F I D O N E W S -- Volume 15, Number 29 20 July 1998 +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet community | "FidoNews" | | _ | 1-209-251-7529 [1:1/23] | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editor: | | | (*) | \ )) | Zorch Frezberg 1:205/1701 | | |__U__| / \// | | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | Submission address: FidoNews Editor 1:1/23 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | MORE addresses: | | | | submissions=> editor@fidonews.org | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | For information, copyrights, article submissions, | | obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ | | please refer to the end of this file. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ "This edition published under duress." Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2 Dave Beach's Survey (Methodology) ........................ 2 Dave Beach's Survey (Results) ............................ 2 New Fidonet Internet Chat Page ........................... 3 An announcement of a Party! .............................. 4 3. COLUMNS .................................................. 6 The Fidoserf's are revolting ............................. 6 4. WE GET EMAIL ............................................. 9 5. NOTICES .................................................. 11 Future History ........................................... 11 6. FIDONEWS PUBLIC-KEY ...................................... 12 FidoNews PGP Public-Key Listing .......................... 12 7. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 13 8. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 16 FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 1 20 Jul 1998 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= There are times when there are no words to define or distinguish an event or occurrence. Rather than a 'middle path', we watch as Fido in Zone 1 swings to one extreme, rather than one of moderation. History does indeed repeat itself. -zf- ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 2 20 Jul 1998 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Dave Beach's Survey - An Observation on the Methodology by Jerry Schwartz, 1:142/928 Dave Beach's recent survey of RC10 sysops underscores the difficulty of using polls to judge public opinion on controversial matters. First of all, a survey such as this depends upon self-selection: only those who want to respond, for whatever reason, are counted. The fat, dumb, and happy rarely exert themselves to express their apathy. Professional pollsters take special measures to correct for this problem, such as contacting a sample of the non-respondents face to face to judge their sentiments. Second, two questions which are actually getting at the same point may be answered very differently, depending upon the phrasing. My favorite example is the way people react to "Would you want to see your tax dollars used to help the unemployed?" vs. "Do you think the government should take money from you and give it to people who don't work?" In Dave's survey, 83.9% of the respondents said that they agreed with the way their NC cast his vote; 87.1% felt that they'd been adequately consulted by their NC prior to the vote; but 74.2% are unhappy with the results. There are many possible explanations for this contradiction, but unfortunately we have no way of knowing what's really going on. Did people for some perverse reason want their NC to vote for someone they didn't want to win? Was the winner considered the lesser of two evils? Did different people respond to each question? Third, when interpreting the results of the survey it is easy to undercut the statistical results by quoting opposing comments. Of the 83.9% who agreed with the way their NC voted, did none of them comment? (The only two comments quoted were negative.) And fourth, the results of a survey can be skewed by people's perception of the pollster. Try dressing as a Catholic priest and asking people if they believe that all religions deserve respect; then try dressing like Ozzie Ozborne and asking the same question. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Beach's Survey - An Observation on the Results by Jerry Schwartz, 1:142/928 My other article comments upon the difficulty of finding out what people really think by the strikingly simple but profoundly difficult technique of asking them. This article deals with the FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 3 20 Jul 1998 reported results. In his introductory editorial paragraphs, Dave refers to Bob Satti as being "maintained in office with the support of unelected, appointed Regional Coordinators"; but within the body of the survey he asks "Are you aware that it's common practice in other Regions to have direct sysop voting for the RC position?" I haven't seen the survey itself, so I presume that the editorial comments were added when the results were prepared; but even so, this suggests a contradiction: is it common practice for RCs to be elected directly by sysops, or are the RCs largely unelected as Dave implies? Also, there have been repeated charges that Bob Kohl has so strangled the flow of information within Region 10 that the sysops are being kept unaware of what is going on; yet 80.6% reported being aware of both a recent PC filed against Bob Kohl and the actions of the RECC. That is odd. 83.9% of the responding sysops agree with the way their Network Coordinator voted. Whatever else that means, it says pretty clearly that the NCs did not contravene the wishes of those they represented. Regardless of whether you believe in direct or representative democracy, this survey doesn't suggest that