F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No.21 (23-May-1994) +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 | | 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 Dear Madam Emilia........................................... 2 Subject: The Italian Crackdown?? (fwd)...................... 4 FidoNet Crackdown in Italy.................................. 5 BBS-PR Set for Rewrite...................................... 7 The Power Freaks are at it AGAIN!........................... 8 On the Subject of Fluff..................................... 9 Dear Net Citizen:........................................... 21 Ever Feel Like You're Being Watched?........................ 25 Nodelist Size (again)....................................... 28 INTERGREEK: An echo about Greek things and people........... 29 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 30 FidoNews 11-21 Page: 2 23 May 1994 ======================================================================== Editorial ======================================================================== I spent all day in the garden, re-arranging weeds. I dug things up in one place, and poured water on them in another. I'm not sure yet, if this experiment will work. If everything keeps growing, with more room around it an in a manner conducive to it being itself, then it will work. We received a lot of somewhat duplicated news about problems Fidonet is having in Italy. Apparently none of the Fidonet nodes in Italy exist anymore. This is distressing. It's interesting, to read the headers and trailers on all of the relevent messages. Same topic, utterly diverse geographical sources. The world is getting very small. ======================================================================== Articles ======================================================================== Dear Madam Emilia Q: Dear Emilia, please help me. I feel left out and nerdish, because all my friends on the Internet belong to clans, and I do not even know what clans are. My friends are laughing at me because I do not know how to belong with them. A: Darling silly one, you are a member of Fidonet, and are beautifully innocent in your ignorance. Clans appear to be prestigious and important, and they are. This is not as appealing as it seems. Consider the meaning of the term, "old boys' network", and how bigotry and mindless exclusivity have historically been perpetuated by such organizations. Fortunately, our home-grown Fidonet is relatively free of such pompous nonsense. Q: But Emilia, prestigious clans are the movers and shakers of the electronic-super-duper! I want to be able to help build our new e-world. I don't want to sit in a lonely corner all by myself, twitching. A: If all you want to do is help build the e-world, then simply correspond with people you like, and say what you really mean, and help protect everyone's ability to do the same. Always help anyone who wants to learn how to BBS with any spare time available to you. "Rebels" who form groups and give themselves titles primarily to distinguish themselves from other people are wannabe terrorists, or inefficient fashion mongers. Real rebels are mere honest humans who enjoy other humans, while finding funny hats and secret decoder rings to be unnecessary. Q: Oh, Emilia.. I have been reading "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Heinlein, and .. um.. um.. I have a crush on Mike the Martian. I am enamoured by his reverence for inter-personal relations and his honesty and his utter failure to understand FidoNews 11-21 Page: 3 23 May 1994 the nastier aspects of human culture. What should I do? I'm DESPERATE! A: Of course you are in love with Mike, dear. He is the only character in Heinlein's book who does not objectify all women as bubble-heads capable only of preparing and being meals. Mike groks anyone who grocks, regardless of gender. Q: but...dear Emilia, several of the female characters in the book are brilliant. How can you suggest that Heinlein's writing is sexist? You are desecrating my second favorite hero! A: Sure some female characterrs are portrayed as having enough brains to do what they are told to do. If they are so smart, why are *all* authority figures in the book male? Heinlein is just a tad dated, that's all. For example, the main authority figure refers to "homosexual" males as "misguided". Use of this term, "misguided", is very strange. It presumes that everyone should be guided. Q: I think you're hung up on ra-ra feminismism so you don't grok the POINT of the book, which is epitomized by Mike. BTW, I find the last cover of WIRED bears an uncanny resemblance to Mike. Have you met Mike? A: No. He's fictional. Q: Stop being blasphemous! "Politeness" (you're an etiquette expert, right?) requires tolerance and sensitivity towards other peoples' idols. Or lack of idols. So, will you please gimme a break? A: Sure, dear. You can talk to me all you like. I can always press a page down key. But if you are truly writing from your heart I probably won't. Everything else is boring, including your namby-pamby "oh poor little me, I want to please you" schtik. Q; Do you think it is wrong of me to enjoy a book which propogates a few totally misguided presumptions about gender issues? A: Yes. But, so what? Edit the nasty parts from your mind if you don't like them. FidoNews 11-21 