Articles

• THE BULLIES OF FIDONET
• What are ya gonna do?!?

THE BULLIES OF FIDONET
"Mike" <chasers1@intergrafix.net>

In this "Open Letter", I would like to call attention to the problem of certain resident "bullies" who presently prowl Fidonet. Just how does one defend against such cyberspace bullies within the confines of Fidonet? Not too effectively, I'm sorry to say. In this letter, I will name only people who I have interacted with favorable. Anyone that I accuse of any improper conduct has NOT been named herein because it is not my intent to further involve FidoNet into the dispute.

My first experience with Fidonet was with Airpower BBS in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and it's sysop, Jim Henry, who is one of the few conscientious and fair sysops I've met in cyberspace. Upon discovering the Abortion conference; and making known my pro-life position I quickly found the Moderator of that conference very biased against anyone who held a view contrary to hers. The moderator, on a "bad hair day" unfairly and arbitrarily dismissed me from the conference because of my religious views. A series of ongoing insulting and defamatory messages ensued in the conference after I was booted and I began responding to each writer via net mail to correct misinformation.

And, she was not the only one with that attitude in the conference. As a result, most of the real pro-life people in that conference left, even though the conference was taken over by a new moderator who I believe is a paper Christian/pro-lifer. Some time later, that Moderator who I believe was fully aware of the unfairness afforded me by his predecessor allowed me back into the conference. Unfortunately, the new moderator did not have the confidence to run the conference without intimidation and control from some of the senior pro-babykilling members of the conference. When a dispute arose between myself and one of the other members of the conference about his sending me offensive, blasphemous and religiously harassing messages in the conference, addressed to me personally the offending person voluntarily agreed to stop posting such messages. A little while later, the same person again began using the offensive post to me, knowing full well that I was offended by it because of it's blasphemous content.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that some "old timer" pro-abortion people in the conference who didn't want the pro-life message to get too much exposure could figure out what a "fence teetering" moderator would do if he got into a serious legal jam. After I agreed to stop posting my messages to the perp who was sending me the harassing, blasphemous messages; and without ever ordering said perp to stop posting to me, the moderator booted me from the abortion conference. Shortly thereafter I began complaining (mostly by private messages) to people who were defaming me in the Abortion conference. I also notified the moderator and several members of the conference that I would sue them for their tortious acts against me.

The "perp" after being warned by the moderator of the Bible conference about his messages to and about me left the Bible conference and went over to "Holysmoke" where he began posting untrue statements about me and the long standing dispute. I filed a cease and desist message defending myself in that conference and specifically avoiding engaging in any discussions with anyone in Holysmoke.

Many of the obnoxious people in Holysmoke who frequent that conference solely to be obnoxious began, along with the "perp" to post sexually harassing, religiously harassing, defamatory/slanderous/libelous messages to and about me on Holysmoke, a public and international conference. After attempts to reach the Moderator of Holysmoke failed, I contacted the sysop of the BBS system that the perp was posting from (and the sysops of others sending such messages) requesting that they control these persons sending the unsolicited, unwanted, harassing, defamatory /slanderous/libelous messages and cause them to cease and desist. One of these people sending such messages was himself a sysop and a major hub on Fidonet who retaliated by contacting my sysops to get my access cut.

The perp contacted the new moderator of the Abortion conference for help; and that moderator sent false information to the sysop of the perp intended to convice the sysop that I was the person in the wrong. That sysop, who was also one of my sysops, then cut my access to his board; and presumably without controlling the perp. In fact, that sysop did a trace to determine what my ISP was for telnetting to his board and then published that information in the Holysmoke conference, presumably to enable some of the more vicious posters in that conference to harass me further.

The messages I get from the sysops, (one in particular) is that he and the other posters have the right to say whatever they want to say and send it in messages to me any time they want and that I have to be a captive audience for such messages. That is to say that they have every right to send me messages (even after I demand that they cease and desist) containing defamatory/slanderous/libelous accusations that I have sex with dogs, that I suck ****, and similar and more vulgar accusations together with blasphemous and horrible things said about my Lord Jesus Christ, His Mother, Catholics and Christians in general.

I think my sysop, Jim Henry is an upright guy; but I also think the present organization of Fidonet leaves him little choice about backing up one of his subscribers against the group of cyber-bullies that presently roam Fido-Net.........some of them sysops themselves. I went to the sysops of the perps and even advised them of the law of the matter with the result that two of them refused to act, one of them asserted his right to do whatever he wanted and one of them booted me from his bulletin board.

