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Volume 4, Number 13 6 April 1987
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| _ |
| / \ |
| /|oo \ |
| - FidoNews - (_| /_) |
| _`@/_ \ _ |
| International | | \ \\ |
| FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) |
| Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// |
| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
| (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
| (jm) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson
Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings
FidoNews is the official newsletter of the International FidoNet
Association, and is published weekly by SEAdog Leader, node 1/1.
You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1/1.
Copyright (C) 1987, by the International FidoNet Association.
All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted
for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances,
please contact IFNA.
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL
Editor Unleashed?? Author Unleashed!!
2. ARTICLES
CROBOTS Tournament Software
EchoMail Etiquette - an Alternative to Censorship
Net 107 Phone Number Changes
Formation of a new HUB in Net 107
The IFNA Scorecard
3. COLUMNS
Column with No Name
TANDY 1000 and the Copy OPTION Board
4. NOTICES
The Interrupt Stack
AREA:HPUSER echo area moderated by 138/3
Fidonews Page 2 6 Apr 1987
=================================================================
EDITORIAL
=================================================================
This week's guest editorial is by Steve Jordan, 102/2871.
Editor Unleashed?? Author Unleashed!!
I have "bit my tongue" also. What IFNA and FidoNet needs is
leadership. What I am about to say may banish me to freeze in
some remote place in California. I may be isolated from all
FidoNet. Actually, I don't have much to lose because I am
already there. (Lompoc_CA < paradise)
I wrote an original version of the bylaws. I decided that there
was enough bitching, and that I should do something. That was to
be a contribuiton. I surmised that the people in charge were too
busy to do any thing positve. I was "volunteered" as a co-chair
of the (in)famous bylaws committee. I was in Nashua, NH.
(Nashua_NH_Nov < paradise) My bylaws were correctly discarded.
The present bylaws are flawed. I must take exception to your
exceptions. (This is at the risk of being redundant and repeating
myself. Is this redundant recursion or recursive redundancy??)
TOO MANY DIRECTORS??- yes. We TRIED to change that. That is the
biggest flaw of the present bylaws. Those twenty should vote to
reduce their own numbers. But that is unlikely. A mistake that
we may have to live with.
OVER ORGANIZED- Yes, it does appear that IFNA is "over"
organized. We hoped that more than 200 would join. We dreamed
that 2,000 would join. If 2,000 or 10,000 join, we will need
more organization. Any bylaws should be room for expansion. If
we did not want expansion, we should have kept the nodelist at
800, 80, or 8 (depending on when YOU joined.) This process is
much too painful to be done yearly. 20 directors are TOO many. I
agree and have fought for a more reasonable 11. It was a
compromise so that we could go on with our life. I among others
had hoped to fix it prior to "release."
NAMES- Yes, we do have a "Board of Directors." Why??? Easy.
That is how the rest of the world does it. When talking to
potential members and IRS, it is nice to have a common point of
reference.
Does the world need a new set of names for officers? No. Does
the world need another PC keyboard? Let me see. YOU could
reconfigure the keyboard in your programs. Maybe in SEAdog 5.0
when a user hit ALT-H will he get: "Help, you don't need help.
Help is for wimps. Type ALT-W (for wimp) if you feel you NEED it
and cannot read the docs."
Is IFNA the only organization that we need? Is there a world
beyond Fido? (Now that is an interesting question...)
FUN- Yes, we need to have fun. Accomplishment is fun. Doing the
Fidonews Page 3 6 Apr 1987
impossible is an incredible experience. Sarcasm is fun. Funny
names are funny names.
The officers of Capitol PC group enjoy attacking Lotus and Ashton
Tate. That is fun, too.
MAJOR point. The biggest problem facing IFNA and FidoNet is
attracting people who can work and can lead!!! The present Board
of Directors do not have enough time, energy, money, nor SUPPORT
to do the job. Non-profit organization run on the volunteered
time of many. Those volunteers will make mistakes and "flake
out." They also will put in incredible efforts.
Our job is to attract those people. Titles help. Committees
help. Recognition helps. We need an organization ladder that
others can climb .
People want change and growth. That is the attraction of
FidoNet. People want recognition. That is why many
organizations have a new president EVERY year. One year in the
limelight for 5 or 10 years of work is not a bad trade. Some
people like to build their resumes with impressive titles. I own
my own company. A title means nothing to me, but others are
different.
Your criticism are well founded, but a little misguided.
Politics is the art of compromise. Programming is the art of
perfection. IFNA is now in the realm of the politicians (good
AND bad). We have a set of bylaws. Now the job is get them to
work long enough to FIX them. As I stated in the bylaws
committee, if we adopt those bylaws with ammendments, we will be
condemmed to fight these battles for another year (at least).
Warts and all, we have bylaws. We have policy. I guess our next
convention will spend a lot of time discussing bylaws and
election of officers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 4 6 Apr 1987
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
CROBOTS Tournament Software - Run a tournament on your BBS!
By Robert Heller
Hello, I am Robert Heller and I am the SysOp of a BBS in the
small town of Wendell, Mass. I run as part of my BBS a CROBOTS
tournament. CROBOTS is a "game" written by Tom Poindexter of
Bloomington, IL. It is a subset C compiler and virtual machine
emulator of sorts. It has a 1000 meter square battlefield in
which two to four robots battle it out. Unlike the usual arcade
game, the robots are not controlled by joysticks or paddles.
Instead the players write a C program that is the embodiment of
the playing stratagy. The C program(s) are compiled and loaded
into the robots and the robots then fight.
On my BBS I have a file area set aside for people to upload robot
programs. I enter these programs into a database and run a
program which generates a tournament: it pits the robots in pairs
against each other and processes the match results. It also
generates commentary on the matches - sort of like the blow-by-
blow of a sports writer. It uses a function I translated from
SNOBOL4 to C to generate "random" English text. Here is an
excerpt from such a commentery:
Match set 1
These hw class matches feature scan.r vs. hxk.r. scan.r was
written by Randy MacLean, who describes it as "Scanning Robot".
scan.r has appeared in 105 matches, winning 89 of them with 6
ties. hxk.r was written by John Hardin, who describes it as
"Hunter-Killer". hxk.r has appeared in 63 matches, winning 28 of
them with 1 ties.
Round 1: After 10260 cycles, scan.r has suffered 100% dammage and
hxk.r has suffered 96% dammage. hxk.r zeros scan.r, 1-zip.
hxk.r's strategys were cunning!
