524 lines
24 KiB
Plaintext
524 lines
24 KiB
Plaintext
Volume 6, Number 7 13 February 1989
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+---------------------------------------------------------------+
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| _ |
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| / \ |
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| /|oo \ |
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| - FidoNews - (_| /_) |
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| _`@/_ \ _ |
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| International | | \ \\ |
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| FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) |
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| Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// |
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| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
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| (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
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| (jm) |
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+---------------------------------------------------------------+
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Editor in Chief Dale Lovell
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Editor Emeritus: Thom Henderson
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Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings
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Contributing Editors: Al Arango
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FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet
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Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to
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submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission
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standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from
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node 1:1/1. 1:1/1 is available for network mail between NMH-1
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hour to NMH+1 hour. At all other times, netmail is not accepted
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although submissions can be uploaded.
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Copyright 1989 by the International FidoNet Association. All
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rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for
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noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances,
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please contact IFNA at (314) 576-4067. IFNA may also be contacted
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at PO Box 41143, St. Louis, MO 63141.
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Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of
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Fido Software, 164 Shipley Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94107 and
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are used with permission.
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The contents of the articles contained here are not our
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responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them.
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Everything here is subject to debate. We publish EVERYTHING
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received.
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Table of Contents
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1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
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Product Announcement -- ARC 6.00 ......................... 1
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New Echo Conference Available ............................ 3
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The Flamers Bible ........................................ 5
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SEA Letter: New Stuff! ................................... 7
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2. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 9
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Latest Software Versions ................................. 9
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3. NOTICES .................................................. 10
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The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 10
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FidoNews 6-07 Page 1 13 Feb 1989
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=================================================================
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ARTICLES
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=================================================================
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System Enhancement Associates, Inc.
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1:107/9@FidoNet, 520/1015@AlterNet
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New Product Announcement
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ARC 6.00
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System Enhancement Associates, Inc. is pleased to announce that
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we are now taking orders for version 6.00 of our popular ARC file
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archive utility. The new manuals are at the printer now while we
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touch up the code, and we expect to start shipping on February
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14th.
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This is a major enhancement to ARC itself and to the popular ARC
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file archive format. New features include the ability to
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compress and extract subdirectory structures and support for
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extended file information such as longer filenames.
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ARC version 6 is also FAST, FAST, FAST! It's over four times as
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fast as our previous version, WITHOUT sacrificing the reliability
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that ARC is famous for.
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This version of ARC also includes many enhancements and additions
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to the SEA utilities that come on the ARC disk. Almost all of
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the utilities have been rewritten and updated. Major changes
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include:
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* The LF menu shell for MS-DOS is now much faster and more
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powerful.
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* The ScanDisk disk diagnostic utility can now shift data off
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of questionable clusters, saving your data BEFORE your disk
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goes bad.
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* A new utility, OHMYGAWD, was added. If your lost data can be
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recovered at all, OHMYGAWD will find it!
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* And many others, too numerous to mention.
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The complete ARC package with disk and manual is available for
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$50 from System Enhancement Associates, Inc. We can be reached
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by phone between 9 AM and 5 PM Eastern time at (201) 473-5153, or
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by mail at:
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System Enhancement Associates, Inc.
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21 New Street, Wayne NJ 07470
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As always, full program sources are available at no additional
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FidoNews 6-07 Page 2 13 Feb 1989
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cost. Those of you who have maintenance contracts need do
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nothing -- you will be receiving your new ARC disk in the mail
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soon!
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 6-07 Page 3 13 Feb 1989
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With all the recent sludge going through FidoNews about AIDS,
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homosexuality, and the nutty ramblings from Fundamentalists, this
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advertisement for a new echo conference I started really fits. I
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couldn't have picked a better time.
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The echo conference that follows is being distributed by me
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personally. Yes, that means that *I* will poll *your* node
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nightly for no cost or real effort on your part. You simply set
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up the conference on your system. This is to get established--
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later it shall be made available to the backbone. How can you
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refuse a deal like that?
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``ICGAL'': Issues Concerning Gays And Lesbians
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Right now, there are some people thinking this is going to be a
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"fluffy chat" conference. Nope, that seems to be the role of
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GAYNET. ICGAL is to be more focused on real-world issues gays and
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lesbians have to face, and through networking I think it can also
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serve as an electronic "support group."
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Some of you are probably thinking this will be a sexually
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explicit conference. Not likely, unless you consider discussions
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involving adoption, inheritance, and real estate sexually
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explicit. The focus is on the special problems homosexuals face
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dealing with laws, regulations, and social prejudice. Through
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open and honest discussion, we'll try to find solutions.
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ICGAL is publically accessable on my system, and I would prefer
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that it be made public on systems that wish to participate.
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However being gay myself, I know the kinds of prejudice
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homosexuals face, and so I have no real problem if participants
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wish to make it private on their systems. I see no need to make
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the conference limited to "adults" as there are gays in their
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teens who have problems they might like to discuss as well. I
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myself would have given anything when I was 16 to find such a
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conference to help sort out my feelings.
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Although Pat Buchanan will disagree, estimates point to an
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average of 10% of the world's population being homosexual. The
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average BBS (at least in Net 260) has about 400 users, which
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means that at least 40 of those users would find ICGAL
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interesting and possibly useful. Consider it; if not for
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yourself as a SysOp then for your users.