Page: 4 23 May 1994 Subject: The Italian Crackdown?? (fwd) From: Stanton McCandlish Message-Id: <199405161703.NAA26233@eff.org> Subject: The Italian Crackdown?? (fwd) To: eff-activists@eff.org, comp-org-eff-talk@cs.utexas.edu (eff.talk) Date: Mon, 16 May 1994 13:03:15 -0400 (EDT) Cc: alt-society-resistance@cs.utexas.edu (alt.society.resistance), Cc: [notes in brackets are mine. - mech@eff.org] Forwarded message: Date: Mon, 16 May 1994 12:29:14 +0200 (MET DST) From: Fabrizio Sala Subject: The Italian Crackdown?? To: BBS-L@SAUPM00.ing.unico.it Cc: eff@eff.org Hello. I'm the Sysop of one of the BBSs in Italy. I'm writing this message in this list to inform you, the BBS community, of what is going on in Italy. Some days ago,starting from Pesaro (Italy), our Police started a large perquisition through [inquisition against] many Amatorial [amateur] BBSs, mostly connected to the main networks (One for all: Fidonet... but also PeaceNet and many others) They're getting everything they can find: computers, monitors, drives, hard disks, floppy, cdrom, streamer tapes ... everything, without looking if they are or not in any way "illegal" ... Generally, every network in Italy is now full of holes... and many of us lost everything "in the name of the anti-piracy"... Nobody of us is doing anything in any way illegal, but they are still getting everything... They got more than 50 BBS and Police's work is still going on... I hope that everyone diffuses this message ... or in any way tells everybody what's going on ... ...and if you have any way to help us...please do it! We made our best to make the italian telecommunication scene working... they are killing us! See you later... if they don't get me! _ end fwd _ Stanton McCandlish * mech@eff.org * Electronic Frontier Found. FidoNews 11-21 Page: 5 23 May 1994 OnlineActivist "In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps. When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it." - Philip Elmer-Dewitt, "Who Should Keep the Keys", TIME, Mar. 14 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNet Crackdown in Italy forwarded by Nigel Allen, 1:250/438 Here is a message that was posted to the misc.activism.progressive newsgroup on Usenet. It should be of concern to sysops everywhere. Contact the original poster, Cesare Dieni (cease@gn.apc.org), if you need more information. /* Written 7:03 PM May 18, 1994 by gn:cesare in igc:gn.announcemen */ /* ---------- "Fidonet Crackdown in Italy" ---------- */ From: Cesare Dieni Subject: Fidonet Crackdown in Italy For your information I report what's happening in Italy at the moment (N.B. after the last election a fascist governement succeded).... Fidonet Crackdown in Italy On May 10-12 1994, the first nationwide crackdown on telecom nets was operated by Italian police. Acting after a warrant issued by a Prosecutor in Pesaro, about 60 Bullentin Board Systems throughout the country have been visited and searched by police officials. Dozens of people were formally accused of "distribution of illegally copied software and appropriation of secret passwords" under the law approved by Italian Parliament in January this year. In several cases police officials didn't know what to search for, thus seizing computers, floppy disks, modems along with electric outlets, answering machines, audiotapes, personal effects. The raids also hit private houses and belongings, and in some places sleeping people were abruptly woken up facing machine guns. After searching probably around one third of the entire network - that includes more than 300 BBSes - police officials closed several Fidonet nodes, but no arrests were made. A still inaccurate figure of people were charged with software piracy, and dozens of computers and related devices were seized - along with thousands of floppy disks, CD-Roms, W.O.R.M.S. Moving after a suspected software piracy ring run by people involved FidoNews 11-21 Page: 6 23 May 1994 in a Fidonet node, the crackdown started in the night between May 10 and 11 in Milano, targeting in the two following days BBSes in Pesaro, Modena, Bologna, Ancona, Pisa and other cities. Fidonet Italia, member of the worldwide Fidonet network, is a non-profit organization devoted to distribution of shareware and freeware programs as well as to electronic forums on topics ranging from technological to social issues. An essential communication tool for several groups and individuals throughout the country, Fidonet Italia became an active multi-cultural vessel and distributor of several different nodes dedicated to specific issues: Peacelink (solidarity, human rights), Cybernet (cyberpunk), Ludonet (games), Scoutnet, Amynet, and others. For thousands of Italian people, Fidonet BBSes today are invaluable tools of information-exchange, social activism and professional activities. The network policy strictly prohibits any distribution of illegally copied software and fraudulent appropriation of secret passwords. Also, Fidonet is one of the few International organizations which has always stated and pursued a clear position against unauthorized copying software. At the moment, the raids seems to be motivated by accusations against two people involved in a Pesaro-based BBS who were using Fidonet contacts to allegedly distribute illegal copies of computer programs. However, there are no reasons for such a