Volume 5, Number 10 7 March 1988 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief Dale Lovell Editor Emeritus: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Contributing Editors: Al Arango FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1:1/1. Copyright 1988 by the International FidoNet Association. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact IFNA at (314) 576-4067. IFNA may also be contacted at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141. The contents of the articles contained here are not our responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them. Everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING received. Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 What's become of trust? .................................. 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2 Opus Date Bug Fix ........................................ 3 PC-SIG CD-ROM On-line 24 hrs ............................. 4 My Answer to "How do you write?" ......................... 6 Consolidate or Divide? The Future of EchoMail ........... 11 MENSA Echo Loses Its Founder and Host .................... 18 3. COLUMNS .................................................. 19 Corrections to "Routed Gateways" ......................... 19 4. NOTICES .................................................. 20 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 20 Latest Software Versions ................................. 20 5. COMMITTEE REPORTS ........................................ 22 Agenda and Minutes of IFNA BoD Meeting February 19-21, ... 22 A Statement of Position by IFNA Board of Directors ....... 28 FidoNews 5-10 Page 1 7 Mar 1988 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= What's become of trust? It used to be you could trust what you read in EchoMail, not to mention FidoNews. Everyone treated FidoNet (and it's users and sysops) with respect and decency. If you received a netmail message from someone, you knew it was legitimate. Likewise, no one would have thought of impersonating anyone in EchoMail. What brings all this up? Let me tell you... I thought it very odd when some messages supposedly written by Thom Henderson popped up in the sysop echomail conference. I thought it very odd because they didn't sound like Thom, besides which I was under the impression he was leaving FidoNet alone. Well, the other day I received a phone call at work. Even though Thom is now in AlterNet, we keep in touch. This was unusual only because I was the one who usually placed the call. Thom's main reason for the call was to find out if I had seen any messages from him in the sysop echomail conference. After a long discussion with Thom, I am convinced that he isn't the one who sent those messages. If you've received a nasty message from Thom, odds are you've been hit by someone with a juvenile mentality and no respect for FidoNet. This is also the case with "Auntie Tyranny" and NeuterNet. The person behind these messages doesn't understand that FidoNet is about communication and understanding. All their messages prove is their senders immaturity. FidoNet has to learn to ignore these type of messages. The attention given to bogus messages like this only serve to destroy FidoNet. The attention gives rise to mistrust and flames. This isn't what Tom Jennings envisioned with FidoNet. This also isn't what most of us want to see happen in FidoNet. All in all, what happened to the trust I learned in Alexandria last August at FidoCon. Is that spirit of cooperation and understanding still alive? How long will it take for us to learn to work together instead of flaming at each other. Sadly, Your Editor Dale Lovell 1:1/1 (1:157/504) 216/642-1034 (data) Home Work 3266 Vezber Drive Parma Computer Center Seven Hills, OH 44131 5402 State Road 216/524-1875 (voice) Parma, OH 44134 216/661-1808 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-10 Page 2 7 Mar 1988 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= "You're More Than Your Physical Body" The key phrase for a very new, and needed bulletin board system dedicated to the New Age and Occult community. The Astral Plane (r) Online is a relatively new, yet very quickly upcoming BBS in Linthicum, Maryland. The board is run by the owners of The Astral Plane, an Occult and New Age store also found in Linthicum which carries hundreds of curios, books, herbs, crystals, and other items on this, very rapidly growing, area. The main interest for The Astral Plane (TAP) which is stated in our welcome messages is to "Provide Information On A New Age." there are a lot of misguided and hollywood created images on Magick, Witchcraft, and Psychic abilities that almost everyone has a different idea and/or opinion on what it really is: Satan worship? A bunch of frauds? Some crazy people who don't know any better? Those are just some of the thoughts about people who are "into" Magick, Witchcraft, and New Age and Psychic related areas of study. The sad part is that many people havnt had the chance to actually, safely, find out what it is all about. Since there is a good and bad to everything it is important to shift through and find out what is and what isn't. Although, sometimes that becomes quite a task! To make sure we don't lead the reader to the wrong impression, TAP is not only for the New Age and Occult community. We support message areas and U/Ds for Commodore, CoCo, Apple, IBM, and Atari computers and several echomails! See for yourself what TAP has to offer, we're pretty sure that we will have something for everyone and your suggestions are always welcomed! Call us at 301-768-7947 24 hours a day 300/1200/2400 baud. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-10 Page 3 7 Mar 1988 Opus Date Bug --------------- There is a problem in OPUS-CBCS (v1.03a) that can cause it to miscalculate events between 3/1/88 and 3/1/94. A "fix" is available in an archive called OBUG_103.ARC. The archive contains a 330 byte .COM file that will patch OPUS.EXE. When executed, it will patch the system and set a new version number (1.03b). Source code for the fix program is being posted in the MEADOW echomail area. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-10 Page 4 7 Mar 1988 The IEEE Port CD-ROM at 1:107/233 516-757-9469 As of March 16th 1987, the entire PC-SIG 705 disk library of public-domain and shareware programs is on-line at the IEEE Port (1:107/233). This has been done through the sponsorship of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) which has provided a Philips CM 100 CD-ROM player and the PC-SIG Disks 1-705 CD-ROM. We have established a somewhat convoluted procedure for gaining access to the over 700 directories on the PC-SIG CD-ROM disk. This process is described below and is also readable on- line. The files listed below are file requestable 24hrs from 1:107/233. They are the ARCed Tables of Contents of the various disks. Note that because all these files are ARCed you are required to first download each of them to your own disk and unARC them. Once you have done this, you may search for occurrences of any particular string in the Tables of Contents with one of these commands: DFIND "string" FFIND "string" outfile.nam where "string" is the value for which you wish to search. DFIND will display the results directly on the screen, whereas FFIND will write the output of the search to a disk file which you may subsequently search manually with an editor or list program. Index to PC-SIG Disks 1-705 =========================== P001-100.ARC Table Of Contents for disks 1 through 100 P101-200.ARC Table Of Contents for disks 101 through 200 P201-300.ARC Table Of Contents for disks 201 through 300 P301-400.ARC Table Of Contents for disks 301 through 400 P401-500.ARC Table Of Contents for disks 401 through 500 P501-600.ARC Table Of Contents for disks 501 through 600 P601-700.ARC Table Of Contents for disks 601 through 700 P701-705.ARC Table Of Contents for disks 701 through 705 PC-BIBLE.ARC Table Of Contents for The Bible (King James Vers) FIND.ARC Batch commands to search Table of Contents files SEALINK.ARC SEAlink 1.13 Excellent protocol to use for batch downloading. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * PC-SIG LIBRARY - Disk Access Procedure FidoNews 5-10 Page 5 7 Mar 1988 When you log on to the IEEE Port (300/1200/2400) (no pre- registration is required) type "F" from the main menu to get to the files area. The procedure to select which particular disk is started in area 16 by typing "F". You will be given a menu that looks like this: Enter I - To get information on what files and programs are available. D - To get information on addressing a particular disk from the PC-SIG Library and then to select a disk. S - I've seen it all before, let's just select a disk! C - Explain the use of SEAlink protocol for downloading a disk. Q - Quit. I highly recommend option "C" for those who do not use SEAlink in some form or another. It will save you a lot of time and typing. Since you have the instructions here type "S" to select the disk you wish to DL from. You will be prompted to enter the number of the PC-SIG disk you wish to access. Type the numbers as three whole numbers (i.e. to select disk 49 type "049"). You will then be informed that you selection has gone thru and to proceed to files area 99. In order to actually the access the PC-SIG disk that you selected you will have to transfer to file area 99. This area does not appear in the list of areas maintained by OPUS; that's OK, just use the A99 to go there anyway. Area 99 area will be pointing to the PC-SIG disk you select. Before OPUS will let you in to area 99 you must enter the access code "PCSIG". Although you won't be able to use the F(ile List) command here, you will be able to use the R(aw Directory) display to see the names of all the files on the selected disk. You may then download any file(s) as you normally would from any file area, the only difference being that you will be DLing from a subdirectory of the CD-ROM. Usually there is a file named DISK###.TXT on each PC-SIG disk so if you select disk 694, use the T(ype) command to list out DISK694.TXT and get a descriptive file listing of the selected disk. I run SEAdog 4.11 on top of Opus 1.03a on an original IBM XT with 2 ST 225s. A Zoom Short 2400 baud modem (internal) and a Philips CM 100 CD-ROM Player. If you have any questions or suggestions I am reachable at 1:107/233. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-10 Page 6 7 Mar 1988 My Answer to "How do you write?" David Rice (103/503) I got a letter in the mail. Usually I toss all mail received into the trash unexplored, which means that every month when the bills come I have to leave the state under an assumed name. It's cheaper than paying my phone bill. This letter felt different somehow, so I decided to read it. "Dear Sir," it began. I knew immediately trouble was creeping my way by the "Dear". "I read and enjoyed your article 'Missing Socks and the Rings of Saturn' very much. I'm a writer too. Would you share your method of writing with me? Your good friend, John." Tall order, indeed! I was tempted to throw the letter down the used food recycler (toilet), but after all, it did come with a stamped, self addressed envelope. I sat down and answered. My Dear, good friend John, This is how I write. Five in the morning. Dragging my body from the floor mat, I grope weakly for the heater's "ON" button. Why I do this every morning is a mystery, as the heater has never worked in the six months I've been living here. But I keep the faith, as hope, they say, springs eternal. If I'm in a playful mood I also grope my roommate, which tends to heat the room almost as well (if not better) than the wall heater would. Eyes closed against the feeble light, I trip over dictionaries, a thesaurus or two, "How to be a Better Lover", dirty jeans, the stack of "OMNI" magazines, and the speaker cords running away from the secondhand stereo. I kicked the beer and soda cans against the wall the night before so I won't amputate a toe the next morning. Usually (more often than not) I make it to my desk, where my jacket, also secondhand, is waiting for me on the chair I bought at a police auction. The desk is painted mustard yellow on top to hide the coffee stains, grape juice stains, pickle relish, pencil marks, blood, sweat, and battery acid. Also, everything I eat has mustard on it, so the desk must surely have mustard on it as well- But with all the papers, books, cups, apple cores, condoms, and payment-past-due notices, how can I tell? Flexing my fingers against the cold, I hunt for the pre-write sheets I scrawled out the evening before. I recognize these papers from the rest by the notes in the margins: "This won't work! ", "Change this," "This stinks", "You CAN'T be serious!" etc. Gathering up these choice pages, I proceed to the shower. While in the shower I go through the pre-writes of the night before. This usually requires great dexterity and three FidoNews 5-10 Page 7 7 Mar 1988 arms, or great dexterity and the arm of a very good friend. Stepping out of the shower onto the ice covered floor, I wring out the sodden pages over the toilet, and start thinking of the actual writing (i.e. turning the pre-writes to writes). I do this all in my head, and tell myself to remember everything. Naked, I check out the refrigerator for breakfast. A can on olives usually does the trick, or a can of diet soda and a carrot. Now I dress for work. Rummaging around the floor for the cleanness dirty underwear, I also find a miss-matched pair of socks, knot a tie tightly around my throat, and gun my Chrysler (secondhand Cordoba) to work. While doing my mindless, thoughtless, menial task at work (no, not as an air traffic controller), I am writing in my head. My pre-writes usually lay open, drying out, on the desk before me, next to the work I'm paid to do. I think of plot developments and dialog while at the same time working on Spare Parts History Reports for the Product Repair Center. This job allows me to send $660.00 a month to my bloated landlord, who desperately needs it for his drugs, teenage tarts, and pornographic films. Though I've never been late with the rent, my heater still remains a victim of neglect. Lunch time! Now I write down everything I was plotting and dialog-ing when I should have been working. I use a sheet of paper and pencil for this rough draft, writing as fast as possible (I get 30 minutes for lunch). By the time I've ran Lint through the fish market to his boat, followed discreetly by The Silent One, lunch is half over. Finally, when I get Lint's boat blown out of the water between Newport and Catalina, lunch is over. Back home! Work was a drag, but I lived through it. Dinner is a can of soup, with the lid coaxed off with a dull, worn-out opener. I place the can directly on the stove, and know it's ready when the label is completely burned off. I carry the hot can of soup to my desk, turn the computer on, and slop noodles on the stack of poems I've written and never sold. Usually when this happens I just put another pile of papers on top to sop up the stuff, but if I'm hungry I eat the noodles, poems and all. Lately I've been hungry, so the desk is cleaner than is normally the case. WRITING STAGE! (Tah dah!) I whip out my rough draft that I did at work and get it in the computer. I never change anything until this is done (i.e. I don't rewrite the draft). After it is in, and saved to disk, THEN I rewrite the draft into a write. Putting on a Wagnor Opera as background noise, or ABBA if I'm writing about sex between teenagers, I mentally go over the FidoNews 5-10 Page 8 7 Mar 1988 next stages. From draft to write involves looking at what I've written, wondering if I like it, and changing it if I don't. More often than not, I change it. I take away padding that doesn't belong, and add