F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No.51 (19-Dec-1994) +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" BBS | | _ | +1-519-570-4176 | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | Small animal psychology and | | (_| /_) | Spiritual guidance Department: | | _`@/_ \ _ | Rev. Richard Visage 1:163/409 | | | | \ \\ | | | | (*) | \ )) | Editor: | | |__U__| / \// | Donald Tees 1:221/192 | | _//|| _\ / | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 | | (_/(_|(____/ | Tim | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | Submission address: editors 1:1/23 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | MORE addresses: | | | | Don -- don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Max -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Tim Pozar -- pozar@kumr.lns.com | | David Deitch -- 1:133/411.411, deitch@gisatl.fidonet.org | | submissions=> editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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..................................................... 2 2. Articles...................................................... 2 Censorship? Read a dictionary instead....................... 2 New Contest for all Fidonetters!............................ 3 Dear Reverend Visage,....................................... 4 CORELDRAW echo available.................................... 7 Subject: ECHO RAMMINGS AND PKTIM............................ 7 What the hell is the ZC's PROBLEM ANYHOW?!.................. 8 ECSTASY echo available...................................... 9 Just My Humble Opinion about Fidonews....................... 10 Vengeance is ours........................................... 11 RUNE'S RAG & RAH changing . . .............................. 13 He's back................................................... 13 Comment on FidoNews Vol.11 No.50: a letter to the editor.... 15 Reformatting FidoNews....................................... 15 Age Discrimination?......................................... 20 q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q................................... 22 Some Real Future Problems................................... 23 Echo area Advertisment...................................... 25 FidoNews 11-51 Page: 2 19 Dec 1994 A quick comment on commercial advertising................... 26 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 27 ======================================================================== Editorial ======================================================================== We have a large issue this week ... in fact one of the largest we have ever had. So. No editorial, just the snooze, and a wish for a good Christmass from Max and I to those that celebrate it (and the rest too ...) ;<) ======================================================================== Articles ======================================================================== Censorship? Read a dictionary instead. By Rick Pali (1:163/328) In Snooze 1148 Tom Rightmer, 1:385/0 wrote: >I fail to understand why this is necessary in a >publication of this type, especially when you >consider that children will be reading this garbage. When I read this, I thought Tom was going to go after what I'd consider *really* offensive profanity. Then I read this: >What's next after "Dominatrix"? I can just hear >junior now, "Daddy, what is a dominatrix?" Dominatrix? Never had my mouth washed out for that one! Yes, I know what it means but does it *really* mean that? Could it be a word that has had it's meaning corrupted? Let's see. Pulling out my handy-dandy Shorter Oxford, dominatrix is defined as "A female dominator or ruler." Hmmm...nothing bad there. Perhaps 'dominator' is where all the dirt is. The Oxford says about dominator: "1. A person who or thing which dominates; a ruler, a lord. 2. A planet or sign that dominates a particular person or region." Nope nothing bad there either. Perhaps if junior asks what something means, he should be directed to the dictionary. No need to conduct a book-burning because the first thing *you* thing of is perhaps morally reprehensible. Rick. FidoNews 11-51 Page: 3 19 Dec 1994 New Contest for all Fidonetters! By Michael Johnson Hello again Fidonetters! Once again I am coming to you through the void to make another tasteless offering of community fun, Fido-style. Yes, I have a project that is both loads of fun and cathartic at the same time. I propose at this time that the annual FLAME Asshole of the Year (AOY) be expanded beyond the usual boundaries of FLAME to include the entire Fidonet population at large. For several years now we have been hoarding our precious AOY contest all by ourselves in a secluded, secretive manner that patently ignores other non-FLAME participants and persons who avoid FLAME for whatever reason. It has come to our attention that there are several AOY-quality candidates out there who for one reason or another have never been included into our little admiration society...mostly because they do not participate in FLAME. I have decided to change all of that as of this year, since I am the duly appointed AOY election coordinator 1994. Oh, there is another one-armed no-penis skinhead over there named Shithead who has decided to hijack the AOY contest from it's rightful owners, but we are just ignoring the dumb cow-milking bastard and so should you. I am in control of this contest and anyone who says different is running the risk of getting their hard-drive smoked from a mysterious virus from....uhhhh somewhere. *How to nominate- To nominate a person for Fidonet Asshole of the Year(TM), you simply have to post a quick letter to Shelby Sherman at 1:123/67. Sheets is our official tallier of AOY nominations. You will need to include your netmail address and a quick synopsis of why you think your nominee should be recognized as the Fidonet Asshole of the Year(TM). You nomination should be dated no later than Dec. 21, 1994 and should be received by Sheets Sherman no later than Dec. 25, 1994. PLEASE BE SPECIFIC as to the asshole-qualifications of your nominee so that we can quickly categorize it along with the hundreds of others submitted. The decision of the judge(s) is/are final as long as they agree with me. That's the kind of asshole I really am. *What we are looking for- We are plainly not interested in the usual anal-retentives you might find annoying, troublesome or idiotic. No, we are looking for the champions of the world. Your NC probably will not qualify for the coveted FAOY award because there are so many NC's and most are assholes 99% of the time anyhow. No, these are people we _expect_ to be assholes...they do not count. Your RC/REC's might find it tough to fade the competetion available as well, so unless the FIDOnet FidoNews 11-51 Page: 4 19 Dec 1994 officer (*C) you have in mind is one whale-of-an-asshole, forget it. They are assholes because you elected them to be assholes...no points. We are looking for the real bottom-scrapings of the asshole pile here in Fido. Consider that if your nomination is not below our minimum standards, we will turn our vengance upon you, sending assholish replies in triplicate...with spelling errors marked in red ANSI thingamajiggers. *Why we are doing this- Because Fido is getting really boring and we need to raise the netwide blood pressure readings for sysops in order to power our new satellite system uplink and break the backs of the corporate power-mongering censorship-prone dorks over at Planet Connect. Absolute uplink power corrupts absolutely...and we are gonna try to run the bastards out of business by running on a source of energy that is replenishable and freely available....rising sysop bloodpressures. *Alternate reason why we are doing this- it needs to be done. Fido needs a ranking