From The *CS

• Zone 1 Internet only Nodes : part 1
• Let's not bring back geo-restrictive leash laws

Zone 1 Internet only Nodes : part 1
by Janis Kracht, Z1C

This is one of a series of articles which define guidelines and proceedures for several aspects of nodelisting internet only nodes. The first of these deals with the geographic listing of new internet only nodes.

Zone 1 members may wish to join the discussion of these in the Z1C echo.

There has been some discussion in various echos about how or where nodes may be listed if an existing fidonet node, NC or RC receives an application from a prospective new member. None of this is really any different than what has been done in the past, but for the sake of new sysops and to answer some questions on this, an outline of the proceedure may be helpful.

I. Guidelines for nodelisting new ION nodes
1: ION Applicants who contact you who live in another region or net.
2-4: What to do if you get no response from the applicant's NC or RC.
II: ION nodes vs Dialup nodes and geographic placement.

I. Guidelines for nodelisting new ION nodes

1 - ION Applicants who contact you who live in another region or net: If an applicant who doesn't live in your region contacts you regarding joining Fidonet, help him all you like with his setup, but direct him to the NC where he lives to get a node number. If the net doesn't exist anymore in that geographic area and you have a question regarding what net this applicant would belong to, you can contact the RC of the applicant's Region.

2 - What to do if you get no response from the applicant's NC or RC: If you get no response within a few days from the NC you've contacted, contact the RC of the geographically correct area where the applicant lives.

3 - If you have had no response from the RC of his region within a week, contact the Z1C. NCs or RCs can contact me, or have the applicant contact me via Netmail, or e-mail, (janis@filegate.net), or my dialup line (502-245-6778), or my telnet bbs (filegate.net) at 1:2320/38.

4 - Geographic exemptions are granted on a case by case basis as they always have been. Those desiring to be placed in a net or region other than their geographic net or region should work out details with the NC or RC of the net or region where the applicant lives, and the non-geographic NC or RC.

II - ION nodes vs Dialup nodes and geographic placement:

As many of you know, those in some other Zones do not allow Internet-only systems to be listed in the nodelist, but list them rather as points; these points neither vote or are part of zone/regional/net elections. Here in Zone 1, however, internet only nodes are listed in nodelist, since the method of connection which a sysop uses does not make the node less reachable.

Dialup nodes using crash mail are not much different than Binkp nodes using crash-mail. The vehicle of delivery does not change the way nodelisted internet nodes connect to other nodelisted internet nodes, and the way that dialup nodelisted system communicate with these internet nodes in our common echomail pool, and routed netmail scheme.

Likewise, the use of regional organization of networks and nodelisted sysops has not changed simply because a node connects via binkd, binkp, telnet or ftp. The listing of new members should be consistent with existing geographic nets and regions where possible.

Please note that where a node is nodelisted has no bearing on where he or she picks up Backbone echomail traffic. A node may connect anywhere desired to do so.

Janis Kracht
Z1C

Let's not bring back geo-restrictive leash laws!
Carl Austin Bennett 1:249/116

Many dog-years ago in the faraway land of Lancaster, a poor abused Fido was on a short leash being pelted with lumps of Kohl, its netmail dog-eared and spied upon and its howling stifled. From the north came an offer of a better home for this poor Fido, and net 2404 came into being as a humane refuge followed by word from on high that that short geographic leash on Fido nodes in this zone was a thing of the past as the time had come to "pre-grant all geographic exemptions."

Years passed and many of Fido's puppy friends have moved on, lured away by the sights and sounds of the big, colourful Internet.

The kennel seemed almost silent, except for one strange little puppy from Oshawa who was busy working like a dog while all the other Fidos seemed more interested in letting sleeping dogs lie.

Fido229 missed all those other puppies dearly but he had a plan.

With a small barrel of Fido packets and info around his neck and an eager wag of the tail, he was going to the four corners of the Internet to sniff out the friends that had run away in order to bring them back into the Fido fold. Instead of the webbed footprints of Internet representing an enemy, they became a way for Fido to bark farther and louder and a means of fulfilling this puppy's dream.

While this didn't bring the kennel back to what it once was, it helped to slow the inevitable decline as dogs came excitedly running from many faraway Internet places to see what the Fido229 puppy had fetched for them.

As a host is a host from coast to coast in Internet land, the short leash of geographic restrictions and the oddball more-expensive-to-call-US-instate limits from the dialup days no longer made sense. As long as a pair of Fidos were barking in the same language (sadly not a given in the tower of Babel of diverse incompatible Fido-over-Internet standards) distance now meant nothing. Every puppy was now free to choose his own home, often based on technical considerations which had nothing to do with geography.

Yes, doggies in the north had tried various ways of gathering into packs. One pack would try to gather entirely geographically just because they all lived near the TransX factory, only to find that the dog who only barked over dial-up 'phones couldn't make himself heard to the dog who only knew e-mail attach. Another pack would be based on a common ability to fetch mail over Internet, but geographically would be scattered far and wide.

