107 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
107 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
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Original Message Date: 18 Nov 91 23:16:38
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From: Glen Johnson on 1:269/101
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To: Tom Jennings on 1:125/111
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Subj: Stuff
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^AMSGID: 1:269/101@fidonet a116bfb4
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[this is not intended for publication in Fidonews. Please don't publish it]
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Tom,
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I read your editorial in the latest Fidonews with great interest; the one
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about Regions creating their own power.
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All of what you say is true, but you give us no suggestions for getting out
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of this repressive scheme. It is difficult to "revolt" against the level
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above when the level above makes the rules for the level below, and hangs
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your node number in the balance.
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A couple of months ago, I was contacted by Mike Miller, a reporter for the
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Wall Street Journal about doing an article about Fidonet. I gave him a <20>
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great
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deal of information as I spoke with him for about 45 minutes. I gave him
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your name, Bob Gleason's name, George Peace, etc. When the article was
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published, I was happy to see he followed up on the leads I gave him. What
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resulted was a very positive and wondrous article about Fidonet.
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But between the time I talked to him, and the time the article appeared,
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I wondered all the time if what I had done was a "good thing". Fidonet has
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a very violent, dictatorial underbelly. A lot of the coordinators rule like
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like their net or region or zone is an empire, a tangible thing, a domain,
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a country, a SOMETHING. And the thing that amazes me, is that the sysops
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of Fidonet, almost 11,000 of them, have absolutely NO say in how the
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network is managed or what direction it takes. It is definitely controlled
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by a handful of people that apparently will remain there forever.
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I have been a net coordinator before, and I will be again in the next
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nodelist as net 2605 is created in New Jersey. Three new nets, 2604,5 and
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6 are really Fidonet 269 breaking into three small pieces. You have no
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idea what we had to go through to get this accomplished. We practically
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had to kiss the Region Coordinator's BUTT for approval. But the fact
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that I have been an NC doesn't change my feeling that Fidonet should
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be administered from the bottom UP, instead of the other way around.
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I shudder to think how much money Fidonet sysops around the world
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hand over to their respective telephone companies each and every month.
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THESE are the people that are paying the bills, and THESE are the
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people that should have the unlimited freedom to create and manage their
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nets as they see fit, and put people in "positions of responsibility"
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that serve their best interests.
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The current "structure" is ridiculous.
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Although I have only been involved in Fidonet since late 1988, I DO know
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what its like to start at the very beginning with inter-BBS email. I was
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one of the first people to install something called Color64Network into
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my Color64 BBS that I ran on my Commodore 64 in 1986. In a short time,
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HUNDREDS of Color64 systems were networking. No coordinators, no rules,
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no nothing, just the "miracle" of messages being transmitted to other
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BBS's at night. The author of the Color64Network module published a list
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of who purchased the module and what their BBSs were. All you did was
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contact the BBS you wanted to add to your very own personal nodelist,
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and you were "linked" with another system. It was great.
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Fidonet has come a long way since you started the ball rolling many
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moons ago, and I'm afraid you've let it get away from you. The POWER
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needs to be removed from the *C positions. Coordinators should ALL
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be elected, and they should be BOUND by the will of those below. Every
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single sysop in Fidonet should have a vote on who the next ZC is.
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Every single sysop in Region 13 should have a vote on who the next RC
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is. SYSOPS should be voting; NOT coordinators. If you take a region
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with 8 nets, and the RC makes pals out of 6 of the NCs, then the RC
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basically has Carte Blanche. Even though every single sysop in the
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region may hate his guts.
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It repulses me to think that the very PEOPLE that are responsible for
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the very EXISTENCE of this "organization" have virtually no control
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over its management. Did you know that only REGION COORDINATORS can
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draft proposed policy documents? Only REGION COORDINATORS can adopt
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a new policy for the network? Insane.
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What it boils down to is this. YOU are the only person with the REAL
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authority in this network. YOU are the only person that can take
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the POWER out of the *C positions, and RETURN them to "positions
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of responsibility" as you said in your editorial. Not Matt Whelan,
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not George Peace, not Thom Henderson, YOU. You own the trademark, and
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you own the nodelist. Fidonet coordinators have the power the do
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because you allow them to. You could easily remove it.
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A revolt from below is not feasible. Its very easy for 10 Region
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Coordinators to unite. Its not that easy for 9,000 US Fidonet
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sysops to unite.
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After all these years, Fidonet is STILL your baby; don't forget that.
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If you would come forward and install an election process; make
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coordinators RESPONSIBLE to the people the serve, rather than RULE
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them, everyone would be a lot better off. People in Fidonet would
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feel like they MATTER, that they are PARTICIPATING, that they COUNT
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in the grand scheme of things, instead of some grunt that can be ex-
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communicated if he pisses off the NC or RC.
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I'm not saying that the current almighty totalitarian structure is
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your FAULT, just that you are the ONLY person in a position to change
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it. I'm one that hopes for the day that you will.
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Glen Johnson
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1:269/101.
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