Editor's Corner

Just a few thanks.

I've got to tell all of you. It's been great so far being the Editor. I'm very happy with the response from all of you and other aspects of being the Editor of the Fidonews publication.

So far, there have been articles submitted by several people in Fidonet and some from other than Zone 1. This makes me feel good to think that you feel trusting enough in me to submit articles.

So far, the response in the Fidonews Echo has been good. The talk has been relatively civil and beneficial. Oh, there have been some things that have headed in the wrong direction, but you, for the most part, have pulled them back and from your intelligence, have prevented problems. Oh sure, I've made some Moderator messages, but for the most part, things have been going well.

My hat's off to you all.

You might have noticed a change in the last posting of the Fidonews Publication. It was suggested to me via a Netmail message that the topics should be changed when a thread changes. This started me to thinking about the posting of the Fidonews Publication and the subjects in each message posted. I looked at the Newsprep program and found that it posted each article with the subject of the section that each article came from. This seemed to be better to me. I contacted Carl Bennett and sent him the Newsprep program. He tried it and used it to post the last Fidonews Publication. I thank Carl for being willing to try this and for making it work for the Fidonews. Thanks, Carl.

Also, you might have noticed the file_id in the Fidonews zip file. Wilfred van Velzen had asked me about this when Warren Bonner was editor. At that time, I was working on a batch file to help in the production of the Fidonews and Wilfred's question was in regards to the file_id not being complete with the list of articles in the edition.

I didn't know how to make this happen at that time and was more concerned with getting the production part working. At any rate, when I became the editor, Wilfred asked again about the file_id. I looked deeper into it and finally found the solution. The file_id now shows the list of articles in the issue. Thank you Wilfred for staying on me about that. :-)

I was asked the below question in E-Mail and my answer follows. Vlad Hrusca writes: "I want to ask you: why you see only bad things in FidoNet?"

My Answer:

I do not see only bad things in Fidonet. I publish what is sent to me by others. In the short time that I have been the editor, I have added the ascii comics back into the Fidonews, started interviews with Fidonet software authors, offered a place for those that offer services to Fidonet such as Echomail feeds to advertise and other positive things. I have a section of the Fidonews open for "Fidonet Web Page Reviews" and "Fidonet Software Reviews". I do not see only bad things in Fidonet.

Please understand that I do not write all of the Fidonews. As editor, I receive submissions from others and publish those submissions. What I receive from these "reporters" can and does make the Fidonews appear positive or negative.

In Addition to the above: I want everyone to know and understand that the Fidonews relies on submissions of articles. If the articles are negative, the Fidonews is negative. If the articles are positive, the Fidonews is positive. It is up to you as the members of Fidonet to "color" the Fidonews. If you want positive, send me positive. The Fidonews reflects the people in Fidonet.

Regards,

Frank Vest, Editor