICES  .................................................. 10
       Future History  ........................................... 10
       Change in FILE_ID.DIZ  .................................... 10
    8. FIDONEWS INFORMATION  ..................................... 11
    FIDONEWS 16-25               Page 1                   21 Jun 1999


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


                         Z1C Candidate Evaluations
                               Douglas Myers

    This is an attempt at an objective evaluation of the candidates for
    Zone 1 Coordinator in the election currently in progress.  Readers
    may question the objectivity of one of the candidates offering
    evaluations of himself and others.  Offhand, I'd say this is a
    healthy suspicion... you be the judge.  Candidates are discussed in
    the order the Election Coordinator processed their nomination.

    Douglas Myers - Doug was initially nominated by a group discontent
    with the closed elections by the RCs in the past.  This issue,
    however, has become less prominent because of the willingness of the
    RCs to conduct this election in an open format.  He is the only
    candidate who is not currently an NC or RC with Fidonet, but offers
    ZC experience with a small FTSC network.  Doug's suitability was
    questioned early in the campaign by suspicions that he was directing
    a mudslinging campaign employing some contraversial supporters, the
    SUPER-BITCHES.  At this point, however, those suspicions seem to be
    discredited and there is no noticable effect on his candidacy.  The
    theme of Doug's campaign is to open the zone political process to
    all sysops.

    Dallas Hinton - Dallas is the candidate most identified as an
    insider in political circles, and suffered early criticism based on
    this perception.  However, he has handled such criticism with grace
    and charm, and has been responsive to questions asked of the
    candidates.  His campaign is helped considerably by the fading of RC
    resentment over closed elections, and it appears that his insider
    image will not be the detriment some had predicted.  Dallas campaign
    emphasizes his experience as RC.

    David Moufarrege - David, though a sitting RC, seems to have avoided
    the insider image.  In fact, David's campaign is characterized by a
    lack of contraversy.  He has been personable and eloquent in his
    interaction with sysops throughout the zone.  David emphasizes his
    accomplishments in integrating Internet nodes with the more
    traditional Fido nodes, and points to the tranquilly of his region
    as a harbinger of a non-contraversial term as Z1C.

    Todd Cochrane - As much as David repels contraversy like a duck's
    back repels water, Todd seems to attract it.  He came out of the
    nomination gate promising a fight, and immediatly drew attacks from
    several quarters.  However, the contraversy seems to have died down.
    Todd's campaign emphasizes strong, authorative leadership with an
    agressive approach to technology growth in Fido.

    Bobby Queen - Bobby was the last candidate to be nominated, and is
    still establishing his campaign.  He has been responsive to all
    questions and appears to be a credible candidate.  His campaign
    emphasizes his personal time available to serve as Z1C.
    FIDONEWS 16-25               Page 2                   21 Jun 1999


    It's difficult to rank the candidates at this point due to the
    representative nature of the voting.  Probably, there will be no
    definitive perception of the front runners until all the regions
    have reported in.  It's clear that no one candidate has established
    himself as front runner, and no candidate is definately out of the
    race.

    Another difficulty in ranking the candidates is a lack of
    distinguishing issues.  So far, all candidates have favored further
    integration of Internet nodes into Fidonet, and all candidates have
    indicated a need for Policy 4 revisions.


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

    FIDONEWS 16-25               Page 3                   21 Jun 1999


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


         MODERATOR RIGHTS, SUPER-BITCHES AND THE ZONE ONE ELECTION
               Lesley-Dee Dylan, Lynn Gipson, and Ruth Argust

    Last week, Joe Jared published an article in Fidonews which
    described what he feels is a political conspiracy in the SUPER-BITCH
    echo.  As moderator of the Z1_POLITICAL echo, he further issued
    warnings to all the participants of SUPER-BITCH and requested a zone
    level feed cut of Ruth Argust based on posts in SUPER-BITCH.

    The SUPER-BITCH echo is moderated by the Super-Bitches (Lynn Gipson,
    Ruth Argust and Lesley-Dee Dylan).  Any attempt to moderate this
    message echo, by moderators of other echoes in their echoes, is an
    infringement of our rights and unacceptable to us.

    From some of the comments in other areas about us, it would seem
    that the lurkers/visiting moderators have not read back far enough
    in the echo to get a true picture of our activities.  If they had,
    they would have seen that we started off the election campaign with
    speculating about how interesting it could be if Tom Cole were
    nominated.  Then Todd Cochrane stuck his foot in it - again and
    again and again.

    As for any "conspiracy" of "henchmen" working to support the Douglas
    Myers campaign by attacking Todd Cochrane - Todd Cochrane is NOT
    Douglas's main competition.  If you were reading this echo, you
    would know that we do not even consider Todd to have a viable
    campaign.  Douglas's competition is from David Moufarrege and Dallas
    Hinton.  There is very little interest in harrassing Dallas, and
    absolutely none in harrassing David.