system for the plethora of assholes we now have available. Gone are the days when we can count the number of true network assholes on one hand. We are now at the point that we may have to consider categories instead of one true singular award....ah well, we'll see how it goes next year before we do anything _really_ drastic. I might wind this up by saying that this is a REAL contest and an award WILL BE given as well as an update announcement in Fidonews. We are quite serious about our coveted award and I am taking a lot of flak for going out netwide with what had been previously an award reserved only to Flamers of tenure. If you don't have someone who is a serious, total asshole...don't even waste our time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Editor-Beings: Please indicate that the following article is submitted by Charles Herriot (1:163/110) so that poor Dallas doesn't get his knickers in a knot over authorship. (Note to Dallas: Hon, couldja add a few more lines of invective about Swamp Swine magazine... we're bigtime upset that you didn't even mention that we smell funny.) Swamp Swine Magazine, Caesar's Wife Was Easy Division, Shuckmagosh, Ohio Dear Reverend Visage, It is no exaggeration to say that the shot has really hit the faun. My house is being picketed by a bunch of Bambi-loving fanatics, identifying themselves as "Deer Nation." It seems that mentioning Bob "Bob" Satti and moose FidoNews 11-51 Page: 5 19 Dec 1994 in the same sentence has been described as injurious to the perfectly good reputations of meese. To moose everywhere, my abject apologies. (And now, if the Deer Nation folks would stop threatening to "out" me for the incident where I partook of a small piece of WhiteTail, I'd be able to lash this thing together and get it sent off to Snoozland.) How much do you think Swamp Swine will pay Dallas "Nearer My Bob To Me" Hinton for that ringing endorsement of their esteemed rag? I mean, stirring words like "poor quality innuendo and trash masquerading as political satire" are just about the nicest things that anyone has ever said about Swamp Swine. A tear came to my eye, which really had almost nothing to do with the bouts of laughter that were convulsing my poor hulk. Dallas "Cheerleader" Hinton went onwards to get all of his appendages into his mouth when he critiqued the Snooz. Dallas took umbrage with the fact that the long, boring screed about the various Stein vs. Kolin appeals were unsigned, unattributed and represented something that he identified as an "attempt to subvert due process." I think I will pause a moment to reflect upon "due process." One wonders if Dallas would rather that the *Cs be permitted to render decisions under the cloak of darkness, unfettered by public scrutiny. If such is the case, then perhaps Dallas ought to be slapped upside the head with the parable involving Caesar's wife. The paraphrase that fits this context is that justice must not only be done, but be SEEN to be done. If the Johnston and Satti render decisions which are abjectly idiotic, then it is quite appropriate to raise that opinion and support it by the documentary evidence upon which these boneheads made their decision. I submitted the long boring screed and wrote those parts which weren't obviously quotes from the *C-beings who rendered the various decisions. Poor Dallas leapt to one of his many incorrect assumptions by attributing the article to Luke Kolin. I noted that Satti didn't bother to respond, no doubt feeling that by sending in the second string clown in the form of Dallas would serve to defend the Divine Rights of *C-beings. This probably has much to do with what should be Satti's embarrassment for having issued a decision so devoid of reason or concepts of justice. Poor Dallas just doesn't get it. The Snooz is whatever the contributors choose to make it. If Dallas wants it to become the sort of uplifting journal that he would be proud to use for training his dogs, then the onus is on him to write and submit articles. Since the Snooz will print almost anything that comes in over the transom, it can't be "unkaputtnix" by cloacally-impaired weenies who whine about content. (P.S. to Dirk Ohme: Your cheque's in the mail for royalties on the great new word.) Special mention should go to Ryan "Follow Your Daughter Home" Watson who summed up his WhineMail(tm) with the FidoNews 11-51 Page: 6 19 Dec 1994 statement that while he can swear like a sailor he doesn't want his daughter exposed to that sort of thing. Could some kind soul please undertake to produce a "Ryan's Daughter" version of the Snooz so that the poor hypocrite can continue to believe that his daughter won't acquire a rich vocabulary as well? As to limiting Fidonet access to 18 and overs, I would think that he just hasn't gone far enough with this idea... surely he would want the whole net composed of mouthbreathing, tub-thumping, cretins so that he is surrounded by his peers in the unlikely event that he lets slip one of the seven words that used to be forbidden on television. A nice warm hand job for Ryan, I say, and may the farce be with him. We should inveigle some Snooz slushfunds to send out to poor Rick Moen who lives on the California fault lines. What has engendered my solicitous feelings for Rick has to do with the fact that, while having the nodediff segment read to me, I noted that our lil' buddy Johnny "President of the Commodore Computer Club" Hart has been lofted into an NC position. Who says that the California Spam 'N Timmies can't eventually achieve greatness, and to think that we knew Johnny when he was just another ill-humoured troll who helped garrote the Commode D'OR echo. When Rick Moen realizes that we're gonna blame him for Johnny's election, he may want to rethink the lamed waff offer. (Special note to Ryan: Even though I am sure that you are a cunning lingoist, you ought to know that "lamed waf" isn't a swear word.) Your absence has caused the natives to become restless. Even the the editrix is arguing with herselves about your disappearance. I suspect that you are glued to your television, watching the Australian National Cricket team throw hard red balls at the shins of opposing teams. This sport where grown men spend whole days trying to knock three little sticks down has to be your kind of entertainment. Do drop Emilia a line, if for no other reason than to instruct her on what she is supposed to do with the three truckloads of Great Auk guano that you thoughtfully ordered. I must go Visage, the Deer Nation folks have invaded my wine cellars and have started to flail the velvet from the wallpaper. There'll be heck to pay if they find out that your flintlock was used to knock off Bambi's mother. Regards, Doc Logger, Giant Clam School of Ballet & Surfing, Yap Island, Micronesia FidoNews 11-51 Page: 7 19 Dec 1994 CORELDRAW echo available CORELDRAW echo available from 1:163/328 CorelDraw is the leading professional graphics package available for PCs running MS Windows. With a program as complex as this one, there are bound to be tips and tricks you're not aware of to help you work faster and better. Tune in to the CORELDRAW echo to discuss the software, and how you work with it. If you're interested in a feed, or more information, please feel free to drop me a netmail message. Rick Pali CORELDRAW Moderator 1:163/328 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: ECHO RAMMINGS AND PKTIM From: Bill Dirks (1:250/603) To: Editor (1:1/23) This letter is to inform all concerned with the echo rammings of a rather disturbing revelation. The recent barrage of filth that has plummeted into Virus, Virus_Info, and Dirty_Dozens was not the only problem we have regarding rammings. The cretins have now attacked the Pascal conference. It is well known that most of the Virus_Nfo