F I D O N E W S -- Vol.10 No.39 (27-Sep-1993) +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | A newsletter of the | | | FidoNet BBS community | Published by: | | _ | | | / \ | "FidoNews" BBS | | /|oo \ | +1-519-570-4176 1:1/23 | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | Editors: | | | | \ \\ | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 | | | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 | | |__U__| / \// | Tim Pozar 1:125/555 | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | Submission address: editors 1:1/23 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Internet addresses: | | | | Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Donald -- donald@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com | | Both Don & Sylvia (submission address) | | editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | For information, copyrights, article submissions, | | obtaining copies and other boring but important details, | | please refer to the end of this file. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ======================================================================== Table of Contents ======================================================================== 1. Editorial..................................................... 2 2. Articles...................................................... 2 Content Cops: Opening the Door to Censorship................ 3 The Importance of Echomail Security......................... 5 *** Comment: Elections in GCC Region 24 ***................. 8 ** statistic in region 24 **................................ 11 Electronic Magazines -- An Overview......................... 12 Background Performance with MsgTrack/Enhanced............... 14 Apologies to Bruce Bodger and JB Graham..................... 16 Thoughts on Advertising for Echos........................... 17 Report from Vecta 9......................................... 17 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 18 FidoNews 10-39 Page: 2 27 Sep 1993 ======================================================================== Editorial ======================================================================== A very interesting beginning article today ... we will have to wait to hear both sides of the story though. There is not much point in expressing an opinion until all sides have been heard from; suffice to say that censorship is not a thing we would like to see in Fidonet. There is a longish article from Germany concerning the Zone 2 region 24 reorganization. A list of all ex-fidonet members and a nodelist for the new net is available for FReq from this board. The file names are REG24.ZIP and REGION24.Z67 respectively. Last but not least, I am going to break one of our rules. (rules? WHAT rules?) I am going to let you know who wrote what today. This is Don writing. You see, Max wrote a note to someone today, and I thought that it should be used as the editorial ... I liked it. So here it is. "I met a really neat guy a few days ago. He juggles for a living. He stands on sidewalks and juggles, and tries to get passers-by to try juggling. He says, "if you don't drop the balls occasionally, you're not trying". We invited him to juggle in front of the art gallery during it's opening, and he came to a party here afterwards. For somethng to do at the party, we passed around a blank canvass and brushes and paint. An interesting conversation started to take place on the canvass. Everyone was trying to create something at the same time as witnessing what others were doing, because we were all painting in the same space. If someone had used the whole canvass and not left any room for more paint by someone else, it wouldn't have been such an interesting event, i suspect, even if the best artist in the room was the one to use all of the space. That's sort of how i see the net. We're all trying to say something and hear things in the same space at the same time with a new medium. It's an interesting experiment. I like to think of the Snooze as a canvass being passed around at a gathering. i need some breakfast. TTYL, smax" ======================================================================== Articles ======================================================================== FidoNews 10-39 Page: 3 27 Sep 1993 Content Cops: Opening the Door to Censorship Car 54 Where Are You? Someone Just Said "Penis" in BITCH! by: Phillip M. Dampier 1:2613/228 This just in from the Zone One Echomail Coordinator: DROPPED: A word about dropping echos. There are several echos which are candidates for being dropped due to the content of the echo. This is not an easy decision, and not one which the ZEC enters into lightly. It is not our desire nor will it ever be our practice to censor the contents of an echo. But when the contents of an echo are of such a character that they are more suitable for distribution on a network that is "adult" (if you know what I mean!) in nature it may be that we take a second look at the echo. Being that FidoNet typically exercises no control over whom may obtain an echo, whether they be 10 years old or 21 years old, many feel it is not in our best interest to be carriers of material which could be source of embarassment should a minor be found to be carrying such an echo. Where a moderator is actively working to bring and keep an echos language & participants above a minimal norm we are more than willing to work with everyone involved. Where the participants in an echo continue to be a source of problems to the moderator, and FidoNet, we may eventually act to remove the echo from the backbone and suggest that it be moved to private distri- bution or onto another network where the type of conver- sations typical of the echo may have their access controlled to those who are not minors. (end of statement) Once again, coordinators in Fidonet are overstepping appropriate boundaries in determining what is and is not appropriate. Last time, it was the Registration Police and now we're going to have a Conference Morals Police in order to "protect us." I am completely opposed to an arbitrary content enforcement policy for backboned Fidonet conferences. It opens the door to an unelected handful of individuals being able to pressure the Zone Echomail Coordinator into forcing their personal moral values on us or force the ZEC to remove a conference for its content, and sexual issues are obviously not the only criteria at work here. While Mr. Buda may be benevolent, there are absolutely no assurances that the precedent that is about to be set will not be used by a future ZEC from cracking down based on his own personal religious or moral beliefs. This concept opens the door to future abuses and censorship. I can understand the concerns that people have about access to adult information by minors, but this should be policed by individual FidoNews 10-39 Page: 4 27 Sep 1993 SysOps/nodes and conference moderators, not by a small handful of content cops. An example: A node finds the BITCH conference offensive. Instead of taking the correct approach of either turning off the conference or starting a different conference, he or she decides that because they don't like what is going on, changes HAVE to be forthcoming or else. The ZEC then receives a handful of selected messages, generally without any backround of the conference and its audience, and then decides to state that either the moderator steps in and stops the icky four letter words and sexual insults or else he will remove it from the backbone. No matter that 50-100 nodes or more pick and up and carry the conference without complaint. A small handful are appalled and simply won't turn off what offends them. This is the same thing that motivates Terry Rakolta and good ole Reverend Don Wildmon and the like. We should be using the same approach we use with offensive TV programs: if you don't like what you see, turn the channel. Another possibility: The current or future ZEC has religious or personal problems with the carriage of echos that pertain to gay and lesbian issues. Despite the fact the conferences are focused on political efforts and general socializing, a handful of religious zealots or others make the determination in their own mind that these conferences are "adult" in nature and that echos like GAYTEEN are an abomination. They move for these echos to be removed, despite the fact they are not packed with sex stories, because anything that talks about "gay or lesbian" is automatically adult in nature. A ZEC receptive to this kind of argument can then use this precedent to remove these echos from the Fidonet backbone. This is done essentially to silence the echo(s) in question. The same could happen to any echo dealing with a minority group, even to religious minorities. Whatever a small group of people is offended by is at risk. Let's not drop ourselves into this boondoggle. Haven't we learned that Fidonet serves a tremendously varied set of interests? Until individual nodes have the right to directly elect those people who want to play content cop with our echomail, these appointed people should not be given the right to slash echos that they or a few others can't seem to deal with. FidoNews 10-39 Page: 5 27 Sep 1993 Let's take the smart approach - the ZEC should instruct those who are offended by an echo's content to turn it off or start their own conference. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Importance of Echomail Security Michael Stroh 1:363/603 First let me say that I am not an expert in regards to the topic I am writing about. I had hoped to see someone else write about this, but as of now no one has. I feel that it is something that is important to all sysops in Fidonet (and Othernets as well). That something is Echomail Security. If you are connected to the FDECHO conference (possibly others, as well) you are already aware of its importance. For those of you not already connected, in the past month or so someone has been inserting a bunch of *very* off topic fraudulent messages into the conference. These messages have headers containing regular conference users information, adult oriented material in the body, and false tear lines, origin lines, SEEN-BY and PATH statements at the bottom. The messages are most likely put into distribution through unprotected systems. In order to make it more difficult to send these messages, ALL sysops should use the echomail security features that are available to them. You may be thinking, why bother, the areas I pick up don't have this problem. A few months ago it wasn't a problem in FDECHO either, your echos may be next. Take the time to secure your system now and prevent it from being used. To the best of my knowledge there