Round 2: After 14085 cycles, scan.r has suffered 17% dammage and
hxk.r has suffered 100% dammage. scan.r ties up the series at 1
rounds each. scan.r's efforts were splendid!
Round 3: After 11760 cycles, scan.r has suffered 55% dammage and
hxk.r has suffered 100% dammage. scan.r edges by hxk.r bringing
the series to 2 to 1. scan.r's strategys were nifty!
Round 4: After 7575 cycles, scan.r has suffered 100% dammage and
hxk.r has suffered 81% dammage. hxk.r ties up the series at 2
rounds each. hxk.r's strategys were very brilliant!
Round 5: After 11205 cycles, scan.r has suffered 58% dammage and
hxk.r has suffered 100% dammage. scan.r edges by hxk.r bringing
the series to 3 to 2. scan.r's performances were good!
Round 6: After 11310 cycles, scan.r has suffered 80% dammage and
Fidonews Page 5 6 Apr 1987
hxk.r has suffered 100% dammage. scan.r increases its lead over
hxk.r, 4 to 2. scan.r's plays were very slick!
Round 7: After 11340 cycles, scan.r has suffered 55% dammage and
hxk.r has suffered 100% dammage. scan.r widens the gap over hxk.r
5-2. scan.r's plays were cunning!
scan.r wins the heat by 3, 5 to 2. scan.r's efforts were bright!
------(commentary continues)----
The software to generate the matches and generate the commentary
is all coded in C and should be portable to almost any system
with a C compiler. I use David Betz's SDB for the data base -
this can probably be easily adapted to use another C-callable DB
system. The program I use runs on my Stride 440 under CP/M-68K
1.2 and makes use of CP/M-68K chain to program BDOS function -
the main C program generates a submit (command procedure file)
that runs the CROBOTS program in match mode and then submits the
generated file. The last command in the submit file runs a
second program which analyzes the results of the matches, updates
the DB, generates the commentary and writes a new submit file
(pits the winners of each match against each other) and then
chains to the new submit file. The last command in this submit
file also runs the second program. When there is only one robot
left the program exits without chaining.
CROBOTS itself is available on many BBS's as shareware - the free
archive contains an executable and documentation and runs under
MS-DOS. Source code is available at for a small fee (I bought
the sources and adapted it to run under CP/M-68K).
My added code is available with complete sources. Presently the
three pieces (SDB, Tourn, and SNOBOL) are on GEnie (SDB and
SNOBOL (contains the random sentence generator and support code)
in the CP/M Roundtable and Tourn in the BBS Roundtable). I have
upload some of the code to some of the local Fidos. If you are
interested in getting this software, I can upload the three
pieces to a Fido somewhere and mail it, although some of the
files are quite large, or put them on floppies (DEC Rainbow CP/M-
80/86 (RX50 - single-sided, double-density, 96TPI) format or
Sage/Stride DSDD 96TPI CP/M-68K format). Sorry, I can't write
MS-DOS format floppies.
My system is not on FidoNet, but I can be reached at either Daves
Fido in Gardner, MA (101/27) or Orange Fido in Orange, MA
(101/147) or via one of these other networks/services:
ARPANet: Heller@CS.UMass.Edu
BITNET: Heller@UMass.BitNet
BIX: Heller
GENie: RHeller
CompuServ: 71450,3432
Robert Heller
Sysop, Locks Hill BBS in Wendell, MA
Fidonews Page 6 6 Apr 1987
(Locks Hill BBS: 617-544-6933, 19:30 to 07:00 EST, 300/1200 BAUD)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 7 6 Apr 1987
____
/ \
| \
| * /
! ATTENTION ! | | From
| |
| |
| | dela-WARE
| \
*NEW* Products | \
| \
| \ Mike Jacobs
| \_ 150/900
for Fido SysOps | |
| C= Randall Kobetich
|___________| 150/130
dela-WARE
is a
ShareWare
Concept
MINILIST.ARC Have you noticed nodes dropping off of your nodelist
and do not like to have to manually hack it up to
get mail to move? Fido can not handle over 1200
nodes. Well MINILIST solves this problem. It uses a
control file and creates a TINY nodelist for just
those nodes you wish to do mail with. This can
include a whole net or just individual nodes. This
way you will be able to do mail with ALL nodes in
the nodelist without having to manually change it
and lose other nodes. GREAT Tie over till FIDO v12
arrives.
NODEKILL.COM Have you accidently generated many notes for one
node that you did not want to send to or is not on
the nodelist? Well this little utility will kill all
notes To or From a particular node. This gets rid of
that nasty, tedious note killing you hate. VERY
HANDY! (For help type NODEKILL).
ARCWIPE.COM This nifty little utility gets rid of those stray
arcmail packets that waste space on your hard-drive.
Note killing and some programs do not kill the
associated packet. With this program you set
parameters as to how many days old a note and packet
should be when they are to be deleted. Helps get rid
of having to sort through files. VERY USEFUL! (For
help type ARCWIPE).
All of these products are File requestable from 150/1. They are
also available for simple download from
150/130 Starfleet Command Elsmere,DE 1-302-654-2900
Fidonews Page 8 6 Apr 1987
All questions or information are to be directed to Mike Jacobs at
150/900 and Randall Kobetich at 150/130
All (dela-WARE) products are distributed under a *ShareWare*
Concept. This means you are free to copy and distribute to all.
If you find this program useful, please contact us and we would
appreciate a Buck or Two. We both might like to get a PIZZA out
of this.
ENJOY!! Randall Kobetich & Mike Jacobs
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 9 6 Apr 1987
John Simonson, 260/208
EchoMail "Netiquette": An alternative to censorship.
Karl Andrews has recently (FidoNews Vol. 4, No. 7, Feb. 16, 1987)
proposed that the Echomail conferences be censored. I found his
points to be interesting, and quite valid. Echomail is growing
rapidly, and is an excellent addition to Fidonet. Along with the
growth have come "abuses" unfortunately. Most of these abuses
are (probably) unintentional, the result of new users not knowing
better, or even old-time Fido users used to regular Fidomail.
Censorship may be a bit of a draconian measure. It imposes a
burden on the Sysop, because every message must be screened
before going out. This screening process could also slow down
the entire process of getting echomail messages posted. While I
agree with Mr. Andrews that there should be some censorship, I
believe it would be better that the "censorship" originate within
the author of a posting, as UseNet has been doing for some time
with most of its newsgroups.