participants are programmers in C. I have information to the fact that this latest attack was again headed up by the moderator of one of the virus conferences in an attempt to get the users of the Pascal conference to abandon it, and join the C echos. This activity CANNOT, and WILL NOT be tolerated! I am sure there are a lot of programmers who are happy with Pascal, and do not wish to read the C echos, not to mention learn yet another language. I am also disturbed by the release of a program by Adrian Walker called PKTIM. I have it on good information that Mr. Walker is in cahoots with the rest of these cretins, and deliberately released this program with the power to add phoney kludge lines to bogus packets. Adrian Walker apparently has a problem with the recent *C elections, and is disgruntled about the outcome. This is his way of "getting even". PKTIM will allow the insertion of bogus kludge lines into packets very readily, and is a virtual nightmare in light of the recent rammings. Adrian makes it very clear that "improper use of PKTIM could be in violation of Fido Policy". Well, Walker has just tripped himself up with the support and release of this evil program, as he is now in the public spotlight, and the FidoNews 11-51 Page: 8 19 Dec 1994 "jig" is up. He SAYS that PKTIM is basically designed to detect grunged and bogus packets, but we already HAVE programs to do that. Now I ask you, was the release of this package REALLY for the good of Fido? Where is the bright side to this whole thing? Again, I am currently pursuing this further, and have enlisted some help of my own. With the help of Alan Taylor of the U.S. Customs Service, we will bring the justice to those involved in this heinous conspiracy. He can be reached at 317-784-5725 between 11pm and 7:30am CDT with any pertinant information you might have. We simply cannot allow ourselves to be held hostage by these cretins, and must fight back. I will keep all posted on the situation as it progresses. This is not to be taken lightly. One last thing. Be sure to use session level passwords! I cannot stress that enough. In my last articles I explained the reason for this, and will not repeat it here, but can tell you that you MUST use session level passwords to lock out these cretins from your system. I am seriously considering publically boycotting the Virus_Nfo and Flame conferences publically, as well as the use of PKTIM. Perhaps while we are bringing about justice, we can slow the much-wanted traffic in these echos to a halt, legally, and eliminate the use of PKTIM for diabolical reasons. Please join me in this peacful protest. Let's take Fido back, and again, make it the best in the world! Bill Dirks ---------------------------------------------------------------------- What the hell is the ZC's PROBLEM ANYHOW?! By Delbert Felton Great goathair, you guys! What in the H E Double-Ell is going on up there? It seems like everything in the world is going wrong and it's all that darned ZC's fault! I mean the guys who were complaining about Fidonews being impossible for blind folks to read. What the hell is the ZC going to do about THAT?....and another thing, why the heck can't he get those guys over in zones 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7(those guys!) all together and somehow achieve a group cyber-hug or something to get their damned nerves down? NOOOOOOooooooo, they have to always be in a snit, filing a bunch of policy complaints and being disruptive. Why can't we all get along? The ZC....it's that simple. I have been reading the last few issues and I am starting to come to the conclusion that the ZC (Bob Satti 1:1/0) is actually the devil himself, evil incarnate. Yes, I know that is a rather harsh pronouncement, but what else can one think when confronted with as much evidence as presented in Fidonews 1149? We have to FidoNews 11-51 Page: 9 19 Dec 1994 excise this evil among us and place a wooden stake against his throbbing Canadian heart and then be brave enough to pound it in...ending forever the Black Master's dominance of Fidonet and returning it to it's rightful owners. This is what will be required to end the Reign of Terror that he has begun in our blessed precious network. The beast must die. It is the only way to bring zones 2 and 7 into geographical compliance, the only possible way to end the rammings by mysterious persons who seem to favour crosslinking golden-shower echos with HOME_HANDYMAN, the only way to end bad words in Fidonews, the only way to stop abusive netmail and above all else it is the only way you will ever get a anal-retentive policy complaint taken seriously. I think the real smart sysops out there know now what we must do. Yes, the ZC must be sacrificed to the gods of telecommunications so that we can all have normal boards in normal cities with only normal people logging on writing normal messages in normal echos all about being on-topic and politically correct. That's the way we wanted it wasn't it? Well, wasn't it? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ECSTASY echo available ECSTASY echo available from 1:163/328 The echo is called ECSTACY. The topic is the music of Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Kate Bush, Jane Siberry and similar non-commercial female artists. Any discussion, debate, news and questions about these performers are welcome. If you've visited the Usenet group rec.music.gaffa, you'll feel right at home in ECSTASY. The echo isn't backboned yet so distribution is private. Traffic now is less than 50 messages a week but that will increase as more systems link in. If you're interested in a feed, or more information please feel free to drop me a netmail message. Rick Pali ECSTASY Moderator 1:163/328 FidoNews 11-51 Page: 10 19 Dec 1994 Just My Humble Opinion about Fidonews Chris Leung (6:700/703) Before I share my humble opinion about Fidonews, let me say some words of thanks to our Editor, Sylvia, Donald and Tim, first: "Thank you very much for your generous effort in compiling this magazine for us! I am sure it is not easy to be the editors of any magazine or journal, let alone Fidonews, the cosmopolitan electronic magazine for fido friends spreading over the Earth with different cultures and norms. :-) " Umm... I appreciate the comment from Mr. Dallas Hinton (1:153/715) about the contents of our Fidonews. Constructive comment does help make improvement. However, I have to admit that some things in life are out of our control... In my humble opinion, we cannot expect too much from our Editors for a good Fidonews. Yes, they can cut away some "not-so-informative" articles. But may I ask: Who can set the criteria for us...? If there is only a small number of "informative" articles being submitted, what can the Editors do...? Shall we force them to "produce" them...? I don't think so. :-| This is not the way for doing news! As Mr. Dallas Hinton pointed out, Fidonews should be educational and entertaining... I agree at this. Fidonews is a bridge. It connects us together. It gives sysops coming from different zones a chance to meet and share together. This is why FidoNet is popular. FidoNet should be a transcendent family, embracing different sorts of people and viewpoints. Complaining about someone else in Fidonews is also a kind of communication, in my humble opinion. The freedom of speech in Fidonews allows sysops to voice out their grievances and appreciations (hope this will be more). This is good! This helps make Fidonews a device to monitor the development of FidoNet. However, Fidonews should be more than that!!! There should be more positive elements here. Injecting them into Fidonews is not the privilege of our Editors. We, each fido memeber, do have the ability to contribute such positive elements to this magazine. For example: 1. Writing a short account of your good experience with sysops. 