    Despite Joe Jared's claim that we "intended" to disrupt the Official
    Election Echo, there is not a single post where one person tells
    another to say anything in the Election Echo.  There are discussions
    in the nature of "look at what idiocy Todd posted this time - what a
    dolt."

    Our actions have taken place in the open.  We are not "backroom"
    conspirators. Our echotag description tells everyone what we are up
    to. Our echo is backboned and available to anyone except Net 163,
    whose NEC refuses to carry it.

    Joe has also placed all participants in the SUPER-BITCH echo on
    notice just because they associated with the so-called "guilty"
    parties.

    Super-Bitch is a fun echo.  We play in there.  PLAY, not plot.
    Playing leads to a bonding, a friendship, a caring for each other,
    and an understanding of each other.  We are not trying to overpower
    the democratic process.  We do support Douglas Myer in his
    candidacy, because we have grown to like and understand him, despite
    his blue balls.  If we were plotting and conspiring to do something
    FIDONEWS 16-25               Page 4                   21 Jun 1999


    unethical, we would have been doing so by mailing lists or crashed
    netmail.

    Also, there is one other problem with the goings on in this
    election. Actions have been taken and warnings given, and one
    suspension, based on an anonymous accusation.  It is a basic
    principle of British justice (on which the American justice system
    is based) that defendants have a right to face their accuser(s). We
    have not seen the accusation.  We do not know, fully, what was in
    the accusation against us, or who accused us.  We also know that the
    accusation was doctored up in such a way as to make it look like
    Jack Yates had said words that I had typed.  The initials LD> were
    on the message Jack posted showing where he quoted me.  These
    initials seem to have been deleted when these lines were put into
    the complaint.  It also appears, from the small bits of the message
    that were cross-posted, that Jack's response to me was deleted,
    totally changing the perception of Jack's behaviour, and the
    perception of the nature of the entire echo.  And Jack never said
    anything about Joe being Ross's puppet. I don't think anyone did,
    except the accuser.

    I think Joe is looking in the wrong place for the conspiracies and
    dirty politics. He should be looking at whoever doctored up Jack's
    message and sent in the complaint.  He should be looking at whoever
    it was who lied to him about Jack saying that Joe was Ross Cassell's
    puppet.

    The rules allowing moderators unfettered rights to toss someone from
    their echos should be different for moderators of echos used for
    official FidoNet business, whether at the level of a net, region, or
    zone.  Perhaps now is the time to start discussions of placing
    limits on the moderatorship of these official FidoNet echos.

    Feed cuts on these official echos should never be issued unless the
    offender refuses to cooperate on read-only status.  Even when a feed
    cut is issued, there should be no objection to a volunteer
    forwarding all posts in the echo to netmail so the offender can
    still read the echo.

    When there are objections to the actions against an offender in an
    official echo, then there should be a review.  Perhaps all
    moderators of backboned echos who are active participants in the
    echo could be asked to consult and make a decision on the validity
    of the action.  This would be a one-warm-body, one vote review,
    rather than weighted by number of conferences moderated - i.e. Bob
    Moravsik would not get 350 votes to my one-third vote.


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

    FIDONEWS 16-25               Page 5                   21 Jun 1999


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


                               Small Article
                           Ray Brown, 1:286/1701

      A brief introduction...

      Greetings and salutations! This is Ray Brown, 1:286/1701. I have
    been a member (SysOp) of FidoNet for almost 10 years, starting out
    as a node in Florida, then for a year in Oklahoma, and for the past
    5 years, here in Missouri. For the past year, I have been NC / NEC
    of Net 286, and just last week I was elected Regional Coordinator
    for Region 14. (Condolences graciously accepted. :-)

      I would like to go on record as saying, and I believe my Region
    will agree, my vote for the next Z1C will be for somebody that will
    start taking a proactive roll in revitalizing FidoNet, including but
    not limited to work on a new Policy to replace our 10-year-old
    Policy4.

      Members of Region 14, get involved NOW. Make your opinions known
    NOW. We're already in Phase 2 of the Z1C Election, and I hate
    debating in a vacumn. If you don't participate in 14_REC, then
    NetMail me and I'll see what we can do.

      Thank you!

                                                            _Ray_
                                                            R14C

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


                            ELECTION INFORMATION
                             Zone 1 Coordinator

    The information below has been summarized from the official posts in
    Z1_ELECTION by Ross Cassell, Election Coordinator.

