F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 02 11 January 1999 +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet community | "FidoNews" | | _ | +27-41-515-913 [5:5/23] | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editor: | | | (*) | \ )) | Henk Wolsink 5:7104/2 | | |__U__| / \// | | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Submission address: FidoNews Editor 5:5/23 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | MORE addresses: | | | | submissions=> editor@fidonews.org | | hwolsink@catpe.alt.za | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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. GUEST EDITORIAL .......................................... 3 Who Decides - Douglas Myers .............................. 3 3. ARTICLES ................................................. 4 ECHO TALK - David E. Waters on The Real Problem .......... 4 4. NOTICES .................................................. 5 5. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 6 6. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 10 FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 1 11 Jan 1999 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Greetings, So much has been written about how much/many Nodes FidoNet is loosing every week, that I have pleasure showing you a few messages from previous posted Nodelist stats. I'm not going to present you with any meaningfull or otherwise bull here as the figures below, speak for themselves. Please, regardless whether the figures are correct or not is not the point, what is the point, it presents some form of demise of FidoNet in a manner, which is frighting. A hobby in which I and many of you, have spent many hours in, not to speak of the amount of money we invested in it. From a message: 23 April 1996. Nodelist Robot | Nl-4 | Nodelist-3 | Nodelist-2 | Nodelist-1 | Current Nl | ------+------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ Zone-1| 14734| 14535 -199| 14572 37| 14457 -115| 14340 -117| Zone-2| 16478| 16567 89| 16576 9| 16629 53| 16599 -30| Zone-3| 1154| 1155 1| 1152 -3| 1146 -6| 1124 -22| Zone-4| 584| 584 0| 584 0| 584 0| 584 0| Zone-5| 120| 120 0| 120 0| 120 0| 117 -3| Zone-6| 880| 1226 346| 1229 3| 1228 -1| 1228 0| ------+------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ Total | 33950| 34187 237| 34233 46| 34164 -69| 33992 -172| ------+------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ | Nl-4 | Nodelist-3 | Nodelist-2 | Nodelist-1 | Current Nl | +------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ From a message: 3 January 1997. Nodelist Robot |Zone|Nl-341|Nodelist-348|Nodelist-355|Nodelist-362|Nodelist-003|%%| +----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+ | 1 | 10931|10737 -194 |10564 -173 |10452 -112 |10370 -82 |36| | 2 | 16185|16150 -35 |16127 -23 |16104 -23 |16056 -48 |55| | 3 | 882| 882 0 | 878 -4 | 876 -2 | 869 -7 | 3| | 4 | 578| 572 -6 | 413 -159 | 556 143 | 552 -4 | 2| | 5 | 94| 94 0 | 93 -1 | 93 0 | 93 0 | 0| | 6 | 1006| 1003 -3 | 1003 0 | 1075 72 | 1073 -2 | 4| +----+------+------------+------------+------------+------------+--+ | 29676|29438 -238 |29078 -360 |29156 78 |29013 -143 | +------+------------+------------+------------+------------+ From a message: 3 January 1998 Nodelist Robot !Zone/Jul!Ndl-339!Nodel.-346!Nodel.-353!Nodel.-360!Nodel.-002!%%! +--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+ ! 1/360 ! 6338 ! 6338 0! 6225 -113! 6199 -26! 6199 0!27! FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 2 11 Jan 1999 ! 2/002 ! 14627 !14654 27!14605 -49!14523 -82!14538 15!63! ! 3/360 ! 591 ! 591 0! 592 1! 580 -12! 580 0! 3! ! 4/353 ! 436 ! 434 -2! 434 0! 435 1! 435 0! 2! ! 5/353 ! 92 ! 92 0! 92 0! 91 -1! 91 0! 0! ! 6/318 ! 1091 ! 1091 0! 1091 0! 1091 0! 1091 0! 5! +--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+ ! 23175 !23200 25!23039 -161!22919 -120!22934 15! +-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ From a message: 10 January 1999 Nodelist Stats +--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+ !Zone/Jul!Ndl-345!Nodel.-352!Nodel.-359!Nodel.-001!Nodel.-008!%%! +--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+ ! 1/008 ! 3714 ! 3675 -39! 3660 -15! 3613 -47! 3593 -20!20! ! 2/008 ! 13073 !13127 54!13071 -56!13089 18!12994 -95!72! ! 3/008 ! 345 ! 344 -1! 338 -6! 338 0! 311 -27! 2! ! 4/008 ! 267 ! 267 0! 267 0! 267 0! 267 0! 1! ! 5/008 ! 60 ! 60 0! 60 0! 60 0! 59 -1! 0! ! 6/001 ! 912 ! 912 0! 912 0! 906 -6! 906 0! 5! +--------+-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--+ ! 18371 !18385 14!18308 -77!18273 -35!18130 -143! +-------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ As can be seen, FidoNet is loosing Nodes at a rate of some 4000 per annum. At this rate, we have some 4 years to go, before it's history. A very sad state of affairs. Not so happy reading, ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 3 11 Jan 1999 ================================================================= GUEST EDITORIAL ================================================================= Who Decides - Douglas Myers Who Decides? D. Myers, 1:270/720 One of the consequences of being an internationally-known Fidonet Busybody is that I am occasionally confused with someone with actual influence. Such was the case recently when Catalin Bradu of Romania, the RC of Region 53 sent me information he really wanted to get to Bob Satti. He was under the