Guest Editorial

Who Decides - Douglas Myers

Who Decides?
D. Myers, 1:270/720

One of the consequences of being an internationally-known Fidonet Busybody is that I am occasionally confused with someone with actual influence. Such was the case recently when Catalin Bradu of Romania, the RC of Region 53 sent me information he really wanted to get to Bob Satti.

He was under the mistaken impression that I would have the email address of Fido's Top Cop. All I have is a calling plan which lets me call in the US and Canada for a dime a minute, so crashing netmail is almost trivial. If I'd been smart, I'd have just sent it along and let it go.

It was stuff I didn't want to hear about. He was excommunicating someone named Gabi Andrei for Excessively Annoying Behavior in proselytizing his particular brand of religion. Though he apparently had the support of his region, his ZC, Ward Dossche ordered him to reverse his ruling. A few days later, Ward removed him as RC, placing someone in charge who didn't support the EAB action.

Now who wants to get involved in this? Who wants to support someone proselytizing in netmail and echomail? But then, who wants to support the nasty business of excommunication? Especially in far-off Romania?

Who should be making these decisions anyway? Should Excessively Annoying Behavior be determined by the folks in the region where it occurs, or is it the province of the Zone Coordinator?

For that matter, who decides when a popularly-elected Regional Coordinator should be removed. Is it the province of his electorate, or is it up to the Zone Coordinator?