vast law enforcement operation. Most likely the prosecutor acted simply on the basis of the Fidonet telephone numbers list (publicly available) owned by the two suspected of software piracy. The vast majority of the people searched don't have any kind of relationship with the suspected, and many of the search warrants stated a generic "conspiracy with unknown" for the crime of software piracy. Particularly, the random and arbitrary seizures of floppy disks and personal computers are completely unmotivated, because every BBS is a completely independent structure and each sysop is running his/her own hardware and software. The seizures will resolve in a great economic loss for these people and their professional activities will be surely affected from negative publicity. Some of them own small computer-related companies while others are physicians, hobbyists, students who risk personal savings to run their services. Because police officials also seized electronic and paper archives containing data and numbers of the people who logged onto Fidonet nodes, it is evident that investigations are going even further - thus violating the constitutional right to privacy. The first result of this crackdown is that many Fidonet operators decided to shut down immediately their systems all over the country, fearing heavier police intrusions in both their public activities and private lives. FidoNews 11-21 Page: 7 23 May 1994 While the Italian Parliament recently approved specific laws about copyright and piracy of computer software, there are still no rules to protect personal privacy in the electronic medium. This legislative void inevitably makes the sysop the only responsible person about anything happens onto and around his/her own BBS. Fidonet operators do not want and can not be the target of undiscriminated raids that, forcing them to closing down their activities, cause serious damages to themselves as well as to the entire community. In an article published Friday 13 by the newspaper "La Repubblica", Alessandro Marescotti, Peacelink spokesperson, said: "Just when the worldwide BBS scene is gaining general respect for its important role at the community level, in Italy the law hits those networks that have always been strongly against software piracy. Charging dozens of honest operators with unmotivated accusations, the main goal of this crackdown is directed against the social activities of small community nets - thus clearing the space for commercial networking." While terms and figures of the entire operation should still be clarified, on Sunday 15 Fidonet Italia operators will meet in Bologna to study any possible legal counter-action. -- End of forwarded message ------- -- Cesare -- End of text from cdp:headlines -- -------------------------------------------------------------------- This material came from PeaceNet, a non-profit progressive networking service. For more information, send a message to peacenet-info@igc.apc.org -------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- X-Genie-From: R.Parson BBS-PR Set for Rewrite The next version of the Computer Bulletin Board Guide to Public Relations is scheduled to be released 7-1-94. Author Robert Parson says he is solicting comments and suggestions. "Several Sysops have asked questions and have made suggestions since its first public release. It's time for some adjustments." Robert wrote the Guide to assist Sysops in dealing with the Media. News Releases, Finding Media Outlets, and Why Sysops should have Business Cards and Stationary are among the topics covered. The next version will include more information on Crisis Management, more News Releases that can actually be used by Sysops, and a new section on Market Research. The current version is BBS-PR15.ZIP, available at Paradox of Arkansas FidoNews 11-21 Page: 8 23 May 1994 BBS 501 484 0944 (Fred Ayers, Sysop), and has also been distributed on SDN. It is supported in the BBS Public Relations Conference on Paradox. Robert Parson is a Broadcast Journalist with over 15 years of experience, and has been an active particpant in his local BBS Community for over five years. Robert can be reached at: GEnie R.Parson Internet R.Parson@genie.geis.com Fido 1:3822/1 voice 501 646 9332 mail 2501 Phoenix Fort Smith, AR 72901 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Power Freaks are at it AGAIN! Steve Winter FidoNet 1:18/98 ALL MODERATORS BEWARE!!! They're at it AGAIN!!! I hope that everyone can look beyond the initial appearance of the recent BOP. It's the same old thing. The RECs (or a handful of power freaks that are influencing them) want to declare themselves the owners of the backbone they are merely supposed to coordinate the distribution of. The Postmasters want to be the editor-n-chiefs of the magazines they help distribute (and hardly even that now with Planet Connect on the scene). Item 3 in the BOP 105 for "removing" an echo from the backbone reads: 3) There are no longer three RBCs requesting that the Backbone distribute the conference to their regions. A bit presumptious since Planet Connect is now distributing the backbone. An echo could have a tremendous amount of traffic and be invisible to the "RBC"s. Just think of the absolute ownership that this would give to the technically obsolete REC's. This handful would then have absolute ownership of hundreds