F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 05 1 February 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. ARTICLES ................................................. 2 Free Elections - getting your money's worth in Romania ... 2 New FTSC website ......................................... 4 Grunged Echomail Deleted - Roy J. Tellason ............... 4 3. NOTICES .................................................. 6 4. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 7 5. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 11 FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 1 8 Feb 1999 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Greetings, It's nice to see, FidoNews is read and appriciated by those in far away places such as Northern Russia. ;-) Still extremely hot here in Africa with unbelievable temperatures, the worst or is it highest, for many a decade and not pleasant at all. Preparing for another business trip and will be back in time for the next issue. Enjoy. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 2 8 Feb 1999 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Free Elections - getting your money's worth in Romania. Free Elections Getting Your Money's Worth in Romania Douglas Myers, 1:270/720, doug@mtdnbbs.com I've got to confess to some feeling of inadequecy in reporting events in Romania. I'm not there, I don't really know the people involved, and my contact started out simply as part of a mass mailing. Nonetheless, a lot of information has come through here, and it's too disturbing to simply ignore. Region 53 has recently undergone elections to determine a new Regional Coordinator to replace the fired Catalin Bradu. Catalin was fired by Ward Dossche, Z2C, for refusing to implement Ward's order to reinstate the excommunicated Gabi Andrei. Ward named Costin Manda as temporary R53C, charged with conducting an election for a permanent RC. Candidates in the recently concluded election were Mihai Banciu and, ironically, Catalin Bradu. Catalin claimed victory with a final vote of 11-7, however Ward Dossche awarded the victory to Mihai Banciu based on a 25-13 return which included point nodes. Catalin is currently petitioning Bob Satti for a "zone independant" regional assignment, to operate his region outside the influence of Ward Dossche. He has announced that the region will leave Fido and function as a network independant of Fido if all else fails. Those are the facts, as nearly as I can determine them, primarily derived from email and netmail from Catalin Bradu, Ward Dossche, and Codrut Popescu (R53C prior to Catalin). There are many unanswered questions concerning appropriatness, however. The first concern is the appropriateness of excommunicating Gabi Andrei. While it seems that he was sufficiently annoying to warrant complaints based on "Excessively Annoying Behavior," his own NC would not file such a complaint and even supported Gabri. Is it appropriate that an RC will then implement excommunication? Granted, it was a popular move - but it was done without the consent of the Z2C. Bob Satti informs me via echomail that a node is not normally removed from the nodelist until arguements have been heard at the zone level, so the excommunication appears to be procedurally incorrect. However, there is a concern that nodes should not be forced to connect to those they find offensive. A second concern is the appropriateness of a ZC firing a popularly-elected RC. Policy gives the ZC this power, but practice has been to honor elections. Further, the Z2C has a policy of allowing elections... does this imply an obligation to back the results of such? Ward Dossche, in email to Bob Satti with a copy to FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 3 8 Feb 1999 me, claims that Catalin was never popularly elected as RC, only as NC. Codrut Popescu, who conducted the elections in question, explains the actual events in email to me: ----------------- extracted from email -------------------- Almost a year ago I was the elected RC53 in Romania. The Network Coordinator position in 530 was open, so I organised elections. You have to know that in R53 there are two networks, 530 and 531. 530 for Bucharest and 531 for the rest of the country. If you still have the nodelists for that period you'll see that 530 was 80% of the total nodes number in R53. Now is over 95%. The candidates were Alex Sovu, Catalin Bradu and Gabi Andrei. They gained 8, 11 and 3 votes, respectively. It is to be mentioned that from these 22 votes, 2 were from 531. The NC position in 530 was so very important for 531 so I allowed the nodes (very few) from 531 to express their votes in these elections. So Catalin Bradu gained most of the votes. There was a big rivalry between Catalin and Alex, the last one was about to leave the network because of his failure in the elections. At the same time I was involved in a new position in a bank and when you're 27 years old there are some priorities in life. So I appointed Catalin as RC and Alex as NC after both of them agreed to stick together for the good of the network. Mr. Ward Dossche was informed about this elections at the end, and he agreed with the replacement. Though, he was not announced about this shifting in the *C hierarchy due to my retirement. ----------------- end extract ----------------------------- It would appear that Ward Dossche is technically correct that Catalin was not specifically elected as RC, but, from Codrut's description of events, it seems to me that his appointment was in order and reflected the will of the voters. A third concern is the appearance that the outcome of the recent election was predetermined. This appearance comes from two sources: 1. A netmail message from Ward Dossche to Costin Manda instructing him that Mihai Banciu was the winner of the election despite an early return which favored Catalin by about 2-1. 