Rebuttals to Previous Articles

Rebuttal to "Zone 2 participation of FidoNews."
By Frank Vest
1:124/6308

In last week's edition, Michiel Van Der Vlist wrote his views about why articles weren't submitted by other Zones in Fidonet. I'd like to try to answer some of his thoughts and give my views.

For the sake of separating what Mr. Van Der Vlist said, his words will be between the = marks in this rebuttal.

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The snooze is zone 1 dominated because potential contributors from other zones are put off by the zone 1 dominance. A vicious circle. Maybe you as editor should ask what the readers outside zone 1 are NOT interested in seeing in the snooze. My list would be:
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I really don't see that the Fidonews is dominated by Zone 1. Maybe there are a lot of articles from Zone 1. That doesn't mean domination.

I think I have asked what readers would or would not want, inside and outside of Zone 1, in some form in the past. I know I've asked myself that question a lot. It's not an easy question to answer with all the variety in Fidonet, even in other Zones.

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1) Articles that cover topics of only local interest, such as RC and ZC elections. They stir some interest but after the third round it gets very boring.
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I'm going to take a guess that this stems from the past position of posting messages as articles in the Fidonews. I said that I wouldn't do that, and I believe I have not. This part is a non-issue.

I will say this; If there is an election going on in a Zone, Region or Net in Fidonet, I will accept an announcement of it. I will not have a "blow by blow" of the process as has been done in the past. Announcing the election and the results is, imho, of interest to Fidonet. It lets people know, that might not otherwise know, that an important election is happening in their area. It also lets the rest of Fidonet know that something might be happening or changing that could affect them. Yes, we can all be affected by happenings in other Zones, Regions and Nets in Fidonet. The announcement of the election and the end results are of interest. The process, or "blow by blow", is not.

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2) Articles in a language I can not read. The idea may be good but it is not going to work. The only examples of successful multilangual magazines I have seen are the fodder that airline companies feed us to keep our thoughts from hitting the ground at a vertical speed higher than the landing gear can take.
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I agree that this won't work. It is a great thought and would be great if possible. I just can't see how. Maybe I'm short sighted. I said in the Editorial last week that Fidonews is "global". We have many languages in Fidonet. To try to cover them all is not within scope. To try to have a language known by most areas is the way to go. English seems to be the closest to an "international language" that we have.

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3) "Tear jerkers" as Sharon Westons' "The warmth of a smile." Maybe in NA culture such stories are an unconditional 'go', but imnsho it belongs in the Salvation Army's Digest or whatever it is called. My response when I see it in FidoNews is: "What's it got to do with FidoNet?
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I'm not real sure what is meant by the reference to "Sharon Weston". For the "What's it got to do with Fidonet?" I'm not sure of that either.

What some of the articles have to with Fidonet is that they are about people or events that affect Fidonet people. Would it be good to have all articles relate directly to Fidonet? Wouldn't that get boring just the same as anything else? A Fidonews that was all "Technical", "Fidonet Web Page Reviews", "Fidonet Software Reviews" and various other Fidonet articles strictly about Fidonet would get just as boring, imho.

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I respect the tradition of FidoNews editors to publish anything not in violation of the (NA?) law. Maybe it is time however to review this policy. Maybe it is time to define the topic of FidoNews and restrict articles to those that are on topic.
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What would the "topic" of Fidonews be?

I would like to see more articles that are "Fidonet related", whatever that means. However, I don't see a problem with ascii comix, poetry and other articles. We are people and Fidonet is about people as much as it is about anything else.

What I do see as a problem is that the complaints that there are no articles relating to Fidonet are not met with submissions of articles related to Fidonet. The complaints that the Fidonews is one sided are not met with submissions from the other sides.

I'll end this with something that if I haven't said, I should have;

I'm not like former Fidonews Editors. I'll probably be unlike any future Fidonews Editors. I have done many things different and changed many things in the Fidonews. I've tried different approaches and other ideas to improve the Fidonews. All this, in the interest of Fidonet. Some have been good and others not so good. But, when you boil it all down, it's not Frank Vest that makes the Fidonews. It's Fidonet! The Sysops, and people in Fidonet! It is what you make of it!

Best wishes to All,

Frank Vest - Editor, Fidonews