Ultimately, though, the old ways were dead. The dogs had adapted to survive. Those who thought one couldn't teach an old dog new tricks were first to go.

In some places, there weren't enough Fidos left to build a pack based on a solely geographical basis. In others, kennel co-ordinators had simply wandered away without saying a word or had become so absent and unresponsive that it was difficult or impossible to join the local pack even if one could still be sniffed out under all of the rubble.

Inevitably, the Fido229 pack grew even while many others were simply fading away. Fido finally had a guard dog to protect it from the big bad Internet.

This should be great news and all the other regions of all the other Fidos should be working like dogs to do what Fido229 has done, get onto the Internet, get the IP tools into the paws of all their puppy friends, build a pack of happy Internet-aware Fidos like the one in the north. If there were more packs of Fidos like Fido229's, they could all go out onto the Internet and sniff out prospective new nodes, racing one against the other to put an end to the uncontrolled shrinkage in zone one's Fido ranks.

This would have been the best way to ensure a future for Fido in this zone.

Unfortunately, instead of doing anything so constructive, the regional canines in the southeast started howling and bitching loudly, all but barking at the moon, while attempting to mark territory by burying it under large and unappetising quantities of peefour. There should be a policy to inflict a tight leash and strangle these Internet-based fidos from Oshawa, they barked, all the while knowing full well that the dozen-year-long string of failed attempts at creating policies far predated anything resembling commercial ISPs. There should be a double standard by which the southeastern fidos are free to lure a whole Collingwood, Ontario pack away while arbitrary obstacles are placed in the path of the growing Fido229 group. Better yet, this double standard should be created in some restricted echo far from the prying eyes of the 229 dogs, in the finest dog-eat-dog "give a dog a name and hang him" traditions. And who better to do the dirty work than the Z1dogCatcher herself?

All the while, they would loudly bark "Fido229 is not the only Fido that is capable of listing new nodes" but do absolutely nothing to sniff out new nodes or to get fido-via-Internet tools into the paws of prospective fidos.

And what of the Z1dogCatcher? Her reaction is the clearest sign yet that this entire zone has gone to the dogs. Instead of making any attempt to encourage the other regions to follow in Fido229's pawprints and make an extra effort to lend a helping paw to prospective Internet-based nodes, she came back with yet another attempt at a malicious restrictive policy to mark territory.

Instead of actually making an effort to sniff out new nodes, the lazy dogs that have taken over much of Fido zone one would be free to do nothing while the Fido229 puppy works like a dog to find new puppies, then use geographical restrictions (yes, the ones that were scrapped years ago after even Mr. Satti "noted" [tm] that the time to pre-grant all geographic exemptions had come) to prevent those new nodes from easily obtaining 1:229 addresses if they ask for them. Despite what she'd have us believe, this is not merely the status quo.

So the proposal was to use a short geographic leash force the new puppy to go to the local kennel first (even if they ask to be listed elsewhere), then wait at least a week for a reply from an absent or missing kennel co-ordinator before even going elsewhere in-region. The first response to this obstacle? A reply from one of the local kennel co-ordinators in the southeast explaining how he likes to be able to neglect his Fido puppies and abandon them for weeks on end while travelling on business! Then suddenly it's OK to make it two weeks, make it many weeks, make it so many weeks that the once-eager puppy gives up and wanders away, back to the big bad Internet. Meanwhile, no attempt to report neglectful or absent kennel co-ordinators to the SPCA or anyone else. This isn't about Fido's best interests; this is about the preservation of political power over a dwindling pack of dogs.

Fido can't afford this anymore.

If the effort that has been put into starting political dog-fights by running through admin echos barking "the Z1 bone doesn't exist" and "the Z1 bone shouldn't exist, so I'm going to dig a hole and bury it" or "I appoint myself moderator of all the file bones and I'm going to tell you which route list to use; look at me, I'm so important, vote me for dogcatcher!..." were instead channeled into actually sniffing out new nodes and putting Internet-aware Fido tools into eager paws, this zone would not be declining so quickly. Sadly, while the public echos are all but empty now, the admin areas are filled with mail from one or another regional or zone-level dog with nothing better to do than bark at everyone while loudly insisting on being the leader of the pack. No wonder many leave.

Using prospective or new nodes as pawns in this senseless dogfight right now is the worst thing that Fido can do if he wants to remain an active dog.

Interfere with the efforts of those attempting to bring new puppies into the Fidonet kennel and one only hastens the arrival of the day where Fido pawprints are gone from all of zone one forever.

My response to all of this?

I don't care if you're the Z1dogCatcher and I don't care if you have enough empty kennels to fill an entire region. If you want to interfere with the efforts of the Fido229 puppy or any others like it to find new nodes anywhere out to the four corners of the Internet, you do not have my assistance.

I will ignore your barking. The time has come to bury these attitudes, stop marking territory and work like a dog to sniff out new nodes wherever they can be found. If you're not willing to be the solution, at least find the foresight not to make yourselves part of the problem!