are three ways to do this. 1) Secure Inbounds 2) Session Level Passwords 3) Packet Passwords I am not familiar with the secure inbound method of security. Perhaps someone else would write about how to make use of it. The session level password method of security is set up in the mailer software. It is used to ensure that the system calling you is in fact who they claim to be. If you send and receive mail regularly with a certain system you should set up a session level password with that system. This makes it more difficult for another person to impersonate that system and send you mail. I use Frontdoor 2.02 non-commercial and have a session level password set up with my hub. To set up a session level password in FD go to FDSETUP>Manager>Security and in the Password column enter a password to use. You must also make sure that the system on the other end sets up the same password. FidoNews 10-39 Page: 6 27 Sep 1993 To test the effectiveness of session level passwords on my system I changed the password on my system without my hub changing his. Here is the result from my FD.LOG (actual passwords masked): ---------- Tue 21 Sep 93, FD 2.02 + 13:46:48 Event 0-@ - 13:46:49 Preparing outbound mail = 13:51:04 RING = 13:51:21 CONNECT 14400/ARQ ? 13:51:23 Password error: Expected "XXXXXXXXXXX", received "XXXXXXXXXX" from 1:363/60 + 13:51:23 The Trap Door, 1:363/9017 ~ 13:51:23 SysOp: Randy Fox ~ 13:51:23 Using: D'Bridge B2011/002484 ~ 13:51:23 Flags: CM,XX,V32B,V42B ~ 13:51:23 Phone: 1-407-382-6035 ? 13:51:23 Session handshake failure - 13:51:54 Preparing outbound mail No connection was made. This *will not* prevent other systems from sending mail to you. It *will* make it difficult for other systems to impersonate your up/downlinks. (Note: In FD, it is possible to prevent systems without a password from connecting. Set FDSETUP>Mailer>Miscellaneous>Mail from "unprotected" systems to No. Any system calling will have to have a password set up or it will fail.) Packet level passwords are handled by your mail tosser. After receiving the mail from a "protected" system using a session level password. Your mail tosser will unarchive the mail file and check each packet for the correct password. If it finds one, it will continue tossing the mail. If it finds the incorrect password, or the password is missing, it will either fail to toss it or will handle it as defined by the software. I use Gecho 1.01+ which renames it with a PWD extension and notifies me with netmail that a problem occurred. To set up packet passwords in Gecho go to GSETUP>Node manager>Packet password and enter a password. Make sure the system on the other end uses the same password. You must also go to the Area Manager in GSETUP and in *every* area set Security to Yes. (You can do this as a Global option) Again I tested this on my system. I was first notified by a series of four netmail messages waiting in my netmail area telling me of the problem. One message for each connection with my hub. Here is one of them (actual passwords masked): - NETMAIL (1:363/603) ----------------------------------- NETMAIL - Msg : 4 of 4 - 3 Rcv Uns Pvt Loc From : GEcho 1:363/603 Tue 21 Sep 93 23:52 To : Michael Stroh 363/603 Subj : Notification ------------------------------------------------------------------- Packet password error: C:\FD\22328462.PKT (1:363/60) Received "XXXXXXXXXX", expected "XXXXXXXXXX" Packet renamed to C:\FD\22328462.PWD FidoNews 10-39 Page: 7 27 Sep 1993 Packet password error: C:\FD\22334388.PKT (1:363/60) Received "XXXXXXXXX", expected "XXXXXXXXX" Packet renamed to C:\FD\22334388.PWD Packet password error: C:\FD\22350088.PKT (1:363/60) Received "XXXXXXXXX", expected "XXXXXXXXX" Packet renamed to C:\FD\22350088.PWD --- I then checked my GECHO.LOG and found (actual passwords masked): ---------- Tue 21 Sep 93, GEcho/386 1.01+ # 23:52:57 Decompressing ZIP C:\FD\FILES\0000FDE1.TU3 # 23:52:58 Processing 22328462.PKT from 1:363/60 to 1:363/603 # 23:52:58 (D'Bridge 153.00, Type 2+)(Password)(9K, 21-Sep-93 23:28:22) # 23:52:58 Packet password error: C:\FD\22328462.PKT (1:363/60) # 23:52:58 Received "XXXXXXXXXX", expected "XXXXXXXXX" # 23:52:58 Packet renamed to C:\FD\22328462.PWD # 23:52:58 Processing 22334388.PKT from 1:363/60 to 1:363/603 # 23:52:58 (D'Bridge 153.00, Type 2+)(Password)(1K, 21-Sep-93 23:34:18) # 23:52:58 Packet password error: C:\FD\22334388.PKT (1:363/60) # 23:52:58 Received "XXXXXXXXXX", expected "XXXXXXXXX" # 23:52:58 Packet renamed to C:\FD\22334388.PWD # 23:52:58 Processing 22350088.PKT from 1:363/60 to 1:363/603 # 23:52:58 (D'Bridge 153.00, Type 2+)(Password)(5K, 21-Sep-93 23:50:03) # 23:52:58 Packet password error: C:\FD\22350088.PKT (1:363/60) # 23:52:58 Received "XXXXXXXXXX", expected "XXXXXXXXXX" # 23:52:58 Packet renamed to C:\FD\22350088.PWD # 23:52:59 Echo In: 0 Import: 0 Export: 0 Forward: 0 Out: 0 # 23:52:59 Net In: 0 Import: 0 Export: 0 Forward: 0 Out: 0 # 23:52:59 Active: 0:01 The packets without the correct passwords were not tossed into my message base (nor would they have been passed through my system). Instead they were renamed and sat here on my hard drive harmlessly waiting for me to examine them. The two programs I used as examples are the only ones I am personally familiar with. There are many others that support these security features and some that do not. If you are using software that has this