Editorial

Would you like fries with that order?
Doug Myers

Should a sysop be a mere order taker for his BBS users? Should a Coordinator act only to pander to his assigned constituency? Such would seem to be the expectations of at least two of the recent contributors to Fidonews, Charles Hunter and Jim Rysyk.

Charles, emailing under the name of "Mike," complains that Fidonet sysops and moderators don't control the echoes sufficiently that he's not bothered by messages which offend him. It is his assertion that the mere fact that he's put the sysops here on notice requires action on their part to make it happen. This attitude, if it prevailed, would reduce sysops to mere order takers.

Jim Rysyk sends me logs from his mailer documenting his attempts to freq back issues of Fidonews from several coordinators. The logs show many systems which didn't have all the files (at least not available for freq), and systems which wouldn't even connect with him (including mine).

Certainly it would be a grand thing if we would meet the expectations of these individuals. But should we? Are we under some obligation to do so?

When I was younger, I worked in a fast food environment for a couple of years. My motivation was income. Though I enjoyed the customers, all they were expected to do was bring sufficient money to handle their orders - for that alone I was expected to give polite attention to their orders. With Fidonet, I don't expect an income - I'm in it for the quality of the interactions. Though I've enjoyed the BBS users and other sysops over the years, and I've agreed to take on duties to help the organization move along - I've always expected some reasonable treatment from those with whom I interact.

Is this expectation reasonable on my part? On the part of the Fidonet sysops, coordinators, and moderators?

Fidonews continues to welcome articles about what's wrong with Fidonet... but the best articles offer some opinion on how to make things better. I believe that Charles and Jim need to do more than bitch and demand if they're to be welcomed here.