235 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
235 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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F I D O N E W S -- Vol.13 No. 1 (01-Jan-1996)
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+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
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| A newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
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| FidoNet BBS community | "FidoNews" BBS |
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| _ | +1-519-570-4176 |
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| / \ | |
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| /|oo \ | |
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| _`@/_ \ _ | |
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| | | \ \\ | Editors: |
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| | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 |
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| |__U__| / \// | Sylvia 1:221/194 |
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| _//|| _\ / | |
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| (_/(_|(____/ | |
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| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
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| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
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+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
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| Submission address: editors 1:1/23 |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| MORE addresses: |
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| submissions=> editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
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| Don -- don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
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| Sylvia max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
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| obtaining copies of fidonews or the internet gateway faq |
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| please refer to the end of this file. |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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========================================================================
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Table of Contents
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1. Editorial..................................................... 1
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2. Articles...................................................... 2
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WildCat! Sysops - WCEdit Registration Ain't Worth The Troubl 2
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3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 4
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Editorial
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Just one article this week ... a diatribe on the "shareware
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ethic" and shareware, submited as a policy complaint. I am not
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against rants. That, perhaps, is what the *snooze* is for.
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Policy complaints are to resolve technical problems.
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The entire *C structure was never designed to replace the
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contract law courts of the various countries that fidonet runs
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in. It was not designed to govern social structures, or ensure
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that people could speak to each other like adults. It was
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designed because we needed a telephone book, and so needed
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someone in each net to collect the phone numbers.
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Expecting, or allowing the *C structure to start to "rule"
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the members of fidonet on matters of law and social status is
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FidoNews 13-01 Page: 2 01 Jan 1996
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ridiculous.
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Articles
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WildCat! Sysops - WCEdit Registration Ain't Worth The Trouble
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by Timothy Trace @ 1:100/440.0
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The Shareware Ethic Is Being Abused By Joe Lemoine @ 1:390/3.0
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What is The Shareware Ethic? For most purposes, it's rather simple.
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An author releases a shareware program with the understood intention
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that interested users will honorably pay for it. In return for their
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$$$, the registered users understand that they're paid in full to reap
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the benefits of shareware as compared to commercially developed
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software. Summed up briefly, those benefits are: timely, inexpensive
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registration; quick technical support and direct contact with the
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author; and frequent version updates.
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Joe Lemoine @ 1:390/3.0 is a shareware author who has lost sight of
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The Shareware Ethic. He's the owner of a couple of utilities for the
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WildCat! BBS, PostMaster and WCEdit. PM is a message-importation
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utility that Joe purchased from it's original author (Dave Cody).
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WCEdit is a convienence sysop's mail-reader that Joe authored himself.
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After using WCEdit for its trial period of a month, I decided to
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purchase it. Of course, I had a few questions about WCEdit and I
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attempted to contact Joe multiple times via the Fido WildCat! support
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echoes, the WildCat! SupportNet echoes, routed _and_ crashed netmail,
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and in sysop comments and public messages on Joe's NDE BBS in
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Folsum, LA. After receiving no responses for over six weeks, I
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entered the credit-card registration door on Joe's BBS and registered
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WCEdit at a cost of $35, hoping that Joe *might* give a higher
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priority to Q&A from registered users.
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Apparently I was wrong. Joe's lost sight of The Shareware Ethic.
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He has, for all intents, dissapeared from society. I've had an
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on-line registration for his WCEdit pending for over a six weeks
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with no results. This evening I canceled that registration request
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after leaving him a final demand for attention in a sysop comment
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on his BBS over a week ago.
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There are, at minimum, several other WC! sysops experiencing the same
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problem. Most of them have posted statements of dissatisfaction on
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Joe's BBS and in this and other WildCat!-related forum. Evidently
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we're not experiencing isolated incidents or temporary problems.
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Many attempts (both pleasantly worded and not so) at contacting Joe
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via sysop comments on his BBS, Fidonet and WSNet echomail, and
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routed and crashmailed netmail have gone ignored for over three
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months. Yet, Joe's around - as the day-to-day existence of his
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BBS corroborates.
