Volume 8, Number 15 15 April 1991 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | FidoNet (r) | | \ \\ | | International BBS Network | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Vince Perriello Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Copyright 1991, Fido Software. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact Fido Software. FidoNews is published weekly by and for the Members of the FidoNet (r) International Amateur Electronic Mail System. It is a compilation of individual articles contributed by their authors or authorized agents of the authors. The contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the rights of the authors. 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. 1:1/1 is a Continuous Mail system, available for network mail 24 hours a day. Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, Box 77731, San Francisco CA 94107, USA and are used with permission. Opinions expressed in FidoNews articles are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editor or of Fido Software. Most articles are unsolicited. Our policy is to publish every responsible submission received. Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 Just Checking In ......................................... 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 3 World Policy - U.S. Constitution ......................... 3 Just a few words about WorldPol .......................... 22 Comments on the WorldPol Debate .......................... 23 When and how to switch LD carriers for each call ......... 25 New Consumer Advocate Echo ............................... 26 Why do we need a WorldPol? ............................... 28 FidoCon '91 Update ....................................... 30 From Down Below .......................................... 37 And more! FidoNews 8-15 Page 1 15 Apr 1991 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Notes on the Editor's blotter -- Boy oh boy oh boy. I've gotten a lot of mail regarding the Worldpol submission. Lots of mail and a number of articles. The one I like the best is an effort you'll be reading here which makes an attempt to adapt the United States Constitution to FidoNet. I think it's not such a bad idea, actually. There are flaws in it as it stands, but I see it as fixable. I also think that Worldpol is fixable. Many of its supporters agree with me that it's not perfect. The only area in which we seem to disagree is whether it's best to gene-splice now or cut off the extra arm and add the missing eye later. Regardless of how you feel about Worldpol -- I can't encourage you enough to get involved in the process. And make good and sure that your NC votes one way or the other. He/She is YOUR voice in this ratification process. We have brought a new program online here called AutoNews. It takes netmail addressed to AutoNews, and creates a file which contains the body of the message. You specify the name of the file in the subject line. We're still feeling our way out with this, but ultimately this should provide a neat way of allowing article submissions to be sent through FidoNet routing. ARTSPEC restrictions still apply. Wordwrap hasn't been implemented yet. We hear that Henry Clark is an RC now. We think that means that under the Freedom of Information Act, we can demand that .GIF file of Honey now. C'mon, Henry! We want to see who is talking you through it! I know that a few version updates came in this week. I'm just running too far behind deadline to get them in this week. Could the person who sent me an article under the name "Joe SysOp" please contact me via netmail? I'll publish your article under that name if you insist, but I have to know who you are. Vote early. Vote often. Vote against Worldpol. It needs work. And it needs that work NOW. Not later. Have a good week. We'll see you here again next Monday. Vince FidoNews 8-15 Page 2 15 Apr 1991 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 3 15 Apr 1991 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Bob Dervishian, SysOp Richmond Computer BBS FidoNet 1:264/170 To whom it may concern: FidoNet World Policy should not look like something more than it is, people simply having "access" to each other. Anything more than mere "access", might cause a casual observer to think that FidoNet is some kind of club, legal entity, or organization. In order to preserve the open "access" we all enjoy, it seems appropriate for words like "members" and "membership" to be avoided. It also seem imperative, that any FidoNet powers be expressly eliminated, and a clear statement be made, that all participants are independent unpaid volunteers. "Access" is the keyword, and it should continue to be the foundation upon which FidoNet rests. Nodes are simply computer systems, and should not be seen as anything more significant. Otherwise, as worldwide electronic mail expands, FidoNet might innocently blunder into conflicts with the Laws of Nations and the complexity of world politics. On the other hand, it does not seem wise to think of FidoNet World Policy as some kind of academic or inconsequential matter, since the policy could become critical for open "access" to FidoNet in the future. It seems necessary and appropriate, at this stage of FidoNet's development, to make a definitive and complete statement of FidoNet World Policy, in precise and appropriate terms, in order to insure "access" to FidoNet in today's world. The question, then becomes, "How does one draft a world policy document that can maintain free and open access to worldwide electronic mail?" Well, it appears that while establishing the framework for free "access" to the open interchange of information and communication, FidoNet World Policy could specifically adopt, as well as, encourage the individual rights and principles setforth in the Constitution of the United States, and encourage peace and freedom and democracy throughout the world. If FidoNet World Policy, used the language of the Constitution of the United States, it could accomplish all of these goals and still preserve the rights and customs of peoples in the various Zones, and avoid conflicts with the Laws of Nations throughout the world. FidoNews 8-15 Page 4 15 Apr 1991 I was pleasantly surprised to discover, that with simple modification, the Constitution of the United States, nicely lends itself to the needs of a FidoNet World Policy. Actually, the problems that might confront a FidoNet World Policy are of such a magnitude, that it probably couldn't be stated in a more simplified manner. I hope no one will get upset because I have incorporated some language from the proposed POLVOTE.TXT, along with the modifications, as a proposed FidoNet World Policy document, for your consideration, as setforth below: ************* WORLD POLICY of FidoNet adopted: ../../19.. effect: ../../19.. PREAMBLE We the Nodes of FidoNet, in Order to form a more perfect Network, establish Justice, insure Tranquility, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this World Policy for FidoNet. Article I. Section 1. FidoNet is a private amateur electronic mail system which exists only to provide electronic mail services, and all Nodes are unpaid volunteers. FidoNet is not a common carrier or a value-added service network and is public only to the extent the independent, constituent Node Operators may individually allow public access to the network on their system. Zone Mail Hour, which is the heart of FidoNet, shall be one hour of each day, which is reserved within a Zone, for the exclusive purpose of passing FidoNet mail between FidoNet Nodes. The English Language is the official language of FidoNet. All official FidoNet documents shall exist in English. Zones may adopt a secondary language for convenience. Translation into all languages is encouraged. FidoNews 8-15 Page 5 15 Apr 1991 Access to FidoNet is open to any computer system, consistent with FidoNet World Policy, which fulfills the requirement of reserving Zone Mail Hour for the exclusive purpose of passing FidoNet mail between FidoNet Nodes during Zone Mail Hour, using the protocol defined in the current FidoNet Technical Standards Committee publication. (FTS-0001 at this writing). Node status shall be established by a computer system being shown as having the privilege of access to FidoNet in the Official FidoNet List of Nodes (NodeList), which is issued by FidoNet on a weekly basis. FidoNet is collection of volunteer Nodes which are addressed by Zone, Region, Network, Node, [and Point]. (i.e. 1:125/111.5) The Seat of FidoNet shall be the Zone, wherein the World Coordinator resides. A Zone shall be a collection of Regions, which are located in a geographic area containing one or many regions, which may cover one or more countries. A Region shall be a collection of Networks, which are located in a well-defined geographic area containing Nodes which may or may not be combined into Networks. A typical Region will contain many Nodes in Networks, and a few computer systems which are not part of the Network. A Network shall be a collection of Nodes, normally but not exclusively in a local geographic area. Node Operators (NodOp) shall formulate policy for the running their respective Nodes and dealing with their Bulletin Board Users. The independent Node Operator voluntarily cooperates with the FidoNet Policy in order to access FidoNet, and to receive and send FidoNet mail consistent with FidoNet Policy. A Point shall not be a FidoNet Node, but is a computer system that is able to have access to FidoNet, through a FidoNet Node acting as a host. A Point Operator (PtOp) may be any age, and the Point shall be addressed, by using the host Node's address shown in the NodeList, with a Point number affixed. (i.e. 1:125/111.6) System Operators (SysOp) presently existing in the Fido Network are hereby established as Node Operators (NodOp) of FidoNet, in the Zone wherein they reside. FidoNews 8-15 Page 6 15 Apr 1991 The right of Node Operators, who have attained the Age of eighteen Years, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by FidoNet or by any Zone on account of nationality, race, color, sex, age, or otherwise. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, shall exist within the FidoNet. The Right of Node Operators to vote in any election for World Coordinator or Vice World Coordinator, for Electors for World Coordinator or Vice World Coordinator, for Zone Senator or Node Representative, shall not be denied or abridged. No Node shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by FidoNet. FidoNet shall make no Policy respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of Node Operators to peaceably assemble, or to petition for a redress of grievances. It being necessary to the security of a free world, the right of Persons to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. The right of Persons to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated and shall not be infringed. All Policy Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of FidoNet, which shall consist of a Zone Senate and a Node House of Representatives. The enumeration in FidoNet World Policy, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage any other Right retained, by the Node Operators. The powers not delegated to FidoNet by FidoNet World Policy, nor prohibited to it by the Zones, are reserved to the Node Operators or to the Zones respectively. FidoNet Congress shall not make or enforce any policy which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of Node Operators of FidoNet; nor shall FidoNet Congress deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of Law, FidoNet or otherwise; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the Law, FidoNet or otherwise. No Node Operator shall be a Zone Senator or Node Representative in FidoNet Congress, or Elector of World Coordinator and Vice World Coordinator, or hold any office, under FidoNet, or under any Zone, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of FidoNet Congress, or as an Officer of FidoNet, or as a Member of any Zone Legislature, or as an Executive or Judicial officer of any Zone, to support the World FidoNews 8-15 Page 7 15 Apr 1991 Policy of FidoNet, who shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against any Nation, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But FidoNet Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. Section 2. The Node House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the Node Operators of the several Zones, and the Electors in each Zone shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the Zone Legislature. Node Representatives shall be apportioned among the several Zones which may be included within this Network, according to their respective Numbers, counting the whole Number of Node Operators in each Zone, excluding none. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of Electors for World Coordinator and Vice World Coordinator of FidoNet, Representatives in FidoNet Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a Zone, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the Node Operators of such Zone, being eighteen years of age, and Node Operators of FidoNet, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other violation, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the Number of such Node Operators shall bear to the whole Number of Node Operators in such Zone. The actual Enumeration shall be made within one Year after the first Meeting of the Congress of FidoNet, and within every subsequent Term of two Years, in such Manner as they shall by Policy direct. The Number of Node Representatives shall not exceed one for every Hundred Nodes, but each Zone shall have at Least one Node Representative. When vacancies happen in the Node Representation from any Zone, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies. The Node House of Representatives shall chose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. Section 3. The Zone Senate of FidoNet shall be composed of two Senators from each Zone, elected by the Node Operators thereof, for six Years; and each Zone Senator shall have one Vote. No Node Operator shall be a Zone Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty-one Years, and been three Years a Node Operator of FidoNet, who shall not, when elected, be a Node Operator of that Zone for which he shall be chosen. FidoNews 8-15 Page 8 15 Apr 1991 The Electors in each Zone shall have the qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous branch of the Zone legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of any Zone in the Zone Senate, the executive authority of such Zone shall issue Writs of Election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any Zone may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the Node Operators fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. Immediately after the Zone Senators shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Zone Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one-third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any Zone, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies. The Vice World Coordinator of FidoNet shall be President of the Zone Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided. The Zone Senate shall chose their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice World Coordinator, or when he shall exercise the Office of World Coordinator of FidoNet. The Zone Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the World Coordinator of FidoNet is tried, the FidoNet Chief Justice shall preside: And no Node Operator shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present. Judgement in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor or Trust under FidoNet. Section 4. The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Zone Senators and Node Representatives, shall be prescribed in each Zone by the Legislature thereof: but the FidoNet Congress may at any time by FidoNet Policy make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Place of Chosing Zone Senators. FidoNet Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall begin at noon on the 3rd day of January, unless they shall by FidoNet Policy appoint a different day. FidoNews 8-15 Page 9 15 Apr 1991 The terms of Zone Senators and Node Representatives shall end at noon on the 3rd day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended; and the terms of their successors shall then begin. Section 5. Each FidoNet House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide. Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member. Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy to preserve the security of FidoNet or it's Node Operators; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal. Neither FidoNet House, during the Session of FidoNet Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. Section 6. The Zone Senators and Node Representatives shall receive no Compensation for their Services. They shall in all Cases of Violation, until convicted, be privileged from censorship or expulsion during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place. No Zone Senator or Node Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed or elected to any Fido Office nor Public Office under the Authority of any Nation, which shall have been created, and no Node Operator holding any Office under the FidoNet, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office. Section 7. No Policy for raising Revenue shall originate in either FidoNet House. FidoNews 8-15 Page 10 15 Apr 1991 Every Bill which shall have passed the Node House of Representatives and the Zone Senate, shall, before it become a FidoNet Policy, be presented to the World Coordinator of FidoNet; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have Originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a FidoNet Policy. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Node Operators voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the World Coordinator within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a FidoNet Policy, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the FidoNet Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a FidoNet Policy. Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Zone Senate and Node House of Representative may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the World Coordinator of the FidoNet; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Zone Senate and Node House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill. Section 8. The FidoNet Congress shall have No Power: To make any Policy, in violation of the Laws of any Nation. To enforce any Policy in any Zone wherein a FidoNet Node resides, that is contrary to the Law of a Nation, that is embraced by that Zone. To establish any Policy impairing the Obligation of Contracts. To Censor any communication, Article, or otherwise. To establish Post Offices and post Roads. To provide for the common defense. To declare War or engage in any War among Nations. To raise or support any Army, Navy, or any other Militia. FidoNews 8-15 Page 11 15 Apr 1991 To suppress or engage in and/or repel Insurrections or Invasions. To provide for the quartering of FidoNet Nodes in any place designed for the prosecution of War or Law Enforcement. (i.e. any Fort, Magazine, Arsenal, dock-Yard, installation, or any place military oriented or otherwise.) To provide for any Punishment. No capitation, or Tax shall be laid. To lay a Tax or Duty on Articles imported or exported from any Zone. To lay or collect taxes on Node Users. To lay or collect taxes on Node Operators or Point Operators. To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises. To borrow money on the credit of FidoNet. To regulate Commerce with Nations, or among the several Zones. To establish any Rule of Naturalization. To coin Money, or regulate the Value thereof. To establish ex post facto FidoNet Policy. To enter into any Agreement or Compact with any Zone, or with any Nation, or engage in any War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay. To assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of or against FidoNet, or any claim, and all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. No Preference shall be given by any Policy of one Zone over those of another: nor shall any Article bound to, or from, one Zone, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another. No Title of Nobility shall be granted by FidoNet: And no Node Operator holding any Fido Office shall accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any Nation, King, Zone, Individual, Commercial Business, or otherwise. Section 9. FidoNews 8-15 Page 12 15 Apr 1991 The FidoNet Congress shall have the Power. To promote the Progress of Computer Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive FidoNet Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. To define Software Piracies and infringements. To constitute FidoNet Tribunals inferior to the FidoNet Supreme Court. To make policy which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing World Policy. Section 10. Each zone has the right to adopt a secondary Language as its own official language, as a convenience. No FidoNet Zone shall adopt any Policy contrary to FidoNet World Policy. No FidoNet Zone shall, without the Consent of FidoNet Congress, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another Zone, or with any Nation, or engage in any War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay. Article II. Section 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a World Coordinator of FidoNet. He shall hold his Office during the Term of two Years, and, together with the Vice World Coordinator, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows. No Node Operator except a Node Operator of FidoNet at the time of the Adoption of this World Policy, shall be eligible to the Office of World Coordinator; neither shall any Node Operator be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty-five Years, and been five Years a Node Operator within FidoNet. No Node Operator shall be elected to the office of the World Coordinator more than twice, and no Node Operator who has held the office of World Coordinator, or acted as World Coordinator, for more than one year of a term to which some other Node Operator was elected World Coordinator shall be elected to the office of the World Coordinator more than once. But this shall not prevent any Node Operator holding the office of World Coordinator when this World Policy was proposed, and shall not apply to any Node Operator who may be holding the office of World Coordinator, or acting as World Coordinator, during the term within which this World Policy becomes operative FidoNews 8-15 Page 13 15 Apr 1991 from holding the office of World Coordinator or acting as World Coordinator during the remainder of such term. Each Zone shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Zone Senators and Node Representatives to which the Zone may be entitled in the FidoNet Congress: but no Zone Senator or Node Representative, or Node Operator holding an Office of Trust under FidoNet, shall be appointed an Elector. The Electors shall meet in their respective Zones, and vote by Ballot for World Coordinator and Vice World Coordinator, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same Zone with themselves. And they shall name in their ballots the Node Operator voted for as World Coordinator, and the Node Operator voted for as Vice World Coordinator, and they shall make distinct Lists of all Node Operators voted for as World Coordinator, and of all Node Operators voted for as Vice World Coordinator, and of the number of votes for each, which Lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of FidoNet, directed to the President of the Zone Senate. The President of the Zone Senate shall, in the Presence of the Zone Senate and Node House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Node Operator having the greatest Number of Votes for World Coordinator, shall be the World Coordinator, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if no Node Operator have such