2. Introducing good shareware you have been using. 3. Submitting a newspaper cutting of your local newspaper relating to the development of BBS. 4. Disclose the source codes of any *small* program you created you think useful to other sysops, just like the FNFILTER by Mr. John Herro (1:374/38.2). I appreciate his effort FidoNews 11-51 Page: 11 19 Dec 1994 very much. (Salute to him... :-> ) Well... as submission of articles may involve IDD for many sysops, money $$$ counts too. In order to reduce the cost and encourage more participations from sysops of different zones, I have the following suggestion: 1. Establish a Fidonews Editorial Committee which consists of fido members from all zones. 2. Each zone collects the articles and submits them via Internet, if possible. This helps save cost for other sysops. 3. Sysops may write articles in their mother-tongues. The articles may then be translated into English and submitted to the Zone Editor for publishing. (Mechanism similar to the production of the nodelist.) 4. If some sysops are interested, they may become the reporters of Fidonews and write feature articles regularly. Come! Let us make FidoNet a better place to be...... :-) Wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Vengeance is ours by Shawn McMahon Fido: 1:19/34 Internet: smcmahon@cyberspace.net The "Mike Bourff" letter. Recently, everybody in Region 19 got sent the following message, via routed mail: --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Mike Bourff, 1:363/3000 To: Shawn McMahon, 1:19/34 Subject: Now Take Checks Online! Date: 11-11-94 22:54 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� Associated Financial Services 101 Wymore Rd. Suite 100 Altamonte Springs, FL 32714 407/682-5550(VOICE) 407/682-3234(FAX) Dear Shawn, Here is some WONDERFUL information you will probably be most happy to learn about. Please take just a moment to read this information and give us a call so we can you started today! FidoNews 11-51 Page: 12 19 Dec 1994 Introducing CHECK BILLING ONLINE.... ------------------------------------------------------------------ The end of the message listed 1:363/1000 as the origin, instead of 3000. Neither address exists. Now, this wasn't too much of a big deal for the nets, since the idiot called NCs directly and thus people didn't pay long distance to import the message. HOWEVER, he also sent it to the RC. This means that all of us independants who picked up our mail before the RC deleted this trash had to pay for it. Of course, Mr. Bourff chose to use a bogus mailer setup so that nobody in Fidonet could be held responsible. After receiving this, I faxed a letter to the company asking them if Mr. Bourff indeed works for them, and if he was indeed the source of the bombing run. In it, I demanded an apology from the company if it was indeed one of their employees. I've received no reply. Therefore, I'm calling upon all Fidonet members who received this message, or didn't receive it but don't like what the company did, to take note of the fax number included, and send the company a letter expressing your displeasure. I'd also recommend that any of you considering purchasing this product, or any other product from this company, instead boycott them and be sure to let them know exactly why you're doing it. There's nothing that can be done about this kind of net.crap by the *Cs, but we can damn well make it a habit to punish those who condone it every time. If we do that, fewer people will be willing to play. Fax your letters to the number given above. BTW, please don't include thousands of extra CRs at the end of your letter. That would run all the paper off the company's fax machine, costing them lots of money. It would be a very bad thing to do, and I don't think anybody should do it. In a similar vein, it would be a very bad thing if you were to list their business number as a phone-sex line in Penthouse. Please refrain from doing anything similar to this, as well. FidoNews 11-51 Page: 13 19 Dec 1994 RUNE'S RAG & RAH changing . . . Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Dave Bealer & Rick Arnold 1:261/129 1:2601/522 Please take note of the following changes to these e-magazines. While dreaming is common to all of us, few of us forge ahead as we should. For some time now two magazines have inhabited every corner of cyberspace, making people laugh and, hopefully, think. Random Access Humor (RAH) and RUNE'S RAG have made friends worldwide and beyond, given recent satellite broadcasting. Now the time has come to move on -- to grow. On January 2, 1995 a new friend is coming to town. DREAM FORGE will combine the best of your two old friends with added features that will blow (or at least expand) your mind. Still offering the formats you are familiar with, DREAM FORGE will be available in plain ASCII text and Readroom editions. Distributed through the same channels as its predecessors, Dream Forge will be introduced through demo issues in January and February 1995. Beginning in March 1995, DREAM FORGE will only be available to subscribers. RAH and RUNE'S RAG will both cease publication after their February 1995 issues. DREAM FORGE will be a monthly collection of fiction, commentary, satire, reviews and poetry blended to inform and entertain you. New voices will join the familiar voices from RAH and RUNE'S RAG to create a chorus of dreams. Your old friends are in transition, and would like you to share in forging this new dream. Make sure your sysop knows you want to see DREAM FORGE every month. Rick Arnold Dave Bealer Editor, RUNE'S RAG Editor, Random Access Humor Managing Editor, DREAM FORGE Humor Editor, DREAM FORGE Fido: 1:2601/522 Fido: 1:261/1129 Internet: rarnold@dreamforge.com Internet: dbealer@dreamforge.com Seasons Greetings from DREAM FORGE e-magazine to all those in Fido! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- He's back There is a infection in Fido starting to spread the Net like the Plauge. Why well of course Steve Winters is back. How many of us wish to be rid of that name. But it seems George Peace has decided that ol Steve should be allowed back into Fido. FidoNews 11-51 Page: 14 19 Dec 1994 After his numerous threats to do Legal action I see he has the Fido Hiearchy running scared. My story is like many others just happened to get on Steve's bad side and have gotten harrased for the past month. It all started when I forgot to Kill Holly_Bible when it and him were originally banished. Since I pull the feed off of Planet Connect it kept on coming. My christian users kept on posting in the echo. Then just before Thanksgiving I get the Standard Steve Winters Cut a user spiel and I say hey yer not in fido Bugger off... That's when things went downhill. After I recieved numerous one sided screaming phone calls from Steve were he called me the Devil the Anti Christ and false christian scum plus a lot I cannot repeat here.. Now folks I'm a big boy an can take it. But then he started in on my Wife when she answered the phone. It got personal folks she actually cried after his outburst. Well I complained and screamed at Planet Connect for the Next 3 weeks to cut his Feed as it was becoming apparent that this guy was not gonna stop. Well Joe Overholt (Planet Connect) and George Peace had a discusion of some sort then Joe and Boyd at Planet Connect had a discussion of some sort then PC had a change of Policy. Planet Connect decided to cut the illegal re-feed of Holly Bible.. This I got through a conversation with Johnny Green on the phone at Planet Connect on V day. It seems my name came up some because the secetary knew who I was when I called she said I've heard yer name around here today (UH OH) Well anyway we won round 2. Winters, holly bible, out of