mistaken impression that I would have the email address of Fido's Top Cop. All I have is a calling plan which lets me call in the US and Canada for a dime a minute, so crashing netmail is almost trivial. If I'd been smart, I'd have just sent it along and let it go. It was stuff I didn't want to hear about. He was excommunicating someone named Gabi Andrei for Excessively Annoying Behavior in proselytizing his particular brand of religion. Though he apparently had the support of his region, his ZC, Ward Dossche ordered him to reverse his ruling. A few days later, Ward removed him as RC, placing someone in charge who didn't support the EAB action. Now who wants to get involved in this? Who wants to support someone proselytizing in netmail and echomail? But then, who wants to support the nasty business of excommunication? Especially in far-off Romania? Who should be making these decisions anyway? Should Excessively Annoying Behavior be determined by the folks in the region where it occurs, or is it the province of the Zone Coordinator? For that matter, who decides when a popularly-elected Regional Coordinator should be removed. Is it the province of his electorate, or is it up to the Zone Coordinator? ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 4 11 Jan 1999 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= ECHO TALK - David E. Waters on the Real Problem . -- -- -- -- -- ECHO TALK -- -- -- -- -- . | Food for thought from Fido's echomail. | | Purloined without permission by D Myers | ` -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- -- -- -- -- -- ' David E. Waters on The Real Problem: ------------------------------------------------------------------- There is no depth in Fido. For instance, there is no school for future Sysops. When we all die, thats it it's over. Nobody is trained to take over any of the "Jobs" in Fido. How many know the politics of how to get mail from N.A. to Austraila? (Show of hands please.) Sysoping will very quickly become a lost art like "canning" (you know those jars our Grandmothers had full of stuff when we were kids). The unreleased version of Trade Wars is a prime example, it ties directly through a server and does not need a BBS to run. I know I am a "Johnny come lately" and most folks figure I do not whats going on and for the most part they are right. I am also a locksmith and there are no new people (Kids, teenagers & young adults) training behind us at least not enough to keep open all the shops that are out there now. Which means the fewer there are the resource gets more expensive (think about that the next you call 2-3 locksmiths for an estimate, what if there was only 1?). I'm 52 and no I do not know how old anybody else is and it really does not matter, we ALL die sometime. All of us better figure out how to solve this part first or the who is doing what will not matter if there is no what to do, because the mail and files will have stopped because somebody died and nobody could take thier place. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 5 11 Jan 1999 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= Future History 16 Feb 1999 13th Anniversary of the introduction of EchoMail by Jeff Rush. 12 May 1999 12th Anniversary of Fido Operations in Zone 4; 10th Anniversary of the creation of FidoNet Zone 4. 24 Jul 1999 XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99]. 9 Jun 1999 Tenth Anniversary of the adoption of FidoNet Policy 4.07. 10 Sep 1999 10th anniversary of Zone 5 operations. 26 Oct 1999 Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles. 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. 21 Sep 2000 10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR) 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 16-02 Page 6 11 Jan 1999 ================================================================= 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://travel.to/fidonet/ FTSC page http://www.goldware.dk/ftsc Echomail [pending] General http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html http://www.nrgsys.com/orb/foti List servers: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/fidonet-discussion ============ 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: Net 264: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/ Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/ Region 19: http://www.compconn.net/r19 Zone 1 Elist http://www.baltimoremd.com/elist/ Not sure where the following should be placed: http://www.angelfire.com/biz/snwvlly/fido.html ============ Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org ZEC2: Zone 2 Elist: http://www.fbone.ch/echolist/ 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) FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 7 11 Jan 1999 Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/~lbehet/fido (English/German) 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 (German) 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 42: http://www.fido.cz Region 48: http://www.fidonet.org.pl Region 50: http://www.fido7.com/ (Russian) Net 5010: http://fido.tu-chel.ac.ru/ (Russian) Net 5015: http://www.fido.nnov.ru/ (Russian) Net 5030: http://kenga.ru/fido/ (Russian & English) Net 5073: http://people.weekend.ru/soa/ (Russian) ============ Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org ============ Zone 4: Region 90: http://visitweb.com/fidonet Net 903: http://www.playagrande.com/refugio Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish) ============ Zone 5: http://www.