The "death rattles" of Fidonet have been in the air for quite some time; and I hardly think that such gross, manifest unfairness is going to help Fidonet survive. Do I WANT to sue sysops, FidoNet and other people? Certainly not! I think FidoNet serves a very useful purpose in cyberspace; and I think there are very many talented and dedicated people serving FidoNet. One FidoNet person who responded quickly to my request for help was Fane; and I think that if all of Fidonets members conducted themselves as he did, Fidonet's chances of survival would be greatly enhanced.

I am not the kind of person who will sit back and send me emails/messages posts which contain the line "Jesusonacid@yahoo.com" or other malicious insults to my religion. Sure, you arguably might have the right to say that in public when nobody is around; or when someone is around who doesn't object. However, in the face of repeated objection you have no right to force me to be a captive audience for your awful posts or your defamation/slander/libel or harassment.

Fidonet, this is the writing on the wall. I thank the sysops and posters who supported me in this matter; and I sincerely hope that someone in Fidonet might take this message to heart. I would respectfully remind all of you sysops of a major rule of Fidonet: 1.2.1.1 (Users): The sysop is responsible for the actions of any user when they affect the rest of Fidonet. (If a user is annoying, the sysop is annoying.) Any traffic entering FidoNet via a given node, if not from the sysop, is considered to be from a user and is the responsibility of the sysop. (See section 2.1.3).

What are ya gonna do?!?
Is It Dying?
Frank Vest, 1:124/6308.1

Ok folks. Y2K has come and gone. It's time to move onward and upward. I must admit to some concern regarding Y2K. I wondered if my system would survive and how many, if any, of the other Fidonet Nodes would survive. As it turned out, I made it and many more as well.

Ok, so what?

I'll tell ya!

Since I survived and Fidonet survived, it's time to get Fidonet into the 21st century. Yeah, I know that the 21st century doesn't start for another year, but that doesn't matter to me and shouldn't to you. Darrell Salter wrote a "thoughts" article in one Fidonews. I respect Darrell and agree with some of what he said. We will let Fidonet die if we don't do something. Darrell is after the internet side and changes to P4. I applaud him for that. Me, I want the other side. Telnet is fine. I have no problems with those that want to go that route. I just like the dial up idea. P4 works for me and that's fine. If it changes, I'll deal with that as well. Heck, I'm easy. (did I say that? :-)

So, where does that leave us and what the heck are you talking about?

Simple. Promote Fidonet. I don't really care how, just as long as it's positive. I've heard all the negative I care to. It's time to go positive.

Ok, How do we promote Fidonet?

Well, we could all take out ads and spend lots of money on commercials and stuff like that...... Hmmm, I guess not. :) This is a hobby and, as such, most of us don't have or aren't willing to spend lots of money promoting. So what do we do?

Geesh! Here's a road map. :)

1. Talk about your BBs to friends or other people you get into idle conversation with.
   1. If you're not a Sysop, do the same thing about the BBS(s) that you like.
2. Are you on the Internet? Gotta web page?
   1. Put a small page up for your BBS, or add a page on your site.
   2. Plug your BBS in the appropriate Newsgroups.
      1. Don't like Newsgroups? Don't read them! Just post to them. :) (do you think the spammers read the groups they post to? :)
3. You're not a Sysop but have a web page?
   1. Put a link to your favorite BBS' page or to a BBS site.
4. You're at your favorite computer store. Ask the manager if you can put some fliers in the store with BBS numbers and "how to connect" information. (of course, you need to print some fliers. :)

I'm sure there are other ways to promote BBS' and Fidonet. These are just some "off the top of my head thoughts".

In the "For What It's Worth area"

I put a small post in the "general" newsgroup for my area (Dallas/Ft. Worth) and snagged three people off the web. One left me a nice note that read, <paraphrased> I thought that all the BBS' in DFW were gone. Now, wasn't that a kick. :) The ad wasn't fancy, big or anything like that. The whole post was as follows:

- start

Collin Country Station BBS is open and waiting for new Users. We have Message areas, Games and other things of interest.

Dallas Metro Number is 972-562-8064

Don't know what a BBS is? Check out the Web Page at http://texoma.net/~flv [faulty URL [jb 4/25/01]] http://home.texoma.net/~flv/

There is more out there that the Internet and AOL

- end

I'm gonna pull BBS'ing and Fidonet back into the light. You can do what you will. If Fidonet and BBS'ing die, it won't be from lack of effort on my part. What are you going to do?!?

Oh yeah! If you don't have a BBS in your area, start one. If you do have a BBS, promote it. :)

Have fun. Call a BBS. Enjoy life!