meat that does. When that day's pre-writes, draft, and write is completed, my soup is also finished and I get a warm, fuzzy feeling. This feeling usually goes away when I read the last few pages to check for continuity. After all, I can't very well blow up Lint's boat when he'll be needing it for the harbor orgy Friday, can I? Or will he have to rent one? Or better yet, what if I give Lint a broken rib from a pounding by The Silent One on page 83, and have him playing football with the Upper New York State University for Lesbians (UNYSUL) on page 85? It just doesn't feel right. This done, I turn off the computer and rummage around for my outline book. This is what I first wrote when I started "Lint's Luck", putting it in a lose leaf binder. It's my road map that I loosely follow, though Lint often goes where no writer has outlined before. I check off the past pages, and see what's on the road ahead. What's up ahead is what I write my pre-write from. Suppose Lint is on his kitchen floor, as in chapter eleven, under the sink working on the drain pipe. That's where we left him just before I turned the computer off and looked at my outline. I know that next up is the cool, aloof daughter of a moderately well-to-do business man, who walks in with a nasty pistol, and asks Lint why he killed her daddy. My pre-write should tell me how she stands, what Lint was doing the second she walks in, his first impression, what he was thinking, the position of his body, the color of her shoes. The pre-write may go: "Looking up, Lint noticed a pair of pale green shoes. . ." to match a perfect body, firm breasts, sharp chin, and slightly bent nose. The deadly green eyes are matched only by the .38 she pointed between his. "Lint?" she asks, eyes locking with his. Thinking quickly, Lint recalls the neighbor he doesn't like. "Sorry. He's two houses down. . . ." he says helpfully. The woman notices the copies of his book on the table (the ones he keeps to give away to anyone who will take it). On the back, facing her, is a photograph of his smiling face. Lint smiles, like a little boy caught at a lie. She pulls back the hammer of her pistol. "You're Lint. You killed daddy. . . ." With this, I can then add character thoughts, ideas, FidoNews 5-10 Page 9 7 Mar 1988 emotions, descriptive blocks, dialog, etc. Usually off the top of my head, as I do most of my writing while doing mundane chores (vacuuming, sweeping, sex). I've been cursed with a very good memory, and what I think up I can usually get back out when the time comes. I find I can usually get six or seven pages (typed, double spaced) out of a few short sentences like above. I've been told by better men than I that this method of writing never sells, and I think of them every time I cash the publisher's checks. When the story is done I open a desk drawer (the middle left, with the bottom falling out and the side unglued) and fish for an envelope. Some times I find one, often I don't. If one is not to be had, I fold a sheet of paper into an envelope, and use a roll of tape getting it to stay shut. If I'm lucky I remember to put the MS in it first. I always include a stamped, self-addressed envelope as well, so that the editor can immediately reject it and send it back with few delays. This means I can send it out again as soon as possible. The letter is ALWAYS addressed to the editor, so she/he/it will feel like it belongs to her/etc. As a very rich (i.e. powerful) editor is fond of saying "If the writer doesn't know my name I don't want to know his!" I, in my humble way, agree. What is the alternative? "Dear Sir and/or Madame?" No "personal" note or letter is ever included. Stuff like: "I'm a widow with eleven children, and I desperately need to sell my book 'Gone With Virginity' to you. Please buy it." "This article has taken me seven years to write. When you buy it, put it on page three, next to the adds for laxatives." "Please find inclosed the fifth of gin, and drink it before you read my short story." (You will soon get your short story back, nix the gin.) "Buy this and my body is yours to toy with." If you do use this, don't forget the photographs as well. Eight-by-tens preferably. For postage stamps I go through all the old Christmas card envelopes that I get, and find some to steam off. I have found that if you ask people to put a two-cent stamp at the top right corner of the envelope, and the twenty-cent one under it, the two-cent stamp gets marked at the post office, but the other isn't. If everyone did this we could pay off the National Debt in a few years with all the money saved. We could also go smugly to jail. If the MS is a book, like "Lint's Luck," then I make five or six copies (single sided only, so the type on the other side doesn't show through), at work so I don't have to pay for them. This saves me 2.5 cents a page, or roughly the price of a quart FidoNews 5-10 Page 10 7 Mar 1988 of Cutty Shark per book. These copies then seek out a likely buyer via mail, while I'm soaking in the tub at home dreaming of the future fortune, and author's teas and parties they will throw for me when the book goes to it's tenth printing. How do I rough out the characters in a story? There is a very good, logical way of doing so. Once assaulted by an idea (often while trying to sleep, or while driving), I hunt around my mental attic for a hero. For instance, if the story is a Space Adventure, and has in it evil Planet Lords and a beautiful princess to rescue (or a harlot- see my story "Gallantry is a Harsh Mistress"), then my hero should have a large sword, a lusty appetite for honorable bloodletting, a tiny leather loin cloth, and a rather small brain (i.e. a none too bright lad). If the story is about a teacher being abducted, with the kidnapper demanding an "A+" in Biology for her release, we know a lot of things already. First off, the student is a dim-witted cad and heel, and was never taught to be nice to people. This can be a tragedy, comedy, or love story. Another example could be Lint. I wanted a main character who was not very impressive, brave, rich, or demanding of life. But he also needed several above-average qualities to be dynamic and interesting. These two opposite characteristics had to balance (and not cancel each other out) in a sometimes humorous, often sad way. So Lint is a plumber (non-threatening, rather mundane) who has written a moderately well selling book (a dynamic quality, but not overly so). It reasonably follows that Lint had patents: One of each sex. I give the Daddy a beard, the Mummy an apron. See how easy it is? Since Lint's parents probably had sex more than once, he may have had some brothers. In fact, he had two. Lint being a rather average chap, I wanted his brothers to be a bit more colorful. The both, therefore, went to Vietnam, but only one came back (which is often the case in police actions). The surviving Vet turned middle-aged hippie, who marches in anti-war demonstrations, and likes beating up people who don't like his ear ring. He also pounds on folks that pound on Lint, as is a big brother's duty. That, basically, is how I write. It is by far the most unprofessional way that I know, as well as the best, so I use it. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-10 Page 11 7 Mar 1988 Consolidate or Divide? The Future of EchoMail -J. Kenneth Riviere 133/303, JoKeR's BBS (after office hours) 2/24/88 I have been giving some thought to the configuration and history of Fidonet recently and I decided that there were some things that I wanted to say. First let me say that I have only been a sysop for about six months now, but I have been a user on a local Fido system for several years so my familiarity with Fidonet goes back further than just the time of my sysoping. Despite the title of my article I want to make it clear that this is not an either-or situation. Fidonet has been consolidating and dividing responsibilities for years in an effort to achieve a more efficient and effective configuration. HISTORY My understanding of the beginnings of Fidonet is that all nodes were essentially independents when the net first started. This was great when there were only a few dozen nodes altogether, but it became awkward when the number grew into the hundreds and then the thousands. With some boards attempting to communicate very actively with literally dozens of other boards, the NMH became too short to make all of the connections necessary to deliver the mail. Out of this grew nets, where all the mail going from one board to multiple other boards which were geographically close to each other (and probably cheap to call locally) was consolidated and sent to the net host who then passed it on to the other local boards. International communications was streamlined with the introduction of ZoneGates which allowed this especially expensive communication to be consolidated so that fewer total calls needed to be made from one continent to another. As some nets grew larger and became more cumbersome to administer the concept of the hub was introduced so that the net host could communicate mainly with a few hubs instead of having to distribute mail to dozens of boards every night. Thus the nodes within a hub were consolidated and the responsibilities of the net host were divided. This type of cooperative arrangement whereby a few boards picked up extra tasks in order to smooth the running of the net as well as ease the cost of running a board has been a hallmark of Fidonet throughout its existence. People recognized that this was applicable to Echomail as well and the backbone formed. I am not certain I understand exactly how the backbone is organized but I think that each region has an echomail coordinator (EC) who connects to a central node to exchange echomail. Other nodes in that region can arrange to pick up echomail from the EC, thus providing consolidated points for echomail to be distributed across the country. I have heard that there is currently an effort being made to ease the load on the Regional ECs by asking FidoNews 5-10 Page 12 7 Mar 1988 that each net select a single Net EC who would pick up echos from the Region EC and redistribute them within the net. Thus, as it was with hubs, the traffic for one group (nets, in this case) is consolidated so that the burden on the board providing service at the next level up the tree is lessened. It is clear that the traditional method of consolidating traffic and dividing responsibility within Fidonet has been to do it along hierarchical lines. A top-level node distributes to sub-levels which further distribute to lower levels of the hierarchy and so on and so on until finally the data gets to the nodes at the end of the paths. This has been an effective mechanism for setting things up. However, I think that we may be coming to a time when we will want to take a different approach. ECHOMAIL VOLUME The volume of Echomail is growing quickly, at least as quickly as Fidonet itself. As new nodes are added there are more voices to be heard in each echo and more sites wishing to receive each echo. This increases the volume of traffic up and down the tree. Hubs (in Net 133 at least, the Hub coordinators redistribute echomail as well as net mail) generally carry less echomail traffic than the Net ECs because there are fewer boards under them to which the echos need to be distributed as well as fewer echos which are desired than there are in the entire net. Some of the echos which are brought in for certain boards are not wanted in some of the hub groups. Thus the hub coordinator has a lighter load than the Net EC. Similarly, the Net EC is not likely to carry every echo carried by the Region EC as some of the echos may not interest anyone in that particular net. Thus the net EC has a lighter load than the Region EC. But, what happens when a new node is added. There are more msgs in a few echos as people on that node post, and there may be a desire to bring in a few more echos since the sysop and users of this new node may have interests that haven't been addressed by the echos currently being carried in that net. This increases the load on the hub coordinator (but not too much, it's only one more node and a couple more echos to that node), on the Net EC (and this is a little heavier than on the hub coordinator since there are new nodes in multiple other hubs which also want more echos), and on the Region EC (who is echoing more areas to nets all the time as new nodes are added all over the region). When a net picks up a new echo it may mean only a small increase in the traffic from the Region EC to the central distribution point since the Region EC was already carrying the echo, he just hadn't been feeding it to that particular net. However, it becomes a significant load on the distribution within the region since over time each net continues to pick up more and more echos and might go from getting 20% of the echos carried by the Region EC up to FidoNews 5-10 Page 13 7 Mar 1988 40%, 50%, or even more until it takes almost as long to communicate with each net as it does to get the traffic to and from the rest of the backbone. Multiply that by the number of nets and we could start to reach the saturation point of how much echomail the Region ECs can distribute effectively. I'm going to try to guess some figures. Some of these are based on a little bit of research and some of them are just guesses. I saw a msg from a Region EC that stated that he was bringing about a megabyte of data into his region every day. At 9600 bps this represents about 20 minutes. I checked the different zone 1 regions and found anywhere from 1 net in the region (region 12) to more than 20. Just to get a feel for how much traffic we are talking about let's try some figures. For a region with 25 nets, each of which is picking up, say 1/3 of the traffic available from the region EC (I know that my net brings in somewhere on the order of .5 to .6 mb per day), this comes to about 7 minutes for each of 25 nodes which works out to about three hours. This does not allow for the time it takes for the Region EC to unARC, toss, scan, and ARC the mail bundles, which will be a significant amount of time with this volume of traffic. For a region with 12 nets each of which is getting 1/3 of the traffic available from the region EC this would only be about 1.5 hours. Both of these calculations assume that 9600 bps connections are being used. If half of the nets are using only 2400 bps connections then that more than doubles the total communication time required to get the echomail delivered. These situations are workable with all echomail getting delivered every night during the low-cost ld hours (unless the region with many nets has several nets which must rely on 2400 bps connections or less, in which case it is very possible that multiple nets might not get their echomail on any given night. However, now let us up the ante. What happens when echomail volume reaches 1.5 mb/day? Remember also that by that time more nodes will have joined Fidonet so that there will likely be a few more nets and the existing nets will be bigger meaning that they will be likely to want more echo areas. So the 20 minutes to pickup 1 mb would become 30 minutes to pick up 1.5 mb. Suppose the region with 25 nets has grown to the point where there are 28 nets (modest growth) but now the nets want on average about half of the total echomail which is available from the region EC. That means a 15 minute connection for each of 28 nets for a total of 7.5 hours a night (including the .5 hour to pick up the 1.5 mb)! That is a lot of time. Since the low ld rates only last from 11-7 which is only eight hours it is clear that it would be almost impossible to get all of this traffic delivered every night during that window. Remember, I still haven't allowed any time in my calculations for tossing and