Fido. Then his Illegal gateway onto fido through Planet Connect gone. I figure victory for Fidonet WRONG George blew it and as of Dec 9 Steve has a node number again. I have it direct from a RC's Netmail that Gearge made the decsion and none of the RC's had a say. I'm not at all ashamed to say I'm less than happy with George this is my second dealings with George and sorry folks stature or not I'm not impressed I'm pissed. It will be the downfall of Fido mark my words. We are no better than our prison systems Steve Gets Parole after getting Life. Now Stevie has his node number back whats next Pre rapture echo.. I urge every Fido Sysop that has the GUTS to send a Netmail to George and the Zone Cordinator Council to discuss your displeasure. By the way never call Steve's 800# to leave him voice mail he will sick the police on ya. He did me after I left 3 normal non harrasing messages on his voice mail. Asking for a cease fire. The Police officer actually asked me if Steve was a fanatic this was after him only dealing with Steve once. It's kinda funny though he tried to get me in trouble. Actually playing like he was the Victim. FidoNews 11-51 Page: 15 19 Dec 1994 So we shall see how things work out. I would suggest all Hubs and Sysops put Steve in the Twit file Todd Cochrane Sysop Hafa Adai Exchange 1:2612/114 & 115 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment on FidoNews Vol.11 No.50: a letter to the editor by Randy Bush 1:105/42 just another bozo on the bus In Snooze 11/50, Dallas Hinton objects to your printing an article because it disagrees with him and objects to your printing the Rev. Richard Visage's contributions. IMIHO, if you can spend the inches on our local net.nazi's* defensive rubbish, the rest is fine too. In fact, I find R Visage's stuff to be some of the best ever published in the Snooze. But satire has never been appreciated by those tottering at the top of some imaginary heap. Beware of those who advocate censorship, hide process, hide in cliques. They are the most insidious and dangerous form of autocracy. * - ever notice that the ZC, the RC, the REC, ... are all in the same net? can you say 'clique'? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reformatting FidoNews Jesse Tharin 1:300/7 This brouhaha is silly. By writing two articles criticizing the way the Snooze is formatted in an attempt to enlighten people to the fact that not everyone in the world appreciates ASCII "art", I see my name getting mentioned more often than Mr. Winter's. Before I try to drop back into the obscurity I so richly want, let me give the idea one last shot. To combine and rephrase my original postulates, the FidoNews needs to be reworked because it's line printer format is irrelevant for the majority of it's readers, because excessive boilerplate and pagination gives it an unnecessarily high noise-to-content ratio, and because its visual bias needs to be recognized as the arrogant but passive bias that it is. Admit it: this is all noise, right? You want to be left alone; you really don't give a damn one way or another about whether someone else finds it difficult to easily read FidoNews, do you now? That's what passive-arrogant bias is. FidoNews 11-51 Page: 16 19 Dec 1994 To correct a few off-the-wall assumptions, I do not speak for anyone else when I give my opinions and I do *NOT* claim to speak for blind people in general. I speak for one person, me, using a screen reader. Whether I am blind, myopic, cross-eyed, eagle eyed, brown-eyed or six feet tall is none of anyone's business and I don't need any bloody liberal concern for poor little me, especially from people who don't bother to read carefully. I don't need a filter for blind guys; I can strip the junk just fine by hand, thank you. It takes about two minutes with a sloppy macro. The junk was added in deliberately when the FidoNews was compiled, and it can be *NOT* added in just as well. I want and demand (admittedly a threat-less and powerless demand) that the FidoNews be issued through normal channels in a cleaner version. Keep the dog. Let those addicted to pretty-print add in their own footers and page breaks. Let the temporarily sharp sighted ones have the "filter." One last complaint that has already been mentioned by another: the editors need to better identify the beginning and the end of each article. BEGIN ARTICLE
would be a start. I'm done. No more articles. I've said my piece several times and enough is enough. There's no sense in responding to letters and articles point-by-point since all that gets you is whining and sniper attacks. I hope the editors do what I think is the right thing, but they'll pretty much do their version of the right thing, so I expect nothing (cheap shot). Submitted with this article is my version of a cleaned up and updated ARTSPEC.DOC, correcting several factual and political errors. I hope they adopt it and send it out. Retiring from the field, Jesse Tharin Tucson by God Arizona PROPOSED ARTSPEC.DOC FidoNews Article Submission Guidelines Revised 16 December 1994 Based on an original work by Thom Henderson as revised by Tom Jennings Edited for the mid-90's by Jesse Tharin "Fido" and "FidoNet" are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings, Box 77731, San Francisco CA 94107, USA and are used with permission. SYNOPSIS: FidoNews is the newsletter of the FidoNet computer network, its sysops and users. It is passed to its readers electronically via the FidoNet and other computer networks and to non-network readers as well. This document describes the technical specifications which an article must meet in order to be included in the FidoNews, as well as very broad guidelines on content. Please read it carefully. The article you save might be your own. INTRODUCTION: FidoNews 11-51 Page: 17 19 Dec 1994 FidoNews was originally founded in early 1984 to include all parts of the lives of its member sysops and users, which of course means not just technical matters. We do not have fixed goals of maximum distribution or maximum readership (i.e. lowest common denominator) but only to meet the needs of our individual network members. The success of this venture has always been contentious at best. In any case the grand experiment continues. Twenty years later, the editorial policy, or lack of one, of FidoNews has shown to best fit our ever-changing and unpredictable needs. SUBJECT MATTER: The content of the FidoNews is entirely at the whim of the editor or editors. There are no guarantees whatsoever as to content, accuracy, timeliness, or any other consideration, nor are he/she/they required to justify to anyone the inclusion or exclusion of any article, notice or advertisement. Articles on any subject of interest to FidoNet members and users are welcome and encouraged, not necessarily of a technical nature, though priority may be, but not necessarily, given to articles of importance to the FidoNet, its technology and its uses, other networks such as uucp and the Internet, social aspects of communications, ethical issues, and other related matters. ARTICLE LENGTH: Try to keep articles short. The longer it is, the less likely people are to read it. Long articles that measure more than 10k must be split into smaller articles to be run serially. Exceptions, including the splitting of articles or the joining of segments, will be made at the whim of the editors. For practical reasons we will try to keep FidoNews to a "reasonable" size, which is of course a highly subjective and variable thing. The goal is under 100,000 bytes. Decisions regarding content may be made based upon this, though in general it shouldn't be an issue. WRITING GUIDELINES: We are not all professional writers, nor is that even a goal for the FidoNews. We want real communication to and from real people even at the