UseNet may provide a good model for Echomail in many ways; most
of the newsgroups (roughly equivalent to Echomail areas) are open
to postings from anyone with access to UseNet - although some
self-imposed restrictions - such as posting to the correct
newsgroup(s) - are expected of those posting to the net. Other
newsgroups are moderated, that is all postings are sent not
directly to the newgroups, but to a central moderator, a person
(or persons working together) responsible for editing (censoring)
the postings submitted.
Echomail could follow a similar scheme; areas for free posting
and for moderated postings can co-exist. Certain areas could be
moderated by the Sysop of the Fido originating a posting, other
areas could be moderated by a volunteer moderator (perhaps for
each net or region - or zone?), collated at some central node,
and then re-dispersed. Other areas would be as they are now - in
that anyone could freely post to them. The only difference that
I would like to see is that those posting understand Echomail a
little more (especially vis-a-vis regular Fidomail) and consider
following some suggested guidelines. (Ahh - we finally arrive at
the main point of this submission....)
Like Mr. Andrew, I would like to see Echomail cleaned up a bit.
Right now, I retain only about five days worth of TECH messages,
which usually amounts to about 150-200 messages. This takes up a
*lot* of space on our system, but *can* be very worthwhile.
However, looking at the messages, I see too many that consist of
a header, the "seen-by" lines, and a single message line
consisting of something like "I agree with Fred - but check the
syntax anyway" or "Wow - it was great seeing you at lunch the
other day, let's do it again." It is also exasperating to think
that each of these takes up a minimum of 2K on my hard disk.
Because of the fact that Echomail messages often arrive out of
sequence (or sometimes never) the responses to queries or
Fidonews Page 10 6 Apr 1987
problems can arrive before the query itself - or the query could
have been removed from the message base weeks before. when the
response give no clue as to what the original problem was - e.g.,
"Well, disconnect pin 24 and then check DTR", I - and presumably
others reading the messages on my system - can't benefit from the
wisdom dispensed - and Echomail can be a *very* valuable source
of information.
UseNet apparently had similar problems (and still does - every so
often, a less-than-circumspect poster gets "flamed" on the net
for his/her ill advised posting) so that someone wrote a document
on Network Etiquette, often referred to now as "Netiquette" (my
dog-eared copy indicates the author is one "Chuq Von Rospach
(nsc!chuqui)", with an apparent date of Sept. 1984 - although the
actual document may be older). What I want to do in the rest of
the article is to generate a clone of Netiquette intended for use
by Echomail users. Don't consider these as a fascist imposition
on the Fidonet/Echomail world. I think of Netiquette as a set of
very good suggestions; I hope the following, modified to reflect
differences between UseNet and Echomail, will also be taken as
suggestions. Furthermore, I hope that they are used as a
starting point, and that they will be refined and improved by
Sysops and users.
I'll start out with the "Summary of Things to Remember" as
presented at the end of the original Netiquette, and follow that
with an expansion of each point.
======================= Son of Netiquette =======================
Summary of Points
1) Never forget that the person on the other side is human.
2) Be brief
3) Your postings reflect on you; be proud of them
4) Use descriptive titles
5) Think about your audience
6) Be careful with humor and sarcasm
7) Only post a message once
8) Please rotate material with questionable content
9) Summarize what you are following up
10) Use mail, don't post a follow-up
11) Read all follow-ups, and don't repeat what has already been
said
13) Be careful about copyrights and licenses
13) Cite appropriate references
14) When summarizing, summarize
15) Mark or rotate answers or spoilers
16) Spelling flames considered harmful
17) Don't overdo signatures
----------------------------
Expansion of Points
"Never Forget the Person on the Other Side is Human"
As pointed out in the Original Netiquette (O.N. hereafter), your
interaction with the network is through Echomail and a computer,
Fidonews Page 11 6 Apr 1987
and it is easy to forget that there are people "out there". In
fact, the O.N. is so clear on this, I can think of nothing better
than to quote the remainder verbatim:
"Please remember that people all over the world are reading
your words. Do not attack people if you cannot persuade them
with your presentation of the facts. Screaming, cursing, and
abusing others only serves to make people think less of you
and less willing to help you when you need it.
If you are upset at something or someone, wait until you have
had a chance to calm down and think about it. A cup of
coffee or a good night's sleep works wonders on your
perspective. Hasty words create more problems than they
solve. Try not to say anything to others you would not say
to them in person in a room full of people."
"Be Brief"
Clear, concise, succinct postings will have a much more powerful
effect than a long rambling posting. If your audience isn't
grabbed by the first screenful, they will likely reach for the
'n' key and skip the rest of the posting. However, don't cut so
much that your posting looses its clarity.
"Your Postings Reflect Upon You; Be Proud of Them"
As stated in O.N., writing well is an art, and requires practice.
Try to avoid grammar and even spelling errors; you will be known
to many people on Fidonet only through your Echomail postings.
You know you're a nice person and intelligent to boot - let that
come though in your postings. You don't want your postings to
come back to haunt you.
"Use Descriptive Titles"
Fido lets you enter a title, or subject line; I believe that you
have up to 72 characters. Use that space to let potential
readers know what your posting is about. Don't ramble, but get
your point across; the 72 characters area a fixed overhead - 72
bytes are used, whether or not you fill them with information.
This subject line is probably more important for Echomail than it
is for Fidomail.
"Think About Your Audience"
When you post an article (submit a message to Echomail) think
about the audience you wish to reach. The TECH area is hardly a
place to post a joke; you would not try to get a Pascal problem
answered by posting the questions you had to the C_ECHO
conference. Similarly, it seems rather useless to place personal
messages ("see y'all for lunch next Tuesday") in an Echomail area
- it takes up space on many many systems, and is (likely) of no
interest to anyone on systems other than the originating system.
If you're sending a message to a friend on another Fido, use
Fidomail so it goes to your friend; Echomail broadcasts your
message to all connected systems. Sysops should perhaps make
users aware that posting messages in Echomail areas results in an
incredible propagation of that message. These (mostly accidental)
bogus postings cause the Echomail system to degenerate; if you
Fidonews Page 12 6 Apr 1987
have to wade through 15 useless messages to get at one gem, you
start to lose interest in bothering with reading Echomail at all.