a Majority, then from the Node Operators having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the List of those voted for as World Coordinator, the Node House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by Ballot, the World Coordinator. But in choosing the World Coordinator, the votes shall be taken by Zones, the representations from each Zone having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the Zones, and a majority of all the Zones shall be necessary to a Choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a World Coordinator whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice World Coordinator shall act as World Coordinator, as in case of the death or other disability of the World Coordinator. The Node Operator having the greatest number of votes as Vice World Coordinator, shall be the Vice World Coordinator, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no Node Operator have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the List, the Zone Senate shall choose the Vice World Coordinator; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Zone Senators, a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no Node Operator ineligible to the office of World Coordinator shall be eligible to that of Vice World Coordinator of FidoNet. FidoNews 8-15 Page 14 15 Apr 1991 FidoNet Congress may determine the Time of chosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout FidoNet. In Case of the Removal of the World Coordinator from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on the Vice World Coordinator, and the FidoNet Congress may by FidoNet Policy, provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the World Coordinator and Vice World Coordinator, declaring what Officer shall then act as World Coordinator, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a World Coordinator shall be elected. The World Coordinator shall not receive for his Services, any Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from FidoNet, or any of them. Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of World Coordinator of FidoNet, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the World Policy of FidoNet." Section 2. The World Coordinator may require the Opinion in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against FidoNet, except in Cases of Impeachment. He shall not have Power, except by and with the Advice and Consent of the Zone Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Fido Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Zone Senate, shall appoint Fido Ambassadors, other Fido Ministers and Fido Consuls, Judges of the Fido Supreme Court, and all other Officers of FidoNet, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by FidoNet Policy: but the FidoNet Congress may by FidoNet Policy vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the World Coordinator alone, in the Courts of FidoNet, or in the Heads of Departments. The World Coordinator shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Zone Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session. FidoNews 8-15 Page 15 15 Apr 1991 Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the FidoNet Congress Information of the State of FidoNet, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the FidoNet Policy be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of FidoNet. Section 4. The World Coordinator, Vice World Coordinator and all Officers of FidoNet, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Violations and Misdemeanors. The terms of the World Coordinator and Vice World Coordinator shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the World Coordinator, the World Coordinator elect shall have died, the Vice World Coordinator elect shall become World Coordinator. If a World Coordinator shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the World Coordinator elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice World Coordinator elect shall act as World Coordinator until a World Coordinator shall have qualified; and the FidoNet Congress may by FidoNet Policy provide for the case wherein neither a World Coordinator elect nor a Vice World Coordinator elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as World Coordinator, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such Node Operator shall act accordingly until a World Coordinator or Vice World Coordinator shall have qualified. The FidoNet Congress may by FidoNet Policy provide for the case of the death of any of the Node Operators from whom the Node House of Representatives may choose a World Coordinator whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the Node Operators from whom the Zone Senate may choose a Vice World Coordinator whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them. In case of the removal of the World Coordinator from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice World Coordinator shall become World Coordinator. FidoNews 8-15 Page 16 15 Apr 1991 Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice World Coordinator, the World Coordinator shall nominate a Vice World Coordinator who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of FidoNet Congress. Whenever the World Coordinator transmits to the President pro tempore of the Zone Senate and the Speaker of the Node House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice World Coordinator as Acting World Coordinator. Whenever the Vice World Coordinator and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as FidoNet Congress may by FidoNet Policy provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Zone Senate and the Speaker of the Node House of Representatives their written declaration that the World Coordinator is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice World Coordinator shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting World Coordinator. Thereafter, when the World Coordinator transmits to the President pro tempore of the Zone Senate and the Speaker of the Node House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice World Coordinator and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as FidoNet Congress may by FidoNet Policy provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Zone Senate and the Speaker of the Node House of Representatives their written declaration that the World Coordinator is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon FidoNet Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the FidoNet Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if FidoNet Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after FidoNet Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the World Coordinator is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice World Coordinator shall continue to discharge the same as Acting World Coordinator; otherwise, the World Coordinator shall resume the powers and duties of his office. Article III. Section 1. The judicial Power of FidoNet, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the FidoNet Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall be Node Operators of FidoNet and shall hold their Offices during good Behavior, and shall not receive for their Services, a FidoNews 8-15 Page 17 15 Apr 1991 Compensation, which shall not be increased or diminished during their Continuance in Office. No Node Operator shall be a Judge who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty-one Years, and been three Years a Node Operator of FidoNet. FidoNet judicial philosophy can be summed up in three rules: 1) Thou shalt not lie, cheat or steal. 2) Thou shalt not excessively annoy others. 3) Thou shalt not become excessively annoyed. Section 1a. The parties involved in a dispute are encouraged to solve their problems directly, without the intervention of a FidoNet Court. Any of the parties involved may request the intervention of the respective Coordinator: Network Coordinator (NC) if a dispute between members of the same network; Region Coordinator (RC) if a dispute between members of different networks on the same region; Zone Coordinator (ZC) if a dispute between members of different regions on the same zone; World Coordinator (WC) if a dispute between members of different zones. The Coordinator requested as "mediator", will ask each party to provide all the information before two weeks from the request and will make a decision within forty-five days after he received all the information from the involved parties. A Coordinator, unable to resolve a dispute, may name a third party who is a Node Operator of FidoNet to act as "mediator", provided the parties involved in the dispute agree. A mediator's decision may be appealed to the FidoNet Court immediately superior level if considered unfair: Region Courts handle appeals from decisions made by Network Courts; Zone Courts handle appeals from decision made by Region Courts; The FidoNet Supreme Court handles appeals from decisions made by the Zone Courts; and appeals from decisions made by the World Coordinator. Section 2. The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in FidoNet Policy and Equity, arising under this World Policy, the FidoNet Policy of Zones, and FidoNet Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority; to all Cases affecting FidoNet Ambassadors, other public FidoNet Ministers and FidoNet Consuls; to Controversies to which FidoNet shall be a Party; to Controversies between two or more Zones; between a Zone and a Node Operator of another Zone; between Node Operators of FidoNews 8-15 Page 18 15 Apr 1991 different Zones; between Node Operators of the same Zone claiming right under Grants of different Zones, and between a Zone, or the Node Operators thereof, and foreign Zones, Node Operators, or Subjects. In all Cases affecting FidoNet Ambassadors, other public FidoNet Ministers and FidoNet Consuls, and those in which a Zone shall be a Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to FidoNet Policy and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the FidoNet Congress shall make. The trial of all violations of FidoNet Policy, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the Zone where the said violations shall have been committed; but when not committed within any Zone, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the FidoNet Congress may by FidoNet Policy have directed. Section 3. Treason against FidoNet, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Node Operator shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. The FidoNet Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no conviction shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture, or be punishable or enforceable under the Laws of any Nation. No Node Operator shall be held to answer for a otherwise infamous FidoNet Policy violation, unless on a presentment or indictment of a FidoNet Grand Jury, except in cases arising when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any Person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of FidoNet Policy; nor shall private property be taken for use, without just compensation. In all prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the Zone and region wherein the violation shall have been committed, which region shall have been previously ascertained by FidoNet Policy, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense. FidoNews 8-15 Page 19 15 Apr 1991 In suits, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the FidoNet, than according to the Policy of FidoNet. No bail shall not be required, nor fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted, nor imprisonment held. The Judicial power of FidoNet shall not be construed to extend to any suit in Law or Equity of any Nation, commenced or prosecuted against one of FidoNet by Node Operators of another Zone or by Node Operators or Subjects of any Foreign Zone. Article IV Section 1. Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each Zone to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other Zone. And the FidoNet Congress may by general FidoNet Policy prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. Section 2. The Node Operators of each Zone shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Node Operators in the several Zones. A Node Operator charged in any Zone with FidoNet Policy violation, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another Zone, shall on demand of the executive Authority of the Zone from which he flee, be delivered up, to and have the case removed to the Zone having Jurisdiction of the violation. No Node Operator held to be in violation of Policy in one Zone, under the FidoNet Policy thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any FidoNet Policy or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Zone Policy violation, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Zone, to such Zone, as may be due. Section 3. New Zones may be admitted by the FidoNet Congress into this Network; but no new Zone shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other Zone, nor any Zone be formed by the Junction of two or more Zones, or parts of Zones, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the Zones concerned as well as of the FidoNet Congress. The FidoNet Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to FidoNet; and nothing in this World Policy shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of FidoNet, or of any particular Zone. FidoNews 8-15 Page 20 15 Apr 1991 Section 4. FidoNet shall guarantee to every Zone in this Network a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence. Article V. The FidoNet Congress, whenever two-thirds of both House shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this World Policy, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several Zones, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid, to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this World Policy, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several Zones, or by Conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the FidoNet Congress: Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year Two Thousand shall in any Manner affect the First, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Section of the first Article or affect the First and Third Section of the third Article; and that no Zone, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Zone Senate. Article VI. All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this World Policy, shall not be as valid against FidoNet under this World Policy. This FidoNet World Policy, and FidoNet World Policy which shall be made in Pursuance thereof, and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of FidoNet Policy, shall be the supreme FidoNet Policy of the Network; and the Judges in every Zone shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the World Policy or FidoNet Policy of any Zone to the contrary notwithstanding. The Zone Senators and Node Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several Zone Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of FidoNet and of the several Zones, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to protect, and support this World Policy; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under FidoNet. Article VII. The Ratification of the Conventions of two Zones shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this World Policy between the Zones so ratifying the Same. FidoNews 8-15 Page 21 15 Apr 1991 Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the Zones present the ___________ Day of ________ in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety One and of the Fido Network the Eighth. In Witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names. North America / Zone 1 Date: Europe / Zone 2 Date: Oceania / Zone 3 Date: Latin America / Zone 4 Date: Africa / Zone 5 Date: Asia / Zone 6 Date: Ratified: 4/11/91 - ../../19.. ************* Thanks - Bob Dervishian, NodOp Submitted: 4/11/91 Richmond Computer BBS FidoNet 1:264/170 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 22 15 Apr 1991 Alexander Bochmann 2:247/12@fidonet In the last issues of FidoNews, I saw a lot of people complainig about the new WorldPol - proposal... I just want to give them one thing to think about (and I hope I do not contradict the purposes of the writers of WorldPol, but that's what _I_ think about it). I see WorldPol as a document creating the background for the Zone/Region - policies, and not more. WorldPol has not to be proof against all the circumstances it's critics invent at the moment -- the future Zone/Region - policy-documents have to be! That's what WorldPol is all about: There can not be one single document defining the exact guidelines for several thousand Nodes in _completely_ different regions of the world. The guidelines given in WorldPol are flexible enough to make it possible to create new policy-documents for each zone and/or region that can exactly meet the local requirements. Policy4 is as flexible as a block of granite, that's why there are many people out of the US that just do not use it - but some folks in Zone 1 do not seem to realize that... Alex. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 23 15 Apr 1991 Mike Riddle 1:285/27 MY COMMENTS ON THE WORLDPOL DEBATE We have seen a LOT of discussion of WorldPol in the last several "Snoozes." We have also seen (in Volume 8, Number 14) a thoughtful article by Jack Decker on "The Unfulfilled Promise of Fidonet." Let me suggest that the Unfulfilled Promise is real (although I might not agree completely with Jack on the reasons), and that WorldPol addresses the major shortcomings that have brought the network to this point. Let me share with you what I submitted to my NC when he {gasp} asked his net sysops for their input, and ask that you remember Jack Decker's comments as you consider this and other WorldPol discussion. > I recommend voting FOR adoption. > > 1. This document explicitly recognizes the equality of the other > zones. North America is not the only place with Fido technology, > and other countries/continents have different concerns. > > 2. Within the framework established by WorldPol, each zone may > prescribe its own policy. WorldPol explicitly provides that > current intra-zonal procedures (i.e., Policy 4) remain in place > until changed. > > 3. Once WorldPol is in effect, all elections are really > elections, until a policy is established that changes that. > This means no more top-down dictates by the infamous *Cs. > > 4. IMHO, our hobby network is better served by established zones > within a network, rather than by the ill-defined and poorly > thought-out domain system. Maybe it can work someday, but right > now it's not. > > 5. Some folks have criticized ambiguous language. (1) They > didn't participate in the process of writing this thing, and > (2) some ambiguity is better in a document like this, since it > can be flexible. I didn't see anything obnoxious in it. > > 6. While WorldPol clearly anticipates geography as a major > factor in zone/region/net placement, it also clearly allows other > factors to influence the decision. I think we know of an ex-node > or two that should have been in different nets/regions. > > That's enough for now. > > Mike > > "And that's the way it is, Monday, March 18, 1991. Say good > night, Chet." FidoNews 8-15 Page 24 15 Apr 1991 I have tried carefully to read the criticisms of WorldPol, and many of them are valid. In my opinion, however, they are not persua- sive. The two biggest difficulties with Policy 4 are its inflexi- ble administration and its North-American bias. WorldPol would fix those problems, and would let Zone 1 retain those parts of Policy 4 that seemed to fit. Pablo and others have pointed out the problems of geography in Germany and Holland. Well, its not just Zone 2. We had a member in our "local" (Omaha) network. (He since removed himself from the nodelist. More support for Jack Decker's latest comments?) His physical (geographic) location was several hundred miles away from the Omaha area, on the edge of a different time zone, he obtained all of his net traffic long-distance, and telephone costs were /much/ cheaper if he were assigned to a net in Denver. OOPS! Different region, different state, so sorry, geography rules! The problem can exist right here in Zone 1, and I have seen it. But, you say, what about *C discretion? Couldn't "they" have done something? Yes, even under Policy 4 "they" could have. They didn't, and I'm not privy to their reasons. From where I saw the action, it was another case of King Geography and Emperor Regional Boundaries, enforced by a *C structure that had no reason to be responsive to the sysops who form the network. WorldPol would have made it much easier to fix. WorldPol would have given the *Cs more reason to be responsive to the valid needs of a sysop. There's nothing magic about Policy 4. It grew from Policy 1 in an evolutionary process. (Many of us thought the manner Policy 4 was "approved" was flawed, but it now has the blessings of time and usage). There's no reason to stagnate now with Policy 4. We can and must change for the good of the network that is our mutual hobby. Adopt WorldPol. Zones, rewrite a Zone.Pol.n that will fill your needs, and get the sysops to approve. Let's move on and try to expand and fulfill the potential of the network, ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 25 15 Apr 1991 Dave Appel A user on 1:231/30 WHEN AND HOW TO SWITCH LONG DISTANCE CARRIERS FOR EACH CALL Remember when AT&T sort of crashed a year or so ago? Many businesses were out of business that day because their long distance calls wouldn't go through. What the operators didn't tell you that day was that you could have *easily* used MCI or Sprint to complete your long distant calls, even if AT&T was your "default" or "dial 1" long distance carrier. You sysops probably already know this, but this might make a good bulletin for your users or your local user group newsletter. If MCI is your long distance carrier you can easily switch to AT&T or Sprint on a call by call basis. Ditto for any long distance carrier. Just remember these 3 simple numbers: ATT = 10288 MCI = 10222 Sprint = 10333 No matter who your "default" LD carrier is, you can specify that your call be carried by an alternate carrier by dialing one of the above numbers as a prefix. Example: I have MCI as my "dial 1" or "default" carrier. If I want to call my US senator using AT&T, perhaps because I want to see how AT&T's rate compares to MCI's, I would dial "10288 1-202-224-3121." When I get my monthly bill from Indiana Bell, there would be an additional page at the end that bills me for all the calls I made via AT&T. No surcharges, no special fees or additional costs. It would be the same charge as if I had AT&T as my LD carrier, not taking into account any special calling plans. Suppose I am at a customer's site. The customer has AT&T as their "dial 1" or "default" LD carrier. I want to call home, and not have it billed to my customer. I have an MCI calling card, not an AT&T calling card. I have 3 options: Dial 950-1022 and use the instructions on my MCI card. Dial 1-800-950-1022 and use the instructions on my MCI card. Dial 10222 0-(area code + number) and use my card number at the beep, or wait for the operator and make it a collect call. Another reason for switching carriers on a call by call basis is line quality. At one time MCI had a lot of line noise on its link between here and Louisville. Customer support via modem was critical. MNP was not available. The best solution at the time was to use the 10288 prefix and use AT&T's lines for that particular connection. It worked. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 26 15 Apr 1991 Doug Wittich 1:261/1082 The Consumer Advocate Echo is now available for distribution as noted below. This echo is a sibling of the Consumer Report echo. It can be used for such things as discussing consumer rights and responsibilities. This can be a far-reaching topic, including discussion of boycotts, letter-writing campaigns, and any other topic related to consumerism, but not directly related to the selection of products and services. There is already a lively debate of the Buy American topic going on. The moderator for Consumer Advocate is Al Thorley. He may be contacted via netmail at 1:261/1056 or 1:261/1082. The Consumer Report echo, which has existed for over four years will continue to be devoted to the discussion of products and services, including the sharing of information for supporting purchase decisions, and helpful hints and tips for getting the most out of any product or service. Be sure to leave a message for your sysop in the private message area on the BBS you are using, asking to be connected to this new and useful echo. Refer him or her to this message for the following details they will need. The new echo, Consumer Advocate, is available from the following systems. Please request a connection via the method indicated. Note that this distribution method is temporary, until the volume can justify a request to put it on the Zone 1 backbone. NODE SYSOP Name Connect to echo via Delivery Mode ==== ========== =================== ============= 261/1082 Doug Wittich request via netmail Continuous Mail (Baltimore, Md) 106/113 Rick Edwards Areafix Held for Polling (Houston, Tx) (CM for locals) 228/26 Glen Davis request via netmail Held for Polling (Grand Rapids, Mi) 1:106/1555 is at 9600 and will serve as distributor to the NETWORK folks. His NETWORK address is: 8:7105/1555 or just 7105/1555. This of course is available to ANY sysop who participates in NETWORK echos. FidoNews 8-15 Page 27 15 Apr 1991 BIG NOTE: We are looking for someone to perform hubbing services in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. Contact Doug Wittich at 1:261/1082 if you are interested. This should only be necessary for a couple of weeks until the volume allows us to go on the backbone. The echo tag is C_ADVOCAT. All bundles from 1:261/1082 will be done via ARCmail. Those from 1:228/26 can be done by ARC or ZIP, 1:106/113 by any compression. Specify your choice in Netmail to the sysop. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 28 15 Apr 1991 Don Benson Tribute Test Point 1:157/603 Why do we need a WorldPol? I have read with interest the debate in Fidonews since the publication of WorldPol. The arguments fly back and forth, and both sides seem set in their decisions, yet one issue that I think is important has yet to come up. Do we need an international "Policy" like WorldPol or Policy4? Fidonet has grown to encompass most of the world. In doing so, it has absorbed people and technologies from many cultural and technological backgrounds. To ask for one policy document which will satisfy all is an insurmountable task. Yet this is what is being attempted in WorldPol. There are only two directions to move with such a document, either toward anarchy or dictatorship. Some people complain that Policy 4 was too much like a dictatorship. The opposite side claims the proposed WorldPol is too vague, and will promote anarchy. A prime example of this is the debate over "western democratic standards." If left in its vague form, it would prmote anarchy as people interpreted it as they liked. However, changing the language to specific operational procedures would be forcing some people to adopt methods which aren't ideal for them. The crux of the situation seems to be that WorldPol tries to do too much. Policy 4 had the same problem as Zones 2 through 6 developed and flourished. What needs to be done is to simply throw out anything that is not necessary on an international level. For example, the issue of geographical nets comes to mind. What difference does it make to Joe Sysop in Anytown, USA if Jurgen Sysop in Jeneburg, Germany is not in a geographical net? Especially when sending netmail? This is something that should be decided on the zone or even regional level, not internationally. Concerning elections, perhaps WorldPol should only decree how the IC is elected. It should have no say or take any position on how any other *C's are elected. This still leaves room for debate, since the specific method of an IC election will never please everyone. However, it also doesn't place any weight on elections at lower levels. The trickiest area I see in defining a WordPol is handling international disputes. In fact, this should be the main body of WorldPol, and have the most meaning. Everything else should only be minimal procedural definitions for the sake of structure, which is necessary to keep the organization together. FidoNews 8-15 Page 29 15 Apr 1991 One final point for anybody who is or wants to have an input on WorldPol. I never knew one was being developed (mostly because I am a fairly new Fidonet node) until I saw it in the Snooze. For those who are sending in suggestions, how about this one: Try to make any Policy reflect how things are actually working. In sum, I think that WorldPol could probably be reduced to a third of the current size, and we would end up with a smaller, more effective document. Take a few moments and look at WorldPol again. Ask yourself if each section is absolutely necessary to be controlled at the international level? If not, why include it? ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 30 15 Apr 1991 FidoCon '91 August 16th through 18th, 1991 1:1/91@Fidonet {or something like that} FidoCon '91 Membership P.O. Box 486 Louisville, CO 80027 Contact telephone (303) 426-1847 FidoCon '91 VIP Membership: $104 US* Rate Changes July 15th Banquet 25 US === $129 US * Membership After July 15, and at the door * $169 * Banquet 25 * ==== * $194 *NEW* A "No Frills", good from 9am to 6pm, for Seminar and Dealers Rooms ONLY membership (no Convention Hospitality Suite access or ticket for the SuperSystem Drawing) is available for $45 US for the three days or $20 US per day. Full credit can be applied to a VIP membership if you elect to upgrade. *NEW* A "Supporting Membership" for those unable to attend, is available for $25 US. Supporting members Will receive the progress reports and program book. Hotel: Sheraton Lakewood 690 Union Blvd Lakewood, CO (303) 987-2000 Rooms: Single/Double $59 US per night Adjoining Rooms (Pseudo-Suite) 118 US Triple/Quad 78 US Adjoining Rooms (Pseudo-Suite) 156 US Suites from 450 US Guests of Honor: Tom Jennings -- FidoCon '91 Guest of Honor Tim Pozar -- Gateway Guru Ray Gwinn -- The Fossil master his self Vince Perriello -- THE REAL President of Bit Bucket Software & FidoNews 8-15 Page 31 15 Apr 1991 publisher of FidoNews. Alan Applegate -- VICE-President of Bit Bucket, Writer of the infamous Binkley Docs & Technical Support for eSoft. Bob Hartman -- From Bloom County to you. Phil Becker -- CEO of eSoft .. publisher of TBBS/TDBS/TIMS Steve Jackson -- CEO of Steve Jackson Games .. Publisher of GURPS CYBERPUNK and center of Secret Service attention for over 8 months. John Perry Barlow -- Internet Guru and one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Guests of Dishonor: Terry Travis -- Vince and Alan's prime target in the SYSOP Mud pie Fight Those indicating they will be attending: Tom Tcimpids Several notable writers of computer columns Several popular Science fiction authors Mitch Kapor Founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation Invited and not yet committed: Steve Wozniack The WOZ, one of the founders of Apple Convention Hospitality Suite by: Kevin "DOC" McNeil and the FidoNet COOKING echo. Featuring: Seadog Casserole, Zip-Tarts, Pak-Man Cookies, Roast Opus Paid Memberships: George Peace & Cheryl Whiston Christine Keefer William M. Van Glahn & Eric L. Smith & Janet Van Glahn Diane B. Smith Steven G. See & Marshall Barry & Pam See Michelle Weisblat Steve Jackson Jim Burt & Charlie Bass Karen Burt Rodney A. Aloia Scott Munhollon & Girard Westerberg Tammy Munhollon Daniel D. Segard Peter N. White & Russell Anderson Cheryl Gordon Brian P. Bartee Thomas Pat Nefos & Tom Jennings Judy Nefos Ray Gwinn FidoNews 8-15 Page 32 15 Apr 1991 Peter Stewart & Tim Pozar Michele Hamilton Terry Travis Daniel L. Bonner & Phil Becker Linda L. Bonner Bob Hartman Terry N. Rune' & Alan Applegate Wayne A. Rune' Chris Anderson James H. Dunmyer & Jeff P. Brothers Janice L. Dunmyer Andrew Milner Mike Ratledge & James F. Smith Donna Ratledge Joaquim Homrighausen Michael Kanavy & Joe Dehn Elizabeth Kanavy Bruce H. Kirschner Bob Whiston & Sam Saulys Ken Zen George R. Cornell Ben Cunningham Bill Bacon John P. Roberts Jr. Zhahai Stewart Chris Rand Michael Pratt Norman B. Henke John Johnson Stanley A. Hirschman Brenda Donovan John R. Souvestre Ed Moore Steven L. Rusboldt Mike Eckles Emmitt W. A. Dove Don Marquart Fabian R. Gordon Jeff Tensly Don Daniels Thomas Lange Tony Goggin Mark K. Kreutzian Steve Raymond Attending Banquet Jim Burt & Charlie Bass Karen Burt Rodney A. Aloia Peter N. White & Girard Westerberg Cheryl Gordon Daniel D. Segard Daniel L. Bonner & Russell Anderson Linda L. Bonner Brian P. Bartee James H. Dunmyer & Tom Jennings Janice L. Dunmyer Ray Gwinn Mike Ratledge & Tim Pozar Donna Ratledge Terry Travis Michael Kanavy & Phil Becker Elizabeth Kanavy Bob Hartman William M. Van Glahn & Chris Anderson Janet Van Glahn Jeff P. Brothers Steven G. See & Andrew Milner Pam See James F. Smith Ed Moore Joaquim Homrighausen Don Marquart Ben Cunningham Mark K. Kreutzian John P. Roberts Jr. Fabian R. Gordon Norman B. Henke Don Daniels John R. Souvestre Brenda Donovan John Johnson FidoNews 8-15 Page 33 15 Apr 1991 Seminars: Surviving Government Scrutiny The Ultimate BBS/BBSing in the future TBBS\TDBS\TIMS Getting the most from BinkleyTerm AMAX made easy Gateways - the internetwork connection Dealing with SYSOP burnout BBSing in the 90's and beyond The Ethical Software Hacker For this I gave up my Love Life? How to moderate an Echo Copyrights demystified Software Development Roundtable DOS 4/5, Windows Developers Roundtable Modem Roundtable File your own copyrights for $10 XRS/RAX/QMX/SeX/XOR/ OREO/MORE Association of Shareware XRS (the Universal Professionals Offline Reader Editor BBS Role Playing Gaming Forum Promoting your BBS BBS Business Sense MASS Storage/CD ROM's BBS Users Groups Activities: TBBS Users Group will be convening as FidoTUG '91 during the convention. AlterCon will be sharing the facilities. AlterNet Costume Banquet Royal Court Meeting of the Dukes Fun Activities: Traditional Hard Diskus Throw Floppy Fling The Big Three Brewery Bash National SYSOP Mud Pie Fight Air Force Academy Tour Garden of the Gods Psychic and Physical Tours Golfing Tours of of Colorful Colorado Colorado We are scheduling additional seminars and social activities. Fire off a message letting us know what you'd like to see and do. If you would like to see someone special, let us know as well. FidoNews 8-15 Page 34 15 Apr 1991 *** FidoCon '91 Dealers Room will be open from 9:00 am to *** 6:00 pm Friday and Saturday, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm Sunday Manufacturers Invited: AAC Telecomm Adaptec, Inc. Alloy Computer Products, Inc. American MiTAC Corporation Anchor Automation Artisoft AST Research, Inc. ATI Technologies Inc. Bit Bucket Software BIX Borland Chesterfield Financial Corp. Clark Development Company, Inc Coconut Computing, Inc. Compucom Connect Tech, Inc DigiBoard Everex Systems, Inc. Fujitsu Galacticomm, Inc. Gates Distributing GVC Technologies Inc. GW Associates Hayes Microcomputer Products Hitachi Microcom, Inc. Microsoft Motorola Computer Group Multi-Tech Systems, Inc. Online Communications Inc. Practical Peripherals Prodigy Services Quarterdeck Office Systems Searchlight Software Supra Corporation Surf Computer Services System Enhancement Associates Telebit Corporation U.S. Robotics, Inc. VSI Telecommunications Inc. Western Digital Zoom Telephonics, Inc. Confirmed dealers Bit Bucket Software CDB Systems eSoft Mustang Software, Inc. Drawings & Prizes Including: 16 Line TBBS/TDBS/TIMS Sysop Dream SYSTEM CPU with a 486 or a 386 at least 3/4 Gig disk, 16 ports and several modems .. depending on number of attendees. A portion of the memberships go to purchasing this system. Autographed copies of the books that made Steve Jackson a household name, GURPS CYBERPUNK. FidoNews 8-15 Page 35 15 Apr 1991 For the SYSOP