of echos that moderators built up (some like myself with years of work and great expense). Then, we have the real cute one, where a handful of people could (instead of voting with their feet, or starting their own echo, like I DID), they could mount a letter writing campaign and just trash an echo until it generated enough complaints that: BINGO: We find item #5 for removing an echo: 5) When such an excessive number of complaints about the conference or its Moderator are received by the RBCs that a majority of them vote to remove the conference from the Backbone. FidoNews 11-21 Page: 9 23 May 1994 THE POSTMASTERS of FidoNet DO NOT have any authority to remove a valid echo with a valid moderator just because its controversial and a certain portion of SysOps don't like it. IF you don't like an echo, DON'T CARRY IT, but don't force the issue into a Federal court room by playing a few games and thinking that new BOP is going to transfer ownership of echos from the moderators to the "ZBC" or whatever. I've watched as a handful of false christians tried to steal my echo, then when they couldn't do that, they stole their echo name from my echo description, they even sleazed it onto the backbone, but I think they found out that building an echo is a bit more work and expense than they had *ever* imagined. No "BBC" club has the right to remove an established backbone echo regardless of how many whiners they can get for an ongoing letter writing campaign. This sham is the SAME OLD WINE and not even hardly a brand new bottle. The RECs are technically obsolete as is the ZEC in many respects. To think that they can grab absolete ownership of the backbone by a quick "BOP"... IT'S THE SAME old trip that has been tried and tried before. The Postmasters want to be editor-n-chiefs!!!! Don't FALL FOR IT!! No group in FidoNet has the right to just vote some moderator's echo off of the backbone. I can't imagine a moderator worth his salt that would not take action if that were to happen. It could be the end of FidoNet as a practical entity. The MODERATORs are the owners of the echos, they always have been; NOT the stars (now obsolete) or the coordinators (just about as obsolete). A handful of people, yet again, want to steal the ownership of the FidoNet backbone echos from the moderators that built them from the ground up. Don't fall for it!! Steve Winter PreRapture BBS 919-286-3606 USR-H16/V.32T Moderator/founder HOLY_BIBLE (The Wholly Bible Echo) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Subject of Fluff by Rick Castle, 1:352/23 "Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to FidoNews 11-21 Page: 10 23 May 1994 construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Either is in such a predicament as the man who was earnest to be introduced to a distinguished deaf woman, but when he was presented, and one end of her ear trumpet was put in his hand, had nothing to say. As if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough. After all, the man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages; he is not an evangelist, nor does he come round eating locusts and wild honey." -- Henry David Thoreau, from Walden, published 1854 The Problem of Fluff -------------------- In the middle of the 19th Century, the telegraph became a very important communication medium. As wires were stretched across North America, information began to flow instantaneously. Telegraph offices became a place where even isolated towns and villages could receive news as to what was going on in the rest of the world. It is hard to imagine a time when news and information sometimes took days or weeks to arrive at its destination. We have telephones, fax machines, television, radio and online computer services all linked together with arrays of wires, fiber optics and satellites. The quantity of the information is staggering. Thoreau, when he wrote his journals at Walden Pond, was concerned not so much as to whether Maine and Texas could communicate, but whether they had anything useful to communicate. This became evident after the invention of the telephone, when people would sit for hours talking to someone about nothing in general. The trend continues even on today's online services and bulletin boards. There is so much idle chit-chat, users complain about the fact they read a hundred messages, but only one or two messages, if any, have anything of interest to them. This is actually quite good for the pay services. They can bill more time to the user. The problem which affects these services and networks is most of the communication flow is fluff. Fluff is a message (or a portion of a message) with information which isn't relevant to anything in the conference. The person posting the message and the intended recipient probably it doesn't care if it's relevant, either. It's just filler to keep a conversation going. It is safe to assume that nearly 80% of network message content contains fluff. You've seen messages which contain fluff. They are present in just about every conference on every online service and network. Its presence is epidemic in proportion. Just ask any moderator of any conference who has problems keeping discussions on topic. Generally all topics degenerate into some kind of fluff over time. FidoNews 11-21 Page: 11 23 May 1994 Fluff comes in many forms. Theory