Editorial

Undead of Fidonet
Doug Myers

A lot of you responded to last week's editorial; here's what I've been hearing:

We, the undead sysops of Fidonet, have decided against all common sense and advice to the contrary, to continue to practice our hobby. We know that the demand for the amateur system we created has largely subsided as technology has advanced and commercialization has created "Your Internet." But we've decided to continue anyway.

It's not so much that we want to return to the way it was - to the days when PC to PC communication was only possible to the public due to the efforts of amateur system operators. In a sense, it was inevitable that computer manufacturers would someday develop systems sufficiently powerful and inexpensive that you could participate in the internet, and commercial interests would ultimately find it profitable enough to make it easy. But before all this happened and it fell to us amateurs to provide communications, we found we enjoyed working together.

It was an imperfect community we forged back then, but perhaps better because of the imperfections. We didn't have any idea how to check out a credit card, so the folks then were worth what they could communicate. Some were rich beyond compare, though they could barely afford the equipment they were working with. We didn't have digital cameras online then, so all we could see was what a person wrote; perhaps the most beautiful would have only cast a plain picture image.

We understand there are other communities on the Web, and that we have no franchise on this. But what we had was good, and still is, so we're not giving it up.

We're not repudiating progress. Some of us are already active on the Internet; indeed even pioneering there. Some of us will hang onto the old technology until the last possible minute, perhaps ultimately dropping out of sight rather than switch. Most of us, though, will step into both arenas... perhaps forging a new place for Fido on the Web, perhaps preferring the old technology forever. We don't know... we're just not giving it up :)