expense of so-called "good writing", which is frequently a tool used to exclude. However, there are a few requirements though for any successful writing, even for the lowly FidoNews: The subject discussed must clear to people other than the author! Don't assume that people will pickup the context from your writing. Tell them explicitly what you are talking about and then tell them again! Why are you writing this? It may seem obvious to you with an article titled something like "Review of the new Acme 75-baud Modem", but is it? Are you the manufacturer? An irate customer? Tell us your point of FidoNews 11-51 Page: 18 19 Dec 1994 view clearly. Who are you? Anonymity is almost always unacceptable. Include full contact information including electronic mail addresses. Articles will appear when space becomes available, not necessarily the next issue. If your article is of a time-critical nature, please say so in your cover letter when you submit it; the editor still has final say. The editor reserves the right to request changes from an author to meet these standards. Most often, however, an article will simply be refused. It is not the intent for this to be a mechanism to refuse articles the editor does not like, but simply to keep the contents intelligible. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE If all that hasn't scared you away, the next step is to create a text file which contains the text of your article. The resulting file with proper name extension should be sent with a cover letter to "FidoNews" at FidoNet address 1:1/23 or fidonews@f23.n1.z1.fidonet.org All submissions must be sent electronically. Filenames must follow the MSDOS standard: FILENAME.TYP a 1 to 8 character file name (A - Z, 0 - 9) a period, a three character file type (A - Z, 0 - 9) File types must be .ART, .AD, or .NOT. They are used to distinguish types of submissions: .ART An article, commentary, open letter, or general news item. .AD "For Sale", "Wanted" or other advertisement. .NOT A notice for the back of the issue. If your file doesn't have one of the above extensions, then it will lay around taking up disk space until someone takes a look at it and realizes what it is. Maybe. The name of the file is up to you, though you should use a name which is not likely to be "stepped on" by someone else -- the system will not guarantee file names are unique. For example, FNEWS.ART is probably not a good name for an article. CHARACTER SETS: The character by character contents of the file itself must meet the following standards or it will not be published in FidoNews. The FidoNews staff will not be responsible for making file contents conform to these standards. FLUSH LEFT MARGIN: Please do not put a "left margin" like this on your articles. Have the text start at the very first column. FidoNews 11-51 Page: 19 19 Dec 1994 RIGHT MARGIN AT COLUMN 72 OR LESS: Less is tolerable, more is definitely not. Each line in the article should be terminated with a newline, also known as a hard carriage return. JUSTIFICATION: "Full" justification, the insertion of spaces into sentences so that a paragraph is perfectly rectangular like this, is extremely hard to read and consumes needless space. Please don't use it! NO FUNNY CHARACTERS: This includes formfeeds, returns without linefeeds, linefeeds without returns, tabs control-Z end-of-file characters, and other oddities. The only control codes (character codes 0 through 31 decimal) allowed are carriage return (CR) and linefeed (LF). BULLETS: An asterisk may not be used as a bullet anywhere other than in the article title. NO GRAPHICS CHARACTERS: Believe it or not, not everyone in the world has an IBM PC. Please restrict yourself to printable ASCII characters in the range 20 hex to 7E hex (space to tilde). SUBMISSION FORMAT: Below is a sample article properly formatted. Features of it are discussed further below. *A Sample Article by Joe Schmoe FidoNet 1:300/999 RBBSNet 8:99/9999 And here is my article. Note that it is flush left (zero indent). Also note that the right margin is at column seventy-two so that it won't overflow "most" text windows. Each line has a hard returns. Note the asterisk in the first line to make sure that my article will be listed in the table of contents. Next I have a graphic box. Notice that it is made of normal characters recognized by any computer and printable by any printer in Epson mode. Figure 1. Table 1. +-------+ ======== | A Box | Beta +-------+ Bravo Note that we am not using any funny-o characters and the table is positioned with spaces, not with TABs. This ensures that the final article will look the same to every user, no matter what sort of hardware she has. This is the last sentence of our article. Notice that the article just ends without any special characters. If there is a CTRL-Z here we will strip it out. FidoNews 11-51 Page: 20 19 Dec 1994 The first line of text is the Table of Contents line. It must begin with an asterisk as shown above. If you do not, the article will not be listed in the table of contents. This line is not removed; everything except the asterisk will appear in the newsletter. Next should be your name, and contact information (network address(es), Postal Service address, etc) Try to keep it to one or two lines each. Put a blank line between paragraphs. Paragraphs that all run together are very difficult to read and may be rejected. If you want to put in a table or a figure, go right ahead. We do not rearrange text, so your table or figure will remain exactly as you entered it. Limit them to ones that make the communication CLEARER. Avoid ASCII "art". Cute little pictures made up of carefully chosen printable characters are noisy to some readers using speech screen readers and narrow "screens" such as found on TDDs. A simple example would be a signature line of "\/\/illie", or the name Willie using slashes and backslashes to form the four segments of the initial letter "W". A screen reader would read this as "backslash slash backslash slash illie". Purely visual parts of your article can detract from and muddle your points. Don't put blank space at the top or bottom. The FidoNews generator program will visually separate articles automatically. Please check for basic errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. We're not publishing a textbook, but you don't want it to embarrass yourself do you? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Age Discrimination? by Stuart Charlton 1:224/120 Lately, I've been reading the many articles about how FIDO should have limitations on the age of sysops, or the readers of the 'snooze. I completely disagree. First, let me tell you where I am coming from. I'm an "underage" sysop, and most recently, have become net coordinator for 224. I was voted in over 2 other ADULT candidates. It seemed however, that many of the net sysops did not agree with a "teeny-bopper" running the nodelist, with several days of bitching going on in our local sysop echo screaming "fraud!" and one sysop going so far as to complain to the RC. Quite childish actions, if you'd ask me. My point is, when I first started using a modem, back in 1988, when I was 10, NO ONE cared about age. If you acted mature enough, you were accepted, and there were no questions asked. Now, it seems that being under 18 years of age has become a FidoNews 11-51 Page: 21 19 Dec 1994 disease - to quote Ryan Watson from the fnews1150: >another option which is to limit the age of FidoNet Sysops to atleast >18 years of age. Personally I think this is one of the only ways in >which to distribute all of the material that goes through FidoNet >without the threat of litigation. My spelling may not be right on, Funny, I can pick up a magazine anywhere, and I can guarantee you it is quite easy to find the work "shit" or "fuck" in a magazine. The FLAME echo, as well as many of the sysop echos have more "naughty" language in it than I could find ANYWHERE. Of course, the FLAME echo is easily available to all minors, and have been for quite a while. So much for litigation, eh boys? > Sure, I have no problem with points being young, but I do have a >problem with the many boards in existance that continually go out of >existance because they are started by kids who are running it on >their allowance. While I think that kids should have every right to >run BBS's and also that I think it's a great gesture towards the >community in which they live, I fail to see why this is necesary. Interestingly enough, that's what some local sysops asked me. "How can you afford the call a week to Ottawa - you must mooch off your parents. I don't want an NC that can support the position, blah, blah..." Teenagers -CAN- have jobs, you know. :) > I'm not a morally correct person always, I certainly talk like a >sailor when I am in the mood, however being a parent I can tell you >for certain that I don't want my daughter exposed to this sort of >thing. If she's over 10 years old, she probably knows the meaning of more of those words than you do. :) The electronic community, in my opinion, has always been NON-prejudice. Not with age, sex, religion or race. Any person who does so shouldn't be in this community. After some of the messages I've seen from sysops throughout my region, there are plenty of teenage users and sysops that are more mature than the adult sysops out there, and even know MORE about how to run a BBS than their "older" counterparts. Age has never had any basis in FIDOnet. Let's keep it that way. -Stuart Charlton @1:224/120 NC of net 224 FidoNews 11-51 Page: 22 19 Dec 1994 q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q. by Lisa Gronke, 1:105/6 lisa@psg.com I monitor logs on 1:105/6, which is the home of the Zone 1 zonegates [1:1/2, 1:1/3, 1:1/4, 1:1/5, 1:1/6] and also 1:105/0. Randy routinely hostroutes zonegated mail to Zone 1 destinations. I knew connectivity was deteriorating, but I didn't realize how badly until I returned from a week in Chicago and found 35 nodes flagged undialable! Some were local nodes, but a surprising number were Zone 1 NCs. Many of the session logs "looked like" 1:105/6 was dropping thru the mailer to the BBS on the target system. BINKLEY.LOG from 1:105/6 ---------------------- * 14 Nov 03:56:21 BINK Processing node 1:105/88@fidonet.org -- Hal'S Haven : 14 Nov 03:56:21 BINK Dialing 297-8528 # 14 Nov 03:56:48 BINK Connect 14400/Rel-Lapm-Comp * 14 Nov 03:57:00 BINK Intro: Here comes: 14 Nov 03:58:05 BINK Received: 0/0 Sent: 0/0 Total: 0/0 CPS: 0 1:105/88@fidonet.org ---------------------- FD.LOG from 1:105/88 on a similar call. ---------- Wed 16 Nov 94, FD 2.12.SW + 21:11:32 Event 0-@ - 21:11:39 Preparing outbound mail = 21:16:18 RING = 21:16:29 CONNECT 14400/ARQ/V32/LAPM/V42BIS + 21:16:41 Incoming call at 14400 BPS and the BBS log from that call > 16-Nov 21:17:43 RA01 q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.q.on-line at 14400 BPS > 16-Nov 21:17:43 RA01 Name not in user file > 16-Nov 21:17:43 RA01 ! Did not enter a full name > 16-Nov 21:17:43 RA01 Lost carrier For those who do not recognize the symptoms, FrontDoor is timing out and defaulting to the BBS before 1:105/6 and 1:105/88 have finished negotiating the modem and session handshakes. q.q.q.q.q. is Binkley trying very hard to say YOOHOO to RemoteAccess. The sysop of 1:105/88, Hal Davis, had his timeout set at 11 seconds; he increased it to 18 seconds, and there have been no further problems. When another respondent reported an 11 second timeout, I got suspicious and started a discussion in the Net 105 sysop echo. -- Is the "11 seconds" a default setting in {some, all} versions of FrontDoor? -- What parameter in what menu controls this setting? FidoNews 11-51 Page: 23 19 Dec 1994 -- What is the recommended value? There was unanimity on the second question: FDSetup --> Mailer --> Miscellaneous --> Seconds before passing to BBS: Responses to the first question were less clear: 11 seconds is the *minimum* that FD 2.02 allows you to set. Joho changed the minimum to 20 seconds in FD 2.11 and had to change it back in 2.12 due to complaints. He still maintains that setting it to less than 20 seconds is asking for trouble, and recommends 30. ---Leonard Erickson, 1:105/51 BTW (Lisa), I said earlier that the setting of 11 had been there as long as I've been running FD. Apparently, that's not true. The current docs say that the default is 30. Of course, anyone installing the current version over an older one would never see that default; their previous setting would simply occupy the field. ---Tim Spofford, 1:105/99 And the third question elicited: I've seen several discussions on this in the FDECHO. I gather from the last go-around, that 20 should be an adequate value, though I've seen some say 30 should be the value. I run mine (2.02 and 2.12) at 20 without any problems whatsoever. ---Ben Grey, 1:105/66.1 Why has this become a problem for 1:105/6 only recently? Why do many of the target systems insist they're not having problems with any other callers? 1:105/6 uses an Intel 9600 EX upgraded to 14400 EX. The mailer is Binkley 2.59b running in noEMSI mode. This is a timing issue. The modem and session handshakes have to be completed before the 11 second timer runs out. If the target system has upgraded to a VFC or V34 modem, the modem handshake with a V32bis modem can take a second or two longer. Most other callers are negotiating EMSI sessions. Falling back to a WaZoo session takes a little longer. Please do not send replies suggesting that 1:105/6 change to EMSI or route the netmail some other way. Randy's configuration is FTSC compliant. He should be able to establish a session and transfer mail with EVERY node in the FidoNet nodelist. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Some Real Future Problems FidoNews 11-51 Page: 24 19 Dec 1994 by Carl Short SysOp The DeadBeatt Page BBS 1:115/111 What We Really Have to Worry About Hey all, I am writing this to talk to all of you about a problem I was having with the makers of my current BBS software mediahouse software, at the time of purchase hamilton telegraphics was their name. With the changing of their name came this new "product" mediahost. A windows based LAN communications package that takes outside calls, called the mediahost client server. Okay they have this new thing that they want to get into but they can't deal with it and roboboard/fx the software made before the name change. But the thing is they have made alot of promisses. They said there would be a ver 2.0 of Robo/fx, currently v1.04. There are bugs that still need to be fixed and if you really look at robo' you'd see that outside beyond being graphical it doesn't have much going for it. What it did have however was alot of people who wanted to be robo' SysOps. I had hoped to startup one the best game boards in the midwest. With not just areas for the latest of the best games but fullblown 256 colour preview areas. Well anyway, let me just cut to the chase. It's how they handled all of us who were making inquires about robo'. Oh no no no. The real bashing you my have heard about didn't come until the run around started. First they didn't remeber making the promiss of a version 2.0 and said this was just rumor. Then the robo' support mail network was said by them to be something that robo' SysOps had started so anything said in there was wrong. And now whole sub networks were being removed to quiet SysOps who wanted to talk about robo' and knock mediahost, I being one of them. If you would like to see some of my offensive comments I still have them. Allright then you'd give them a call since your out of