"Be Careful with Humor and Sarcasm"
Most people use humor in their day-to-day interactions with
others. But on the phone, or in person, you can see expressions,
postures, etc., and pick up subtle voice inflections that tip you
off to attempts at humor. In the cold light of the video screen,
these cues are lost, and your humor may not be taken as humor -
and your readers will think you're a jerk, and be offended, when
all you intended to do is display your magnificent wit and
fantastic sense of humor. On UseNet people often signal a
humorous remark with a "smiley face" - a ":-)" construction. Try
it - you may find that you amuse 97% of the population rather
than having 98% of the population taking out a contract on your
life :-)
"Only Post a Message Once"
Recently, some poor (nameless) fellow deluged Echomail with ads
for a "headhunter" service. Not only was the message
inappropriately posted (wrong area according to some of those
flaming the guy), but the guy was remarkably diligent in posting
- I count 10-15 separate copies of his message (fairly long too,
compared to most messages) coming into my Echomail areas in 2
days, with a few more trickling in after that. Once again, I
think the poster didn't realize the aggravation that he would
cause, and the extent of the hard feeling directed toward him.
Remember, these messages cost sysops hard currency to send across
the phone lines, and take up space on there system, and again
massive multiple postings debilitate the Echomail network. If
you have to read ten copies of the same message to get to one
good message....
"Please Rotate Messages with Questionable Content"
This is a toughie for Echomail users. On UseNet, there is a
facility that "rotates" text, that is, performs a rough encoding
of the message text - an 'A' becomes an 'N', an 'M' a 'Z', and so
on. The news/mail reading software incorporates the ability to
rotate the text on entry and upon reading, if the user requests
it. We don't easily have this facility in Echomail; I would
think that those of us who have a facility such as SuperKey or
SideKick (PC & clones) or Doit (Rainbows) that allows us to paste
the contents of a file onto the screen could do something like
this. Perhaps we need to make available (on Fidos) software that
does the rotating, so that messages can be prepared with a text
editor (a good idea anyway - lets you edit and correct errors
much easier), then rotated, and pasted onto the screen while you
are in the process of posting your message/article. When reading
mail, you could cut the text from the screen (again with
something like SideKick or SuperKey), save it in a file, and
rotate the text later. This isn't just to protect delicate ears
(eyes? :-) ) from language that some might consider offensive;
see the point about marking or rotating answers or spoilers,
later in this document. You might also consider indicating in
the subject line that you have rotated some or all of the text of
the message.
Fidonews Page 13 6 Apr 1987
"Summarize What You are Following Up"
Another one of my pet peeves about many Echomail postings, is the
lack of reference to the original query, problem, or posting.
Some users of Echomail follow the UseNet convention of repeating
the critical lines of the original, with each line preceded by a
'>' symbol. UseNet actual carries this further: Postings
referring to references in an earlier posting use a double '>'
(>>) and the beginning of each line referenced by the previous
posting. I've noticed that the "Old Frog" of Rhinelander Wis.
(Ahh, lovely country up there - I've got relatives near Eagle
River...), Gee Wong and others follow the UseNet convention, and
it makes reading their postings much easier. As the O.N. said,
> Even if you are responding to the entire article, summarize
> only the major points you are discussing.
"When Summarizing, Summarize!"
When you request information on some topic from the members of
the network, it is a common courtesy to summarize and report your
finding to the net. This way the information is in one place,
and everyone on the net can benefit. Not everyone will have been
able to get all responses to the original request, and often the
best way to respond to requests is via Fidomail rather than via
Echomail. When summarizing, take the time to edit the replies,
strip mail headers and "seen-by" lines, and perhaps write a short
summary. If possible, give credit to those who took the time to
respond to your request for help.
"Use Mail, Don't Post a Follow-up"
As stated in O.N.: " One of the biggest problems we have on the
network is that when someone asks a question, many people send
out identical answers." This can really clog a network. Give
some thought before posting an answer to Echomail; a direct
response via regular Fidomail to the person with the question may
be the best route. If you do choose the latter route, you might
suggest that the recipient summarize to Echomail. Personally, I
think there is a fine line to be walked here - it is not
desirable to inhibit Echomail postings, but we don't need 200
people all responding with "on page 4-67 of the Dos Technical
manual, it states...." either. Thus the next point.
"Read All Follow-ups and Don't Repeat What Has Already Been Said"
From the O.N.:
"Before you submit a follow-up to a message, read the rest of
the messages in the newsgroup (Echomail area) to see whether
someone has already said what you want to say. If someone
has, don't repeat it."
"Be Careful About Copyrights and Licenses"
Again, directly from the O.N., with comments in square brackets:
"Once something is posted onto the network, it is effectively
in the public domain. When posting material to the network
keep in mind that material that is UNIX-related [or PC|MS-
DOS, for example] may be restricted by the license you or
your company signed with AT&T [Microsoft, etc.] and be
careful not to violate it. You should also be aware that
Fidonews Page 14 6 Apr 1987
posting movie reviews, song lyrics, or anything else
published under a copyright could cause you, your company, or
the net itself to be held liable for damages, so we highly
recommend caution in using this material."
Occasionally you see requests for copyrighted software "Yo Ernie
- I need Dos 3.2 to do something that I can't with 2.11 - ya
wanna send a copy to me - thanks, Bert". Even if the net was
acquitted of any wrongdoing, legal fees, hassles, etc. take their
toll.
"Cite Appropriate References"
I can't say it better than the O.N.:
"If you are using facts to support a cause, state where they
came from. Don't take someone else's ideas and use them as
your own. You don't want someone pretending that your ideas
are theirs; show them the same respect."
"Mark or Rotate Answers of Spoilers"
By answers, we mean answers to jokes, etc. By spoilers, we mean
those sections of reviews that give away the ending (thus
spoiling the movie or book for those who haven't yet seen the
movie or read the book). On UseNet, you can rotate the text as
mentioned earlier in this document, or you can mark it,
indicating that the answer or spoiler will appear next; you then
structure your text so that the reader may avoid seeing the
answer/spoiler by pressing 'n' the next time the "-more-?" prompt
is issued. In Echomail we would probably have to pad with blank
lines (lines with one or two spaces and a carriage return/line
feed sequence) to force the spoiler to then next screenful. I
have not tried stuffing a form feed into the text of fido
message, but that might also force a "-more-" message. You might
want to include mention of the fact that there is a spoiler, or
that you have rotated the text in your subject line.