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/index.htm ============ Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html (Chinese) FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 8 11 Jan 1999 ============ 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. TCP/IP accessible node access information should be submitted to the FidoNews Editor for inclusion in their Region or Zone. -----------oOo------------- Fidonet Via Internet Hubs Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed | Basic Rate -----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------ 1:12/12 | Ken Wilson | FTP | T1 | $24mo. 1:13/25 | Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo. 1:106/1 | Matt Bedynek | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 64k | $5/$15mo. 1:106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin | FTP,VMoT | 64k | $5/mo. 1:107/451 | Andy Knifel | FTP, VMoT, UUE | 33.6 | n/c 1:124/7008 | Ben Hamilton | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 64k | $10/$20mo. 1:140/12 | Bob Seaborn | FTP | T1 | $5/$20 1:270/101 | George Peace | FTP | T1 | $30mo. 1:271/140 | Tom Barstow | UUE | T1 | n/c 1:275/1 | Joshua Ecklund | UUE | 28.8 | $10/yr. 1:280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo. 1:2401/305 | Peter Rocca | FTP,UUE | T1 | unkn 1:2424/10 | Alec Grynspan | FTP,UUE | T1 | n/c 1:2604/104 | Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo. 1:2624/306 | D. Calafrancesco | VMoT | 33.6 | $15yr. 1:345/0 | Todd Cochrane | FTP | T1 | n/c 1:346/250 | Aran Spence | FTP,UUE | T1 | $10mo. 1:396/45 | Marc Lewis | UUE | 33.6 | $26/yr. 1:3651/9 | Jerry Gause | FTP,VMoT | 33.6 | $3/$6 1:396/1 | John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1 | $15mo. 2:33/505 | Mario Mure | VMoT,UUE | 64k | n/c 2:254/175 | Alex Kemp | UUE | 56k | n/c 2:284/800 | Jeroen VanDeLeur | FTP,UUE | 64k | n/c 2:335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c 2:469/84 | Max Masyutin | VMoT | 256k | n/c 2:2411/413 | Dennis Dittrich | UUE | 64k | n/c 2:2474/275 | Christian Emig | UUE | 64k | unkn 3:633/260 | Malcolm Miles | FTP | 33.6 | n/c 4:905/100 | Fabian Gervan | VMoT, UUE | ??? | n/c 5:7104/2 | Henk Wolsink | FTP | 28.8 | n/c -- * FTP = Internet File Transfer Protocol * VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various) * UUE = uuencode<->email type transfers [I'm only cataloging transfer methods, eg, ftp, email, telnet. Specific programs using these protocols are no longer being listed. Contact the system operators for details of which programs they have available.] FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 9 11 Jan 1999 Compiled by C. Ingersoll, 1:2623/71, (609)814-1978, fbn@dandy.net Posted on the 1st of every month in FN_SYSOP, R13SYSOP and Fidonews. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 10 11 Jan 1999 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFORMATION ================================================================= ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ------- Editor: Henk Wolsink Editors Emeritii: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg "FidoNews Editor" FidoNet 5:5/23 BBS +27-41-515-913, 2400/9600/V.34/V.90 more addresses: Henk Wolsink -- 5:7104/2, hwolsink@catpe.alt.za (Postal Service mailing address) FidoNews Editor P.O. Box 12325 Port Elizabeth, 6006 South Africa ------------------------------------------------------ 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 and/or the Editor. Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is Copyright 1998 Henk Wolsink. 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 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. FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 11 11 Jan 1999 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.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. You find a link for this process on www.fidonews.org. *=*=* You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at: http://www.fidonews.org STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request - Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from: ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/ Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents FIDONEWS 16-02 Page 12 11 Jan 1999 for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 13 Megs. =*=*=*= The current week's FidoNews and the FidoNews public-key are now also available almost immediately after publication on the FidoNews Editor homepage on the World Wide Web at: http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html There are also links there to jim barchuk's HTML FidoNews source and to John Souvestre's FTP site for the archives. There is also an email link for sending in an article as message text. Drop on over. =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= 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 Editor, or file-requestable from 5:5/23 [5:7104/2] as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators should have copies of ARTSPEC.DOC. Please read it. "Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered trademarks of Tom Jennings, P.O. Box 410923, San Francisco, CA 94141, and are used with permission. "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 -----------------------------------------------------------------