things. Starting back in August the line was that there would be a new version of robo' coming soon then a little more info came out as the months went on. It would a version 1.05 or 1.06 (decimal number version change how thrilling) then. It would have some enhancements and some bug fixes but they couldn't tell you what they would be there at mediahouse. It seems there was this development team that was supposed to be working on it but, the people you talked to at mediahouse could nt get in touch with them. They only could be reached by the beta testers which the people at mediahouse were not in touch with either. Now still not willing to admit they abandoned robo'. There new line is, that they have not abandoned it becuase they will continue to sell it. But no work will be done on fixing any of the bugs and adding much needed enhancements because now it seems, they say, mediahost is so popular that development on FidoNews 11-51 Page: 25 19 Dec 1994 robo' had to stop. And they are down right hostile to robo' inquires 1(819)682-9737, 682-6670 canadian. The thing is is that they came into this world of computing. They even had an area in FidoNet, ROBO. But once everybody started talking about their feelings of betrayal, that echo was closed. Think about all the big corp's embracing the Internet. Lets take Microsoft for example what would happen if they decided they wanted to get more involved with all the places that their software got discussed and didn't like all the talk about say windows being a memory hog and all the application errors and generarl protection fualts. Would they take all the honest reviews of their software lightly. No, what they'd do is simply put out a word of caution about these bad areas of bad advice every chance they'd get. Everyone is talking about their fear of having the government come and knock down their doors and grab their bbs and toss them in a whole, but people still it seems voted for the ones who'd love to do stuff like that, rep's the freind of the middle calss, yeah right. All it would really take is having one of these corp's and everyone who thinks that the amount of money in their bank accounts and the fact that they are everywhere means that are the ones who know it all, attacking these ares and the people in them. And since they won't be able to convince us that IBM invented microcomputing and Apple the point and click interface. They would have to start trying on a legal level of some kind. They don't like it at all when you go right passed their advertising talk and there allways seems to people who don't even work for them who get equally upset. It also always seems that you are never making an honest comment but are ofensivly attacting them. And who would believe you over all their advertising that they're the ones that created all of what your using. Then comes the attacinking of the little pictures that you like to look at. And the things that your not having to talk face to face about you like to say. Fear the day when people claim that NetLife is harmful and it should have someone watching over it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Echo area Advertisment by Carl Short 1:115/111 New Area For Graphic BBSing Hi all, I run a little board called The DeadBeatt Page. My current bbs software is the late and infamous robofx. I my have been bitten by this particular software but I plan to stay graphical This just a little announcement to all you who run graphical boards that there is a new area on the Echolist called GUI_BBS. FidoNews 11-51 Page: 26 19 Dec 1994 Its for the discussion of RIP and the fullblown graphic bbsware. You can chat about tips or try and make converts to software that you have come to love. The rules are simple in this echo. Don't be a butt' to much. ------ Also there is a new roboboard/fx echo called ROBOFX. Its for talking how about the makers of the this software handled abandoding it, bash 'em. And for those are still using it. You can share your tricks on getting around the bugs. Rules no swearing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A quick comment on commercial advertising From: Fernando Bertuccelli,(4:901/148) Que tal Donald, todo bien? I would like to say 'keep up the great work of you & your team is doing by making fidonews', but... QUOTE: A quick comment on commercial advertising. while Fidonews does not carry comercial advertizing, that is not to say we never carry comercial advertisments. If we receive what is a blatant ad, and nothing but an ad, we *might* put it in if we have an empty snooze. If it carries a good deal of information that we think is useful to a group of fido sysops, we will probably put it in. UNQUOTE: Fidonews is routed through all fidonet host systems as written in the Policy 4, so... routing commercial stuff will be a violation of it, or at least all the routing parts must agree in routing commercial literature (as written...) (I don't know how all the ZC/RC/NCs of FidoNet will ever be reached, but, I think it is very unfair to route commercial stuff through the official publication of the biggest worldwide AMATEUR network (and I didn't mention the word 'censorship')). My point is simple, keep Fidonews as an AMATEUR thing, just like it is, 1000's of people spend 1000's of hours working for fidonet for nothing, don't let others take advantage of that doing 'free sponsorships', and don't ever put someone in the role of deciding who's adds are in, and who's not... An NC can't refusse to have fidonews available to his/her downlinks, but he can refusse to route commercial traffic, and this is more like... who was first, the egg or the chicken... so, it is in your hands to take this problem out from its roots, I think that all the AMATEUR community prefers to read a fidonews with 2 articles rather than the electronic version of the yellow pages. Saludos! damian@free.org FidoNews 11-51 Page: 27 19 Dec 1994 ======================================================================== Fidonews Information ======================================================================== ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ---------------- Editors: Donald Tees, Sylvia Maxwell Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar Tom Jennings "FidoNews" BBS FidoNet 1:1/23 BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS) more addresses: Rev. Richard Visage -- 1:163/409 Don -- 1:221/192, don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com (Postal Service mailing address) FidoNews 128 Church St. Kitchener, Ontario Canada N2H 2S4 voice: (519) 570-3137 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 1994 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 the eds. Articles by Madam emilia may be retransmitted freely through cyber-space. OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue 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 by sending SASE to the above paper-mail address, or trade for copy of your 'zine. INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.fidonet.org, in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonet/fidonews. Anyone interested in getting a copy of the INTERNET GATEWAY FAQ may freq GISFAQ.ZIP from 1:133/411.0, or send an internet message to FidoNews 11-51 Page: 28 19 Dec 1994 fidofaq@gisatl.fidonet.org. No message or text or subject is necessary. The address is a keyword that will trigger the automated response. People wishing to send inquiries directly to David Deitch should now mail to fidonet@gisatl.fidonet.org rather than the previously listed address. SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews 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. "the pulse of the cursor is the heartbeat of fidonet"... -- END ----------------------------------------------------------------------