that has everything 300 baud acoustic Sysop Nightmare System All kinds of donated equipment and software, some even working. Hospitality Suites eSoft Bit Bucket Software More as it comes to being. Subscribe to the FIDOCON_91 Echo. This will be THE BBSing Event of '91, BE THERE. ================== FidoCon '91 Registration Form =============== Name: __________________________________________________________ Street Address: ________________________________________________ City: ________________________ State/Province: _________________ Postal Code: ________________________ Country: _________________ Voice #: ___________ Work #: ____________ Net Address: _________ Domain (FidoNet/AlterNet/RIME) _________________________________ Membership types VIP $104 No Frills $45 Day $20 Supporting $25 Name: ___________________ Membership Type: ______ Amount: ______ Name: ___________________ Membership Type: ______ Amount: ______ No. of T-Shirts: ___ Sizes(S/M/L/XL): _____ @ $15/ea = ______ Complaints (Print Legibly): _ Banquet Tickets: _ @ $25/ea= _____ TOTAL $ _______ Visa/Mastercard Number ____________________ Expire Date: _______ Signature: _______________________ Date: ________ Please make checks payable (in U.S.A. Dollars) to FIDOCON '91 and Mail To: FidoCon '91 P.O. Box 486, Louisville, CO 80027-0486 FidoNews 8-15 Page 36 15 Apr 1991 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 37 15 Apr 1991 Dick Augustsson 2:203/119 A word from down below ======================== Not until recently did I discover something called 'FidoNews'. I hooked on the echo, and have now automated printing of it. Once having read my first issue, it occurred to me that this thing was mandatory. - Does the blood really reach the capillaries? And what, to begin with, do I mean by this question? Well, you COULD say that this article is directed to the 'management' of FidoNet, to point out some problems. For instance, it was not until VERY recently (before I took a stand in a local issue) that I even LOOKED at Policy4. Things had been working perfectly well without it, so why bother? And, it was not until I read it, that I understood I should have read it even before I received my node number. The same goes for FidoNews, and God knows how many FTS-* and FSC-*. Of course, it WAS listed at some place that having read Policy4 was an imperative to even be considered a node, but, as I said, who cares? There are rather often grudging about rules in some of the local echos, and these disputes more often than not ends when someone (a SysOp!) asks 'What does Policy say?' As recently as yesterday, I received a letter from a Hub Coordinator in net 2:201, who complained about my Origin Line in one of the less serious echos (My origin was "Well, , there is some blood on the sheet...", a quotation which will be remembered for a long time for reasons I won't discuss here). He wrote, "How about using the Origin like it's supposed to, according to Policy?" And that's even a person in the coordinator structure! I replied, 'As far as I know, Policy [Policy4] does not mention Origin Lines. I assume you are referring to FTS-0004.' I still have no idea whether or not FTS-0004 deals with Origin Lines, I just know it deals with the basics of Echomail. One thing I DID know, was that all Policy4 mentions about Echomail is in section 9.9, where it is, in short, stated that echomail shall be considered equivalent to netmail when disputes arise. But again, this is not relevant, other than to show how little I know (and how little I CARE). So, what I mean by that question is this: Just how effectively does information from the 'top' reach the 'bottom' of the organisation (ie, FidoNet)? FidoNews 8-15 Page 38 15 Apr 1991 My response is 'poorly indeed'. When I upgraded from point to node in Feb '91, I had dealt with most of the technical problems. THOSE were something I cared about, something I tried to straighten out. At such a point, who really does care about what an IEC does? (I still do not know this. It wasn't until today I discovered there was a document called "echopol1" - I am now searching for it, and will have read it by the time this gets published.) Most of the sysops I know don't deal with this kind of stuff at all. Their attitude is, basically, "What's that to me?" And that is a VERY good question. Exactly what benefit comes to the reader of the official documents, apart from being able to refer to a particular section when someone comes with a Policy inquiry? People at root level are today expected to actively search for new information. It is not reasonable to demand this. The overall lack of knowledge regarding Policy demonstrates this in a perfectly simple and straightforward manner. What FidoNet needs is something that forwards information to THEM, and not the other way around. OK, we have FidoNews. But to be honest - how many people read FidoNews more actively than they read the morning paper? OK, I do, because I haven't seen so much of it yet. But I don't read the articles over and over, give them some thought, and then read them again - something that's needed if the information is to be passed down to root level effectively. But, to make myself clear - I am by no means saying NOBODY in my surroundings know what rules to follow. What I say is MOST, or at least MANY people don't. For example, I know one person in R20 whom I practically ALWAYS turn to when I need some TechRefs, and I know in advance he will give me the names of the needed FSCs and FTSs. - All this talk about WorldPol I haven't seen the thing. And the articles on it suggest to me I shouldn't. My first impression of FidoNews (much derived from the article on WorldPol, page 1, issue 8:13) was that it was something for the Elite, something that I needed not be concerned about. The article discussed various aspects of things I'd never heard about, and referred to things I didn't know existed. This, of course, further weakens the information chain. - Other, similar experiences I used to be engaged politically. In that organisation, we had a structure quite similar to the one of FidoNet: we had the (main) council (ZCC), districts (Regions), local associations (Nets) and individuals (nodes). For information to be passed down to EVERY (active) individual in the organisation, the following was required: o Lots of information in the magazine (of the organisation). FidoNews 8-15 Page 39 15 Apr 1991 o A literal bombardment of information AND STIMULATION! from every level above to the one immediately below. When compared to FidoNet's info chain, this would have meant every individual would have had to contact his 'superior', or participate in lots of administrative discussions, to get some information (FidoNews excepted) in my political parallel. It definitely wouldn't work - and it doesn't in FidoNet, either. Another example: When I added something to my NEWS file, it was rarely noticed by my users. They had the habit of impatiently pressing 'S' (for "Stop") to get to the main menu. So, having realised the problem (the News file wasn't an effective medium), I created an alternate information route: individual messages. Every time I have something to say, I write a letter and feed it into a program I wrote, 'NewsGen', which posts the message to all my users. And I must say, they really read it, the problem has been solved. And this is my suggestion for FidoNet as a whole, as well. - What to do? As I said, I suggest that every concerned individual get a personal message over the Net when something (say, an election) is about to take place. This is a fairly simple solution, yet easy to implement (more on this later), and it doesn't give anybody anything more to do, and only marignally increases phone bills - systems with Echomail won't know the difference. To be precise, if there is an election for a new REC in region 2:20 (which is the case), let the RC write a message about it, and have it distributed to all persons involved. This way the information WILL reach them. And another thing, it would be everything but sane to publish such a thing in FidoNews, for such obvious reasons I won't even mention them. By 'persons involved', I mean (depends on the situation) every SysOp, every point, every NC, HC... I will suggest a technical solution for this in the following section... - The BOMBRUN kludge: a proposal Syntax: BOMBRUN [ Z | R | N | H | P [ ZE | RE | NE ]] Purpose: To effectively spread information throughout concerned parts of FidoNet. Explanation: When this kludge is intercepted by a mailer, it will make copies of the message and distribute it as a personal message to every sysop downlink from the mailer's system. FidoNews 8-15 Page 40 15 Apr 1991 Exception: If a letter is specified after the kludge, the message will never be distibuted below the corresponding organisational level, where Z = Zone Coordinator, R = Region Coordinator, N = Net Coordinator and H = Hub Coordinator. If no letter is specified, it will go to all nodes. If P is specified, it will go to points also. Exception to exception: If a second argument is used, the message will, before it is 'stopped' at the level indicated by the first letter, be copied to ZECs, RECs and NECs, respectively (for the arguments ZE, RE and NE). Further comments: It should be possible to remove the BOMBRUN kludge when the final copy is made, as to reduce processing at the level below (if the kludge needn't be intercepted, why send it?) Example: Suppose IC wants to announce an election of a new REC in R2:20. It should go to all NCs, plus the NECs and REC. What he does is to write a message to RC2:20, adding the BOMBRUN kludge with arguments N and NE. At RC level, it will be noted that this is the last copying level (the next level, ie NCs, do not need the BOMBRUN kludge), so it is removed on all outgoing copies. Furthermore, since the message is stopped here (BOMBRUN kludge removed), the second argument is taken into account, and a copy is also sent to all NECs and the REC in the region. Another example: A new policy has been adopted. IC writes a message to himself, and adds a plain BOMBRUN kludge. It is (from there) copied to the ZCs, where the kludge is intercepted, and the message is distributed to the RCs, and so on down to NC level, where the final copy (for the nodes) is made and the kludge removed from the copied messages. It should be considered, when writing a message about an election for a new REC or ZEC, for example, that everybody might not know the meaning of the term REC/ZEC. - Some final words The above proposal most certainly will meet lots of resistance, but I just could not sit here, watching on one hand the Elite in FidoNews discussing things I hadn't dreamed of, and on the other people down here who don't know who's IC. (I don't.) The two ought to discover each other. That was the purpose of this article. And, I wanted to supply a means as well. Comments are welcome to Dick Augustsson at 2:203/119. FidoNews 8-15 Page 41 15 Apr 1991 // Dick "Wur:Palainen" Augustsson, 2:35am, 10-Apr-91 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 42 15 Apr 1991 Christopher Baker 1:374/14, Titusville_FL_USA MENSANS_ONLY Echo MENSANS_ONLY is open to any verified member, past or present, of any Mensa organization. MENSANS_ONLY is not connected with American Mensa, Ltd. [The High IQ Society], or any other Mensa organization anywhere. MENSANS_ONLY has no opinions. Any opinions expressed are those of the writer and any replier. MENSANS_ONLY exists solely to provide a convenient forum for electronic conversation between accepted members of any Mensa organization. Any other inference you may glean from perusing this Echo is all in your head, which is where it should stay. It is Hosted and Moderated from Rights On! in Titusville_FL_USA at 1:374/14. It is intentionally withheld from the FidoNet Backbone distribution system and is offered for point-to-point links only. Any Backbone system discovering this Echo traversing their system should immediately remove it and notify anyone sending or receiving it through them to desist unless said Backbone system is an active and verified participant of