    Z1C Candidate         Node Number  Region  *C Position If Any
    =============         ===========  ======  ==================
    Douglas Myers         1:270/720      13
    Dallas Hinton         1:153/715      17           RC
    David Moufarrege      1:2313/404     13           RC
    Todd Cochrane         1:345/2        10           NC
    Bobby Queen           1:3667/5       18           NC

    Official Election Echoes
    ========================
      Z1_ELECTION  - discussion with candidates
      Z1_POLITICAL - side chatter

    Election Timetable
    FIDONEWS 16-25               Page 6                   21 Jun 1999


    ==================
    Phase 1: Nomination               - completed
    Phase 2: Discussion               - in progress until 6/26
      Sysops discuss issues with the candidates in Z1_ELECTION.
    Phase 3: Regional Discussions     - 6/27 to 7/3
      Sysops vote with their NC who will vote based on their input with
      the RC.
    Phase 4: Voting By RCC            - 7/4 to 7/10
      The RCs will vote for the candidates based on input from their
      NCs.  A candidate is elected with 50% + 1 vote; if no candidate
      achieves sufficient votes, a runoff election will be conducted
      between the two candidates with the most votes.
    Phase 5: Installation of new ZC1  - after orientation


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

    FIDONEWS 16-25               Page 7                   21 Jun 1999


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


                          God Speaks in one-liners

    An advertising agency in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida launced this unique
    advertising and billboard campaign that even splashed the insides
    and outsides of buses, and the bus stop shelters, and which included
    a total of 17 different messages from the Big Guy himself, God. This
    non-denominational campaign was sponsored by an anonymous client who
    forked out literally thousands of dollars.

    1. Let's Meet At My House Sunday Before the Game - God
    2. C'mon Over And Bring The Kids - God
    3. What Part of "Thou Shalt Not..." Didn't You Understand? -  God
    4. We Need To Talk - God
    5. Keep Using My Name in Vain And I'll Make Rush Hour Longer - God
    6. Loved The Wedding, Invite Me To The Marriage - God
    7. That "Love Thy Neighbor" Thing, I Meant It. - God
    8. I Love You...I Love You...I Love You... - God
    9. Will The Road You're On Get You To My Place? - God
    10. Follow Me. - God
    11. Big Bang Theory, You've Got To Be Kidding. - God
    12. My Way Is The Highway. - God
    13. Need Directions? - God
    14. You Think It's Hot Here? - God
    15. Tell The Kids I Love Them. - God
    16. Need a Marriage Counselor? I'm Available. - God
    17. Have You Read My #1 Best Seller? There Will Be A Test. - God


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

    FIDONEWS 16-25               Page 8                   21 Jun 1999


    =================================================================
                             COMIX IN ASCII
    =================================================================

                            Cows in the Election

         \\                                    \\
          \\                                    \\
          / \                                   / \
         /   \                                 /   \
         \    \                                \    \
          \    \(__)                            \    \(__)
        *-->    (oo)                          *-->    (oo)
          /    / \/                           o /    / \/
         /    /                                /    /
         \   /                             o   \   /
          \ /                                   \ /
          //                                    //
         //                               o    //

     Stealth Bomber cow              Stealth cow on bombing run


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

    FIDONEWS 16-25               Page 9                   21 Jun 1999


    =================================================================
                    ADVERTISE YOUR FREE SERVICE/EVENT
    =================================================================


                           Editor Pro Tem Special

    Maybe you've wanted to publish your own Fidonews article, but
    weren't sure how to go about it.  Or perhaps you found the
    instructions in ARTSPEC.DOC, but they were daunting.

    Well, it's time to speak up!  During the month of June, I'm running
    an "Editor Pro Tem" special.  Concentrate on what you have to say
    and get it to me in some kind of readable ASCII, and I'll do the
    necessary formatting for publication.  You can send articles netmail
    to Douglas Myers at 1:379/720, or email to [email protected].


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

    FIDONEWS 16-25               Page 10                  21 Jun 1999


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

                      Future History

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

      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.

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

    NOTICE:  The FILE_ID.DIZ included with this issue now includes a
    brief summary of the contents of Fidonews.

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

    FIDONEWS 16-25               Page 11                  21 Jun 1999


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

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

      During the month of June, 1999, the Fidonews Editor is on
      vacation.  Editor Pro Tem during this period is Douglas Myers,
      1:270/720, [email protected].  Please address correspondence,
      article submissions, etc to the above addresses during this time.

      Editor: Henk Wolsink

      Editors Emeriti: 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  +27-41-581-5913,  2400/9600/V34

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

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

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

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    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

    FIDONEWS 16-25               Page 13                  21 Jun 1999


    and    http://www.fidonet.dynip.com/public/fidonews/default.htm

    and in the FIDONEWS echo.

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

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

    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

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