Articles

• REC13 Election
• Standing the Watch
• ARTSPEC.DOC

REC13 Election
Carol Shenkenberger, 1:13/0

The REC13 election has been concluded early due to only 1 candidate other than the current RC agreeing to run, and stipulating they would do so only with 2 other running mates. There were no other running mates.

The reason for this is because the current RC (me) is active duty military and going to transfer earlier than initially expected. This means an early RC election. With that news already regionally known, interest is high in who will become the RC and the desires of the net show a long turnover time is what is wanted, more than discussing who will be REC.

To reduce turmoil, Carol Shenkenberger, RC13 will assume REC13 duties on 15SEP00.

Discussion will take place shortly in region 13 sysop echos, on who the possible candidates for RC13 will be. There have already been posts accepting to run for that position.

More will be posted in FIDONEWS regarding R13 elections, in accordance with our internal regional policy as we progress to the next stage.

Carol Shenkenberger, 1:13/0

Standing the Watch
Carol Shenkenberger

The Navy has a tradition. It's called 'passing the watch' or 'standing the watch'. It means we all stand to train our successor and when the time comes, we pass on 'the watch'. When DavidM was so busy figuring out all the new things he needed to do as Z1C, I told him not to worry. 'I stand the watch'.

I now stand the watch for DaveC and will do the traditional training of whomever the region selects to replace me. To ensure that, DaveC and I are transitioning the one aspect over quickly which leaves some 5 *months* or more before a new RC here would take over, and still leave me some 2-4 months 'here' to assist them in any way needed after that date.

A wise person sees a plan that is better than their own, and adopts it <G>.

I do not know when we will start collecting candidates 'offically' but there's noting wrong in asking about it. We already have one poor SOB on record as willing to try (evil grin) and from netmail/other I know of at least 2 possible candidates besides him.

I ask only as we move o to the next phase to remember 2 things.

1. You had no clue who I was or what I would be like when I was skyrocketed suddenly before your eyes to this.
2. The most important quality is CARING for your region enough to make extra effort to help.

(Ok a 3rd, none of us have a choice in this. I'm moving out of country 'someplace' and Sasebo Japan or Yokosuka are 99% sure to be the location. So factor that in and wish me well while thinking over who will take care of you and 'stand the watch').

xxcarol
RC13

ARTSPEC.DOC
Doug Myers

A new revision of ARTSPEC.DOC is being distributed on the FIDONEWS echo. A focus of this revision is to eliminate some of the technical considerations which are handled by the editor anyway in the hopes of making the submission process more tempting to prospective writers. Coordinators and mail movers are encouraged to check and ensure that the normal distribution process has replaced older revisions of this document.

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FidoNews Article Submission (September 10, 2000)

FidoNews, founded in early 1984, is the newsletter of the FidoNet computer network, for both its Sysops and users. It is passed to its readers electronically via the FidoNet and other computer networks and to non-network readers as well as to the InterNet. Fidonews welcomes articles, editorials, and features of interest to the Fidonet Community. To have your article included in Fidonews, simply send it via netmail to 1:270/720 or via internet email to DougM@paonline.com.

In the past, this article submission document outlined the many technical details involved in processing Fidonews articles. The assumption in the past seems to have been that articles would be automatically processed from the editor's inbound mail directly into Fidonews. However, the current editor does no automatic inbound processing; rather, each article is examined before publication and technical details are handled by the editor rather than imposed on the person submitting the article. It works better that way - it means that you are free to just concentrate on what you want to say.

It's perfectly acceptable to simply write your article the same way you would write netmail or email. Don't worry about the stuff added by software along the way... I edit that out anyway. All I need at this end is a text message which I can read with standard software and which I can import into a standard text editor to format for the Fidonews software. Alternatively, you can file attach an ASCII text copy of your article.

Here are some guidelines you can use to help me make it easier to format your article for Fidonews:

1. Use standard ASCII text. Most word processor formats can't be used by the Fidonews software. In addition, the Fidonews software won't accept most ASCII control characters nor any characters above ASCII 127 (this, unfortunately, includes all those neat box drawing characters).
2. Start your lines at the left of your screen when typing. The software puts in a left margin automatically, and I have to manually remove any left margin appearing in your document.
3. Keep your line length to under 70 columns for tables or charts (or if you include an ASCII illustration). Regular paragraphs exceeding this 70 column limit can be reformatted during the editing process, but tables and charts are normally distorted beyond recognition by a simple reformatting.
4. Separate paragraphs with a blank line. This is how my text editor recognizes paragraph endings, so I have to add blank lines manually if you don't.
5. Title your article as you'd like to see it in the Table of Contents. If you don't, I'll make up a title for you, but I'd rather have the article appear as you wish.
6. Include your name and node number (or internet address) under the title. I'll grab it from your message, if necessary... but, again, I'd rather have the article appear as you wish.
7. Check your own spelling and wording. Though I feel free to reformat your article so it conforms to technical requirements, I generally leave the wording (and spelling) alone as I don't want to distort what you have to say.
8. Send your article before Sunday in order to see it in that Monday's edition. Normally I put the newsletter together Sunday Evening and send it out... and I normally check email and netmail before I finalize the edition. So if I get your article before Sunday evening, I'll include it... but send it by Saturday to be safe :)
9. If you're not sure whether you should write or send in your article, I would encourage you to send it anyway. Chances are, if you write of something of interest to yourself, it'll be of interest to others. Besides, Fidonews is a better publication when it's written by a variety of people :)

Douglas C. Myers
Fidonews Editor