indicates the number of varieties may be infinite. This is due to the dynamic nature of humankind and their relationships to each other. When one person works to build something of value, someone else will gunk it up with fluff. Whether this is intentional or accidental is irrelevant. Everyone would like to think they have something important to say. But those who have given a great deal of thought to how we communicate with each other, knows this is a fallacy. The greatest offenders in our current society are lawyers, news media and government agencies. Now with the electronic services providing a forum for anyone who can get to a computer with a modem, the problem is growing exponentially. Almost anyone can log on to an online service and voice their opinion. They speak their mind with whatever authority they feel they have. They sit back and wait for the recognition they feel they deserve. Sometimes they are surprised to find out most don't really care about what they said, and those who do will start feeding back some fluff. We will discuss the more common varieties. Let's begin now starting with the most common form. Flame Fluff ----------- I was always taught, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it at all." It is important to keep your temper to at least a low boil when dealing with someone who's opinions don't mix with yours. Most folks do just fine with keeping their cool. Some go off so fast, you don't know what's happened until you realize you're covered with manure. Any discussion has the potential to escalate into a flame war. It is difficult to understand why some debates go on for weeks with nary a harsh word, while other crash, explode and burn with just a few messages. (This is common among the participants of the WELDING conference. For example, "Grab your rods, Roy, and let's go get the #$$*@&%!") Flame messages are fluff, pure and simple. They are the most common form of it and normally don't contain any useful information. (An exception is when one of the participant's sister's mating habits is mentioned, which can be quite useful, especially when a phone number is included.) Some forms of flame fluff are illegal in some states. In fact, flame fluff tends feed in itself until it grows out of control, sucking other people into the conflict. Many of these new participants are merely trying to put out the flames, eventually getting so deep they begin spouting their own expletives. This is called Two-Alarm Flame Fluff. Eventually, the conference moderator jumps in. He tries every possible way to find a peaceful solution to the problem. Sometimes, the moderator becomes involved in the "discussion". He threatens the offending parties with loss of access to the conference. This will either stop the problem or begin a new phase of messages where the FidoNews 11-21 Page: 12 23 May 1994 moderator is called names such as Net-Nazi or Control Freak. This is when the fluff has degenerated to Three-Alarm Flame Fluff. By this time, it is quite possible the discussion has become noticed in other conferences. Quite possibly one of the offending parties has gone to one of these areas to rally support for his cause. Pretty soon there are several moderators involved. Participants begin to lose their access. Threats of legal action are thrown around. Law enforcement becomes interested because of death threats. The discussion is now a full fledged war spanning several conferences. People who had nothing to do with the original disagreement are now having their own disagreements. The messages are now at the Four-Alarm Flame Fluff stage. Now we come to the final stage. Five-Alarm Flame Fluff really is no longer a form of fluff directly related to the subject which caused the disagreements. All offending parties have lost access to the conferences they were posting in. Five-Alarm Fluff comes in the form of short notices and newspaper articles about the lawsuits, no-contact orders and drive-by shootings which resulted from the electronic verbal conflagration. At this point, government agencies begin think about regulating electronic communications. The proposals for modem licensing appear. The legislation restricting our communications begin to flow through congress and state legislatures. It is best to avoid all forms Flame Fluff. Some networks provide special conferences where people can vent their frustrations, keeping other conferences clear of unnecessary clutter. Intellectual Fluff ------------------ Intellectual fluff is generally produced by people who are trying to intelligently participate in a discussion, but who fail miserably. These discussions generally involve subjects such as politics, religion or economics, where a participant must have at least a rudimentary knowledge of what it being discussed. All of us would like to think of ourselves as intelligent. We want to be looked upon as competent. We want to project ourselves in our communications as people who can answer questions with authority. At least this is our view. In reality, many people look like complete idiots (see Idiot Fluff below). They convey their ideas using poor spelling and bad grammar. Their logic is usually flawed, ending up being torn to shreds with a single sentence by someone who knows what they are talking about. Needless to say, the participant who gets the short end of the