the results would have been different if the sysops had voted directly. Nonetheless, only 12.9% of the responding sysops are satisfied with the results of the election. As I said in my other article, there's no way of knowing why this discrepancy arose. Of all of the results compiled, this is the most troubling statistic. Does it mean that people don't think Bob Kohl has done a good job, but they want to give him a second chance? Does it mean that they don't like Bob Kohl, but they like his opponent even less? Does it mean that they aren't satified with Bob Kohl, but were afraid to take a chance on any change? Does it mean that there is some odd statistical corner case which reconciles all of these numbers? Finally, 80.6% of the respondents answered that they didn't need their identities to be kept confidential; yet the one comment which was selected for quotation implied (as has been said over and over again by Bob Kohl's opponents) that anyone who speaks out in Region 10 is marked for excommunication. We should be very careful about letting our preconceptions guide us when reading these tea leaves. No one of the questions gives anything like a complete picture of the situation; and taken together, they are a mass of contradictions. As such, they may well represent the opinions they were intended to illuminate. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoChat FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 4 20 Jul 1998 -------- by Dave Meikle (david.meikle@sodbbs.camelot.co.uk , 2:258/69) Last week I developed my web page @ members.xoom.com/Rebeljambo/ to Run Realtime Java chat so everyone with access to the internet can chat about Fidonet online. I thought this would be a good idea so we can all have a say. I am also setting up a PowWoW confrence so anyone with powWoW can chat as well. Please logon and give it a try. As for the PowWoW I will arange a time so everyone that wants to can logon. Dave ----------------------------------------------------------------- A PARTY!! Paul Lentz 1:124/5025 Region19's Poor Man's FidoCon and River Party XI July 25-26, 1998 on the Guadalupe River in Texas Every year Region19 throws a party so every fidonet member can get a chance to see an RC with a beer in each hand, to show and tell the most massive hardrive ever made just before seeing who can toss it the farthest, to listen to tall tales from Wheeties, and to have a general good time. We'd like to invite everyone in Fidonet to come and join us 19ers in the fun! The Place? Whitewater Sports. This is a campground/tube rental place located on the Guadalupe River where it dumps out of Canyon Lake, just North of New Brunsfels, Texas, and roughly halfway between Austin and San Antonio on I-35. The place is pretty big with lots of spaces for tents and RVs, with about 75 acres to fill up. Reservations aren't required, and they have always said that a large group should not be a problem. There are "rustic" bathroom facilties (if memory serves me correctly) including hot showers and there is a small store there for a few scant essentials you might need. If you really need supplies, you would probably be better off bringing them with you. The Attraction? Nice cold water! The water comes straight out of the bottom of a very deep lake, and flows at this location around a great mile or so horseshoe. This means you can drag your tube from the campsite up the main road about a quater mile, get in and liesurely float around to the campground again, and plus there are a couple of places where the water runs a little bit faster so's you can get dumped out of the tube and into the water. Added Attraction? New Brunfels Texas is close-by and we might wanna run into town for some of their great German food on Saturday night. FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 5 20 Jul 1998 Directions? First... Get your butt to Texas! :-) From I-35 exit at EXIT 191 CANYON LAKE 306. Go NW on 306 about 12 miles till you see Whitewater Sports on the right just before a bridge. Look around for us! One of us will have a crude hand painted sign that will let you know who we are. For a few pictures of last years party see Ron Bemis's Web page at http://www.iain.com/~rbemis/ also for a couple of pictures and link to a map of the area see http://www.startext.net/np/net124/pmfc&rp.htm Info and Rules: $15 per vehicle per night (tent) $18 per vehicle per night with electricity (wimps) $6 per day plus a $5 deposit to rent a tube $8 per day plus a $10 deposit to rent a tube with a bottom thingy The Phone number at Whitewater Sports is 830-964-3800 NO PETS are allowed at Whitewater Sports so leave your real Fido at home. NO LOUD NOISE is allowed at Whitewater Sports after 10pm. NO GLASS or STYROFOAM is allowed in the river. There is work going on at the dam and recent rains or lack thereof is effecting water levels as regulated by the Army Corps of Engineers. It is customary for them to bring the flow up to around 300 cfs on weekends to keep the fun going though. Whitewater suggests that if the water level is really important to you, that you call them before hand as they can update you. COMPUTERS AND RADIOS are discouraged (they'll probably end up in the river). Beer and Bratwurst is highly encouraged. Bringing Single unattached female friends with low tolerence for alcohol is highly encouraged. Clothes may or may not be required (check your mirror). Those funky "Lake Shoes" and sunblock are recommended. San Marcos and San Antonio are not too far away so any Hotel/Airport WEENIES should be able to find accomadations/transport allowing them to attend. Hope to see everybody there! *Paul* ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 6 20 