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A return to Fidonet?
By Louie Gonsalves, hobbes@tigerden.dynip.com

I am an ex-Fidonet sysop. I came to FidoNet circa 1993 as a user, became a sysop around late 1994, and by mid-1998 had pulled the plug, for various reasons. One of those reasons was personal, real-life stuff, another was the local net I headed in North Dakota pretty much disintegrated after the Flood of 1997. Wiped out. Gone.

Yet here I am. It's late 2001, almost eight years after I got my first node number, four years after I called it quits, and I am considering getting back IN.

Why? Simple. I miss it. I miss echomail, I miss running a BBS. Headaches and all =o)

I do have a pile of questions. I've been out of the loop for four years. I've read the back issues of the Snooze, but nothing's clearer.

1. To be fido these days.. telephone number needed, or is tcp/ip enough? Or more accurately: Is a tcp/ip name sufficent to be nodelisted?
2. The old geographical limitations still in place? IE, could I get a nodenumber from another net, should the NC responsible for this area be unresponsive? (NOTE: I haven't contacted him, so I don't know. It's just a question.)

Then again, I do question my sanity. I see P4 is still the Policy in effect. sigh. I see the Nodelist has shrunk to levels that I had never seen. Of course, this could be argued to be a good thing, meaning all the deadwood's gone and those that remain do so 'cause they enjoy Fido. Right?

I actually intend to put up a real BBS. Telnet-and-www-only for now. I may add dialup. But primarily, I'm doing this for myself. I do miss FidoNet. Reading most of the old snooze issues (yes, from #1 till present) brought back memories, and gave perspective.

Kind regards,

Louie Gonsalves, ex-1:285/59, ex-1:2808/0