Articles

• Close Encounters of the Best Kind
• My Thoughts on Fidonet

Close Encounters of the Best Kind
By Kent Anderson
1:382/92 kand@jump.net

Since way back in '82, I have been enthusiastically logging in to Fidonet BBS's and participating in both their local areas and in echomail. Since the Internet became another vehicle for messaging, I have also witnessed the number of these BBS's in the United States and Canada ever shrinking, and the amount of traffic flowing via echomail dwindling each day.

For me, and for other Fidonet diehards, this is a sad and unpleasant happening. That does not mean that I have anything against the Internet. To me, Fidonet and Internet are two distinct tools, and I like to use the best features of each. To me, Usenet, with its un-moderated input, and mailing lists are not in the running with Fidonet echomail. The Internet is great for chatting with a group, but the cold addressing of every message to "All", and depending on your memory to otherwise identify the person to whom it is addressed just takes something out of it.

Sure, I know that echomail, while it may be addressed to an individual is an open invitition for anyone else to chime in on any subject, but it is just not the same. I also like the fact that, in the local areas of Fidonet, I get to know, and even to meet people right in my own locale. It's a special type of camaraderie.

I have some living proof that that may carry to other than local areas: In the Memories Echo, of which I was a long time Moderator, and am now Co-Moderator, we had a group of people from New Zealand, Kiwi's, become active participants. Gee, what a nice bunch of folks. After a year or two of constant messaging, I feel that these people, and all who come to that echo regularly, are part of an extended family. It is an amazing closeness, considering the miles which may separate us, and to me that is one of the truly great rewards of participating in echomail and local BBS events.

And now, the almost unbelievable may happen. One of the Kiwi's, a Bob King from Christchurch, has won a trip back to his original home in England, and is allowed five stopovers while enroute. He is trying to arrange for one of those stopovers to be Bergstrom International Airport right here in Austin.

If he can, although neither of us will be truly able to confirm it, it may not be our first face to face meeting. You see, during WWII, I was stationed at a USAAFB called Merryfield, near Yeovil in England. Bob was then a youngster and often came to the gate and chatted with whomever was on guard duty there. I spent many a happy time with these English kids, giving a bit of gum or candy when it was available, and enjoying their chatter. So, who knows - it's a small world!

I am keeping my fingers crossed, am aglow with anticipation, and otherwise on pins and needles hoping for this great event to take place.

How wonderful it would be to meet this guy, with whom I have exchanged potshots, poking fun at each other, and even occasional serious information over the past three or four years. It will be truly great if we can spend enough time to bend an elbow and break a bit of bread with each other. I feel certain that Bob will prove to be the great guy he comes across as in the echo. And, if this event does to come to pass, there will be another story to tell, right here in Fidonews.

My Thoughts on Fidonet
Jim Rysyk 1:12/242

Reply to: Darrell Salter post FIDO1701.nws January 2000. Yes, it probably should have been called FIDO1801.nws. But it unarced as 1701.

As I see it, over the years, the recently elected, appointer, as well as the self appointed have caused much of the Fidonet problems. I've been a member of 4 different Fido nets, as well as members in some 30 other clones of Fido, using FTS mailers. Most often, after a new *C is elected, or appointed, things go bad. If and when we are lucky, this only lasts for a few month. When we are not so luck, the new *C blames everyone else, every one else software, every one else configuration. Being a member of so many nets, its surprising that the same names repeat in the *C position, then the down links of these *Cs start complaining, and leaving.

Some of the nodes disappeared due to people playing with the segment of the nodelist. Several of my assigned addresses disappeared this way. Some of the nodes disappeared, due to people mis routing Net Mail to places where no arrangements to route mail were discussed by anyone. Most often this is a dead end node, some times in areas that speak a different language. Other times the Net Mail has been held at various official route hubs, who specialize in delaying and mis routing the mail. I've several 1st hand examples of this type of Net Mail that had been addressed to my various addresses over the years. As of 1999 it still goes on, and is still routed through two or more hubs here in Toronto, before heading East into Quebec, and some dead end nodes.

At least half a dozen different dead end nodes have forwarded me such Net Mail in the last five years. Unfortunately in most or all cases my complaints to the *C structure failed to have the misrouting corrected. Some of the *C structure thought it was funny, and joked about it.

I've other reasons why I'm not participating in Fido. Eg a hub was ordered to cut my feed, and several hubs were ordered to password me out. One local node who is also listed as a Hub, but shows no nodes listed before the next hub is listed, kept on writing me echo and net mail consisting of two words, repeated 500, or even 1,000 times in these last three years. Yes, its the other person who wrote an item in FIDO1701.NSW, for Week 1, of 2000. This is why the echo I used to moderated, went unmoderated.

With no reliable echo feed so many times, and no kick in backup feed for so many reasons, both intentional, and mis configurations in so many nodes/Hubs/*Cs, I no longer participate.

Until the local Net Mail, Echo Mail, Filebone, and Internet Gate is fixed, and the insults and language is cleaned up, I will remain out of the echoes, even the ones I used to moderate.

I've a stale date filter, that refused to process mail over 30 days old, so don't route any coments back to me.

Local Net Mail remained mis routed in 1999, with at least three *C participating, moving net mail addresses to 1:12/242 to dead end nodes in Quebec in 1999. So if you want to contact me, CM direct, and unpacked please.

Take care, and get Fido Fixed. I can't even FREQ the local *Cs in Reg 12.

Not much has changed, or been fixed in R12.

It used to be fun.