Jul 1998 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Dear Editorbeing, This article was submitted by Doc Logger(163/110) who managed to spend a whole week at home. The front lawn of his house was choked with Ilana vines and a small community of badgers had taken up residence on the front porch. Roll da flic, Zorch.... Dear Reverend Visage, There were a couple of approaches I could take to the events of the last week. My first inclination was to gloat and assert that a victory had been achieved but in practical terms what has unfolded has more tragic dimensions. In a nutshell, the events of the past week are as follows. A whole net in Region10 pulled up stakes and moved to Region12. They did so because they could no longer countenance the behaviour of Bob Kohl. When the new entries in the nodelist were published, Satti responded almost immediately and demanded of the Region12 RC that the nodes be removed from the Region12 segment. Satti went further and said that if the R12C didn't remove the refugees, that Satti would edit the nodelist segment himself. In response, Region12 prepared to issue an entirely new nodelist which would have corrected any editing attempts by Satti. When several of the backbone echomail distributors and the Z2C agreed to distribute the new nodelist, Satti was emasculated. For the first time since the Peefour brigands hijacked Fidonet, the sysops were able to make Satti irrelevant and refuse to be bullied by his idiocy. Whether Satti responded to the speeding train, or whether he independently changed his mind makes little difference. The Region10 refugees graciously accepted Satti's offer of a geographic exemption which obviated the need for a nodelist showdown. Satti's lack of management skills as the issue unfolded are only a minor part of the tragedy. The real issue is what became of Bob Kohl, who started out as a sysop, and who eventually held some of the highest titles in Zone 1 (being both an RC and the ZEC.) It appears that Kohl will lose both titles in the coming week. The question that puzzled me was: How could Bob have gone from being a helpful sysop (as accounts of his earlier Fidonet existence attest) to one of the most odious miscreants on the landscape? I think the answer to the question lies in the same realm that explains the behaviour of Richard Nixon. FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 7 20 Jul 1998 Both Kohl & Nixon lacked the sense of self-worth requisite to ignoring the urge for retribution against their enemies. They mistook attainment of power for the need to act responsibly. Like Nixon, Kohl had sycophantic toadies leading him to acts of venality. And like Nixon, Kohl believed that those who exposed his egregious behaviour were enemies of Fidonet. Another part of the tragedy is that we have seen David Bowerman labouring in the Z1C echo, like Ron Ziegler, trying to justify the notion that *Cs have the right screw sysops because Peefour grants those powers. What is missing from Bowerman's messages is a sense that ethics and justice are overriding concerns that ought to take a primary place to a slavish adherence to policy. Bowerman was calling on the R12C to resign because messages from Satti threatening nodes in region12 had been crossposted into the regional echo. Bowerman didn't see the irony in the fact that only despots fear having their actions publicized. It is more than a little pathetic to see relics of Satti's regime cling by their fingernails in the fading days of their abuse of Fidonet. I'm going to digress a bit and gum a few mashed bananas about the ancient days when I was NC of our net. I was elected in a fractious period where the newly foisted Peefour was used by every mouthbreathing cretin with an ax to grind. I campaigned on the statement that anyone who filed a policy complaint was de facto, "too easily annoyed" and that Peefour was not the law of Fidoland. The relevant part of this reminiscing has to do with the use and abuse of power. There was a sysop in our net who whined incessantly about everything and filed policy complaints on an almost weekly basis. This individual would dutifully quote every obscenity he found and then demand that something be done to clean up Fidonet. I truly loathed the man, particularly since he was one of the first in our net to quote every message like a crack-crazed banshee. One day it occurred to me that as NC, and if I accepted the cretin's notions of Peefour, that I could bounce him from the net. I was sorely tempted. The temptation and the fact that I spent a few nanoseconds contemplating action led me to conclude that the powers granted to *Cs under Peefour was a poisonous and almost irresistible slide towards the wrong sort of management. Our net had a subsequent NC who wasted no time at all on using his presumed powers to attempt revenge on his enemies. That NC was eventually recalled by a sysop level vote when the excesses became too great to stomach. The point of this reminiscing is that in nets or regions with no democratic traditions, the tendency for power to corrupt absolutely is quite severe. Both Kohl and Satti succumbed to the inevitable because they both slavishly adhere to Peefour which is a document which guarantees their FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 8 20 Jul 1998 isolation from accountability. In an ideal world, Satti would recognize that he has lost the confidence of a large part of Zone 1 and call a sysop level election for a replacement. I have little faith that Satti will recognize political reality and expect that he will continue to blunder his way through another set of profound management errors. It has been months since Satti posted messages