support, use it. If you are using software that doesn't, switch to one that does. One final word about the FDECHO conference. I am sure that Bruce Bodger, the moderator, is doing everything possible to take care of the problem there. The echo has had more off topic messages in response to the fraudulent messages than fraudulent messages themselves. At the moderators request, please do not reply to, or discuss, those messages in the conference. FidoNews 10-39 Page: 8 27 Sep 1993 *** Comment: Elections in GCC Region 24 *** By Wolfgang Hanke [RC 24 @FidoClassic 2:24/0] (2:24/10 CommunicationGate) translation into english language by Ulrich Roeding Hallo Ron, Hallo All SysOps in Fido. =Here ist the RC 24 @FidoClassic speaking= It's my earnest hope, Fido will soon resolve to what it once was: ONE familiar union of congenial computer freaks. ~~~ Now for the guys at the top of Erich Janssen's 'Fido': You have improved impressively, how to change a hobby to a political drama with perilous results. Fido is a HOBBY! And in a hobby, nevertheless such an expensive one, war- games are misplaced. In all your arguments, you barricade behind policy. But there is no word about violent changes of net- structure in it. Oh yeah, I have read it- there is something about non- overlapping nets. Whether that is really senseful or not, I do not want to discuss at the moment. (Ron Dwight feels a bit offended anyway because I have told him something about the German telephone- net and now, he has no more ideas) :-(( I just remark: what has been done to fulfil policy in NODELIST.172, you already could have done in the LAST TWO YEARS! But suddenly some duty- minded policy- fans appear and put whole Germany upside down. Not that way, Sirs! On your side, I have heard arguments, without those violent changes, there never had been any regionalization. Are our nodes SILLY? - NO, they aren't! They are not stupid and they will NOT accept it. Thank Godness! FidoNews 10-39 Page: 9 27 Sep 1993 Here, in FidoClassic, we have demonstrated how to regionalize: The new 2476- net was initiated and founded as a regional net by the nodes themselves. You do not need any dictators, people can do it themselves much better. And they enjoy to have created something of their own! The role of an RC, in this case, is just to play the moderator and take care, that none of the nodes is violated, cheated or overrun. And -if the sysops want to- they will do it the same with a planned Weser/Ems regionalization. If you let the nodes from Schleswig- Holstein do as they want to and think it is correct, we already had a voluntary Schleswig- Holstein- net. But the GCC-troop came ahead and assigned a 2401- number due to psychotherapeutical reasons. Eat- or die! Fortunately, those nodes are no 'traitors'; that is prooved by the lots of mail, I have got. Most of them will draw back from 'their' net, if they don't get another net- number. You GCCs won't understand that now, nor does that fit into your concept :-((( Ok, elections are announced- everything will turn out for the best! Ahem? Nothing will turn out for the best! These elections are the last step of attempts to destroy FidoClassic. Elections are elections; that's correct! But in these elections, if executed as announced, only those may vote, who surrender the GCC- clan!!! And electable are only nodes, who have enough distance to the free and democratic FidoClassic. Eat- or die! No, not that way! NINEHUNDREDFOURTEEN nodes, with ONETHOUSANDONEHUNDREDANDSIXTYFOUR phone- lines, who are drawn up in the division of democratic fidolist, shout, no SCREAM at you: WE ARE THE SYSOPS! We all know, that many, many nodes on the other side in GCC- fido FidoNews 10-39 Page: 10 27 Sep 1993 also wish to participate in a peaceful, friendly and free Fido. But they do not dare to say, because they are frightened! They are afraid of the sharp, sometimes even impertinent comments of your 'executors'. Or is there any paragraph in the policy about that curiosity, a Mr. Schoenrad announced recently: Who doesn't drop his FidoClassic AKAs, is going to be excommunicated from the net! The amount of saucy comments appearing in ten mails from NODES.024, you won't find in a thousand one's from FidoClassic. Fortunately Erich, Gerhard and some other GCCs write in rather decent style. That's my honest opinion. But they still have to learn a lot about forming a hobby. After that long sermon, let me draw some conclusions: What I want for all 914 nodes (plus 321 SysOps appearing in both lists), what I demand for these nodes is: FIRST: +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | THE RIGHT TO VOTE FOR ALL SYSOPS IN BOTH LISTS !!! | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ Never forget: FidoClassic has much more friends than FidoLight. Or do you, GCCs, doubt? SECOND: +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | ELECTION OF AN RC HAS TO BE HANDLED BY A GERMAN ELECTION MANAGER !!! | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ Who wants to call to Finland for a vote? And who guarantees, Ron will accept EACH candidature? THIRD: +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | THE RC HAS TO BE ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE! | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ If those three conditions are fulfilled, then we (you, Erich and I), have reached our common aim: FidoNews 10-39 Page: 11 27 Sep 1993 ONE UNITED FIDO IN REGION 24 Thanks for reading... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ** statistic in region 24 ** Von : Wolfgang Hanke, 2:24/0 (Sonntag, den 26. September 1993 10:13) Statistik: Region 24 ~~~~~~~~~~ View of nodelist entrys: Nodelist | 197| 204| 211| 218| 225| 232| 239| 246| 253| 260| 267| 274 ============+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+==== List totaly |2945|2880|2929|2907|2917|2920|2944|2983|3119|3124|3118| Difference | +8| -65| +49| -22| +10| +3| +24| +39|+136| +5| -6| ------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- GCC-Fido |1336|1324|1364|1401|1421|1421|1444|1452|1473|1534|1501| Difference | +4| -12| +40| +37| +20| 0| +23| +8| +21| +61| -33| % |45,4|46,0|46,6|48,2|48,7|48,7|49,0|48,7|47,2|49,1|48,1| ------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- FidoClassic |1609|1556|1565|1506|1496|1499|1500|1531|1646|1590|1617| Difference | +4| -53| +9| -59| -10| +3| +1| +31|+115| -56| +27| % |54,6|54,0|53,4|51,8|51,3|51,3|51,0|51,3|52,8|50,9|51,9| ============+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+==== | | | | | | | | | | | | View of telefone lines: Nodelist | 197| 204| 211| 218| 225| 232| 239| 246| 253| 260| 267| ================+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+ List totaly |2207|2232|2274|2296|2319|2339|2378|2424|2472|2512|2535| Difference | +42| +25| +42| -22| +23| +20| +39| +46| +48| +40| +23| ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ GCC-Fido | 681| 759| 791| 875| 908| 925| 961| 980| 987|1027|1020| Difference | +39| +78| +32| +84| +33| +17| +36| +19| +7| +40| -7| % |30,9|34,1|34,8|38,1|39,2|39,6|40,4|40,4|40,0|40,9|40,2| ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ FidoClassic | 990|1026|1034|1024|1027|1047|1063|1094|1130|1118|1164| Difference | +27| +36| +8| -10| +3| +20| +16| +31| +36| -12| +46| % |44,9|46,0|45,5|44,6|44,3|44,8|44,7|45,1|45,7|44,5|45,9| ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ Listed in both | 536| 447| 449| 397| 384| 367| 354| 350| 355| 367| 351| lists | -24| -89| +2| -52| -13| -17| -13| -4| +5| +12| -16| % |24,3|19,9|19,7|17,3|16,5|15,6|14,9|14,5|14,3|14,6|13,9| ================+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+ | | | | | | | | | | | | List of SysOps: Nodelist | 197| 204| 211| 218| 225| 232| 239| 246| 253| 260| 267| FidoNews 10-39 Page: 12 27 Sep 1993 ===============+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+ SYSOPS totaly |1791|1813|1834|1861|1878|1894|1917|1942|1977|2008|2017| Difference | +21| +22| +21| +27| +17| +16| +23| +25| +35| +31| +9| ---------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ GCC-fido | 527| 585| 607| 668| 698| 714| 741| 754| 758| 788| 782| Difference | +24| +58| +22| +61| +30| +16| +27| +13| +4| +30| -6| % |29,4|32,3|32,9|35,9|37,2|37,7|38,7|38,8|38,3|39,2|38,8| ---------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ FidoClassic | 800| 826| 834| 827| 827| 843| 852| 867| 896| 879| 914| Difference | +21| +26| +8| -7| 0| +16| +9| +15| +29| -17| +35| % |44,7|45,6|45,3|44,4|44,0|44,5|44,4|44,7|45,3|43,8|45,3| ---------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ listed in both | 464| 402| 402| 366| 353| 337| 354| 321| 323| 341| 321| lists | -24| -62| 0| -36| -13| -16| +17| -33| +2| +18| -20| % |25,9|22,2|21,8|19,7|18,8|17,8|14,9|16,5|16,4|17,0|15,9| ===============+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+ | | | | | | | | | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic Magazines -- An Overview Electronic Magazines -- An Overveiw by Todd Jacobs, Digital Publisher 1:109/182 Electronic publishing is a fledgling industry that is just now leaving its infancy. Up until now, digital (or "paperless") publishing was a buzz-word without much substance to it. But now that commercial sources are starting to climb onto the bandwagon, electronic magazines are gaining a larger measure of acceptability. There are currently several types of electronic magazines. The main categories are Freeware, Shareware, and Commercial. All three share many traits, but differ widely in quality and means of distribution. The free 'zines are the most widespread. Usually done in vanilla ASCII (ie. plain text files), these freeware magazines are by far the most common type of electronic magazine. They cover every imaginable subject, such as poetry (Poetry In Motion - Inez Harrison, ed.), fiction (Ruby's Pearls - Del Freeman, ed.), humor (Random Access Humor - Dave Bealer, ed.) to our very own FidoNews. While free, these magazines are nevertheless copyrighted. As such, they provide a safe, convenient means of exposure for amateur writers, poets, and pontificators of all sorts. And since anyone with enough time and a text editor can become a publisher, this format is a great place to start if you are interested in becoming a digital publisher. The next category consists of Shareware E-mags. The electronic magazines in this category share a lot of similarities with the free 'zines, but tend to be a little more "upscale." At this level, magazines aquire more gloss, often by employing multimedia and hypertext features. FidoNews 10-39 Page: 13 27 Sep 1993 As a result, shareware magazines often have larger file sizes, due to the inclusion of special "readers" (programs required to view multimedia or hypertext) and high-resolution graphics. This