Editorial

Goodbye, George
Doug Myers

You don't have to hit me over the head with a two by four! It only takes me a week or so to finally get the message!

So earlier this week I got netmail from George Peace telling me that he could no longer provide the dial-up connection for file and echo connections. At first it didn't occur to me that I had a problem, as I was doing the bulk of my traffic with my NC - I transferred FIDONEWS and another file area, BFDS, directly with George to get them on the Filebone as rapidly and reliably as possible, but picked up all the file areas I don't source through my NC. Similiarly with echomail. In fact, I'd never done echomail with George until just recently, when he allowed me a direct connection to his area manager as a favor so I could resolve a problem getting regional echoes.

But then it occurred to me that my NC was also using George's dial-up modem to get the net feed, so I wrote George back and asked if my NC was also affected. It was starting to occur to me that I might have to adjust to the situation. That same day, I wrote a note in the FIDONEWS echo letting folks know that I'd need to change where I introduce FIDONEWS into the Filebone, as George was shutting down his dial up line.

Apparantly, I touched off a spat of rumors which reached back to George: He wrote back to me the next day that John and I would be affected, but only the two of us... and wanted to know if I knew anything about the rumors that he was shutting down. <sigh> I sent him a copy of what I'd written in the Fidonews echo and apologized if it touched off any rumors.

Then the rumors started hitting me. At first the folks in the FIDONEWS echo asked me if George was shutting down (or expressed disbelief that he was doing so), so I spent my time "revealing" to them that George's changes were only going to affect me and my NC. Then folks started telling me I was wrong, and that he was actually shutting down all Fido traffic.

"Mon," I thought, "these rumors are really getting out of control!"

I'm not sure when I first found out that they weren't rumors. John Souvestre patiently explained things to me in netmail, including a copy of a message George had posted... George really was leaving Fido. Before I saw John's message, though, David Moufarrege called me to see how FIDONEWS would be distributed once George shut down... and I was telling him that George wasn't really shutting down, that it was just a rumor. But somewhere in the conversation, I could feel the two by four looming in the background, and figured I'd better shut up so as not to invite it...

Durn... I didn't want to see George Peace go. He's done nothing but good for me since I've known him. I especially didn't want to give him any grief...

George, may you find every happiness in your time after Fido. You've left some good people behind, and I'm confident they'll pick up any slack which is felt from your system missing. But you'll be missed...