in the Z1C echo and it appears that he will keep hiding in his bunker, sheltered from reality. I must go Visage, Bob Moravsik has invited me to play in the "Budfoon's Tuba Marching Band" and you know how insanely jealous he gets when someone disrupts his bottom-feeding frenzies. I shall make your apologies for being unable to attend Walloonetta's graduation ceremonies and explain that the amount of Kava you ingested left you immobile for the whole week. Regards, Doc Logger, Furlang Island, South Pacific ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 9 20 Jul 1998 ================================================================= WE GET EMAIL ================================================================= Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 02:12:17 -0400 From: ArnieS To: Zorch Frezberg Subject: Fido1528 Bob Kohl Article: "Story of Statistics" Letter to the Editor: I began reading Bob Kohl's article. When I read: "I'm sure that Dave couldn't possible accept the fact that there are many NCs in Reg 10 that seem to little if any problems in the way Reg 10 has worked these past years." my concentration began to wane. I've only now divined "that seem to little if any problems" translates to "that see few if any problems". That took several minutes and I'm still not sure my translation is correct. I pressed on. In his next paragraph I read: "It's interesting to note that Dave little submission to the Snooze and in the echos runs almost on a par with those of Spiro Agnew many years ago." At this point my mind boggled and came to a halt. I've been reading Spiro Agnew for years and echoes and this newsletter for years. Never have I read anything by Agnew in an echo or this newsletter. Thank you for publishing this article by Bob Kohl. I never did get to the statistics. I won't be reading any more Bob Kohl. -- ...Arnie in the Hudson Valley town of Hurley, NY. ### 30 ### ----------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: your editorial of 13 July Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 14:29:25 -0700 From: "David Hallford" To: Hi Zorch, I don't have any old messages hanging around to check with since I don't archive, but I beleive I said that I wouldn't return to Region10 while Bob Kohl was RC10. I may be wrong, but that's what I remember. If you wish to accuse me of something I think you would be better off talking about the 2 times i returened to Region 10 while Bob Kohl was RC10. FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 10 20 Jul 1998 The 1st time I used your real name to mess with your serenity since you persist in attacking people while hiding behind an alias. The 2nd time was to support the opposition candidate in an election. Within 6 hours of the nodelist coming out, Bob Kohl had notified everyone that I was not to have a feed to R10SYSOP. I guess he didn't want any opposition to him, or any support for the other candidate voiced where the region could see it. take care, Dave ### 30 ### ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 11 20 Jul 1998 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= Future History 25 Jul 1998 SUPCon, Swedish FidoNet Convention at Sannabaden, Jankaping, Sweden. 14 Sep 1998 Start of International BBS Week [thru 20 Sep 98]. 22 Sep 1998 First anniversary of the FidoNews domain of www.fidonews.org. 1 Dec 1998 Fifteenth Anniversary of release of Fido version 1 by Tom Jennings. 24 Jul 1999 XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99]. 9 Jun 1999 Tenth Anniversary of the adoption of FidoNet Policy 4.07. 31 Dec 1999 Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed. 1 Jan 2000 The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec. 1 Jun 2000 EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens. 15 Sep 2000 Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens. 1 Jan 2001 This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E. -- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 12 20 Jul 1998 ================================================================= FIDONEWS PUBLIC-KEY ================================================================= FidoNews PGP Public-Key Listing [this must be copied out to a file starting at column 1 or it won't process under PGP as a valid public-key] -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Democracy Requires A Free And Uncensored Press. mQENAzUDQfgAAAEH/2cZjrzKxinfyk1NRYy2D78JEU8jFx6fvGyisnN2SX+QwRrA AxBbsMuseM3x60SFhHV7r93CxKWJylPCBJKvDazmWwy+vgBr+ZJvl7Ypj/IB4pWS Apngg8cmDH1h5d0VeYNORsuJ2udHZYRezkZ0eeJlaOsJCj5Xu0QImSp++VU/0oB1 6XRoNPy548xq8Qles1pLC8Kw7HU7Vff1WeaU3mPPQeaGZqn2qSAu5t6Z0Bhm27Pq zNaJ+JWNHaLCHlwrRHV+p9bCdfl3u303OxKPne0cSpxfe+gQBTlVta7B14ssgnzQ mnBFhvKWgM7LT105YD3EcWW9IJE1ByNHwo25a3EABRG0D0ZpZG9OZXdzIEVkaXRv cokAlQMFEDUKMDDrSgiY3KJNQQEB16YD/2tYVRC+dxghA/OwIWNH20GvQXw1zgfv cB6r8gYHcczTCqGu5qbjDOTftoBXY9vI3/CZNsSbvp0ibQinpN6zSgyy2+4wwPbu db/VnjXwBByq7ygTpNwQBMsYjs+iyndwTnR90dH3FewsveBCzeqjmP0Y/PJliElw zEmGKxoFr1SM =G82W -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- File-request FNEWSKEY from 1:1/23 [1:205/1701] or download it from IKVHFoT! BBS at 1-209-251-7529 anytime Zone 1 ZMH at 300-9600+ V34. The FidoNews key is also available on the FidoNews homepage listed in the Masthead information. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 13 20 Jul 1998 ================================================================= FIDONET BY INTERNET ================================================================= This is a list of all FidoNet-related sites reported to the FidoNews Editor as of this issue; see the notice at the end. ============ FidoNet: Homepage http://www.fidonet.org FidoNews http://www.fidonews.org [HTML] http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html [ASCII] WWW sources http://www.scms.rgu.ac.uk/students/cs_yr94/lk/fido.html FTSC page http://www.goldware.dk/ftsc Echomail [pending] WebRing http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker84/fnetring.html [TFN] General http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html ============ Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org Region 10: http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/ Region 13: none Region 14: none Region 15: none Region 16: none Region 17: none Region 18: http://techstop.pdn.net/fido/ Region 19: http://www.compconn.net ============ Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org ZEC2: Zone 2 Elist: http://www.fbone.ch/z2_elist/ Region 20: http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish) Region 23: http://www.fido.dk (in Danish) Region 24: http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (German) Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/~lbehet/fido (English/German) FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 14 20 Jul 1998 Region 25: http://www.bsnet.co.uk/net2502/net/ Region 26: http://www.nemesis.ie REC 26: http://www.nrgsys.com/orb Region 27: http://telematique.org/ft/r27.htm Region 29: http://www.rtfm.be/fidonet/ (French) Region 30: http://www.fidonet.ch (Swiss?) Region 33: http://www.fidoitalia.net (Italian) Region 34: http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm (Spanish) REC34: http://pobox.com/~chr Region 36: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7207/ Region 38: http://public.st.carnet.hr/~blagi/bbs/adriam.html Region 41: http://www.fidonet.gr (Greek/English) Region 48: http://www.fidonet.org.pl ============ Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org ============ Zone 4: http://www.altern.org/zone4 Region 90: http://visitweb.com/fidonet Net 903: http://www.playagrande.com/refugio Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish) ============ Zone 5: http://w3.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/index.htm ============ Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html (Chinese) ============ Pages listed above are as submitted to the FidoNews Editor, and generally reflect Zone and Regional Web Page sites. If no Regional site is submitted, the first Network page from that Region is used in its place. Generally, Regional pages should list access points to all Networks within the Region. FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 15 20 Jul 1998 TCP/IP accessible node access information should be submitted to the FidoNews Editor for inclusion in their Region or Zone. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 16 20 Jul 1998 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFORMATION ================================================================= ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ------- Editor: Zorch Frezberg Editors Emeritii: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Christopher Baker "FidoNews Editor" FidoNet 1:1/23 BBS 1-209-251-7529, 300/1200/2400/9600/V.34/V.90 more addresses: Zorch Frezberg -- 1:205/1701, zorch@repairnet.com zorch@qnis.net zorch@kumr.lns.com (Postal Service mailing address) FidoNews Editor P.O. Box 642 Fresno, CA 93709-0642 U.S.A. voice: 1-209-446-9038 [voice mail = 'blind' numbers not returned] ------------------------------------------------------ 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 1998 Zorch Frezberg. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or the Editor. =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic form may be obtained from the FidoNews Editor via manual download or file-request, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet. PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above postal address. File-request FIDONEWS for the current Issue. File-request FNEWS for the current month in one archive. Or file-request specific back Issue filenames in distribution format [FNEWSFnn.ZIP] for a particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP FIDONEWS 15-29 Page 17 20 Jul 1998 where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the current year [8], i.e., FNWSJAN8.ZIP for all the Issues from Jan 98. Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number 1 - 15 for 1984 - 1998, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in size from 48K to 1.4M. INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via: http://www.fidonews.org http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.aminet.org/pub/aminet/comm/fido/ ftp://ftp.irvbbs.com/fidonews/ ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/Fidonet/Fidonews And in non-English formats via: http://www.hvc.ee/pats/fidonews (Estonian) http://www.fidonet.pp.se/sfnews (Swedish) *=*=* You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to: jbarchuk@worldnet.att.net with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist and no message in the message body. To remove your name from the email distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist with no message to the same address above. * You may retrieve current and previous Issues of FidoNews via FTPMail by sending email to: ftpmail@fidonews.org with a Subject line of: help and FTPMail will immediately send a reply containing details and instructions. When you actually make a file request, FTPMail will respond in three stages. 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"Disagreement is actually necessary, or we'd all have to get in fights or something to amuse ourselves and create the requisite chaos." -Tom Jennings ### -30- ### -----------------------------------------------------------------