scanning and I've been assuming all 9600 bps connections. Even looking at the region with only 12 nets it is starting to get squeezed. Let us assume that it has grown to 14 nets with each net desiring an average of half of what the backbone carries. This still works out to four hours of transmission time assuming 9600 bps and does not include tossing and scanning. And FidoNews 5-10 Page 14 7 Mar 1988 of course, none of these calculations have allowed any time for any activity other than distributing echomail. Surely we do not want to condemn anyone who volunteers to help with echomail by being a Region EC to not being able to do any other activities such as having real, human callers (mail (echomail) only from 11pm to 7am?). The method for dealing with this which follows the tradition of Fidonet would be to introduce a new tier of distribution. This might be called sub-regions or something, perhaps along state lines, and would reduce the number of sites which the Region EC would have to serve, going from many nets to a handful of states. This would certainly work and would allow the traffic to continue to grow with only a few more volunteers, but at this point I'd like to suggest a couple of alternatives. PARALLEL BACKBONES The first thing I'd like to suggest is that a parallel backbone be set up. I don't want to duplicate the work being done by the backbone, I want to set up a parallel system that works side-by-side with the current backbone in order to serve Fidonet more effectively. Rather than suggesting a whole new set of sites which are carrying the same echos as before, I propose that the traffic which is all being funneled through the Region ECs be split to go through two (or even more) Region ECs. This is not to say that any single region could not be served by one EC, but in a region where that load is getting too heavy for it to work effectively, instead of introducing a new tier simply split the load at that level. Suppose we divide the echos being carried into subject categories, maybe Technical (includes TECH, COMM, FOSSIL, MEADOW, PASCAL, PS2, OS2, and other echos which provide information about how programs work, what new ideas are being considered for addition to the net, etc.) and Social (includes BIBLE, NOPIRACY, LAW, SF, PETS, etc.). Another possible subdivision would be to have a NetAdmin or SysopOnly group which would carry echos which pertain to the running of the net. Perhaps the Technical side could be split into computer-related and non-computer-related. Reducing the volume of traffic by dividing the echos into multiple groups instead of reducing the traffic by reducing the number of nodes to be serviced by the Region EC achieves the same desired effect: the amount of data being funneled through the Region ECs is reduced by increasing the number of people who are sharing the responsibility for delivering that data. However, splitting the echos into multiple groups of echos, each carried by different and cooperating Region ECs, also has a desirable effect which the other approach to sharing the load does not: by not introducing a new tier into the distribution mechanism there would be fewer propogation delays in getting the echomail from one end of the net to the other. Right now when I post a msg in a national echo it gets sent 1) to my hub coordinator, 2) to my Net EC, 3) to my Region EC, 4) to FidoNews 5-10 Page 15 7 Mar 1988 the central, coordinating site, 5) to other Region ECs, 6) to other Net ECs, 7) to other hub coordinators (not in all nets), and finally 8) to other nodes at the far end of the distribution chain. If we add sub-regions to that chain that puts two more links through which msgs must pass before they are fully distributed (one link going up the chain, and one link coming back down). By introducing parallel operations as I've suggested we would not be introducing any more delays into the distribution mechanism. Another advantage of this arrangement is that if something happens to one of the Region ECs in a region it only affects a portion of the echomail traffic in that region. If we went to a sub-region EC arrangement and something happened to the Region EC then the sub-regions would all be cut off from all backbone echomail until the problem could be resolved. Still another consideration is that it translates readily to the net level if echomail traffic in a particular net gets too heavy. In such a situation then two (or more) Net ECs could operate, each responsible for contacting a particular Region EC. One disadvantage of my suggested approach is that it does mean more calls will be made. A Net EC who had been making one call per night to the Region EC and picking up that day's echomail would now have to make two or more calls, one to the Region EC for each group of echomail. This is a slight decrease in efficiency. However, I have to wonder: is it really *that* much more efficient to make one 10 minute call than to make two 5 minute calls? It seems to me that as long as there was a significant amount of echomail to be picked up then the marginal increase in efficiency acheived by consolidating two long calls into one longer call is not worth the propogation delays that will ultimately be introduced if we add another tier to the echomail distribution arrangement. LOCALIZED ECHOS I have heard some people suggest having local area echos and I think that something like this can be useful. Here in Atlanta we have a general topic echo which is open to the public and gets a fair amount of traffic without being overwhelming. There are also Region18 and Sysop18 echos for distribution within Region 18 which have been well received. It was suggested that we start a Tech18 echo and perhaps some other echos which would be local to Region 18. A big advantage that this echo would have over the national TECH echo is that it would not have as much traffic. Right now the national echo has so many msgs that it is very difficult to keep up with. A major disadvantage is that there would be fewer people who could contribute their expertise to difficult problems since noone outside of Region 18 would be participating. However, some FidoNews 5-10 Page 16 7 Mar 1988 of the people making this suggestion are pointing out that, while they are interested and are capable of helping people with problems, the national echo just has too much volume to make it worth the large amount of time it would take to keep up with, and so they don't read it and many potential contributors are lost to the echo anyway. If people nationally, even internationally, could agree that the widely distributed echos would be only for problems which could not be solved at a more local level and that local echos covering the same topics would be available for fielding the simpler questions then many more people could be served. Let the local echos with more limited distribution be people's first source of help with problems. Then, if an answer cannot be found there, bring it up for discussion on the national echo. This approach has a two fold advantage. First of all the simpler questions from less experienced users would be likely to get answered in a more timely fashion since echomail should propogate faster on the local level. It wouldn't take as long for the questions and answers to propogate and there would still be a large base of capable users (if we're talking about a regional echo this would still be likely to go to dozens if not hundreds of boards). Secondly, by getting a lot of the simpler stuff out of the national echo it would make it easier to keep up with the msgs there and the quality of the information to be gleaned from that echo would improve. A good quality, national echo would attract even more people who would be capable of contributing to the discussion as opposed to the current situation where capable people get fed up with the volume of traffic, much of which is too simple to hold their interest. In