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IMHO, Joe has flattened his interpretation of The Shareware Ethic
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into such a one-sided, profit-driven plane that he deserves none of
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the financial reward due a shareware author. If you have funds tied
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FidoNews 13-01 Page: 3 01 Jan 1996
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up in an unfulfilled registration of one of Joe's products, I
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recommend that you cancel it immediately, without reservation. If you
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have registered either program believing that some manner of support
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was included in your registration fee, and have received your key, I
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recommend that you contact Joe via netmail and request a complete
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refund based on his lack of timely support to registered users.
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Remember, we're talking about a three-month span of time here, not
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just a few days or weeks.
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:-(
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I've brought a three-sided Policy Complaint against Joe; all of the
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reasoning is simple. If registration and/or product support doesn't
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exist, then Joe is falsely representing his product by listing his
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Fidonet node number as a contact point in the WCEdit documentation.
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The Fidonet nodelist shouldn't be used to give an illusion of
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credibility solely for the purpose of an individual's financial gain.
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By trivializing his Fidonet affiliation in this manner, Joe is being
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excessively annoying.
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Also of issue in the Policy Complaint is Joe's lack of common
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courtesy. For no good reason at all, Joe has held credit card
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registrations in limbo for months, forcing many of his sincere, paying
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customers to carry over unfulfilled expenses in their month-to-month
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bookkeeping. Joe is being excessively annoying in his lack of
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courtesy to paying customers (many of which expect to be able to
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contact him via Fidonet).
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Lastly, the subject of financial security in online situations is
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tired, but it's one that Fidonet has managed to steer clear of for
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some time. Joe's being excessively annoying by putting that good
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reputation at risk by behaving in an irresponsible manner where
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credit cards are concerned.
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My Policy Complaint asks that Joe be issued a cease-and-desist order
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for listing his Fidonet address as a contact point in his programs'
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documentation. If he doesn't respond positively and hastefully to
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that request, I've asked that he be punitively cut from the nodelist.
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Thanks for your time - and if you're a Shareware Author, please
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remember Joe's Lemoine's abuse of The Shareware Ethic - and never
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forget that there are real people on the other end of those
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registration dollars.
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FidoNews 13-01 Page: 4 01 Jan 1996
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========================================================================
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Fidonews Information
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========================================================================
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------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------
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Editors: Donald Tees, Sylvia Maxwell
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Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
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Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar
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Tom Jennings
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"FidoNews" BBS
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FidoNet 1:1/23
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BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS)
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more addresses:
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Don -- 1:221/192, don@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
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Sylvia- 1:221/194, max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
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(Postal Service mailing address)
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FidoNews
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128 Church St.
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Kitchener, Ontario
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Canada
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N2H 2S4
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voice: (519) 570-3137
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sylvia: (519) 579-8029
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Fidonews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET
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INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation
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of individual articles contributed by their authors or their
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authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation
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does not diminish the rights of the authors. Opinions expressed in
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these articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of
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FidoNews.
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Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
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Copyright 1995 Donald Tees. All rights reserved. Duplication
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and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use
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in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or the eds.
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OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic
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form may be obtained from the FidoNews BBS via manual download or
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Wazoo FileRequest, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet.
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PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above paper-mail
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address.
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INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.fidonet.org,
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in directory ~ftp/pub/fidonet/fidonews.
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Anyone interested in getting a copy of the INTERNET GATEWAY FAQ may
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freq GISFAQ.ZIP from 1:133/411.0, or send an internet message to
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fidofaq@gisatl.fidonet.org. No message or text or subject is
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necessary. The address is a keyword that will trigger the automated
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FidoNews 13-01 Page: 5 01 Jan 1996
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response. People wishing to send inquiries directly to David Deitch
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should now mail to fidonet@gisatl.fidonet.org rather than the
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previously listed address.
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SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
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FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
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ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews BBS, or Wazoo filerequestable
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from 1:1/23 as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". Please read it.
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"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
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trademarks of Tom Jennings, and are used with permission.
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' ' disgreement is actually necessary,
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or we'd all have to get in fights
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or semethin to amuse ourselves,,
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and create the requisite chaos."
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-Tom Jennings
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-- END
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
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