MENSANS_ONLY. Anyone may read the traffic in this Echo but only verified members may post in this Echo. Non-members interested in more information about Mensa are directed to the general Mensa Echo of the same name [MENSA] available from the FidoNet Backbone and Moderated by Dave Aronson of 1:109/120. Sysops who link into MENSANS_ONLY agree to abide by the access restrictions above. The content of that Echo is not restricted to any single topic or idea. The number of systems linked to this Echo and the volume of traffic in this Echo varies. Traffic is generally light which is typical of non-Backbone, special interest Echos. Anyone interested in linking into MENSANS_ONLY, should send Netmail to: Christopher Baker at 1:374/14 {Rights On!, Titusville_FL_USA}. The following is a list of primary links for M_O: [Zone 1:] 109/120 109/506 109/508 114/18 114/70 114/72 114/74 114/800 374/14 135/71 250/416 266/71 380/7 3610/98. FidoNews 8-15 Page 43 15 Apr 1991 The Sysops of the above systems may link others into MENSANS_ONLY based on the acceptance of the restrictions, imposed above, by the link requesting Sysop. Anyone requiring a direct feed or further information should send Netmail to me at 1:374/14. Rights On! is a 24 hour system currently at 9600+ bps. It is now at 9600+ on a USR Courier HST dual standard courtesy of their Sysop Purchase Plan. TTFN. Chris ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 44 15 Apr 1991 Jack Decker 1:154/8 Fidonet The Unfulfilled Promise of Fidonet (Part 2) In case you're wondering; no, this didn't start out to be a "mini-series". It's just that after I sent in my article for last week's Fidonews, I realized that I had omitted one very important point. One of the main reasons I see Fidonet as an "unfulfilled promise" is due to the nature and quality of our echomail conferences. I've sure we've all been sneered at by UseNet devotees at one time or another because they feel their conferences are of a much higher caliber, but there is some justification to their claims. Read a Fidonet conference and a UseNet conference on the same topic, and in most cases the UseNet conference will contain much more "meat" and a lot less noise. Now, in part this is because almost anyone can get into Fidonet, while not everyone can access UseNet. For various reasons, the typical high school kid is often going to find it easier to get into a Fidonet conference than a UseNet conference. Our accessibility is a strength, since we make information available to those who otherwise couldn't access an information service, and I think few would want to change that. But there are other things about echomail that could be changed to our advantage. Please consider that in many ways our current echomail technology is locked in at the "dancing bear" stage of development (you've heard the saying: "The wonder of a dancing bear is not how well he dances, but that he dances at all." The wonder of echomail is not how well or how efficiently it moves messages around the country, but that it does so at all? Maybe that was true three or four years ago, but I think we're ready to improve the design now). One need only consider certain facts about echomail the realize that it's already a bit of a technological dinosaur. When you see nine or ten lines of SEEN-BY's, and four or five "IFNA kludge lines" in a typical echomail message, you know there's a problem. When you see all sorts of political restrictions being imposed to keep from creating echomail "dupe loops", you know there's a problem. When you see a message in a very active conference saying, "Is this echo dead? Nobody in our region has seen a message in this echo in two months!", you know there's a problem. Before I go on, I should point out that echomail doesn't always come out on the short end of the balance. We've developed some highly effective ways of compressing and sending echomail bundles to other nodes. The mailer programs developed for use in Fidonet are probably years ahead of any similar software developed for commercial purposes (on the IBM-compatible platform, at least). Our problems are not so much with the FidoNews 8-15 Page 45 15 Apr 1991 transmission of echomail (except when you get two mailers from different authors that won't talk to each other due to a lack of standards, or enforcement of standards, as I discussed last week) as with the actual format of the echomail packets and messages that are sent, and the software used to import and export echomail messages. As I've pointed out, in many ways GroupMail technology is superior to echomail, although it has some deficiencies of its own (such as an 8K maximum message size). But I did not really explain why. One major reason is that you don't run into the "is this area turned on to us?" problem. Consider that with echomail, every node in the path of an echomail conference must have the conference "turned on" to both the nodes that it feeds, and the node that it gets its feed from. If the echo isn't turned on to the nodes it is supposed to be feeding, then those nodes (and the nodes they feed) won't receive any messages in the conference. If the echo isn't turned on to the node it gets its feed from, then any messages entered on that node or any of the nodes it feeds won't make it out into the conference. Now, some major conferences may touch several hundred nodes, all of which must have their AREAS.BBS (or equivalent) file set up correctly in order for every message entered in the conference to be received by every node in the conference. Would it surprise you if I said that in many cases, this level of perfection is not achieved, and some messages don't get out? What is needed, and is only partially achieved in GroupMail, is a way to get a complete feed in both directions without too much chance of an improperly constructed control file disrupting everything. Another, much larger problem is twofold: The difficulty of getting a new conference carried by many nodes, coupled with the inability to split existing conferences into subgroups. Let's take a hypothetical example. Suppose you are a participant in the MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) conference and you discover that there are a number of Amway distributors there, and you'd like to talk about topics specific to Amway but not MLM in general. However, the majority of participants in MLM aren't interested in Amway and would doubtless resent having to wade through 20 or 30 Amway-specific messages per day in order to find the general MLM messages. On the other hand, if those folks interested in Amway tried to start an echomail conference called AMWAY, chances are that few systems would carry it, and the backbone nodes might even have some reluctance to carry it. Now the point is not that I'm pushing for an Amway conference (which I'm not!) but rather that this is how MANY echo conferences become uninteresting to the original participants. Consider the following scenario, which is the generic outline of the specific situation hypothesized above: FidoNews 8-15 Page 46 15 Apr 1991 1) An echomail conference on a general topic is formed. 2) As time goes by, a number of people interested in one or more sub-topics of the general topic are attracted to the conference. 3) Some of the original participants of the general conference decide that they don't have the time to keep up with the added message traffic generated by the sub-topic(s), and either complain or just drop out of the conference. 4) Some of those interested in the sub-topics (perhaps with prompting by the conference moderator and/or other participants) attempt to form one or more new echomail conferences on the sub-topics. However, the problem in this is that first of all, it is sometimes difficult to get a new conference on the backbone, and even if you succeed in that, there is no guarantee that the systems that carried the original conference will also carry the new one. 5) Because in many cases the conferences on the sub-topics will not be carried by most of the boards carrying the original conference, those same sub-topics will continue to appear in the original conference, only now, in addition to the conversations on those sub-topics, there will also be the additional messages of "Why don't you take this conversation to the XXX echo?", and the responses such as "Because my sysop doesn't carry the XXX echo" or "Because the XXX echo isn't available in my Net/Region/Zone" or "Because there are no BBS's in my local calling area that carry the XXX echo". 6) If a sub-topic conference happens to become successful, it will probably spawn some sub-topics of its own. Recursively GOTO to #2. 7) If a sub-topic conference becomes only moderately successful (not dead, but carried on far fewer boards than the original conference that spawned it), people will cross-post messages in BOTH conferences just to make sure they're seen by anyone who might be remotely interested, and thereby actually increasing overall echo traffic. Now, the real negative effect of all of this is that as the traffic in a conference (the number of messages per day) rises, the number of people who have limited time to read and participate in the conference decreases. Furthermore, when a high percentage of participants in a conference are those who seem to have all the time in the world to read echoes, the number of messages with no significant content tends to increase (if their time isn't valuable to them, they probably tend to figure it isn't valuable to you, either). Also, off-topic messages beget more off-topic messages, and there are those will post in certain messages in specific echoes simply because they are large echoes (the "please excuse this off-topic message but this is of such earth-shaking importance that I knew you wouldn't mind" type message... which, of FidoNews 8-15 Page 47 15 Apr 1991 course, promptly generates about twenty royal flame-type messages from those who DID mind). We sometimes describe such a conference as having an unacceptable "signal to noise" ratio... that is, there is too much "noise" (messages of no real interest to the reader) and far to little "signal" (messages that contain at least SOMETHING worth reading). UseNet tends to get around this problem by having subgroups attached to the original conference. As I understand it (and I could be wrong about this, so don't quote me) if you get a particular conference, you also automatically get all subgroups attached to it. The reverse is not necessarily true, you can get a subgroup without taking the parent group, but not the other way around. So, if someone wants to form a subgroup, all the nodes taking the parent conference automatically get the subgroup, yet users of a BBS can select whether they wish to read just the parent group, just the subgroup, or the parent and all subgroups combined. The point is that you don't have a situation where you are told to "take this conversation to the XXX conference" but cannot because it isn't available on the BBS you are using (or, if you're a sysop, from the original node feeding the conference to you). Some sysops might object to this because they would see it as being forced to carry a conference they don't want. That's the wrong way to look at it. It really should be viewed as that you are carrying ONE large conference on a general topic, but the software gives users the ability to "categorize" their messages into a particular sub-topic so that those reading the conference don't have to read about certain sub-topics that are of no interest to them. Think of it as pre-defined message threads within a topic, if that helps. Of course, this ability to subdivide conferences is totally beyond the capabilities of echomail. And THAT, folks, is why some of our conferences are not of as high a quality as UseNet's. Yes, the inability to have fully-moderated conferences is also a factor, as is the fact that Fidonet users sometimes come from slightly different backgrounds. But, I feel that the inability to subdivide an existing conference, coupled with the difficulty in getting a new conference onto the backbone (and from there, onto BBS's