"Spelling Flames Considered Harmful"
Once again, the text of the O.N. says it best:
"Every few months a plague descends on UseNet called the
spelling flame. It starts out when someone post an article
correcting the spelling or grammar in some article. The
immediate result seems to be for everyone on the net to turn
into a 6th grade English teacher and pick each other's
postings apart for a few weeks. this is not productive, and
tends to cause people who used to be friends to get angry at
each other.
It is important to remember that we all make mistakes [see
point #1, remember that the other side is a human...], and
that there are many users on the next who use English as a
second language. If you feel that you must make a comment on
the quality of a posting, please do so by mail, not on the
network [i.e., not via Echomail]"
Do refer to point #3 though, and try to make your *own* postings
as correct as possible.
Fidonews Page 15 6 Apr 1987
"Don't Overdo Signatures"
On UNIX systems (home of UseNet) you can have a "signature"
appended automatically to the end of each of your mail messages
or net postings. These typically contain disclaimers "The
opinions expressed are solely my own and do not reflect those of
my employer or any other sane individual - etc., etc. " and mail
pathways, which tend to be rather convoluted at times in the
UseNet. However, a signature that is longer than the message is
of rather dubious taste. This is true on UseNet, and (my
opinion) more true in Echomail. A one-line message preceded by
5-6 lines of header, followed by a 10 line signature, followed by
several lines of "seen-by" information still only gives me one or
two useful lines.
However (more personal opinion) I do believe that signatures have
a place in Echomail. In fact, I'd like to see a very short
signature appear at the very beginning of the posting, giving the
poster's name, net and node. This would make it *much* easier
for people interested in communicating with the poster to find
the poster. A UseNet style signature (tasteful and restrained if
you please!) could take it's place at the tail of the article.
Why place a name, net, and node at the top? Occasionally, an
article is truncated in transit - the seen-by lines are usually
there, but sometimes, a posting kind of dies in mid-sentence.
-----------------------------
The Ten Commandments for UseNet
These "commandments" were appended to the end of the Original
Netiquette article (which appears to have an alternate title of
"A Primer on How to Work With the USENET Community"). I think
they're worth including here.
I The Net is special; treat it with respect.
II Always create a clear and concise subject line.
III Keep thy postings short and never ramble.
IV Always post to the proper news group.
V Never post the same thing twice; post once to multiple
newsgroups or use short pointers where required.
VI Thou shalt spend 40 days and nights in meditation before
adding or removing any newsgroup.
VII Specify clearly if and how thou expectest responses.
VIII Reply in person whenever possible and limit thy followups
to truly worthy items.
IX Read all current articles in a newsgroup before replying to
any.
X Use proper English, and prepare postings with an editor
when required.
-------------------------------
I've got to extend thanks to Karl Andrews (138/241) for his
submission to FidoNews. I had been thinking for some time about
writing this submission, and his article gave me the push I
needed to actually do it. I hope Mr. Andrews doesn't take as
Fidonews Page 16 6 Apr 1987
much flaming for his suggestions as he expected to.
In closing, while I agree with Mr. Andrews about the need to
clean up Echomail, I would prefer to see the cleaning up done by
those posting to Echomail. Sysops are still free to zap those
messages they do not want, to maintain an editorial control by
the use of the 'k' key. But it would be much easier to educate
users as to their responsibility when posting to Echomail and
trust that most users are willing to exercise some self-control.
At the same time, it would be nice to have some moderated
echomail conferences, but that would require a considerable
amount of organization and cooperation among sysops. I hope that
Fidonet sysops and users can work out a more viable Echomail
system, as (opinion again!) Echomail is a powerful addition to
Fidonet and Fidomail. I also hope that this article's
suggestions are a first step towards an even more useful
Echomail.
Please direct all flames to /dev/nul :-)
Much of this article was derived from the Netiquette article
referenced above. Other parts were independently generated for
this article. Please feel free to post the list of suggestions
for FidoNet users on your Fido, Opus, etc., but please do
acknowledge good old Chuq Von Rospach.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 17 6 Apr 1987
Gee M Wong, 107/312
Net 107 Phone Number Changes
Network Coordinators:
Members of Net 107:
Due to a series of unexpected problems in Net 107, several
systems' phone number have changed, but these changes have NOT
been included in the current NODELIST (NODELIST.093).
The following is a list of systems in Net 107 which have changed
phone numbers.
+--------------------------------------------------+
| Address System Telephone Sysop |
| ------- ------ -------------- ------------- |
| 107/0 HOST 1-201-699-7799 Gee Wong |
| 107/200 HUB 1-516-367-6387 Don Daniels |
| 107/210 IGATE 1-201-699-7799 Gee Wong |
| |
| 107/326 1-201-918-5310 Michael Fuchs |
+--------------------------------------------------+
To avoid the possibility haveing the Net choke to death with
undelivered Net 107 traffic, please override the telephone
numbers in NODELIST.093 with the numbers listed in the above
table.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 18 6 Apr 1987
Gee M Wong, 107/312
Formation of a new HUB in Net 107
On Friday 10 April 1987, half of the nodes in HUB 107/300 have
been reassigned to a new HUB. This new HUB is 107/500, and it is
being coordinated by Marv Shelton.
Many of the reassigned nodes have been given new network
addresses. However, the former network addresses will be
maintained on the NODELIST as duplicate entries until Friday 24
April 1987, to provide the network with a two week transition
period.
During the transition period, all affected Sysops should start
making any necessary changes to their network tables (i.e.
ROUTE.DOG, CONFIG.DOG, MAIL.SYS, AREAS.BBS), and to have all
these changes completed before the end of the transition period.
Also, Sysops whose systems have been reassigned to HUB 107/500
may find it helpful to use their new network address as their
primary network address, and their old network address as their
secondary network address, during this transition period.
The table below contains a list of nodes which will be reassigned
to HUB 107/500. Basicly, all nodes in northern NJ have been
reassigned to HUB 107/500, and all nodes in central and southern
NJ have been kept in HUB 107/300.
For those Sysops in NJ, if you feel that you have not been
assigned to the correct HUB, please send a private message to Gee
Wong at 107/300, 107/312, or 107/317 as soon as possible.