stick in these exchanges usually resorts to flame fluff. How do we keep things from escalating to this point? Keep the discussions succinct and to the point. If you want to discuss the finer point of Nietzsche, go to the NIETZSCHE conference. If you want to FidoNews 11-21 Page: 13 23 May 1994 discuss the aesthetics of welded furniture, go to the WELDING conference. If you want to start flaming, go to a flame conference and beat yourselves to death. If you want to be involved in highly intellectual exchanges, but can't deal with the demands of thinking, just don't say anything. Small Talk Fluff ---------------- Small talk fluff is tiny little messages sent between two people. These messages usually contain no quotations of the previous message, so keeping dialogue continuity can be difficult. A typical conversation using this kind of fluff is best depicted using an example. USER 1: Did you go to the movies? USER 2: Yes. USER 1: What did you see? USER 2: Jurassic Park. USER 1: Did you like it? USER 2: It was great. I liked the special effects. USER 1: They were great. USER 2: I wonder how they did it. USER 1: I think they used computers. USER 2: I wish I had a computer like that. USER 1: I might get a new computer. USER 2: What kind of computer? USER 1: I don't know. What's a good one? USER 2: Well, I would only get one which would run Windows. USER 1: Is that good? USER 2: It means you will have a machine which can run about anything. USER 1: What's so good about Windows? USER 2: It makes the computer easier to use. USER 1: Oh. Are you going to another movie, soon? USER 2: Yes. I'll tell you about it when I do. USER 1: That will be great. This entire exchange was passed around a few thousand systems, all around the world, over a period of several weeks, with the subject line of Cannibals of the East Indies, and was posted in the WELDING conference. Obviously, the moderator was either napping or, perhaps, visiting the East Indies. Liars' Fluff ------------ We now have a very curious form of fluff. Liars' fluff is used by individuals with hidden agendas. It is basically just plain lies. The motivation could be political, financial or for just plain fun. Think about it. You can drop a hot piece of inside information (Economic Fluff) about a company in a stocks conference. Or how about a juicy tidbit (Electoral Fluff) about someone running for a political office? Or even better, how about some information (Promiscuity Fluff) about someone's sister? Like the person who just flamed you in the WELDING conference. FidoNews 11-21 Page: 14 23 May 1994 Sometimes two individuals will begin a cooperative effort to create the appearance they are having a disagreement. This form of Liars' Fluff is called Pseudo-flame Fluff. In reality, there is no disagreement, but a carefully choreographed discussion. This is usually done to give one or both of the parties an appearance of a position on an issue when the opposite is really true. Most forms of Liars' Fluff is generally posted using an alias name so the real person can deny they did it. Appointment Fluff ----------------- This is a very curious kind of fluff and very difficult to understand. So let's get a picture of what is happening. Two people are having a discussion. One of the parties decides it would be great if they met for lunch sometime. The other agrees. So the first party sends a message to second party at 10:00 AM to meet for lunch at 12:00 noon. Now, the first party goes to the designated location and waits for the second party. That evening, the second party gets the message, and states they just received the message. The first party is quite upset because they were stood up and begins to apply liberal helpings of flame fluff. And so it goes on and on. Why can't these people just pick up the phone and set the lunch date? The technology we use is quite sophisticated and enjoyable to use, but some things are better communicated through more traditional means, like, for example, the telephone. It is a far better approach than announcing to the whole world you're doing lunch. Technical Fluff --------------- Generally, most technical discussions are kept inside their own conference. This is so the technical people (who populate every corner of a computer network or online service) can discuss their obsession with odd words and acronyms without fear of being laughed at. (Rumor has they don't even use English but programming languages to convey ideas.) Problems arise when some of these discussions originate in conferences where large gathering of non-technical people are sending messages containing intellectual, appointment or small talk fluff. Most of these users stay away from anything which contains an acronym. This is wise. But what about those bold few who dare to display their technical prowess without the slightest idea what they are talking about? The result is technical fluff. Take the following exchange as an example: FidoNews 11-21 Page: 15 23 May 1994 TECH: Okay, to solve your modem problem, you will want to reset it with the ATZ command from your term program. You should then type ATS0=0 so it will not automatically answer the phone. You can then issue the AT&W command to save the settings. USER 1: Okay, thanks. My mom was getting quite upset when she heard the noise when the modem answered the phone. Thanks again. USER 