F I D O N E W S -- Vol.13 No. 9 (26-Feb-1996) +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" BBS | | _ | +1-519-570-4176 | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editors: | | | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 | | |__U__| / \// | | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | Submission address: editors 1:1/23 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | MORE addresses: | | | | submissions=> editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca | | Don -- don@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..................................................... 1 2. Articles...................................................... 2 Problem User--Please Help!.................................. 2 FIDOTIPS.................................................... 11 Fidonet and Politics........................................ 18 FIDONEWS SUBMISSION......................................... 20 3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 22 ======================================================================== Editorial ======================================================================== FidoNews 13-09 Page: 2 26 Feb 1996 I am sitting at my computer, and looking at Ex_Libris BBS, my Fidonet BBS. It runs on an old AT hooked up by ethernet to my network. I has a 30 meg hard disk, a monochrome monitor, and 640K. Not that the size matters, the dik drive is only a bootstrap device anyway. The fact is, though, that when that old AT goes, I wonder if I will bother putting the BBS back online. I enjoy Fidonet. I enjoy it very much, and I like the people that I know in the net. They are like familly, in a way. I have known them through two marriages now, and followed the same old tired threads with amusement through a generation of new sysops. I am not even that early a member, having joined late in the 80's. But the fact is, that Fidonet is dying. Not through lack of will, nor through lack of need. We are facing technological obsolesence. We have allowed our software particularly to become as obsolete as that old AT of mine. In another 10 years, there will not be a machine in existance that will run our software. As a computer professional, I cannot afford to stay in the dark ages of communications technology. As a hobbiest, I do not want to. I have to move over to the internet style of communications. The next node I put up will be an internet node. Fidonet? Do I run two BBS's? Just for nostalgia's sake for a few years? Probably. For a few years. It would be real nice to have a migration pattern. I want to hook in and get mail at dtees@fidonet.org. I want my users to get mail at joe_smith@exlibris.fidonet.org. How do we get there from here? We have a year, maybe two. ======================================================================== Articles ======================================================================== Problem User--Please Help! by Sarah Nunez, 1:130/604 THE SITUATION: There is a BBS user in San Antonio by the name of Joe Falls, who has been exceedingly disruptive in several FidoNet echoes, including AVIATION and FLYING. We lost quite a number of highly-respected, extremely knowledgeable participants because of Joe's behavior. He also repeatedly violated other rules of the echo, and flamed the moderators every time they tried to enforce them. As a result, he has been permanently banned from both of these echoes. However, he still reads the two echoes, and is continuing his attacks via Internet e-mail from the address shbjsale@ix.netcom.com. For reasons known only to him, he often sends carbon copies of his messages to as many as 20 people at once, sometimes to people who weren't even party to the original echo discussion to which he refers. Approximately 30 of us are his usual FidoNews 13-09 Page: 3 26 Feb 1996 targets. E-mail to the postmaster of his Internet Service Provider has been to no avail. He continually needles people about minor details (spelling, grammar, typos), refuses to follow simple rules, and flames anyone who disagrees with his sometimes-distorted views of reality. He is obnoxious, antagonistic, vindictive, rude, unmannerly, belligerent, and behaves not at all like the officer and gentleman he supposedly once was (he's a retired USAF colonel). He has particular vendettas against several well-respected, long-time participants of the two echoes, and has no qualms about venting his opinions of them. Anyone who comes to their defense, or who even politely suggests that he tone it down immediately becomes his next target. Some of Joe's attacks have included racial slurs. He also includes, at times, thinly veiled threats of (groundless) legal action (such threats are a violation of FidoNet Policy), character assassination, and insults to his target's family. THE SOLUTION: If he can no longer read the AVIATION and FLYING echoes, he will have nothing about which to harrass other users. In light of that, please do not give him even *read* access to either of these two echoes. He often logs on to BBSes in other parts of the country, sometimes under one or more aliases, since time, distance, and money are apparently no object to him. Sometimes he "borrows" the name of one of his primary targets to use as his alias, so twit filters and auto-deletion programs aren't much help, although his writing style is very distinctive. If he uses an alias to log onto your BBS, though, you can always catch him with a call-back verifier. (At your request, I will netmail you the phone number he calls from.) Also, please circulate this article to others in your net/region who might not regularly read FidoNews. We greatly appreciate your help in our endeavor to rid ourselves of this man's tirades. You may reach me via direct netmail to 1:130/604 *ONLY* between midnight and 5am Central. You may also route netmail through my NC (1:130/0) or my hub (1:130/600) anytime. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- File date: 15 February 1996 This file, FIDOTIPS.TXT, includes information on Echo Etiquette on FidoNet (as well as on similar nets). Included are message writing, quoting, netmail, advertisements, test messages, personal discussions, off-topicness, chain letters and blanket messages, subject lines, and other things of interest to all readers. The purpose of this file is to educate echo users in basic echo etiquette. A companion file, also concerning FidoNet, is called FIDOFAQ.ZIP. That file is available for download/freq from 1:202/701 or 1:202/711, Pacific Rim Information, San Diego, CA, anytime except ZMH. Echo moderators are welcome to use these tips in their moderator duties. Sysops are welcome to use these tips as bulletins or in other BBS areas, FidoNews 13-09 Page: 4 26 Feb 1996 or make it available for download/freq by users and other sysops. Please leave the information as it stands. If there is information to be updated or corrected, please netmail the author (FidoNet/FamilyNet address below) for possible adjustment in a later release. WRITING A MESSAGE I see these messages in the conference areas. Do these people all know each other? Most echo participants have never met in person. The purpose of conference areas are for exchange of information and conversation. Many people stay in the same conference areas and begin to get to know each other as pen pals, so they seem like friends who have known each other for awhile. How can I get involved? Read an echo whose topic interests you for a month or two. If the conversations interest you, and you are aware of the echo rules, find the Reply key on your BBS editor or offline reader and hit it. Using normal typing (upper and lower case), respond. Most likely you'll get a response to your message within a week or so. Many people find that getting messages is like getting personal mail in your snailmail box...more fun than bills! As one sysop said about messages: "ya gotta write 'em to get 'em!" WRITING A ONE-SIZE FITS ALL MESSAGE I want to thank more than one person for their advice or commentary on a thread I was interested in...what do I do? Or...I find myself saying the same thing to several people....what do I do? Rather than writing each person an individual message, write a blanket message that conveys the information you want to relay, and then address your message to ALL. If you want to ensure that someone in particular (or everyone) gets credit, thank them individually within one message. One message (vice a dozen) saves echo bandwith, sysop phone bills, and moderator wrath. :) QUOTING How much should I quote? It is standard to quote only those portions of a message that will remind the recipient of what the conversation was about. Four lines is usually plenty. Quoting the taglines, origin lines, message headers, or anything similar is a waste of bytes. If you're not sure how to quote, either read the docs to your offline reader, or ask a sysop or another informed user for help. I agree with something someone said, but don't have anything to add to the conversation. What do I do? It's not really necessary to reply unless you have something more to say. SOMEONE IS OFF TOPIC FidoNews 13-09 Page: 5 26 Feb 1996 I see a message where someone is off-topic on the echo, and I want to respond to the topic. How should I handle it? There are several ways of responding. One method is to let the person know you saw their message but that you know it's off-topic, and ask if they have access to a more appropriate echo or to netmail. Or, if you know they have access to netmail (or suspect that they do), respond via netmail. A third way, a very appropriate way when seeing ads or blanket messages in echoes, is to ignore the message and let the moderator handle it. If you think the moderator may not have noticed the off-topic thread, or if it's really bugging you, contact the moderator via netmail. Chances are that the moderators have already taken care of the matter, though. I see a message where someone is suggesting doing something illegal. What do I do about it? Sit back and ignore the message if you can, as the moderators have probably already taken care of it. If you can't ignore it, contact the moderator via netmail. It's not necessary to create more bandwith and junkmail in the echo by continuing the thread. How can anything be "off-topic"? This is a free country, and the Bill of Rights guarantees me free speech! FidoNet is not a democracy, nor is there any guarantee of free speech within FidoNet or its echoes. FidoNet is a network for amateur computer modeming hobbyists. Echoes with topics were created so that people could read threads/conversations on topics they enjoy. If everyone gets off topic, the echo overflows and people have to wade through the mess just to find the messages that interest them. CHAIN LETTERS AND BLANKET MESSAGES Should I respond to a message that is obviously a chain letter? No. The best advice is to ignore it, and let the moderator handle it. Usually, a chain letter is perpetrated by a "hit and run" participant. The person drops the chain letter into every echo that a given BBS has, and never responds to further echomail on the subject. Regardless of what the letter may say, you aren't asking for bad luck by not responding...at least not in this author's humble opinion. Should I turn this chain letter into the Post Office? Most FidoNet moderators would *not* want you to. Unless the chain letter promises that something bad will happen if you don't respond to it, the Post Office won't get involved anyway. Are those stories really true? Here's a brief synopsis of the most popular chain letters and blanket messages sent via modem, and their stories: "Craig Shergold wants cards": boy is not dying any more, he was cured. "Modem tax": the bill lasted about 5 minutes before it was killed on the floor. "$250 Cookie Recipe": Neiman Marcus never sold chocolate chip cookie recipes. Any other versions of the story (including Mrs. Fields' cookie) are also equally false. "Religious broadcasting ban by FCC": Was also killed before it came up for a vote. "Dave Rhodes": is in jail, we're told. If it sounds too good to be true, or sounds illegal, don't FidoNews 13-09 Page: 6 26 Feb 1996 react to it. SUBJECT LINES I get so aggravated when I see a subject line that does not match the content of the message. What can I do? It would be helpful to all readers if all message posters would check the subject line after they hit the Reply key, and change it if necessary. Most software makes this quite easy to do these days. If you are unsure about how to do that, either read the offline reader docs or ask your sysop. TEST MESSAGES Why are there test messages? Should I answer them? How can I test an echo to see if it's working? If you are setting up an echo on a board or offline reader, it is better to enter an initialization message or an on-topic message than the boring "TESTING" type message into a new echo. If your system has been carrying echoes all along, you shouldn't need a test message anyway. Test messages belong in regional echoes, not in international backbone conferences. If you receive an answer to your initialization or on-topic introductory message, you will know your message got out. If you are a user and see a test message in a backbone conference, sit back and let the moderator/s respond. Examples of "test" messages that would qualify: "Sopwhith Camel BBS is now echoing this conference, would the moderator/s please forward a copy of the rules for our users?" "I'm John, and I've been interested in xxxx all along. Would xxxx be an example of.....(continuing along the topical lines)" PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS Oops...where am I? On some BBS software, it is very easy to be in the wrong conference at the wrong time. Please be sur