Articles

• FidoNet WebRing on the Internet
• Peace on Earth, etc

FidoNet Internet sites go circular?

Christopher Baker
Rights On!, 1:18/14
(cbaker84@digital.net)

There are a number of FidoNet-related websites and pages out there on the Internet. Many of them are listed in FidoNews by Internet section at the end of each Issue.

They are not connected in any sense other than being available on the World Wide Web [WWW] and if you want to visit them you need to enter each site's address into your browser one after the other. You can then bookmark them for your personal list if you wish. Primitive.

I've discovered out there in webland a site called WebRing [http://www.webring.org. [faulty URL [jb 4/25/01]]) Update: http://dir.webring.yahoo.com/rw] that has figured out a new way to make it easier than ever to find sites of like content and then wander amongst them in a virtual circle in cyberspace. It's a free service offered by WebRing to all who apply for unique ringnames.

A WebRing is sort of like a FidoNet website Echo. There isn't any direct interaction [outside of signing onto the ring] between the sites but all the sites are in a common list a websurfer can scoot around in until s/he comes full circle.

I have started the FidoNet World Wide WebRing on the WebRing server. They provide all the cgi effects and all you have to do is follow the instructions on the FidoNet WWWRing page at:

http://ddi.digital.net/~cbaker84/fnetring.html
[Update: http://www.fidonews.org/fidoring/ jb]

and pick up the two graphics and the code blurb for your site's page. You do have to know something about HTML programming but the code blurb has all you need to get started. The sign-up page also contains entry areas for your page URL and email address. Once you've signed up you need to put the code on your page and then send email to the RingMaster [me]. You will receive email from WebRing as well with info on further steps required.

It's not as complicated as it sounds on paper. Once the server tells me your page is in the queue for addition to the Ring, I go check it for continuity and then advise on corrections or add your page to the Ring for others to find.

FidoNews is Site 1 and already on the Ring. I invite you to add your page[s] to the FidoNews World Wide Web Ring today!

QOFM.
Chris

Peace on Earth, etc.
by Troy H. Cheek (1:362/708.4)

Another Christmas has passed. This year, I got mostly clothes. I take it as a sign of old age that this is actually what I wanted.

In the first FIDONEWS issue of this New Year, Michael Wilson suggests, among other things, that Fidonet should be easier to access.

Now, I agree that the archaic practice refusing to offer programs or technical assistance to new users until they've got their system set up well enough to send you netmail is, well, archaic. Unfortunately, it was still in place locally when I set up as a point not too many years ago. :-( Obviously, we need to be more helpful to people who want to join in on the fun.

However, some kind of central access to Fidonet with some kind of standardized program and a single phone number to call is taking things a bit too far in the other direction, IMHO.

For example, I just suffered through another yearly episode of a drama some people like to call Modem-mas. Or maybe it's a sit-com. On or around Christmas (this year, it hit early) technically-illiterate newbies get their first computer and/or modem. In spite of the fact that we moan how people can't find Fidonet, these people do.

(A similar effect can be noted at the start and end of each school year, as students relocate.)

It's bad enough, and understandable enough, to have to explain echomail conferences, moderators, netmail, and echolag to BBS users who stumble into an echo and begin treating it like the local chat message base. It's downright bizarre to have to explain the same to someone who signs his messages "Sysop of the [Whatever] BBS." Give Fidonet a quick and easy access point, and you can multiply this problem by a few hundred.

Forget for a moment the question of why people are leaving Fidonet. Consider for a moment the question of why people are _staying_ with Fidonet. One of the reasons I've heard over and over again is that Fidonet has a better signal/noise ratio than any other network. Make access too easy and that goes out the window.

Speaking of Windows, a new slick front-end for Fidonet also has problems. One of the other reasons why people stay with Fidonet is that you don't constantly need to buy the latest, fastest, and most expensive hardware to access it. You don't even need any particular computer platform.

In other words, I feel that if we change Fidonet to try to attract people who are already being better served by other Nets, we will simply alienate those who are sticking with Fidonet because it already serves their needs. These people, I think, are what makes Fidonet what it is to begin with.

|Fidonet: Troy H. Cheek 1:362/708.4
|Internet: 362-708-4!Troy.H..Cheek@river.chattanooga.net
|
| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own.
| River Canyon Rd. BBS <=> Chattanooga OnLine! Gateway to the World.