puts shareware e-mags out of the reach of hobbyists with slower modems or older (non-VGA) graphics cards. Magazines in this category are frequently distributed FREE, but request donations from readers to support the magazines. Some, like the magazines offered by Jacobs Publishing, LTD offer bonus features to registered users. Since no successful e-mag has been distributed as crippleware, shareware publishers depend on voluntary donations and registrations to maintain their "upscale" look and to pay contributors. The last category, commercial e-mags, is extremely rare. EEEK-Bits, available only from its home BBS, is the only one I have heard of, although there may be others. The central failing of commercial e-mags is the lack of wide-spread distribution. Since distributing an e-mag through a file network removes the publisher's ability to charge for the magazine at point-of-sale, the only way to distribute one is from a publisher-controlled BBS with a credit card door (or some similar pay-as-you-go setup), or by mailing diskettes to pre-paid subscribers. This methodology prevents a publication from gaining a wide audience, and is unlikely to become fashionable for periodicals. Commerical e-mags may, however, carve a niche for themselves by advertising in shareware or freeware magazines, thereby piggy-backing on the wider distribution that non-commercial publications enjoy. It will be at least five to ten years before commercial e-mags/e-books become widely available. While many traditional publishing houses have been making noises in this direction, the emphasis on reaching the non-computer hobbyist requires that hand-held computers and CD technology be more affordable than today's PC. Currently, the cost of mastering a book or magazine on CD-ROM is prohibitive, except in bulk -- and how many people out there actually have CD-ROMS, and are willing to shell out $10-30 a pop for a magazine?! Even on diskette, the cost of mass duplication, commercial packaging, and retail distribution would require electronic publications to cost at least as much as paperback books -- perhaps even more. Without the savings available to electronic publishers who distribute their material completely electronically, the only market value such offerings could have would be novelty. Novelty alone will not recoupe the publisher's investment, either in time or money -- so why bother? For now, the future of electronic publishing still belongs to the hobbyist. With time and hard work, the pioneer and the entrepreneur will make electronic publishing a household name. But until then, e-mags offer a cornucopia of free entertainment for the enthusiastic reader -- and all without leaving the comfort of your own home! FidoNews 10-39 Page: 14 27 Sep 1993 +====================================================================+ | Shareware magazines published by the author: | | | | Cybersuasions (tm) ....... The Premier Adult Electronic Magazine | | BBSoterica (tm) .......... The In-Depth BBS Compendium | | Electronic Review (tm) ... The litarary magazine devoted to | | showcasing the best in fiction, poetry, | | and artwork. | +====================================================================+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Background Performance with MsgTrack/Enhanced by Dave Hunter 1:243/3 The recently released version of MsgTrack Enhanced coupled with Frontdoor 2.20, gives today's Sysops a powerful, flexible and convenient means to move electronic mail to and from their node with minimal impact on their Mailer/BBS operations. FrontDoor's multi node capabilities and near perfect use of semaphore files make it an ideal mailer to use in conjunction with Andrew Farmer's MsgTrack Enhanced (MT). While the integration of these two software packages can be as diverse as the systems they run on, Sysops now have the means to implement background importing and exporting of electronic mail. It is this option that I wish to address. Those Sysops who choose to run their systems under Desqview or Desqview/X instead of a buggy OS/2 or other "not really DOS compatible" operating system can easily increase the availability of their FrontDoor mailer(s) to accept inbound connects by performing all of their message base operations in a background task. For the purpose of this presentation, I am assuming that you are running FD and MT Enhanced under Desqview. I further assume that you have correctly installed them and understand terms such as semaphore files, task numbers and batch files. This is not a walk through of how to install either FD, MT or DV but is an advanced option for those who are convinced that their installation of DV, a mailer, an echomail tosser and mt are stable and functioning properly. In the Unix world there exists a little program called CRON. This is essentially a little timer program that takes up very little memory and does not significantly impact on the performance of the system running it. CRON is a scheduler that sits and waits to "launch" jobs at the appropriate time. This nifty utility is available for use by DOS systems and should be found on a system near you as DVCRON21.