2: Um, I am having a problem with my modem. I would like to fix it but I can't find the problem. TECH: What is the problem? USER 2: Well, it's making a kind of scraping sound. TECH: I don't think you have a problem with your modem. It doesn't have any parts which could make a scraping sound. USER 2: It's got to be the modem. Whenever I log in, and try to download a file, I get an error message. TECH: What kind of error message? USER 2: I don't know. Just an error message. I think it is the way the modem is hooked into the disk. I read about it somewhere in a library book. I think it was from Time-Life. There was a little line in a picture which went from the modem to this little square marked CPU and back to the disk. I think that is where the problem is. I would recommend the book to anyone. I learned a lot from it. The tech who managed to get entangled with this person is probably kicking himself for even responding. He is probably thinking about distributing some flame fluff. Most likely he won't even respond to any more messages from this person. Technical people are like that. A good rule of thumb is to never try and prove your technical abilities, unless you have an unusual ability to use odd words and acronyms. Even if you do have some technical knowledge, keep in mind there will always be someone out there to prove you wrong. Technical people are elitists by nature. They don't like having to explain themselves to people who think they know what they are talking about. Avoid the use of intellectual fluff when working with these people. They don't like wasting time debating philosophy. Most technical people have a difficult time with these kinds of subjects and will probably ignore you. Plagiarism Fluff ---------------- This is perhaps one of the most insidious forms of fluff. No, the person entering the message hasn't stolen his message from someone else. There's too much danger in getting caught. They post messages quoting every line of a previous message. They then enter their response with a one-liner comment. The most common form of abuse is when someone else has entered an emotional retort to a message with abundant quantities of foul language. Someone takes offense, quotes the entire message, to the letter, and says that they are offended. They may as well go out and preempt television and radio broadcasts to make sure everyone knew someone said a bad word. This does draw attention, but usually to the one taking FidoNews 11-21 Page: 16 23 May 1994 offense which results in Flame Fluff being generated. There also is the situation where someone has entered a multiple message post. The respondent quotes, in full, all of the messages and cheerfully adds at the very end of the very last message, "I agree". Snort. First Amendment Fluff --------------------- When a person who takes pride in his views and presents them in a precise way, they are generally regarded favorable light by most of the people reading them. Any debates with this individual are generally interesting, thought-provoking and a joy to participate in whether all parties agree or not. These individuals will use their real names because even though they may be controversial, they are willing to stand up for what they believe in an open, honest and accountable way. On the other hand, there are those who stir up controversy for the sake of stirring it up. They usually hide behind an alias name and deny any association between the "other" and the real person. When they are attacked, they begin to quote constitutional law. This is known as First Amendment Fluff. First Amendment Fluff is a hybrid between Flame Fluff, Liars Fluff and Intellectual Fluff, because it almost always involves a malicious attack, usually contains false information and attempts unsuccessfully to intellectually justify its existence. It is usually always intermixed with Flame Fluff. The person using this form of fluff has a stalker mentality, finding a particular person to attack. Sometimes these attacks can last for years, unless intervention occurs from law enforcement. In all sincerity, I don't believe the founding fathers of the United States had the intention of allowing freedom of speech to include freedom to spout innuendo and lies. Its intent was to keep people from being persecuted by the government for voicing their opinions. Ethical principles are important when discussing controversial views. Those who spout First Amendment Fluff tend to be in short supply of any form of ethics. Idiot Fluff ----------- At one point or another, one comes across a message which makes no sense whatsoever. No matter how you look at it, no matter how you read it, no matter how you rescramble the words, it is virtually impossible to get the meaning of what was said. This is called Idiot Fluff because the person doing the posting was obviously an idiot. Here is an example: Date: 22 Sep 93 14:06:04 From: John Doe To: All Subj: Hello FidoNews 11-21 Page: 17 23 May 1994 -------------------------------------------------------------- i just got this computer have trouble log on and the messages don't work right i am cannot find a job is there anybody who knows why i will work for food thanks The first question which arises is why does someone who is unemployed, illiterate, hungry and not technically inclined posting a message proving his