Editorial

The Fidonews Is For...
By Frank Vest

Much has been said over the last few weeks about the Fidonews and what should be allowed or not allowed in it. This editor has taken a poll, listened and tried to understand from all points of view. The points of view from people in Fidonet vary widely, from the belief that the Fidonews should be strictly a technical publication, to the belief that any and all articles should be allowed.

I offer the following quote from Tom Jennings, REF: "http://www.well.com/~jonl/works/tjennings.html"

"FidoNews was designed in '84 in the first year as the meta-net, to discuss the net itself, to discuss the social end of the net. In the first issue was a retired Air Force colonel or something, whining about the military retirement process, and people instantly said, "This is supposed to be a technical newsletter, this is FidoNet." and I said, "No, bullshit, it's not. I'm tired of just this techie crap. Do you talk on the phone about your telephone all the time? 'Gee, I've got a great new phone, it's got all these pushbuttons.' and you get bored very quickly. It's like radio amateurs talking about their goddamn antennas." Who wants to put up with that stuff?"
-Tom Jennings

While the wording is a little crude, Tom captures what the Fidonews, and Fidonet, is and isn't about. In the very first sentence, Tom refers to the "social end of the net". Ladies and gentlemen, The Fidonews is more than just a technical newsletter for Fidonet. Fidonet is more than just a technical network. Were it not, there would be no echos such as "BARBROOM", "CHATTER", "MUSIC" and such. All we would have is "*TECH" type echos.

It has been argued that the Fidonews should be about Fidonet. I couldn't agree more.

Now, what is Fidonet about? Is Fidonet just about computers, software, networking, technical aspects? This editor thinks not. Fidonet is about people, communication, the social aspects. If the Internet was only about the Internet, where would it be? If only Internet related topics were allowed on the Internet, what would be on the Internet? Not much more than a few pages giving information on how to contact and get an account with an ISP. If Fidonet were the same way, there would be little more than a few echos telling how to set up and receive the echos telling how to set up and receive the echos about setting up to receive the echos about.... :-)

In this light, if the Internet had a newsletter that was only for or about the Internet, what articles would be in it? Answer?: Articles about how the Internet worked on a technical basis, how to set up to connect to an ISP to receive web pages on how to set up and receive web pages about how to set up..... The Fidonews would be much the same. :(

No. Fidonet is about people. Communication, social aspects and interaction. In the international aspect, it is about other cultures, learning, and more. If this were a newsletter about astrology, it would be easy to get articles. There would be thousands of astrologers that had nothing better to do than, or interest in, writing about the stars. Articles would flow constantly about this new star or that new telescope. It is harder to get these "cantankerous" people in Fidonet to write articles. :-)

Ladies and gentlemen. The Fidonews is about people, interaction between those people, cultures, learning about people and cultures and, of course, the technical end of Fidonet. It has been said from all over Fidonet that `others', meaning those that are not in "our" country, don't understand us and don't know about us. It's been argued that the Fidonews is dominated by `others'. I ask, why? Why do you allow this to happen? Why don't you write an article about your land, culture or whatever? True, it might not be interesting to all, but, neither are the latest init strings to a 56k modem. It might, however, be of interest to some.

There are many sections in the Fidonews. Some may seem to not "fit" in the Fidonews. I put it to you that this depends on the reader, the writer and the article. In all the sections of the Fidonews, the below are the ones that I see as "not really about Fidonet";

Comix
Fidonet's International Kitchen
Poet's Corner
Clean Humor and Jokes
Special Interest

Guess which sections I get the most articles for???

Yup, you guessed it. The above mentioned sections.

I'm going to end this with a thought. The next time you feel the need to complain about an article that "doesn't belong in the Fidonews", think about what Fidonet is for and what the Fidonews is for. Then, write an article and send it in. While you're at it, write an article that does "fit" in the Fidonews and submit it. That way you will have two voices in the Fidonews and the Fidonews will have articles to publish that are about Fidonet from Fidonet people.

Kind regards,

Frank Vest - Editor, Fidonews