Rebuttals to Previous Articles

"Wagging the Dog"
By Andrea Santos, 1:135/382, asantos@santronics.com

In response to CAB's article last week on "Leash Laws," what he and his cohorts in Oshawa and, specifically, Net 229 continually fail to comprehend is the out of area ION nodes they list, a number of which are not even running valid Mailers, were never theirs to have.

While Net 229 may not adhere to Policy 4 in any manner, the rest of Zone 1 does, and the rules pertaining to out of area geographic listings are clear. If there is a technical reason (includes non-response from *C above) why a node cannot be listed in their geographic Net/Region, an out of area listing would be prudent. If there exist personality issues between a node and their NC/RC to the point of incompatibility, an out of area listing should also be considered by the *C above the frey.

What's at issue is the intentions and motivation of Net 229, which have absolutely nothing to do with the legitimate reasons cited above for requesting an out of area listing. Plain and simply, it's about stuffing their nodelist segment with nodes, regardless, even if they are not technically compliant.

Doing this serves several purposes:

• Pounding collective chests that Net 229 and, hence, Region 12 is listing nodes at a faster clip while other Nets/Regions are not or doing so at a slower pace.
• Thumbing P4, the ongoing game.
• Blatant attempt to collect nodes in the event Fidonet should ever proceed with a Sysop Level vote for Z1C with the goal of Region 12 determining who will become Z1C at the expense of all other Regions.

To be clear, what this isn't about is some altruistic effort on the part of Net 229 to encourage the growth of Fidonet. It is about growing one little spec on the North American Map to further the political goals of a small minority of disgruntled nodes, clustered in a "geographic" Net/ Region. Ironically, we are back to geography, but on terms not defined or recognized in Policy 4.

The incessant whining from this crowd is old and tiring. Either live within the rules of Zone 1 and forward on legitimate nodes to their applicable Nets/Regions or pack up and apply for Zone 12 status.