order for a system such as this to work it would take cooperation from many sysops to help ensure that their users understand that they should first go to the local echo for help with problems which are not monumental. Only after they have found that noone in the local echo could help them should they post problems to the national echo. Of course, if there is a topic that is clearly of national interest (a newly verified bug in a major compiler, for example) then it would not be inappropriate to post this information to the national echo right away, or even to both echos. This is one area (among others) that usenet's distribution software has better capabilities than Fidonet's. The software for posting articles in usenet lets you post to a national group while specifying local distribution so as to avoid causing systems all over the world from having to pay for distributing a msg which is only of local interest. It would be nice if the echo software had a byte in each msg where it could be recorded whether the msg was intended for local or extended distribution (even options for many levels, node, net, state, region, national, zone, international) and then identifying the links for echomail as either local, national, or whatever and the echo FidoNews 5-10 Page 17 7 Mar 1988 software wouldn't bundle up a local msg for a link which is designated as a national link. However, it doesn't do this and at this point the only choice is to set up separate echos if different distribution patterns are desired. At least, it is the only way I know of to limit distribution of some msgs while letting other msgs of a similar subject matter be distributed widely. CONCLUSIONS I'm not sure I can make any, but I was taught that written papers or reports should always have a conclusion, so I'll try. I think that it is clear that the volume of echomail is going to increase. With more nodes coming on line all of the time we need to be making plans for how to deal with this without sacrificing too much efficiency, timeliness, or expense. I have made a couple of proposals which I think could possibly help to keep the effort required to support echomail distribution manageable while at the same time not introducing gross inefficiencies that would offset the gains realized from these suggested reorganizations. I welcome constructive criticism. Flames will be consigned to /dev/null. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-10 Page 18 7 Mar 1988 MENSA Echo Loses It's Founder and Host George Falcon 1:109/648 My friend, mentor, and fellow Mensan Jim Kay suffered the loss of his 80 Meg hard disk this past week. This has prompted Jim to reconsider his involvement in this hobby, which can be a very expensive one, not only in cash, but in time as well. Jim was hosting the MENSA echo even before my wife Dot and I met at a Mensa Happy Hour in D.C. in October of 1985, and he patiently helped us through the rocky road to establishing our node using Fido v. 11w. I fully expect we'll stay in touch (after all, he only lives a half hour north of College Park, MD., where we are), but I'll miss having his wit around the net. American Mensa owes him a lot, whether the members know it or not, and many do. The MENSA echo conference had, at my last (not fully informed) count 22 systems in the U.S. and Canada as participants. I've sent a message to most of the sysops in the conference through netmail, but since some nodes are fed the echo indirectly, I'm writing this for FidoNews in the hope that more interested sysops will contact me via netmail. For those sysops who were getting the echo and would like to continue, I'd like to hear from you. I've volunteered to host the echo, at least temporarily, until a faster system with more storage can be found, provided it's operated by a member who's dedicated to the success of this medium. For those of you, sysops or users, who think they might be interested in joining the echo, I ask that you also contact me via netmail. We'll work something out. For those who'd like to know a little more about Mensa itself, you can file request or download MENSA.INF from our pure Opus system. The address of American Mensa Ltd. is 2626 E. 14th St., Bklyn., N.Y. 11235-3992. The only requirement is a score in the 98th percentile on a number of standardized tests of intelligence. Those interested in membership in Intertel (the 99th percentile) can file request or download INTERTEL.INF. I found a housemate, a part-time job, a full time job, and last but certainly not least... my wife... all through Mensa. I'm a bit biased, but I think Mensa's a fun organization. George Falcon Coordinator, Telecomputing SIG 9314 Cherry Hill Rd. #219 College Park, MD. 20740-1249 Opus 1:109/648 (301) 345-7459 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-10 Page 19 7 Mar 1988 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Aaron Priven 1:125/1154 Corrections and Apologies I would like to correct certain parts of my article in FidoNews 5:7. First, I misstated the name of the International Coordinator. It is David Dodell, not Donald Dodell. Second, I referred to Bill Bolton as the Zone 3 Coordinator. He was replaced by Matt Whelan months ago. Third, I misrepresented my column as an article. It was not my intent to act as the role of a journalist or a reporter, but as that of a commentator. As such I was only stating my opinions, not attempting to cover the subject thoroughly. Because of this, I did not contact any of those currently involved in other- network gateways. I do not feel that this is particularly improper behavior for a commentator, which is what I was trying to be. However, I am aware that it was easy to misinterpret my intent, and this was my fault. I sincerely apologize for mistakes I have made. I will endeavor not to make the same mistakes again. Aaron Priven ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-10 Page 20 7 Mar 1988 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 14 Mar 1988 The next Net 157 FidoNet Sysops Meeting. Contact Phil Ardussi at 1:157/1 for information. 16 May 1988 Digital Equipment Corporations Users Society Spring Symposium. Will be held May 16-May 20 in Cincinnati, OH. 16 Jul 1988 A new areacode, 508, will form in eastern Massachusetts and will be effective on this date. The new area code will be formed from the current areacode 617. Greater Boston will remain areacode 617 while the rest of eastern Massachusetts will form the new areacode 508. 25 Aug 1988 Start of the Fifth International FidoNet Conference, to be held at the Drawbridge Inn in Cincinnati, OH. Contact Tim Sullivan at 108/62 for more information. This is FidoNet's big annual get-together, and is your chance to meet all the people you've been talking with all this time. We're hoping to see you there! 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Latest Software Versions BBS Systems Node List Other & Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version Dutchie 2.80 EditNL 3.3 ARC 5.21 Fido 12e* MakeNL 1.10 ARCmail 1.1 Opus 1.03b Prune 1.40 ConfMail 3.31* SEAdog 4.10 XlatList 2.86* EchoMail 1.31 TBBS 2.0M MGM 1.1 BinkleyTerm 1.40* QuickBBS 1.02 * Recently changed Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list FidoNews 5-10 Page 21 7 Mar 1988 all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-10 Page 22 7 Mar 1988 ================================================================= COMMITTEE REPORTS ================================================================= INTERNATIONAL FidoNet ASSOCIATION, INC.