+----------------------------------------------------+
| Old Address New Address Sysop |
| ----------- ----------- ---------------- |
| N/A 107/500 Marv Shelton |
| |
| 107/7 * System dropped from Net * |
| 107/313 * System dropped from Net * |
| |
| 107/311 107/511 Marv Shelton |
| 107/319 107/519 Marv Shelton |
| 107/322 107/522 Peter J Keller |
| 107/323 107/523 Al Arango |
| 107/324 107/524 Tom Marshall |
| 107/328 107/528 Burt Juda |
| 107/329 107/529 Roger Sakowski |
+----------------------------------------------------+
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 19 6 Apr 1987
Vince Perriello, 141/491
The IFNA Scorecard
I just thought I'd share my opinions of most of the individuals
and/or topics in the great International Fidonet Nuclear Attack
(IFNA) squabbles of the last year (almost). Maybe you'll agree,
maybe you'll disagree. But for me, the healing will start when I
get the poison out of the wounds. So here we go.
Let's start with IFNA itself. It was the right thing to do. Ken
and Ben had to avoid liability for the contents of the nodelist
(remember that's why the corporation was created in the first
place!). I also think that using it as an entity to get
concessions from manufacturers for members as a group, and to
influence committees and legislators, made so much sense I'm
still dumbfounded at the way things turned out in Colorado.
Colorado. Give the mob two points for muddying up the waters. But
others were at fault too. Read on.
The Bylaws. What do they mean? I think what we have here is some
kind of cosmic committment to save the world every other day, but
not until we've gotten their permission to do so, notarized, by
registered U.S. Snail. It's full of garbage that was put there to
appease people who weren't going to be happy unless they
themselves were appointed Emperor. It will sink of its own weight
unless fixed quickly by the elected BOD.
Ken Kaplan and Ben Baker. Too much silence. We should have heard
their voices more. Too much transpired in the "early phases"
without any word from them. It contributed to the mess in
Colorado. People who would have gladly gone along with IFNA
properly presented instead wound up among the Complainers,
because they had a legitimate beef about the amount of things
that had already been done without prior notification. I might
add that they never got more vocal, in SYSOP, IFNA, or anywhere
else, and that that was even WORSE.
Thom Henderson. He did his best. He did very well. Usually he was
able to respond with some semblance of a sense of humor. But he
was just as doomed as Bob Dole in 1976 (remember? Gerry Ford had
to be a nice guy so Dole got to be the "Hatchet Man"? People
still remember and dislike him for the energetic way that he
carried out his mandate). Too bad. While his orientation in
almost any situation I've seen him in thus far is slightly too
commercial for my taste, he has a good head on his shoulders, and
he really CARES about what's coming down. And he puts the
commercialism aside when the situation clearly calls for that.
The Secret Modem Committee. I can't hold anyone responsible for
not communicating what they did yesterday while they were still
catching up on their sleep. My synapses don't work too well
either under those circumstances.
Fidonews Page 20 6 Apr 1987
Here's some more opinions of the key players and entities. Again,
these are my opinions, certainly not those of the management. I
didn't even ASK my wife! :-)
Bob Hartman. Basically nice guy. Very intelligent. He never knew
what hit him. I think he's almost recovered now. Good thing. He
writes good software for the community. Some of us even PAY to
use it.
Thomas Gentry. In retrospect I think he was trying to make some
kind of clever statement that was not exactly in favor of the
IFNA nodelist copyright. It wasn't that clever. And he got more
FLAMES than he probably deserved (assuming that I'm right about
the "statement").
Ken Shackelford. He loves FLAMING like Ron loves zapping Rooskie
missiles. He had a lot of important inputs, but sometimes I had
the feeling he was saying things just to see how people would
react. At times that was a RIOT. Other times I didn't like it as
much. But he has a good heart. And he'll make a good BOD member,
especially since he has the biggest flame thrower this side of
the Volga.
Tracy Graves. For me, the most significant thing about Tracy was
that I could not, for the longest time, determine gender. Tracy
LIVES the gender neutral mind that certain others only wish for.
But I digress. Tracy is a reasonable intelligent man who still
hasn't woke up and smelled the coffee. But there's always hope.
Sometimes the most profound intellectual struggle is within
yourself. I'm rooting for him.
Adam (to paraphrase John Lennon,"You know my number, look up my
name") Selene. and for that matter Gillian Boardman. I still
don't know what gender neutrality had to do with IFNA. But I'll
defend to the death their right to share their own feelings in
the matter. "Adam" was extremely vocal in IFNA. That's worth some
recognition. And recently it sounds like "Adam" is going to do
what he can to help clean up the mess (see my earlier comment on
the by-laws). Good.
Randy Bush. Good head. Was that a TANTRUM I saw him throw
recently? Well, the rest of us own balls too. Take yours home
with you. We'll survive. Wish you didn't operate that way. I wish
you luck.
Wynn Wagner. The complainers think he's anti IFNA. Wrong. He's
not pro or anti ANYTHING. He's no more in "your camp" than in
"theirs". He's writing a good BBS program. Rumor has it that it
costs a lot less than TBBS. And that unlike TBBS it doesn't need
SEAdog for a front end. Sounds interesting. Too bad the
"establishment" still wants to treat him like some kind of hobo
on the doorstep. Hard feelings are bound to result.
Here are a few more. I'm starting to feel better, so I'll be done
soon. If I forgot anybody or anything, that's probably for the
Fidonews Page 21 6 Apr 1987
better. Don't feel slighted, if I feel the need later I'll get to
you!
Phil Becker. TBBS author. His orientation is somewhat more
commercial than, say, Wynn's. He and Thom have linked their
software in such a way that you can have 100% compatible (but not
100% identical) Echomail messages. Of course, what "not 100%
identical" means is that, for the sake of performance (Phil said
this is "10 times faster" - who would be fool enough to do it the
OTHER way?) you truncate the seconds, fold the subject field to
upper case, and truncate IT to 40 characters. Too bad KILLDUPS
doesn't like it. Grey Mist should have known better.
Tom Jennings. I owe him an apology. I think what you've been
seeing lately from him is, to quote another BBS developer I hold
in some esteem, "A social statement by the Author". I think
lavender hair and skateboarding is just what this Romper Room
calls for. Read some of the back issues of the IFNA echomail and
find a BETTER way to avoid high blood pressure! And we owe him a
major debt of gratitude. Kludge or no, Fido started something
that we've all found sufficiently worthwhile to be willing to put
up with a lot!
