Guest Editorial

• Why Fido is at risk? - by Adriano Garcia
• The Shrinking Nodelist - an optimist's view

Why Fido is at risk?
by Adriano Garcia (former 4:801/53) adriano@visaonet.com

When the Internet started to be as widespread as it is today, many people asked: "What is the future of FidoNet?". This question has no simple answer, but many factors may prove that Fido was doomed before the expansion of the commercial Internet.

Let's start with a small personal biography: I was a sysop in Sao Paulo, Brazil back in 1993, when Fido was growing exponentially there and many things that I will expose here are commonplace for many of our readers.

First, and foremost, the main factor that scares people away from helping the grow of Fidonet are the power trips. And they are present in different flavors to please everyone. One example: for a long time, before I joined Fido, local sysops were barred from entering Fido just because it was a `qualified network' that should be run only by the 'best sysops'. Not for everyone. And the criteria used to determine who were the `best' were subjective, being the level of friendship with any *C a decisive factor.

It's also a reality that Policy4 isn't what we could call a "democratic rule", but the same law can be interpreted differently by two different persons. That's why we have courts. But, when the person that enforces it is the same one that decides what is right, then we have a problem. Or a dictatorship, if you prefer.

The last moment of growth of Fidonet Brazil was stopped by the first "ideological cleansing" of the history of cyberspace in South America. Many nodes were excommunicated just because they thought differently from the newly appointed RC of 1994. The curious about it is that the ones excommunicated had the same ideas of democracy and development of Fido that the RC had before being nominated...

Now things seems to be getting back to normality, with another RC in place. But who will tell this to the many who closed down their systems just because it became one more problem instead of a pleasure?

And what about the sysops who wish to return as mail-only nodes or point systems and cannot because nodes are charging big money for mail or because *Cs do not assign mail-only nodes anymore, even when there isn't a local BBS in the area?

Now we have the Internet. And people say that Fidonet is a "competing network", with the Internet. An it's not. Fido is supposed to be an amateur network where people communicate and participate as a hobby, when the Internet is now a commercially oriented network that has a completely different technology and environment. And there are limitations in Usenet (the "Internet echomail") that are not present in Fido.

They can really coexist. But only if the *C structure realises that they aren't the "owners" of the network but only the ones that coordinate the efforts of many into the development of a NEW Fidonet. It's obvious that the technology is already in place, with packets flowing through the Internet reducing the once expensive international mail exchanges. This should be, by itself, one good reason for Fido to expand, not to collapse.

We can get Fido into the 21st century. But only if we stop pretending that we are dead and act. Putting people into the net, not keeping them out.

(This may be my first and last submission to Fidonews, as the only one telnettable BBS that I know that provides free access to Fido is closing down and I have no other way to access the network anymore. Sad news...)

An Optimistic View of the
Shrinking Nodelist
Douglas Myers 1:270/720 doug@mdtnbbs.com

One of the most persistant topics of echotalk is the shrinking Fido nodelist. That nodes are leaving Fidonet has been no big secret, but it's been most dramatic recently as the text copy of the international nodelist has gone below 2 megabytes where it was three just a few years ago.

There's real concern here. Some sysops want to revive BBSING by posting ads in the local laundromats. Some want to put up an HTML-based BBS and go "head-to-head" against the Internet! Power-politicians are chastised for creating this net flight. Developers are being asked why our technology isn't better. And at least one net is supplying local computer-buyers with instructions to turn Hyper-Terminal into the Fidonet Explorer.

Will all this concern turn the situation around? Will the BBS once again flourish and the Fido nodelist expand to consume our hard drives? My optimistic guess is "No."

Fidonet was never destined to own cyberspace. It briefly (in an historical sense, anyway) caught the imagination of the world, and it even spurred that imagination on to greater things. But it's role in history is more that of amateur radio. Amateur radio operators were once king, and their association also spurred the imagination of the world. But their role, too, was as harbinger. To see how the bbs system operator of the future fares, we can look at the amateur radio operator of today... they're still a strong, active group - still widely respected. But they no longer own the airwaves, having passed it on to their heirs.

The BBS sysop never owned cyberspace, but he took his turn at the helm when few could see where these machines called computers could take us. He still stands tall in cyberspace.

And Fidonet, the community of sysops, will be around for a while. Folks always come home to stay for a piece, and there are always those who keep a place prepared. Even now, those who have mastered the technology of the internet are polishing Fido. Our messages move faster and more reliably through new channels. Some are adding new wings to the traditional structure. And we're all gathered around the fire in the evening quibbling over the seating arrangements for tomorrow's dinner.

We're busy getting ready for the folks coming home.

---- Footnote ----

I'm hoping that this is the first of a few more editorials of an upbeat nature. I'd like to explore the theme of preparing the ol' place for our guests... and maybe promote some methods for making our community a friendly place to stay in the vastness of cyberspace. Whether I can follow through depends, of course, on my malicious employer who places crass commercial interests above community development. And, of course, it depends on Henk Wolsink, who might fill the pages of Fidonews with the works of real writers and crowd me out before I can say my piece :)

--
| Fidonet: Douglas Myers 1:270/720@fidonet.org
| Internet: doug@mdtnbbs.com
| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own.
| From Mdtn_BBS @mdtnbbs.com [ In the Heart of Three Mile Island ]