(IFNA) AGENDA ANNUAL IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING February 19-21, 1988 The IFNA Board of Directors, by notice published electronically on or about January 25, 1988 to the IFNA.BOD Echomail Conference, linking all the present Directors, dis- cussed and adopted the following as the Agenda for the re- quired, scheduled ANNUAL MEETING OF THE IFNA BOARD OF DIREC- TORS, February 19-21, 1988, commencing at 10:00 AM, CST at the Mariott Courtyard, St. Louis, MO: 10:00 AM: Recognition and seating of the Chair of the IFNA Board I. CALL TO ORDER -:- Ken Kaplan, Chair of the Board Seating of IFNA President, Don Daniels; Vice President, Mark Grennan; Vice President-Technical Coordinator, (Acting) Dave Dodell; Secretary, Tom Marshall; Treasurer, Len Mednick; Registered Legal Counsel, Mark Rubin. Request to Secretary to take Minutes of the Meeting and act as Parliamenterian II. ROLL CALL OF MEMBERS OF THE BOARD Note presence or absence of a quorum. Appointment of Sergeant-at-Arms. Establishment of Special Rules for this Session. III. Call for reading of the Minutes of the IFNA Board of Directors Meetings, August 20-23, 1987 as the DRAFT thereof was published in FidoNews August 31, 1987. Note corrections/deletions/changes/additions; Call for Resolution Approving such Minutes of Previous Meetings IV. Call for Standing COMMITTEE REPORTS from each and review/discussion/adoption of each such: A. Report by Legal Counsel: Mark Rubin B. Executive Committee: Don Daniels, Chair C. Administration and Finance: Len Mednick, Chair Special IRS 501c Status Report: Len Mednick, Ken Kaplan, and Bill Allbritten D. Nominations and Elections: Dave Dodell, Chair FidoNews 5-10 Page 23 7 Mar 1988 E. By-Laws and Rules: Steve Jordan, Chair F. Technical Standards: Randy Bush, Chair G. Publications: Tim Sullivan, Chair H. International Affairs: Henk Wevers, Chair I. Membership Services: Phil Ardussi, Chair Special FidoCON5 Report: Tim Sullivan, Chair J. Division Reports by all Directors Representing a Division V. Old Business A. Ratification of Rules and Practices adopted and used by Board inaccordance with "modified RREO" to conduct business of Board of Directors in interim periods between meetings. B. Ratification of all Motions and Resolutions adopted during interim period by means of IFNA.BOD.FLOOR EchoMail Conference. C. Appointment by the Board of new Officer(s) since Elections in August, 1987 completed. D. Appointment of Alternates for those Directors who failed to appoint such. E. Determination of five at-large Directors whose terms will end in August, 1988. F. Revision of NODELIST Copyright Notice. G. Consideration of POLICYx and Associated Documents. VI. Call for discussion/resolution of any other items of "Old Business". VII. Review of Current Docket of Pending Matters before the Board as established in IFNA.BOD EchoMail Conference [All pending matters not already voted on and handled via IFNA.BOD.FLOOR EchoMail Conference will be listed here] VIII. New Business: "New Business" - NOT already covered above - that is to be dealt with at this Meeting. Keep in mind that in order to deal effectively with any "matter of New Business", to the extent possible, ALL such "Matters" should be the subject of prior written Notice. All new matters introduced in IFNA.BOD.FLOOR and seconded be- tween February 5, 1988 and February 17, 1988 will be listed here as "New Business". A. DAK Industries, Inc Sales of IFNA Nodelist B. Possible Support of International Echo C. IFNA EchoMail Policy D. Determination of how best to deal with disturbances within BoD and/or Committees E. Creation of Ethics Commitee F. Establishment of Directors' Primary Assignments G. Definition of Life Membership Requirements H. Representation for Zones other than 1 I. IFNA Position Statement J. International Statement FidoNews 5-10 Page 24 7 Mar 1988 K. Affirmation of Support for Dale Lovell L. FIDONEWS Policy M. Determination of Foreign Membership Fees N. FIDONEWS Policy O. IFNA Trademarks P. Replacement of Bob Hartman's temporary roles of: 1. IFNA.BOD/FLOOR Moderator 2. IFNA.BOD/FLOOR Echo Hub 3. IFNA.BOD/FLOOR Vote Processor Q. EchoMail Security - Specifically for IFNA BoD, generally for other entities. R. Support questions for FIDOCON 88. S. Formalization of Coordinator Structures T. Formalization of Coordinator Structures U. Charitable Causes IX. Handling of such matters that may have been tabled previously. (VIII. F. HELD PENDING FURTHER DEFINITION, INCLUDING THE REQUIREMENT THAT EACH DIRECTOR SERVE ON AT LEAST ONE STANDING COMMITTEE, PER BY-LAW 5. SEE: DD'S MATRIX REF:ASSIGN.DOC.) X. Opening of the Floor to such Petitions as may come from the Membership in Attendance. XI. Determination of next in-person Meeting and of interim Electronic Sessions. XII. Adjournment MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS IFNA - COURTYARD by MARRIOTT 19-21 FEB. 1988 PRELIMINARY MEETING - 19 FEB. 1988 CHAIR - KEN KAPLAN APPOINTED, REVIEW OF AGENDA ITEMS FOR FORMAL BOARD MEETING - 20 FEB. 1988 I. CALL TO ORDER - 10:01 20 FEB. 1988 BY CHAIR - KEN KAPLAN ADOPTION OF AGENDA AS PROPOSED BY DON DANIELS, PRESIDENT MOTION TO AMEND BY RICK SIEGEL, TABLED UNTIL ITEM V C. IV. A. REPORT BY MARK RUBIN II. CALL OF ROLL PRESENCE OF A QUORUM TERRY MUELLER ELECTED SEARGEANT AT ARMS III. MINUTES OF AUGUST 1987 MEETINGS ACCEPTED AS PUBLISHED IN FidoNews 5-10 Page 25 7 Mar 1988 FIDONEWS 4-33 SUBJECT TO CORRECTIONS FOR ERROR, SHOULD ERROR APPEAR. READING WAIVED. IV. REPORTS FROM EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE; ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE; BY-LAWS AND RULES; PUBLICATIONS; INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS; MEMBERSHIP SERVICES, SPECIAL REPORT ON FIDOCON5 (RICK ASHWORTH) LUNCH BREAK: 12:10 -13:15 IV. CONTINUED: DIVISION REPORTS; DIVISION 13, RICK SIEGEL, DIV. 13 READ REPORT, OTHERS MADE AVAILABLE FOR PERUSAL; DIV. 16 AND DIV. 17 ON FILE WITH SECRETARY; ZONE 2 REPORT BY HENK WEVER READ; ALL REPORTS ACCEPTED. VIII. R. SUPPORT QUESTIONS FOR FIDOCON5 AUGUST 25-28, 1988: MOTION: ROB BARKER - COMMIT NOW TO ADVANCE $2000 OUT OF $3200 PROPOSED BUDGET; INTEND TO COMMIT TO ENTIRE REQUESTED AMOUNT WITHIN 8 WEEKS, UPON NET 108'S REQUEST THEREFOR AND SUBJECT TO EXISTING FINANCIAL CONDITIONS OF IFNA AND INCOME FROM VENDORS RECEIVED BY THAT TIME; IFNA TO RECOVER ALL "SEED MONEY" FROM PROCEEDS OF FIDOCON5, BEFORE IFNA AND NET 108 SPLIT 50/50 NET PROFITS OF FIDOCON'88. V. OLD BUSINESS - A. ACCEPTED B. ACCEPTED, SUBJECT TO RECONSIDERATION OF ANY SUCH ACTS C. OPEN, FOR REVIEW OF "COMMITTEE" AND RECALL D. CLOSED E. DON DANIELS; BOB RUDOLPH; KURT REISLER; GREG SMALL; GEE WONG ARE THE AT-LARGE DIRECTORS WHOSE TERMS WILL EXPIRE IN AUG. 1988. F. REMOVED FROM CONSIDERATION G. TABLED ON TIME VI. NOTHING OFFERED VII. CURRENT DOCKET - NOTHING PENDING, EXCEPT AS RELATES TO VIII. C. VIII. NEW BUSINESS SEALED A. DAK - AFTER REVIEW OF CORRESPONDENCE, DON DANIELS INSTRUCTED TO CONTINUE NEGOTIATIONS WITH DREW KAPLAN AS THE SOLE IFNA REPRESENTATIVE. ALL MATTERS RELATING TO THE DAK MATTER ARE LEGAL CONFIDENTIAL, UNTIL THE BOARD RELEASES SUCH. B. IFNA IS NOT INCLINED TO PROVIDE FINANCIAL SUPPORT, BUT WOULD BE INTERESTED IN REFERRING TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE THE MATTER OF A POSSIBLE INTERNATIONAL ECHO, POSSIBLY FINANCED BY IFNA. THE BOARD DOES NOT APPROVE ASPECTS OF THE SPECIFIC "INTERUSER" ECHO THAT WAS THE SUBJECT OF THIS AGENDA ITEM. TABLED C. IFNA ECHOMAIL POLICY E. DON DANIELS' MOTION PASSED TO FORM AN ETHICS FidoNews 5-10 Page 26 7 Mar 1988 COMMITTEE TO FORMULATE AND REPORT TO THE BOARD ON PROPOSED GUIDELINES AND SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING STANDARDS OF CONDUCT IN IFNA AND FIDONET AFFAIRS AND BUSINESS. D. REFERENCED TO BY-LAWS AND RULES COMMITTEE TO PROPOSE A NEW BY-LAW SPECIFYING THAT A DIRECTOR OR OFFICER OF IFNA MAY BE REMOVED FOR CAUSE IF ANY SUCH IS IN VIOLATION OF THE ETHICS STANDARDS ADOPTED BY THE BOARD. REQUIRES A TWO-THIRDS VOTE OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. TABLED E. HELD PENDING FURTHER DEFINITION, INCLUDING THE REQUIREMENT THAT EACH DIRECTOR SERVE ON AT LEAST ONE STANDING COMMITTEE, PER BY-LAW 5. TABLED F. G. LIFE MEMBER DUES SET AT $250 TO ALL REGULAR MEMBERS WHO REMAIN OTHERWISE QUALIFIED. H. REFERENCED TO BY-LAWS AND RULES AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEES FOR RECOMMENDATIONS. I. REFERENCED TO A "COMMITTEE" : REPORT OF COMMITTEEE ACCEPTED, WITH MINOR TEXT CHANGES (REF: GOODNEWS.TXT) J. REFERENCED TO A "COMMITTEE" FOR REVIEW LATER. K. AGREED TO CONFIRM DALE LOVELL'S APPOINTMENT AS FIDONEWS EDITOR, WITH THE THANKS OF THE BOARD TO DALE LOVELL FOR ACCEPTING THE POSITION TO BE SENT BY THE PRESIDENT. L. THE BOARD SUPPORTS THE EXISTING PRACTICE OF PUBLISHING ALL SUB MISSIONS, EXCEPT THOSE THAT ARE SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDED IN THE PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE'S REPORT. THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE SHOULD BE ADVISED OF ANY ITEMS THAT ARE EXCLUDED FROM PUBLICATION UNDER THOSE GUIDELINES. M. FOREIGN MEMBERS' IFNA DUES AND ANY OTHER PAYMENTS TO IFNA ARE SET IN US FUNDS. N. DUPLICATION DELETED S. FORMALIZATION OF COORDINATOR STRUCTURES - SUBSUMED INTO THE FUNCTIONS TO BE PERFORMED BY THE "COMMMITTEES" BEING FORMED TO DEAL WITH ECHOMAIL POLICY (Rob Barker, BOARD REPRESETATIVE) AND TO DEAL WITH POLICYx (Steve Jordan, BOARD REPRESENTATIVE). X. THOM HENDERSON: FIDO NODELIST INCLUDES DISCLAIMER "EVERY EFFORT", CHANGE TO "REASONABLE EFFORTS". - ADOPTED BY THE BOARD. BRAD HICKS: SEND A RECOMMENDATION TO THE BY-LAWS AND RULES COMMITTEE TO CONSIDER EXPANDING THE MEMBERS DEFINITIONS TO INCLUDE CO-SYSOPS, POINT-SYSTEMS, MAIL-ONLY NODES, ETC. MARK GRENNAN: WRITTEN SUBMISSION RECEIVED 20 FEB. 1988, PROPOSAL TO CREATE AN IFNA ARCHIVE, A DEPOSITORY FOR ALL FORMAL IFNA DOCUMENTS. - GREG SMALL APPOINTED CHAIR OF ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE TO ORGANIZE SUCH AN EFFORT. FidoNews 5-10 Page 27 7 Mar 1988 GREG SMALL: NEED TO CODIFY THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF DIRECTORS, (AND ALTERNATES) OFFICERS, COMMITTEE CHAIRS, ETC. IN THE FORM OF JOB DESCRIPTIONS. BRAD HICKS: SEND OUT A PRESS RELEASE CONCERNING THIS BOARD MEETING. BRAD HICKS: MOTION - TO REQUEST THAT THE VP-TC ACT TO INFORM THE ZC'S, RC'S, NC'S THAT THEY SHOULD COOPERATE WITH THE ECHOMAIL COORDINATORS TO BRING ABOUT THE CESSATION OF ANY INTENTIONAL DISTURBANCE BY DECLARING SUCH ACTS AS BEING "EXCESSIVELY ANNOYING" PER SE. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-10 Page 28 7 Mar 1988 A STATEMENT OF POSITION BY IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS IFNA believes in the continued and peaceful coexistence of individual bulletin boards and electronic mail systems joined together through the FidoNet network. Recognizing that FidoNet is an international collection of system operators, users, and supporters, it is with great caution and limited scope that an international association must tread. Given this caveat, IFNA accepts as primary responsibilities: maintaining a nodelist; publication of a newsletter; the FidoNet Technical Standards; and an international conference. IFNA firmly takes the stand that all system operators within the FidoNet network are joined by a moral and ethical thread to further the development and education of international communication for the benefit and good of all people. Additionally, IFNA acts as an advisor and a resource to the Fidonet group as a whole. IFNA maintains a standard nodelist to provide a directory of all FidoNet systems in a common format that permits international communication to proceed unimpeded. IFNA also supports and participates in the formation, promulgation, and publication of the necessary technical standards to promote electronic communication. Finally, IFNA fosters international communication on a human level by sponsoring an annual international conference (FIDOCON). IFNA also serves in an advisory role to assist in the resolution of any concerns that affect the local, regional, national, or international nature of the network. IFNA will provide the structures to promote international growth, goodwill and understanding among electronic communications systems and operators. IFNA recognizes the current structures of FidoNet as they stand and believes FidoNet is self-perpetuating and, in the final analysis, self-governing. Additionally, IFNA maintains that future policies will evolve through the structure of, and be mandated by, the network. IFNA's role will then be to codify these policies to protect the interests of all. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-10 Page 29 7 Mar 1988 __ The World's First / \ BBS Network /|oo \ * FidoNet * (_| /_) _`@/_ \ _ | | \ \\ | (*) | \ )) ______ |__U__| / \// / Fido \ _//|| _\ / (________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm) Membership for the International FidoNet Association Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that pays a specified annual membership fee. IFNA serves the international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to increase worldwide communications. Member Name _______________________________ Date _______________ Address _________________________________________________________ City ____________________________________________________________ State ________________________________ Zip _____________________ Country _________________________________________________________ Home Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________ Work Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________ Zone:Net/Node Number ____________________________________________ BBS Name ________________________________________________________ BBS Phone Number ________________________________________________ Baud Rates Supported ____________________________________________ Board Restrictions ______________________________________________ Your Special Interests __________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ In what areas would you be willing to help in FidoNet? __________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in US Funds to: International FidoNet Association c/o Leonard Mednick, MBA, CPA 700 Bishop Street, #1014 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813-4112 USA Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to insure the future of FidoNet. Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the membership in January 1987. The first elected Board of Directors was filled in August 1987. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your input to this Conference. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 5-10 Page 30 7 Mar 1988 INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION ORDER FORM Publications The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido 1:1/10 or other FidoNet compatible systems, or by purchasing them directly from IFNA. We ask that all our IFNA Committee Chairmen provide us with the latest versions of each publication, but we can make no written guarantees. Hardcopy prices as of October 1, 1986 IFNA Fido BBS listing $15.00 _____ IFNA Administrative Policy DOCs $10.00 _____ IFNA FidoNet Standards Committee DOCs $10.00 _____ SUBTOTAL _____ IFNA Member ONLY Special Offers System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____ SEAdog price as of March 1, 1987 ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member Fido Software's Fido/FidoNet $100.00 _____ Fido/FidoNet price as of November 1, 1987 ONLY 1 copy Fido/FidoNet per IFNA Member International orders include $10.00 for surface shipping or $20.00 for air shipping _____ SUBTOTAL _____ HI. Residents add 4.0 % Sales tax _____ TOTAL _____ SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER IN US FUNDS: International FidoNet Association c/o Leonard Mednick, MBA, CPA 700 Bishop Street, #1014 Honolulu, HI. 96813-4112 USA Name________________________________ Zone:Net/Node____:____/____ Company_____________________________ Address_____________________________ City____________________ State____________ Zip_____ Voice Phone_________________________ Signature___________________________ -----------------------------------------------------------------