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What's Not Happening: Tag-Teams

WHAT'S NOT HAPPENING

There isn't always something happening on Fidonet, but there's always something which isn't happening. This column is dedicated to the lost causes which make Fido what it isn't today. Published semi-occasionally...

Tag-Teams
Douglas Myers, 1:270/720
doug@mdtnbbs.com

Occupying center ring in Fido's Circus of Lost Causes is Bob Morasvik's elaborate game of Tag. The objective is to find a game which is already being played, and then take over the game by declaring himself "it." The rank and file of Fidonet have countered this initiative by largely ignoring it. This demonstration of applied apathy seems to be prevailing despite loud "it-fits" cross-posted to multiple echoes by J. Kershaw, Defensive Coordinator for the Morasvik team.

The game of Tag derives its name from the practice, mostly in Zone 1, of listing an echotag with the Elist Robot operated by Thom Lacosta as a prelude to distributing echomail throughout the zone. This elist is used by distribution systems (and anyone else interested) to identify the moderator of an echo and to help reduce the instance of duplicate echotags.

Tag, the game, takes advantage of the fact that not all echotags are listed. Many echo areas are distributed by private arrangement with the nodes involved and don't need to be listed, and many more are listed, but not necessarily with Thom LaCosta's system. Thom's elist service is usually targeted by Tag players, though, because the North American Backbone uses this service.

The game of Tag is played by searching for existing echoes which are either unlisted or listed elsewhere, and then listing the echotag with Thom's service, but naming oneself as moderator. The most common source of unlisted existing echoes is echoes which were previously listed, but where the moderator has failed to keep the listing current. Many moderators have found their echoes effectively "taken over" in this manner.

In the past, Bob Morasvik has proven himself an adept player at this form of echo hijacking by such maneuvers as listing all of the Region 13 conferences, leaving the Region 13 coordinators the alternatives of either establishing new conferences or recognizing him as moderator of the existing conferences.

In his latest attempt to retain top seed in the world of Tag players, Bob elisted ZCC-Public, an echo originating in Zone 2 but never elisted in Zone 1. After successfully listing the echo with Thom's robot, Bob attempted to control Zone 1 distribution of the echo on the basis that he was the elisted moderator. He's officially cut the echo from Z1B distribution, but John Souvestre (principle Z1B hub) simply distributes the Zone 2 echo. Bob's request to have his version of ZCC-Public carried on NAB distribution was denied on the basis that the tag is already in use by many of the hubs comprising the NAB. The net result is that Bob has been largely ignored.

I'm not sure how this affects his standing as a Tag player, but Bob Morasvik is no longer "It," and heads the list of What's Not Happening on Fido.