unemployability, illiteracy, hunger and technical ignorance? The answer is simply because he is an idiot. And what do idiots post? They post Idiot Fluff. Okay, I don't want to come across as someone who is insensitive to people who have lost their jobs for economic reasons. Unemployed people are not all idiots. It's just in today's competitive economy, more idiots are being flushed out of their jobs. Just look at the last election and all those in Congress who didn't return. The major sub-type of Idiot Fluff is Illiteracy Fluff. Have you ever noticed in most English based conferences, messages from Europe are far better spelled and have better sentence structure than messages coming from America? For most of these people, English is a second language. It simply doesn't make sense. America is the number one supplier of Illiteracy Fluff. Now, Illiteracy Fluff is a sub-type of Idiot Fluff. Americans post the most Illiteracy Fluff. When we put these facts together, the conclusion is obvious. Americans look like a bunch of idiots to the rest of the world. Argument Fluff -------------- The purpose of most electronic conferences is to have the ability to discuss various points on a subject. Most conferences have a subject or theme which keeps the discussion to a particular area of interest (i.e., religion, computer programming welding, etc.). Sometimes, a debate will stray from the central issue. Usually the person who is losing the battle will sidetrack a discussion on a minor point, mostly to avoid the embarrassment of losing the debate on the main point. This is called Argument Fluff. Argument Fluff is sometimes difficult to detect because of its similarity to other types of fluff. Flame Fluff, Liars' Fluff and Intellectual Fluff are particularly prone to be disguised as Argument Fluff. An alert participant in a debate will be able to see this ruse and reverse the move. Most of these diversions are performed by making claims which could not possibly be proved or disproved. For example, with the sub-type of Deity Fluff the comment such as "My God's better than your God" may be made. There is no way for either party to positively prove this fact, because it is a remark based on faith. It is hoped by the losing side in the debate that this will cause the other party to drop his argument and take the offensive with this as a new argument. A shrewd person FidoNews 11-21 Page: 18 23 May 1994 would not be baited by this tactic. They would ignore it and continue. One-Liner Fluff is a hybrid of Argument Fluff and Small Talk Fluff. Here a person "defends" their position with comments such as "No, it doesn't" or "On a cold day in hell". It is important to note the person posting this kind of fluff will most likely be ignored. Eventually, they will be frustrated to the point where they will post Flame Fluff in order to get the attention they feel they deserve. Political Fluff is a hybrid of Argument Fluff and Liars' Fluff. This is prevalent in conferences where a lot of political debating is going on. It is also common in election campaigns. There are a lot of promises made, with no intent on keeping them. Treatment for Fluff ------------------- Fluff is best described as the conference version of the stuff that grows under your bed. It will always appear and, eventually, you will have clean it up. Now that we have some categories of fluff defined, we can now look at how we deal with it. We must be careful, however. In treating fluff, we can wipe out a conference. Once you remove it from these areas, there is usually nothing left. So it is safe to say, a little fluff is good for a conference. It adds something to an otherwise void and sterile environment. We also need to be careful that the treatment doesn't end up being legislated by the government. We all know it is difficult to get good ethical policy from elected officials. We need to find a way which will minimize government involvement. Generally, conference content is policed by the moderator, if there is one. Sometimes, several people will declare they are the rightful moderator for a conference, and there will be a lot of flame fluff generated. This is especially true in the WELDING conference, where the moderator of the UNION conference and the moderator of the SCAB conference are constantly fighting for control. Once a moderator has been established, they must be careful to not be too restrictive or flame fluff will generate. If they are too passive, then all kinds of fluff will form spontaneously. Balance is key to moderating a conference. Some moderators can only create fluff. They sit quietly behind their keyboards waiting to pounce on any indiscretion. When they find one, they post messages which ask the offending parties to end the topic. Some even go as far as sending private fluff e-mail to the originator. These moderators are called fluffballs. (This name is not popular with the moderators of the WELDING conference.) This conjures up an image of someone soft and warm. This is a gross error for some fluffballs have been known to carry semi-automatic weapons. FidoNews 11-21 Page: 19 23 May 1994 One treatment for fluff involves removing these fluffballs, replacing them with someone less fluffy. This does cause confusion for users of a conference because the rules can sometimes change without notice. This kind of extreme act