Mikey. I don't have enough disk space on my system to share my
feelings about him. For a while he served a useful purpose. Now I
want a message filter. Anybody have a piece of software I can run
to kill messages with the string "M I K E Y" in the "to", "from",
"subject", and "text" of a message? I don't even want to READ
that stuff any more.
Well, that gets a lot off my chest. I feel better. I know I could
just kill this now, you'd never read it, therefore never get
annoyed at me for writing them, but.... tough noogies. I can take
anything you guys dish out. I'm still here after 9 months of
constant connection to the IFNA echo. That should prove it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 22 6 Apr 1987
=================================================================
COLUMNS
=================================================================
Western Digital
Microsoft Word
Panasonic low cost printers
Well, I still haven't had much chance to look over a few
things lying around here although I have promised myself to get
to them "real soon now." I've made a few decisions on what this
column will cover in the future, mainly just about anything I
think is worthy of note. While I will be "reviewing" major (read
expensive) software, I'm going to try to cover reasonably priced
alternatives as well. If things keep piling up I'll talk to Thom
Henderson, the editor, and see what he thinks of a much larger
column for an issue or two. Hopefully things won't get that bad,
but I'll wait and see.
-- Western Digital gets good marks for support --
This week started off fairly well. I had been asked to take
a look at a hard drive a friend of mine had picked up. He hadn't
been able to format the drive, and was curious if it would even
work on his PC. Since he has the same controller I do, I figured
it would be no problem (I learned most of the tricks involved in
setting up hard drives a few months ago when I got mine).
Surprise! He walks in with a 76 1/2 megabyte hard drive, and
since we both use RLL controllers the first step was contacting
the manufacturer and finding out if the drive would work on an
RLL controller (many won't, although they will appear to work
fine initially). After confirming with CDC that the drive was
approved for use with an RLL controller, I got to undertake what
I thought would be a major task, finding out how to perform a low
level format on the drive (9 heads, 925 cylinders, not exactly a
run of the mill drive). My biggest problem was getting a phone
number for Western Digital's tech support, and all that took was
a phone call to a local friendly dealer. I was very surprised
when I called them, got through on the first call and was
immediately put through to a technician who was able to answer my
question. Ends result is my friend sending a check to Western
Digital for a new BIOS for his controller card (only $25), and
the new BIOS is supposed to support any type of drive! Western
Digital get high marks from me on support, even if their phone
number might be a little hard for a normal person to obtain.
-- Microsoft Word --
I've been spending the past few weeks trying out Microsoft
Word (list price is $450, and I've been using it to write these
columns), and think I may have finally switched word processors
(I had been using Wordstar). Before I go any further let me state
that word processors are a very personal thing, what I look for
and like in a word processor may be very different from your
expectations. I've learned this the hard way and wouldn't want
Fidonews Page 23 6 Apr 1987
anybody else to make the same mistakes. My best advice is if
you're satisfied with what you're currently using, then stick
with it. These are my opinions on Word, other people will
probably have very different views.
That out of the way on to some of the things I like about
Word. The most important feature in any word processor I use is
that it should be able to print to a file without any more work
on my part, and the ASCII file should be in the same format as
the printed file. This means that if I'm using "full
justification" the ASCII file should be full justified (which is
how it works in Word). This was one of the things I couldn't
stand about Wordstar, I had to print to a file, strip off the
extra characters in the file (using an external program) and then
hand edit it in non-document mode. I still use Wordstar to go
over the final product before I mail it in, but otherwise it now
gathers dust on my shelf. Some of the other nice things about
Word is that I don't have to save the document when I do a
spelling check on the document, I can do it within the "main"
word processor itself. Another "feature" that I quickly came to
enjoy is the WYSIWYG display, in a few letters I've used bold and
italics and it's nice to actually see bold and italic. I haven't
had a need for the indexing, outlining, or style sheets; I have
tried them out just to see how it works. Word is also capable of
putting two subsequent paragraphs side by side. I used to have a
friend who worked at a radio station, he once asked me if I knew
of any word processors that could do this and I know have an
answer for him. His use for the side by side printing was for
some of the "scripts" used at the station, on one side would be
the speech part of the broadcast and on the other side there
would be the comments on sound effects and such. This might also
useful in theater and TV with notes to the cameraman, lighting,
and stage crews.
The printer support is exceptional, I just wish I had a
laser printer to see how well it works with one (support is
included for several different laser printers). Microsoft
provides a separate book on supported printers which goes over
any limitations of the printer (a good example is several laser
printers aren't capable of printing on the top line of a page),
what fonts and font sizes are available, and what special
features you can take advantage of from Word.
-- Panasonic low end printers --
While I'm on the subject of printers, it seems like a good
time to mention some of the current Panasonic printers. The
printers made by Panasonic tend to be reliable, inexpensive, and
include a lot of features not normally found in the same price
range. The two printers I'm going to mention here are the 1080i
(list price $319) and the 1091i (list price $419), both of which
I've had a chance to use on occasion. One of the nicest features
about these printers is the easily selected fonts on the front
panel. You don't have to remember what series of buttons to press
to get near letter quality, you just turn the printer offline and
change the switch. The 1080i has 3 fonts available from the front
Fidonews Page 24 6 Apr 1987
panel (standard, compressed, NLQ) while the 1091i has four fonts
(one more, a bold Courier that's proportionally spaced). While
both printers only have a nine pin print head, they are both
capable of a fairly acceptable near letter quality (a few friends
of mine couldn't believe I used a dot matrix printer, although I
could tell the difference). Graphics wise, I tried running
Certificate Maker, Print Shop, and ProDesign II; each of these
programs worked with the program being told it was connected to
an Epson printer. The printers also have the capability of
printing the IBM graphics characters (mainly for lines used in
several programs), although it isn't the default setting.
Considering the capabilities of the printer against the price,
I'd say they were almost perfect for the user on a tight budget
or for someone in college.
-- HACK --
While I haven't had too much time to play it yet, HACK is
the best game I've come across this past week. I finally got
tired of seeing the conference on HACK on Usenet and not
understanding the messages, so I looked around and downloaded it
from a local board. It's is basically a Dungeons and Dragons type
game, while it uses "graphics," it does not require any graphics
card. Since it originated on the UNIX machines, it's capable of
being run on almost any computer (most terminals still don't have
the graphics capabilities of our PCs). The version I looked at
was 3.85, and had been customized for the PC, meaning that the
arrow keys worked. I don't think I will spend as much time on
HACK as I did on Leather Goddesses, but that's just from
frustration. If anyone out there can give me any good clues on
how to get down into the deeper parts of the dungeon, please let
me know. I've gotten to used to my adventures where things always
start out the same.
