The F I D O N E W S Volume 18, Number 47 19 Nov 2001 +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ | |The newsletter of the | | Fido, Fidonet and dog-with-diskette are | | | FidoNet community. | | US Registered Trademarks of Tom Jennings| | | | | San Francisco, California, USA | | | ____________| | | | | / __ | Crash Netmail Articles To: | | | / / \ | Editor@1:1/23 (1-972-562-8064) | | | WOOF! ( /|oo \ | Frank Vest@1:124/6308 | | \_______\(_| /_) | or E-Mail (attach) To: | | _ @/_ \ _ | fidonews@sbcglobal.net | | | | \ \\ | | | | (*) | \ ))| Editor: Frank Vest | | |__U__| / \// | Deputy-Editor: Lawrence Garvin | | ______ _//|| _\ / | | | / Fido \ (_/(_|(____/ | Newspapers should have no friends. | | (________) (jm) | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+ Copyright 2001 by Fidonews Editor for Fidonews Globally. Table of Contents 1. [ FOOD FOR THOUGHT ] ..................................... 1 2. [ TOP STORIES ] .......................................... 2 The Fidonews at a glance ................................. 2 3. [ FROM THE *CS ] ......................................... 3 Zone 1 Internet only Nodes : part 1 ...................... 3 Let's not bring back geo-restrictive leash laws .......... 4 4. [ EDITORIAL ] ............................................ 8 Poll analysis from the Editor's point of view ............ 8 5. [ OL'WDB'S COLUMN - WARREN BONNER ] ...................... 10 OL'WDB's Column .......................................... 10 6. [ FIDONET'S INTERNATIONAL KITCHEN ] ...................... 11 Exclusively for Lesley-Dee Dylan from Foxy Ferguson ...... 11 7. [ CLEAN HUMOR & JOKES ] .................................. 12 Comments made in the year 1957: .......................... 12 8. [ FIDONET CLASSIFIED ADS ] ............................... 14 -=-=- Come one -=-=- Come All -=-= ....................... 14 9. [ TODD COCHRANE'S FIDONET SOFTWARE LISTING ] ............. 15 Fidonet/BBS Software Listing's* .......................... 15 10. [ JOE JARED'S FIDONET BY INTERNET ] ..................... 21 Fidonet-related sites .................................... 21 11. [ SPECIAL INTEREST ] .................................... 27 N.Y. Grand Lodge Public Relations ........................ 27 Nodelist Stats ........................................... 28 12. [ FIDONEWS INFORMATION ] ................................ 30 How to Submit an Article ................................. 30 Credits, Legal Infomation, Availability .................. 31 FIDONEWS 18-47 Page 1 19 Nov 2001 ================================================================= [ FOOD FOR THOUGHT ] ================================================================= "Wrinkled Was Not One of the Things I Wanted to Be When I Grew Up" ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 18-47 Page 2 19 Nov 2001 ================================================================= [ TOP STORIES ] ================================================================= The Fidonews at a glance In the "From the *Cs" section, we have two articles. One gives some guidelines for listing Internet Only Nodes in Zone 1. The other is from from Carl Austin Bennett titled "Let's not bring back geo-restrictive leash laws!" which deals with the aforementioned guidelines for listing Internet Only Nodes. In the Ads section, Shannon Talley invites all to join the L.O.R.D. Tournament that his BBS is having. This week's Editorial is based again on the poll taken a couple of weeks ago. Warren Bonner's Column this week seems to express his beliefs and feelings on Fidonet. This week's recipe was sent by Foxy Ferguson to Lesley-Dee Dylan. Mace?? Hmm. Oh, yeah, mace *is* a spice. :-) In the "Special Interests" area we have a notice from Warren Bonner about a upcoming TV show about the Masons Organization. Please write some Fidonet articles and send them. The Fidonews needs you. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 18-47 Page 3 19 Nov 2001 ================================================================= [ FROM THE *CS ] ================================================================= Zone 1 Internet only Nodes : part 1 by Janis Kracht, Z1C ********************************************************************** This is one of a series of articles which define guidelines and proceedures for several aspects of nodelisting internet only nodes. The first of these deals with the geographic listing of new internet only nodes. Zone 1 members may wish to join the discussion of these in the Z1C echo. ********************************************************************** There has been some discussion in various echos about how or where nodes may be listed if an existing fidonet node, NC or RC receives an application from a prospective new member. None of this is really any different than what has been done in the past, but for the sake of new sysops and to answer some questions on this, an outline of the proceedure may be helpful. ====================================================================== I. Guidelines for nodelisting new ION nodes 1: ION Applicants who contact you who live in another region or net. 2-4: What to do if you get no response from the applicant's NC or RC. II: ION nodes vs Dialup nodes and geographic placement. ====================================================================== I. Guidelines for nodelisting new ION nodes 1 - ION Applicants who contact you who live in another region or net: If an applicant who doesn't live in your region contacts you regarding joining Fidonet, help him all you like with his setup, but direct him to the NC where he lives to get a node number. If the net doesn't exist anymore in that geographic area and you have a question regarding what net this applicant would belong to, you can contact the RC of the applicant's Region. 2 - What to do if you get no response from the applicant's NC or RC: If you get no response within a few days from the NC you've contacted, contact the RC of the geographically correct area where the applicant lives. 3 - If you have had no response from the RC of his region within a week, contact the Z1C. NCs or RCs can contact me, or have the applicant contact me via Netmail, or e-mail, (janis@filegate.net), or my dialup line (502-245-6778), or my telnet bbs (filegate.net) at 1:2320/38. 4 - Geographic exemptions are granted on a case by case basis as they always have been. Those desiring to be placed in a net or region other than their geographic net or region should work out details FIDONEWS 18-47 Page 4 19 Nov 2001 with the NC or RC of the net or region where the applicant lives, and the non-geographic NC or RC. II - ION nodes vs Dialup nodes and geographic placement: As many of you know, those in some other Zones do not allow Internet-only systems to be listed in the nodelist, but list them rather as points; these points neither vote or are part of zone/regional/net elections. Here in Zone 1, however, internet only nodes are listed in nodelist, since the method of connection which a sysop uses does not make the node less reachable. Dialup nodes using crash mail are not much different than Binkp nodes using crash-mail. The vehicle of delivery does not change the way nodelisted internet nodes connect to other nodelisted internet nodes, and the way that dialup nodelisted system communicate with these internet nodes in our common echomail pool, and routed netmail scheme. Likewise, the use of regional organization of networks and nodelisted sysops has not changed simply because a node connects via binkd, binkp, telnet or ftp. The listing of new members should be consistent with existing geographic nets and regions where possible. Please note that where a node is nodelisted has no bearing on where he or she picks up Backbone echomail traffic. A node may connect anywhere desired to do so. Janis Kracht Z1C ----------------------------------------------------------------- Let's not bring back geo-restrictive leash laws! Carl Austin Bennett 1:249/116 Many dog-years ago in the faraway land of Lancaster, a poor abused Fido was on a short leash being pelted with lumps of Kohl, its netmail dog-eared and spied upon and its howling stifled. From the north came an offer of a better home for this poor Fido, and net 2404 came into being as a humane refuge followed by word from on high that that short geographic leash on Fido nodes in this zone was a thing of the past as the time had come to "pre-grant all geographic exemptions." Years passed and many of Fido's puppy friends have moved on, lured away by the sights and sounds of the big, colourful Internet. The kennel seemed almost silent, except for one strange little puppy from Oshawa who was busy working like a dog while all the other Fidos seemed more interested in letting sleeping dogs lie. Fido229 missed all those other puppies dearly but he had a plan. With a small barrel of Fido packets and info around his neck and an eager wag of the tail, he was going to the four corners of the FIDONEWS 18-47 Page 5 19 Nov 2001 Internet to sniff out the friends that had run away in