2. The inclusion of point nodes in the final vote count, despite the assertion that points were only permitted advisory input throughout the election. Since the points essentially determined the election, this is a vital issue. Ward Dossche claims in email that points were traditionally allowed to vote in R53 elections, but both Catalin Bradu and Codrut Popescu inform me that point nodes have never had a vote in any election until Ward included their totals in this most recent vote count. A fourth concern is the appropriateness of resolving political incompatibilities by entire regions leaving Fido. Though this may be a mere threat, it's hardly conducive to the concerns of many that nodelist shrinkage must be halted somehow. Of course, it may be the FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 4 8 Feb 1999 only way which Catalin Bradu can get the "zone independant number" he's asking for... by forming a new zone. I'm not sure how Bob Satti can issue a "zone independant number." ----------------------------------------------------------------- New FTSC website Hi Folks, The FTSC website and anonymous FTP site have new names. The new URL for the website is http://www.ftsc.org The anonymous FTP server is now to be found at ftp.ftsc.org -=- If you have links to the website I'd be grateful if you could update them. http://www.piglets.com/ftsc (the old URL) and http://www.ftsc.org are exactly the same place but the latter is clearly easier to remember. -=- More importantly.... If you are mirroring the FTP site on ftp.piglets.com then you should now mirror ftp.ftsc.org. I will maintain the old archive for a brief time, but it's location (pub/FTSC) is /not/ the same as the new location which is actually in ftp.piglets.com/ftp.ftsc.org. So if you don't change over before I remove the old archive you could have a problem ;-). The CGI script on the webpages is already accessing the new document repositry. CT. --- * Origin: - FTSC Member - (2:443/13) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Grunged Echomail Deleted. Grunged Echomail Deleted Roy J. Tellason 1:270/615 FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 5 8 Feb 1999 roy.j.tellason%tanstaaf@frackit.com John Souvestre wrote in a message to Roy J Tellason: JS> This is to inform you of what seems to be a discrepancy JS> between a message from your system and the currently JS> accepted specifications for echo mail. JS> Because the message appeared to be grunged, or a dupe, it JS> was deleted in order to protect the rest of the echo mail JS> distribution system. This copy is sent to you for JS> information purposes, to help you find the source of the JS> problem and fix it. JS> The discrepancy noted in the message, as received here, was: JS> 1) Header and text of 31,814 bytes exceeds maximum of JS> 31,000 bytes. JS> The message was in the 10TH_AMD area. (...) I post some fairly lengthy messages in that echo fairly often, and have never *heard* of any 31,000 byte length limitation. About that "to protect the rest of the echo mail distribution system" part, are there people out there who carry that echo who are running software that can't handle a message of that size? I've certainly never received any complaints, excepting those who are running some really old offline readers that truncate stuff at 150 lines or whatever. As far as "currently accepted specifications" for echo mail, where are these specifications noted? It certainly doesn't appear in the current copy of BOFAQ901.TXT that's on my system here. The closest seems to be this part here: 5) Due to the limitations of some current software, the Backbone can not guarantee delivery of messages in excess of 13,000 bytes. Backbone Hubs are encouraged to use message processing software which allows larger messages, preferably up to 64K bytes, to be handled. There's a *BIG* difference between "cannot guarantee delivery" and "your message has been deleted because..." As far as I'm concerned, this amounts to nothing more than simple censorship based on unpublished criteria. My position as moderator of 10TH_AMD is that you either carry the whole echo or don't carry it at all. email: roy.j.tellason%tanstaaf@frackit.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 6 8 Feb 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 16-05 Page 7 8 Feb 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.ftsc.org/ 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 14: Net 282: http://www.rxn.com/~net282/ 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) FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 8 8 Feb 1999 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) 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 FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 9 8 Feb 1999 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. 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 FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 10 8 Feb 1999 available.] 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 16-05 Page 11 8 Feb 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 (C) 1999 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 [FNEWSGnn.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 16-05 Page 12 8 Feb 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) ** LINK HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED *=*=* 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/ FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 13 8 Feb 1999 Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 13 Megs. =*=*=*= The current week's FidoNews 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 -----------------------------------------------------------------