* 1) Once you have FD/MT/DV running smoothly together, the addition of a scheduler such as CRON running in a background window is all you need. Disable Frontdoor from exiting when mail/files are received - the CRON job will now take care of this for you. In FDSETUP define FidoNews 10-39 Page: 15 27 Sep 1993 a semaphore to be created when FD receives new mail. This semaphore will be used to see if it is necessary to run MT when the CRON job is launched. 2) Install CRON. The program installation is simple and the docs are less than three pages so you shouldn't have any difficulty. Here is the CRONTAB file that I use: 05 * * * * -b crontoss.bat 10 * * * * -b crontoss.bat 15 * * * * -b crontoss.bat 20 * * * * -b crontoss.bat 25 * * * * -b crontoss.bat 30 * * * * -b crontoss.bat 35 * * * * -b crontoss.bat 40 * * * * -b crontoss.bat 45 * * * * -b crontoss.bat 50 * * * * -b crontoss.bat 55 * * * * -b crontoss.bat 59 * * * * -b crontoss.bat After reading the CRON docs this file will make a lot more sense, but essentially all it does is to tell CRON to run a batchfile (CRONTOSS.BAT) every five minutes. Here is my CRONTOSS.BAT: @echo off :start if exist c:\fd\semaphor\cron.1 goto end rem >c:\fd\semaphor\cron.1 c: cd\fd if exist c:\fd\semaphor\fmalive.1 goto uucp if exist c:\fd\semaphor\fdinexit.1 goto uucp if not exist c:\fd\semaphor\newmail.1 goto uucp fdsecure mt in del c:\fd\semaphor\newmail.1 :uucp if not exist c:\waffle\spool\aficom\*.x goto reset if exist c:\fd\semaphor\uuinsess goto reset rem > c:\fd\semaphor\uuinsess uuxqt -crmail -fC=5000000 uuxqt -crnews -fC=10000000 batch -unews del c:\fd\semaphor\uuinsess :reset del c:\fd\semaphor\cron.1 :end exit FidoNews 10-39 Page: 16 27 Sep 1993 On my system I receive both Fidonet email and UUCP news. Every five minutes, CRON opens a DV window and runs the above batchfile. Starting from the top, I check to make sure that the previous crontoss has completed. I do this by checking for the semaphore cron.1. If the previous job is not completed there is no need to run it again, so I goto end. If there is no crontoss job running (ie no cron.1 semaphore) I then check to see if someone (me) is currently writing mail (if exist fmalive.1). If I am writing mail, I really don't want it being exported out from under me so I abort the cron job (goto uucp). If I am not writing mail, but a user has logged on (fdinexit.1) I choose not to import any mail, but you may or may not want to abort the crontoss based on the requirements of your own system. After checking for all of the above conditions and assuring myself that it is indeed ok to proceed, I do so. Fdsecure is a program I run to ensure that only certain systems are sending me important files such as the nodediff and fnews etc. "MT in" results in MT importing any Fidonet mail that happens to be sitting in my inbound. After finishing the Fido stuff, I proceed to process any UUCP News that may have arrived since the last crontoss was run. Waffle handles multi-users better than my Fido BBS software, so it is not as important for me to check to see if a user is online or if someone is writing mail/news when the crontoss is invoked. So, if there is some UUCP stuff to do, we do it. The "exit" at the very end of the batchfile causes DV to close the window that CRON has opened to run CronToss.bat. Five minutes later this whole process is repeated. I would recommend the use of DOS's SHARE.EXE. MT will read the many semaphore files produced by FD and will not attempt to add to a mail bundle that is already being sent to a node and conversely won't attempt to unpack mail that is in the process of being delivered to you. If MT does not add mail to an outbound bundle on this run for some reason, the mail will not be lost but will be bundled on the next run. All in all, my mailer is a lot more accessible. If I'm not actually connected to someone, or in an external event, FD is sitting there waiting for the next call rather than being unloaded after every call to toss some mail. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Apologies to Bruce Bodger and JB Graham By: Todd Basnaw. 1:170/911 Apologies or A lesson to be learned In a recent article, I had accused Bruce Bodger and JB Graham of kicking FidoNews 10-39 Page: 17 27 Sep 1993 out a fellow sysop for not registering RA. I have found that this was not the whole story. From other sources, I found that the board in question had been ignoring policy by way of ignoring netmail to rectify a rash of NO CONNECTS and constant failure of the BBS causing it to be down too much. From Fido policy, Bruce and JB ARE doing their jobs as best they can. They manage to get the nodediffs out and fidonews letters and all the echomail. This, by policy standards, is the ONLY job they are really required to do. The net does run smooth and everything else is pretty much under control. It would seem all of us, at one time or another make mistakes and not see everything, causing us to "Jump to conclusions". One thing I've found out from JB is his ability to make sure all "viewing angles" are covered to make the final conclusion as fair as possible. Bruce Bodger is a good guy, in his own way. He cares about other people's time and effort to make RA a good piece of software and a lot of us do tend to take things for granted. He feels like the way Elvis Presley's "partner" felt when a record company stole his song. The moral of this story is: Until you do all the necessary research, keep your mouth shut. Apologies to Bruce Bodger and JB Graham for not seeing things clearly. Thanks to a confidential friend for pointing out my faults. Todd Basnaw ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thoughts on Advertising for Echos Echo Advertising By Wes Perkhiser 1:285/666.20 Every so often, an article appears in the Snooze advertising for a new echo. Since the effort to set up a new feed, echo area, etc. is not trivial, I at least prefer to look at a few message threads first, before deciding whether to subscribe. Perhaps it would be useful if the person who enters the ad would also make a small (say, a couple of dozen messages) file available for file request, so that potential subscribers could look at what is available before committing to getting the echo. This will take a little extra effort, but I think that you may pick up a few more nodes that way. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Report from Vecta 9 (newly discovered galaxy, 25,000,000,000light years from Earth) Archaelogists, and a team of scientific personnel, consisting of anthropologists; botanists; physical chemists; geomorphists; zoologists; physicists; physical anthropologists and metallurgists, uncovered today, what might be the citadel heard of in the ancient epic; Georegwasdwibur, written in the latter half of the twentieth century C.E. FidoNews 10-39 Page: 18 27 Sep 1993 There had always been a belief that part of the mainland of Europe. Along with Guildford, Hastings and a section around the M25, had disappeared off the face of the earth. Taking with it, a number of baddies. According to the Epic poem, the baddies were: Ronus Dwightusnecessitis, Keitho Wassamarrawithyouamallrightusjackus, Perlo Burnuptopusneedsaguidingholdmyhandcosiamacowardandcantfightforthe- rest, Nohell Bradfordyesmancosialwayswantedpowerandnowihaveit, Frazlo Peterkeepyerknickeroniknowhatisbestformeandyou. The story goes like this:- The five aforementioned heroes, of the School of Neo-Stoics, wanted to change the way Europe looked. (This is not possible any good archaelogist will tell you Geomorphological changes take many thousands of years). They also wished the inhabitants in their domain would kiss their derryaires! The inhabitants did not agree. So after much debating where the neo-stoics agreed with themselves, they played with themselves for a while, they passed a law. You do what I say, or we shall use bad language, put you down, tell you to drop dead, or worst still, take you out of the telephone book. Fine, the inhabitants wrote to their local journal, doggienews. They were threatened and abused, AND a week or so later retractions appeared in the snooze! Sorry, I misunderstood the Neo-Stoics, they were right, see here, I am not only kissing their backsides, I am kissing their balls as well. The long and short of it is, that one night, while they slept, the inhabitants got all the rocket power they could muster. Put it under the lot of them and fired them into space. Today 21.328.68999, we have found them. All tests confirm who they are. Inserted into where their anal orifices would have been was a document. POLICY4.ZIP. Now we have to translate it. But from what we know, it is a part of a very sacred book Tim Owen 2:25/53.602 ps who lives in hope that points will not be geomorphasised! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================== Fidonews Information ======================================================================== FidoNews 10-39 Page: 19 27 Sep 1993 ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ---------------- Editors: Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Tim Pozar Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tom Jennings IMPORTANT NOTE: The FidoNet address of the FidoNews BBS has been changed!!! Please make a note of this. "FidoNews" BBS FidoNet 1:1/23 BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS) Internet addresses: Don & Sylvia (submission address) editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca Donald -- donald@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com (Postal Service mailing address) (have extreme patience) FidoNews 172 Duke St. E. Kitchener, Ontario Canada N2H 1A7 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 1993 Sylvia Maxwell. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or FidoNews (we're easy). OBTAINING COPIES: The-most-recent-issue-ONLY of FidoNews in electronic form may be obtained from the FidoNews BBS via manual download or Wazoo FileRequest, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet. PRINTED COPIES may be obtained from Fido Software for $10.00US each PostPaid First Class within North America, or $13.00US elsewhere, mailed Air Mail. (US funds drawn upon a US bank only.) INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.fidonet.org, in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonet/fidonews. If you have questions regarding FidoNet, please direct them to deitch@gisatl.fidonet.org, not the FidoNews BBS. (Be kind and patient; David Deitch is generously volunteering to handle FidoNet/Internet questions.) FidoNews 10-39 Page: 20 27 Sep 1993 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 BBS, or Wazoo filerequestable from 1:1/23 as file "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. Asked what he thought of Western civilization, M.K. Gandhi said, "I think it would be an excellent idea". -- END ----------------------------------------------------------------------