order to bring them back into the Fido fold. Instead of the webbed footprints of Internet representing an enemy, they became a way for Fido to bark farther and louder and a means of fulfilling this puppy's dream. While this didn't bring the kennel back to what it once was, it helped to slow the inevitable decline as dogs came excitedly running from many faraway Internet places to see what the Fido229 puppy had fetched for them. As a host is a host from coast to coast in Internet land, the short leash of geographic restrictions and the oddball more-expensive-to-call-US-instate limits from the dialup days no longer made sense. As long as a pair of Fidos were barking in the same language (sadly not a given in the tower of Babel of diverse incompatible Fido-over-Internet standards) distance now meant nothing. Every puppy was now free to choose his own home, often based on technical considerations which had nothing to do with geography. Yes, doggies in the north had tried various ways of gathering into packs. One pack would try to gather entirely geographically just because they all lived near the TransX factory, only to find that the dog who only barked over dial-up 'phones couldn't make himself heard to the dog who only knew e-mail attach. Another pack would be based on a common ability to fetch mail over Internet, but geographically would be scattered far and wide. Ultimately, though, the old ways were dead. The dogs had adapted to survive. Those who thought one couldn't teach an old dog new tricks were first to go. In some places, there weren't enough Fidos left to build a pack based on a solely geographical basis. In others, kennel co-ordinators had simply wandered away without saying a word or had become so absent and unresponsive that it was difficult or impossible to join the local pack even if one could still be sniffed out under all of the rubble. Inevitably, the Fido229 pack grew even while many others were simply fading away. Fido finally had a guard dog to protect it from the big bad Internet. This should be great news and all the other regions of all the other Fidos should be working like dogs to do what Fido229 has done, get onto the Internet, get the IP tools into the paws of all their puppy friends, build a pack of happy Internet-aware Fidos like the one in the north. If there were more packs of Fidos like Fido229's, they could all go out onto the Internet and sniff out prospective new nodes, racing one against the other to put an end to the uncontrolled shrinkage in zone one's Fido ranks. This would have been the best way to ensure a future for Fido in this zone. Unfortunately, instead of doing anything so constructive, the regional canines in the southeast started howling and bitching loudly, all but barking at the moon, while attempting to mark territory by burying it FIDONEWS 18-47 Page 6 19 Nov 2001 under large and unappetising quantities of peefour. There should be a policy to inflict a tight leash and strangle these Internet-based fidos from Oshawa, they barked, all the while knowing full well that the dozen-year-long string of failed attempts at creating policies far predated anything resembling commercial ISPs. There should be a double standard by which the southeastern fidos are free to lure a whole Collingwood, Ontario pack away while arbitrary obstacles are placed in the path of the growing Fido229 group. Better yet, this double standard should be created in some restricted echo far from the prying eyes of the 229 dogs, in the finest dog-eat-dog "give a dog a name and hang him" traditions. And who better to do the dirty work than the Z1dogCatcher herself? All the while, they would loudly bark "Fido229 is not the only Fido that is capable of listing new nodes" but do absolutely nothing to sniff out new nodes or to get fido-via-Internet tools into the paws of prospective fidos. And what of the Z1dogCatcher? Her reaction is the clearest sign yet that this entire zone has gone to the dogs. Instead of making any attempt to encourage the other regions to follow in Fido229's pawprints and make an extra effort to lend a helping paw to prospective Internet-based nodes, she came back with yet another attempt at a malicious restrictive policy to mark territory. Instead of actually making an effort to sniff out new nodes, the lazy dogs that have taken over much of Fido zone one would be free to do nothing while the Fido229 puppy works like a dog to find new puppies, then use geographical restrictions (yes, the ones that were scrapped years ago after even M