Articles
VOTING PROCEDURE
FTSC ADMINISTRATOR
by Adrian Walker, 1:153/752
28 October 1997
Interim FTSC Web Site:
http://www.portal.ca/~awalker/ftsc.htm [faulty URL [jb 4/25/01]] Update:
http://www.ftsc.org
VOTE REQUIREMENTS
Fidonews 1441 detailed the nomination process for the position of FTSC Administrator. Nominations have now closed, and 2 eligible candidates are standing for election. FTA-1001 provides for the following voting process for the FTSC Administrator:
=== Cut ===
The FTSC Administrator is appointed on the basis of a vote by all Standing Members who are defined by the then-current edition of FTA-0003 (FTSC Membership List). A successful candidate must receive approval by at least a plurality of votes.
Publication of the nominations and the voting procedure shall take place openly in the FTSC_PUBLIC echo, and voting shall close three weeks after publication of the vote. Votes shall be by netmail ballot to an independent enumerator.
Plurality: more votes than any other candidate, but less than a majority.
=== Cut ===
VOTING PROCEDURE
FTSC Standing Members, and therefore eligible to vote, are as shown in FTA-1003, dated 05 October 1997, namely:
NAME NODE NUMBER APPOINTMENT EXPIRY
1 Bash, Richard 1:231/45 01 Oct 1999
2 Bemis, Ron 1:124/1113 01 Oct 1999
3 Bilow, Mike 1:323/107 01 Oct 2000
4 Box, Craig 3:774/950 01 Oct 2000
5 Burchhardt, Tobias 2:2448/400 01 Oct 2000
6 Eriksson, Goran 2:201/505 01 Oct 1999
7 Felten, Bjorn 2:203/208 01 Oct 1999
8 Frezberg, Zorch 1:205/0 01 Oct 1999
9 Homrighausen, Joaquim 2:201/330 01 Oct 2000
10 Johansen, Rune 2:210/20 01 Oct 2000
11 Karlsson, Peter 2:206/221 01 Oct 1999
12 Klein, Andreas 2:2480/47 01 Oct 2000
13 McCabe, Michael 1:297/11 01 Oct 1999
14 Price, Gary 1:3607/26 01 Oct 1999
15 Sanz, Carlos Fernandez 2:341/70 01 Oct 2000
16 Schlangen, Tom 2:2450/10 01 Oct 2000
17 Schollnick, Benjamin 1:2613/477 01 Oct 2000
18 Sorensen, Odinn 2:236/77 01 Oct 2000
19 Steck, Jason 1:285/424 01 Oct 1999
20 Szarka, Robert 1:320/42 01 Oct 2000
21 Thunus, Francois 2:270/25 01 Oct 1999
22 Turner, Colin 2:443/13 01 Oct 1999
23 Waldmann, Thomas 2:2474/400 01 Oct 2000
24 Wallin, Mats 2:201/329 01 Oct 2000
Voting commences at 0000 UTC on Saturday 01 November 1997 and closes at 2359 UTC on Friday 22 November 1997, or upon the receipt of all 24 votes, whichever is the earlier.
Each FTSC Standing Member ballot is to be sent to the independent enumerator, Ken Tuley, either via:
- netmail to Ken Tuley at at 1:374/98 or 1:18/0 or
- Internet email to ken.tuley@scam.mpcs.com
Receipt of votes will be acknowledged by return routed netmail or email as applicable.
Ballots should include a password. The ballot format is given below.
Votes shall be cast as an "X" or other clear alphabetic character for one of the 2 candidates. A ballot with a mark beside both names, or with no mark beside any name, will be discounted.
APPOINTMENT
More votes than the other candidate is required for that person to be appointed as the FTSC Administrator.
No votes or summaries of votes shall be posted prior to the conclusion of voting. Within 3 days after the conclusion of voting, the FTSC Standing Member votes shall be posted in the FTSC_PUBLIC echo. For each vote cast, only the password and the result for each vote will be posted. The identity of the voter shall not be shown.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | BALLOT - FTSC ADMINISTRATOR ELECTION, 1997 | | | | VOTER'S NAME _______________________________ | | | | FIDONET NODE NUMBER _______________________ | | | | PASSWORD _______________________________ | | | | Please indicate your vote for one of the following candidates | | with an "X" in the square provided beside the candidate of your | | choice. | | | | There are 2 names, so only 1 "X" may be entered. Names are given | | in alphabetical order sorted by surname. | | | | "I wish this person to be the FTSC Administrator" | +------+------------------------------------------------------------+ | VOTE | NAME NODE # | +------+------------------------------------------------------------+ | | Craig Box 3:774/950 | +------+------------------------------------------------------------+ | | Odinn Sorensen 2:236/77 | +------+------------------------------------------------------------+
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back to main table of contents back to fidonews.orgBulletin Boards are
online world's good old days
>by< Mark Stachiew,
Fidonet = 1:167/312,
MTLnet = 17:514/846,
Sysop of, The BBS at the End of the Universe
[ The following is a fine article that appeared in the October 29, 1997, issue of the Montreal Gazette. Forwarded to Fidonews by permission of the author. ]
"Thanks to everyone who helped with my BBS article. Let's hope it helps the hobby. Every little bit helps. " -- Mark Stachiew, The Gazette
---
Back in the Stone Age of computers, before Bill Gates had made his first million and the Internet had yet to see its first "spam" message, computer users talked with each other via Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes).