The best book this week is "Using Reflex" by Mick Renner
(list price $ 19.95 from QUE). It's helped explain a lot that
wasn't immediately clear to me from Borland's manual on Reflex. I
mentioned Reflex a few weeks ago, and am still playing around
(actually more real use than playing around) with it. Other
people around me are capable of understanding Reflex and while
they couldn't use my former database, they are capable of using
Reflex.
I once again welcome your comments, suggestions, and
opinions on anything I've written about or a specific piece of
software/hardware/whatever. Below is my US mail address along
with my Usenet and FidoNet addresses. I'll try and answer all
mail that I receive, and if I think you've asked a good question
(one that I think a lot of people have) I'll try and answer it at
the end of a future column. If you're a user of a BBS, please
mention to your sysop that netmail to me should be routed through
157/0, 157/1, or 157/502. Your sysop will understand what this
means, if you are a sysop just take note of the previous
sentence. If all goes well, I should be giving some first
impressions on some hot new software next week.
Fidonews Page 25 6 Apr 1987
Dale Lovell
3266 Vezber Drive
Seven Hills, OH 44131
FidoNet: 157/504
Usenet: ..!ncoast!lovell
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 26 6 Apr 1987
WHYDOESIT?
by Kerry Roach
OpusNODE 362/1 - Chattanooga, TN
This column will attempt to answer some of the questions that
have you scratching your head. If we don't know the answers,
hopefully we can find someone who can help.
Recently I purchased a copy board for my 1000. After following
the directions for installation explicitly, the 1000 failed to
boot with the copy board installed. The machine would operate
correctly if the hard disk controller card or the copy card was
removed. After removing the HD controller, the copy card worked
perfectly. Several calls to the copy card manufacturer failed to
produce results. Finally I called the HD manufacturer and got
results, although the solution is not the most convenient.
The 1000 has interrupts 2, 3, and 4 available on the I/O
channel while the "standard" I/O channel has interrupts 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7 available. The "standard" HD controller uses interrupt 5
to signal the microprocessor that it needs attention, but the
1000 uses interrupt 2 (This can be changed on the 1000SX). Since
the 1000 has only 3 interrupt lines available on the I/O bus, the
copy card also uses the same interrupt. On initialization, the
HD controller and the copy card both attempted to use the same
interrupt line and DMA channel. This cause the machine to "LOCK-
UP" since the devices both had the same priority. The problem
requires the removal of the HD controller anytime that the copy
card is to be installed and used.
Please direct any questions to me by use of THE LAST RESORT
INFORMATION SYSTEM. We'll do our best to get you an answer.
OpusNODE 362/1 (615) 892-7773 Chattanooga TN.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 27 6 Apr 1987
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
The Interrupt Stack
27 Apr 1987
Start of the Semi-Annual DECUS (Digital Equipment Corp. Users
Society) symposium, to be held in Nashville, Tennessee.
17 May 1987
Metro-Fire Fido's Second Birthday BlowOut and Floppy Disk
Throwing Tournament! All Fido Sysops and Families Invited!
Contact Christopher Baker at 135/14 for more information.
21 Aug 1987
Start of the Fourth International FidoNet Conference, to be
held at the Radisson Mark Plaza Hotel in Alexandria, VA.
Details to follow.
24 Aug 1989
Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
If you have something which you would like to see on this
calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1/1.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
April 2, 1987
Both Joe Turner (142/73) and Chris Michael (115/429)
have asked for the HPUSER echo area. Steve Butler (138/0)
is now offerring to moderate this for any and all users
who wish to connect in. Contact Tracy Graves (17/43 -
Region 17 ECHO GATEWAY) for connections.
--Steve Butler, SEAdog/OPUS 138/0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
June 26 1987 Vietnam Veterans Convoy to the Wall begins!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 28 6 Apr 1987
INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION
ORDER FORM
Publications
The IFNA publications can be obtained by downloading from Fido
1/10 or other FidoNet compatible systems, or by purchasing them
directly from IFNA. We ask that all our IFNA Committee Chairmen
provide us with the latest versions of each publication, but we
can make no written guarantees.
Hardcopy prices as of October 1, 1986
IFNA Fido BBS listing $15.00 _____
IFNA Administrative Policy DOCs $10.00 _____
IFNA FidoNet Standards Committee DOCs $10.00 _____
SUBTOTAL _____
IFNA Member ONLY Special Offers
System Enhancement Associates SEAdog $60.00 _____
SEAdog price as of March 1, 1987
ONLY 1 copy SEAdog per IFNA Member
International orders include $5.00 for
surface shipping or $15.00 for air shipping _____
SUBTOTAL _____
Mo. Residents add 5.725 % Sales tax _____
TOTAL _____
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:
IFNA
P.O. Box 41143
St. Louis, Missouri 63141 USA
Name________________________________
Net/Node____/____
Company_____________________________
Address_____________________________
City____________________ State____________ Zip_____
Voice Phone_________________________
Signature___________________________
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fidonews Page 29 6 Apr 1987
__
The World's First / \
BBS Network /|oo \
* FidoNet * (_| /_)
_`@/_ \ _
| | \ \\
| (*) | \ ))
______ |__U__| / \//
/ Fido \ _//|| _\ /
(________) (_/(_|(____/ (jm)
Membership for the International FidoNet Association
Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
pays an annual specified membership fee. IFNA serves the
international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to
increase worldwide communications. **
Name _________________________________ Date ________
Address ______________________________
City & State _________________________
Country_______________________________
Phone (Voice) ________________________
Net/Node Number ______________________
Board Name____________________________
Phone (Data) _________________________
Baud Rate Supported___________________
Board Restrictions____________________
Special Interests_____________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
Is there some area where you would be
willing to help out in FidoNet?_______
______________________________________
______________________________________
Send your membership form and a check or money order for $25 to:
International FidoNet Association
P. O. Box 41143
St Louis, Missouri 63141
USA
Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to
insure the future of FidoNet.
** Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization
in formation and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted
by the membership in January 1987. An Elections Committee has
been established to fill positions outlined in the By-Laws for
the Board of Directors. An IFNA Echomail Conference has been
established on FidoNet to assist the Elections Committee. We
welcome your input on this Conference.
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