around the network) tends to keep a lot of unrelated topics going in the larger conferences, and that causes some readers and participants to leave those conferences. The other related problem is that often someone will have a good idea for an echo conference, but unless you're the promoter type, it's far too difficult to get it started. The biggest problem is getting it onto the backbone and then onto other BBS's. Sometimes you just know that if a particular conference were carried on numerous BBS's it would be very popular, but sysops won't take it because it's not popular now, and it won't ever get popular if nobody carries it. Catch 22. FidoNews 8-15 Page 48 15 Apr 1991 If you can get an echo popularized in Fidonet, you've either managed to pick a really hot topic, or you should consider a career in sales! Part of my reason for getting into Fidonet in the first place was because I saw it as a way to learn more about topics of interest to me. Trouble is, it seems that all the topics I am interested in fall into one of three categories: 1) There's no echo covering it, 2) There's an echo covering it but it's a dead (or nearly dead) echo, 3) There's an echo covering it but it's so large and has so many off-topic or "useless" messages that I just don't have the time to keep up with it. This is a problem that clearly cries out for a technical solution... a new format for echomail messages and/or packets, that allows fully-moderated conferences, and sub-topics (to as many levels deep as necessary) within the main conference. But will our software authors ever be able to agree on any new standard that might be proposed along these lines? I hope so, but only time will tell. I do think that if this can be achieved it would make a major difference in the quality of echomail conferences, and perhaps some of the real promise of Fidonet would then be realized. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 49 15 Apr 1991 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Henry Clark 1:124/6120 EPROM Programmer -- Not merely content with regular old C programming, I decided to purchase an EPROM programmer from Modular Circuit Technology. This is a hot item ! I have used it to modify disk drive tables so that an exact match is available for newer, larger disk drives. The software is good, and I can write and verify an EPROM in 1 minute. I also got a UV light Eprom eraser ( that takes about 3 minutes ). That's right, a lot of manufacturers' BIOS do not allow for a user defined disk drive type ( heads/cylinders/sectors ) ! They do that to inhibit 3rd party upgrades. HA ! There are endless other possibilities for changing your own bios in your own out of warranty machine. The last byte of the BIOS is a checksum byte. When you add all the bytes in BIOS including the checksum byte, the result is zero. The summation is kept as a 1 byte value, without regard to the overflow above 255. I noticed that with memory managers and shadow ROM facilities active ( I use QEMM myself ), that a look at the BIOS addresses with a program like DEBUG can be misleading. Tape Drive -- As a result of the new programmer, a tape drive was secured to do the backup and restore of data from the old drive to the new. The Mountain FS-8000 with Mach-2 board backs up at about 2.6 megs per minute on my machine, and each tape holds about 160 megabytes of my ( already ) compressed files. I haven't seen a tape error yet, and it's a pretty good buy. I got the internal with controller kit to save money, but I mounted the drive in an external cabinet ( separate power supply ) and put the controller into which even machine I want to backup. I had a bug doing a backup in a Desqview task. After writing all the files, the program rewound to update the volume info, and locked up on the next write. Probably not a good idea to do tape backups in a multitasking environment anyway. FidoNews 8-15 Page 50 15 Apr 1991 Disk Drive -- I don't know diddly about Disk Drives, ask Bo. We looked around for a 3.5 inch size drive to replace a Conner 100 in a Compaq Portable 386. We found the Plus Development 200 meg IDE drive to be compatible and fast. Plus is coming with a 425 meg drive this fall ( seein's believin' ). I run bulletin boards on ESDI, SCSI and MFM. That's all I know about disk drives. We used FDISK and FORMAT on the new drive. I don't like device drivers and especially device drivers for disk drives, and really especially don't like device drivers for >32 Meg. volumes that are boot drives. I got an extra 61 cylinders out of my Seagate drive, thank you. Taxing Situation -- This 'snooze' arrives to most of the US on April 15th, so I will plug a tax package that I used, and you guys can say "Oh I paid $200 bucks to some accountant." or "I don't look at it, I don't know." AM TAX ( typically found as AMTAX90.huh ) has served me well for some 3 years now, and I have a moderately complex return. Ever since I started MY first BBS in 1987 I have had a bulletin #4 called "What's hot and what's Not". This lists the cool programs you should use, and the crap I don't want uploaded onto my board. One of those unwanteds is GAMES. So to reinforce this point, I coined the phrase : "The best PC game is Tax Spreadsheet, and the winning score is 0.00." Back in the mid-evil days, I did have a Supercalc spreadsheet, developed in 1985, that handled all the forms, including the Foreign Tax Credit and Foreign Earned Income Deduction. These are the number one tax AVOIDANCE plans allowed by the US IRS. They're hell to calculate, though. I used the modified "DeLux, Hasbeen and Sales" method (C) 1978; wawl, I never been awdited yet. Here's what wrong with tax law : when it gets into odd detail, it's a religious decision as to which method to use. We try to keep religion out of politics. AM TAX does everything for me except the modified gross income on the Passive Loss Limitation schedule, ( it doesn't pull from S corp. income ), but that's a simple change and it doesn't affect anything else cause my passive losses are not that high anyway. FidoNews 8-15 Page 51 15 Apr 1991 God forbid I should have to limit my losses. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 52 15 Apr 1991 ================================================================= LATEST VERSIONS ================================================================= Latest Software Versions MS-DOS Systems -------------- Bulletin Board Software Name Version Name Version Name Version DMG 2.93 Phoenix 1.3 TAG 2.5g Fido 12s+ QuickBBS 2.66 TBBS 2.1 GSBBS 3.02 RBBS 17.3B TComm/TCommNet 3.4 Lynx 1.30 RBBSmail 17.3B Telegard 2.5 Kitten 2.16 RemoteAccess 1.00* TPBoard 6.1 Maximus 1.02 SLBBS 1.77A Wildcat! 2.55 Opus 1.14+ Socrates 1.10 WWIV 4.12 PCBoard 14.5 XBBS 1.15 Network Node List Other Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version BinkleyTerm 2.40 EditNL 4.00 ARC 7.0 D'Bridge 1.30 MakeNL 2.31 ARCAsim 2.30 Dutchie 2.90C ParseList 1.30 ARCmail 2.07 FrontDoor 1.99c Prune 1.40 ConfMail 4.00 PRENM 1.47 SysNL 3.14 Crossnet v1.5 SEAdog 4.60* XlatList 2.90 DOMAIN 1.42 TIMS 1.0(Mod8) XlaxDiff 2.35 EMM 2.02 XlaxNode 2.35 4Dog/4DMatrix 1.18 Gmail 2.05 GROUP 2.16 GUS 1.30 HeadEdit 1.15 InterPCB 1.31 LHARC 2.10 MSG 4.1 MSGED 2.06 MSGTOSS 1.3 Oliver 1.0a PK[UN]ZIP 1.20 QM 1.0 QSORT 4.03 Sirius 1.0x SLMAIL 1.36 StarLink 1.01 TagMail 2.41 TCOMMail 2.2 Telemail 1.27 FidoNews 8-15 Page 53 15 Apr 1991 TMail 1.15 TPBNetEd 3.2 TosScan 1.00 UFGATE 1.03 XRS 4.10* XST 2.2 ZmailH 1.14 OS/2 Systems ------------ Bulletin Board Software Network Mailers Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version Maximus-CBCS 1.02 BinkleyTerm 2.40 Parselst 1.32 ConfMail 4.00 EchoStat 6.0 oMMM 1.52 Omail 3.1 MsgEd 2.06 MsgLink 1.0C MsgNum 4.14 LH2 0.50 PK[UN]ZIP 1.02 ARC2 6.00 PolyXARC 2.00 Qsort 2.1 Raid 1.0 Remapper 1.2 Tick 2.0 VPurge 2.07 Xenix/Unix ---------- BBS Software Mailers Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version BinkleyTerm 2.30b Unzip 3.10 ARC 5.21 ParseLst 1.30b ConfMail 3.31b Ommm 1.40b Msged 1.99b Zoo 2.01 C-Lharc 1.00 Omail 1.00b FidoNews 8-15 Page 54 15 Apr 1991 Apple II ---------- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailers Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version GBBS Pro 2.1 Fruity Dog 1.0 ShrinkIt 3.2 DDBBS + 4.0 ShrinkIt GS 1.04 deARC2e 2.1 ProSel 8.65 Apple CP/M ---------- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailers Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version Daisy v2j Daisy Mailer 0.38 Nodecomp 0.37 MsgUtil 2.5 PackUser v4 Filer v2-D UNARC.COM 1.20 Macintosh --------- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailers Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version Red Ryder Host 2.1 Tabby 2.2 MacArc 0.04 Mansion 7.15 Copernicus 1.0 ArcMac 1.3 WWIV (Mac) 3.0 LHArc 0.33 Hermes 1.01 StuffIt Classic 1.6 FBBS 0.91 Compactor 1.21 TImport 1.92 TExport 1.92 Timestamp 1.6 Tset 1.3 Import 3.2 Export 3.21 Sundial 3.2 PreStamp 3.2 OriginatorII 2.0 AreaFix 1.6 Mantissa 3.21 Zenith 1.5 FidoNews 8-15 Page 55 15 Apr 1991 Eventmeister 1.0 TSort 1.0 Mehitable 2.0 UNZIP 1.02c Amiga ----- Bulletin Board Software Network Mailers Other Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version Paragon 2.082+ BinkleyTerm 1.00 AmigArc 0.23 TransAmiga 1.05 TrapDoor 1.50 AReceipt 1.5 WelMat 0.42 booz 1.01 ConfMail 1.10 ChameleonEdit 0.10 ElectricHerald1.66 Lharc 1.30 MessageFilter 1.52 oMMM 1.49b ParseLst 1.30 PkAX 1.00 PK[UN]ZIP 1.01 PolyxAmy 2.02 RMB 1.30 RoboWriter 1.02 Skyparse 2.30 TrapList 1.12 Yuck! 1.61 Zippy (Unzip) 1.25 Zoo 2.01 Atari ST/TT ----------- Bulletin Board Network Node List Software Version Mailer Version Utilities Version FIDOdoor/ST 2.12* BinkleyTerm 2.40l* ParseList 1.30 QuickBBS/ST 1.02 The BOX 1.20 Xlist 1.12 Pandora BBS 2.41c EchoFix 1.20 GS Point 0.61 sTICk/Hatch 5.10* LED ST 1.00 MSGED 1.96S Archiver Msg Format Other Utilities Version Converters Version Utilities Version FidoNews 8-15 Page 56 15 Apr 1991 LHARC 0.60 TB2BINK 1.00 ConfMail 4.03 ARC 6.02 BINK2TB 1.00 ComScan 1.02 PKUNZIP 1.10 FiFo 2.1j* Import 1.14 OMMM 1.40 Pack 1.00 FastPack 1.20 FDsysgen 2.16 FDrenum 2.10 Trenum 0.10 Archimedes ---------- BBS Software Mailers Utilities Name Version Name Version Name Version ARCbbs 1.44 BinkleyTerm 2.03 Unzip 2.1TH ARC 1.03 !Spark 2.00d ParseLst 1.30 BatchPacker 1.00 + Netmail capable (does not require additional mailer software) * 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 all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 8-15 Page 57 15 Apr 1991 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 12 May 1991 Fourth anniversary of FidoNet operations in Latin America and second anniversary of the creation of Zone-4. 15 Aug 1991 5th annual Z1 Fido Convention - FidoCon '91 "A New Beginning" Sheraton Denver West August 15 through August 18 1991. 8 Sep 1991 25th anniversary of first airing of Star Trek on NBC! 7 Oct 1991 Area code 415 fragments. Alameda and Contra Costa Counties will begin using area code 510. This includes Oakland, Concord, Berkeley and Hayward. San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, parts of Santa Clara County, and the San Francisco Bay Islands will retain area code 415. 1 Nov 1991 Area code 301 will split. Area code 410 will consist of the northeastern part of Maryland, as well as the eastern shore. This will include Baltimore and the surrounding area. Area 301 will include southern and western parts of the state, including the areas around Washington DC. Area 410 phones will answer to calls to area 301 until November, 1992. 1 Feb 1992 Area code 213 fragments. Western, coastal, southern and eastern portions of Los Angeles County will begin using area code 310. This includes Los Angeles International Airport, West Los Angeles, San Pedro and Whittier. Downtown Los Angeles and surrounding communities (such as Hollywood and Montebello) will retain area code 213. 1 Dec 1993 Tenth anniversary of Fido Version 1 release. 5 Jun 1997 David Dodell's 40th Birthday If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1. FidoNews 8-15 Page 58 15 Apr 1991 -----------------------------------------------------------------