While the World Wide Web has taken a bite out of the number of BBSes, they never really went away and now the old-timers who still use them are banding together to tell cyberspace newcomers what they're missing.
A BBS is basically a computer sitting in someone's home running software which allows it to answer incoming calls. Other computer users call the BBS to exchange messages, play games and download computer programs. It really is an electronic bulletin board.
They are usually free to call since the system is being run as a hobby by someone who is donating time and computer. No fancy browsers or hardware are required. The lowliest computer with a modem and terminal program will be enough to connect to a BBS.
Longtime users of BBSes remain nostalgic about the early days of the 1980s when the first home computers gave birth to the first fledgling bulletin boards. In those days BBS callers used glacially-slow 300 baud modems with acoustic couplers that had to be fit over telephone handsets and looked like rubber earmuffs. They endured these hardships because of the magic that BBSes created. It was a new form of communication which allowed people to make contact with total strangers which sometimes developed into lifelong friendships.
Lynda McCormick knows all about how BBSes bring people together. She runs one of the oldest ones in Montreal. McBBS has been in continuous operation since 1984 and people who called on the first day are still calling 13 years later. "Some of the old-time users will still call in long distance when they've moved away," she says. "Not on a regular basis, but it's fantastic to hear from them and hear how life is treating them now in Toronto, London, Ontario, Seattle, or L.A."
McCormick is still enthusiastic about BBSing and is creating an online BBSing Museum with electronic ephemera from BBSes which have long since vanished into the ether. "The BBS scene in Montreal has been a very rich one with many characters, personalities and a few very hilarious stories," she says. "I for one would like to see it preserved and cherished as it should be, and not simply swept away and forgotten."
One local BBS operator, Steve Monteith, has maintained a list of Montreal bulletin boards (www.vir.com/~capt_xerox/bbslist.html) for nearly 12 years. Looking over archives of the list demonstrate how much damage the Web has done to BBSing in this city. In 1989, Montreal boasted 175 computer bulletin boards. That number grew steadily, peaking at 482 in 1995 which is about the time that the Web began to blossom. Since then the number of BBSes has plummeted to 221. At that rate of decline they could be extinct in two years.
So do BBSes have a future? The people who still use them think so. They persist because they create a sense of community among their users and because callers usually live in the same town, so they are able to get together offline where friendships are formed. That can be difficult on the Internet where you could be exchanging E-mail with someone in Zimbabwe or Kuala Lumpur.
Monteith notes a few other advantages of the local BBS over the Internet. You won't get unwanted E-mail (spam) and BBSes are rarely commercial. "You can read through whole message bases, and not see an advertisement and you can be quite sure that your name on a BBS isn't going to be sold to some mailing list."
An international grass-roots organization has sprung up to spread the word about BBSes. The Council for Online Community Alternatives(http:/ /coca.home.ml.org) aims to promote BBSes as an alternative to the Internet and to build awareness among computer users that BBSes are available in their communities. They maintain that in recent years millions of people have rushed out to buy computers thinking their only online alternative was the Internet, oblivious to the existence of local BBSes.
COCA likes to point out some of the advantages of BBSes. For example, at peak times the busy Internet can slow to a crawl. That isn't a problem on a BBS since there is usually only one user connected at a time so your new fast modem will actually work at full speed. Unlike most discussion groups on the Internet, the ones on BBSes are usually moderated and ill-tempered "flame" wars are less common. And pornography is much rarer on BBSes.
BBSes are becoming more sophisticated. Many local BBSes now offer Internet E-mail and access to select Usenet newsgroups. Some have lots of downloadable files while others use flashy terminal programs which give them a graphical interface which is almost as easy to use as a Web browser. Some bulletin boards are even directly accessible over the Web, usually via telnet. You can find a list of other Internet BBSes at http://dkeep.com/sbi.html [faulty URL [jb 4/24/01]].
Other BBS resources on the Web:
BBS FAQ
http://www.sysopworld.com/bbsfaq/text/faqmain.htm
Directory of North American BBSes
http://www.thedirectory.org/areacode.htm
BBSes on the Internet
http://www.digitalis.net/~messer/bbs/
The World of BBSing
http://www-scf.usc.edu/~thuyenqu/bbsing.htm
Here are some Montreal BBSes to call:
Juxtaposition BBS
(Home of the Montreal BBS list)
(514) 364-2937
The BBS at the End of the Universe
(For science-fiction fans)
(514) 421-0673
Coder's Pixel
(For programmers)
(514) 624-5900
McBBS
(For general conversation)
(514) 697-7184
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