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Wish to connect? Simply leave me a netmail message, set up an
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echo conference named ``ICGAL'' on your system, and I'll go about
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connecting you. Already have a similiar-sounding conference on
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your system? Tell me about it, and we can talk about adding it
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to ICGAL, which would benefit everyone.
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Send netmail to John Passaniti on 1:260/218. Thank you.
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FidoNews 6-07 Page 4 13 Feb 1989
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 6-07 Page 5 13 Feb 1989
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The FLAMERS BIBLE
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Origin: Unknown (actually, I wrote the first one a few months
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ago, but I thought "origin: unknown" looks cool)
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Revision 1: Dec. 2, 1987 by Joe Talmadge
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In the time I have been posting to net, I have encountered flame
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wars of epic proportions (Brahms Gang vs. Tim Maroney), and flame
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wars of a more modest nature (MIT vs. CIT). Flaming has evolved
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into a highly-stylized art form, complete with unwritten rules
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and guidelines.
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Here, I have attempted to document the Art of Flaming, in such a
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way as it will be interesting to old hands (flame masters) and
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novices (virgins) alike. Without a further ado, then, I present:
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***********The twelve commandments of flaming**************
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1. Make things up about your opponent: It's important to make
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your lies sound true. Preface your argument with the word
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"clearly." "Clearly, Fred Flooney is a liar, and a dirtball to
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boot."
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2. Be an armchair psychologist: You're a smart person. You've
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heard of Freud. You took a psychology course in college. Clearly,
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you're qualified to psychoanalyze your opponent. "Polly
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Purebread, by using the word 'zucchini' in her posting, shows she
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has a bad case of penis envy."
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3. Cross-post your flames: Everyone on the net is just waiting
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for the next literary masterpiece to leave your terminal. From
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rec.arts.wobegon to alt.gourmand, they're all holding their
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breaths until your next flame. Therefore, post everywhere.
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4. Conspiracies abound: If everyone's against you, the reason
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can't *possibly* be that you're a fuckhead. There's obviously a
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conspiracy against you, and you will be doing the entire net a
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favor by exposing it.
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5. Lawsuit threats: This is the reverse of Rule #4 (sort of like
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the Yin & Yang of flaming). Threatening a lawsuit is always
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considered to be in good form. "By saying that I've posted to the
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wrong group, Bertha has libelled me, slandered me, and sodomized
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me. See you in court, Bertha."
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6. Force them to document their claims: Even if Harry Hoinkus
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states outright that he likes tomato sauce on his pasta, you
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should demand documentation. If Newsweek hasn't written an
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article on Harry's pasta preferences, then Harry's obviously
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lying.
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7. Use foreign phrases: French is good, but Latin is the lingua
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franca of flaming. You should use the words "ad hominem" at least
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three times per article. Other favorite Latin phrases are "ad
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FidoNews 6-07 Page 6 13 Feb 1989
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nauseum", "vini, vidi, vici", "fetuccini alfredo".
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8. Tell 'em how smart you are: Why use intelligent arguments to
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convince them you're smart when all you have to do is tell them?
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State that you're a member of Mensa or Mega or Dorks of America.
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Tell them the scores you received on every exam since high
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school. "I got an 800 on my SATs, LSATs, GREs, MCATs, and I can
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also spell the word 'premeiotic' ".
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9. Accuse your opponent of censorship. It is your right as an
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American citizen to post whatever the hell you want to the net
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(as guaranteed by the 37th Amendment, I think). Anyone who tries
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to limit your cross-posting or move a flame war to email is
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either a communist, a fascist, or both.
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10. Doubt their existence: You've never actually seen your
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opponent, have you? And since you're the center of the universe,
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you should have seen them by now, shouldn't you? Therefore, THEY
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DON'T EXIST! This is the beauty of flamers' logic.
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11. Lie, cheat, steal, leave the toilet seat up.
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12. When in doubt, insult: If you forget the other 11 rules,
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remember this one. At some point during your wonderful career as
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a flamer you will undoubtedly end up in a flame war with someone
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who is better than you. This person will expose your lies, tear
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apart your arguments, make you look generally like a bozo. At
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this point, there's only one thing to do: insult the dirtbag!!!
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"Oh yeah? Well, your mother does strange things with vegetables."
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The Golden Rule of Flaming:
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My flames will be witty, insulting, interesting, funny, caustic,
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or sarcastic, but never, ever, will they be boring.
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Here endeth the scriptures.
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Joe Talmadge
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hplabs!hpda!hpsemc!jat
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 6-07 Page 7 13 Feb 1989
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What's Happening at SEA?
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We're told that the path to success lies in emulating a duck;
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Look calm and unruffled on the surface, while paddling like mad
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underneath!
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We haven't said much lately about what we've been doing, but that
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doesn't mean we haven't been doing anything. Rather the
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opposite. We've been doing everything at once! Many of the
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pieces are interrelated to one extent or another, and we don't
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like talking about vaporware, so we've held off talking about any
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of it until it was finished.
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But it's wrapped up now, which leaves us with a new problem.
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(Was there ever a problem whose solution didn't lead to more
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problems?) Now that we've finished working on everything all at
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once, how do we tell you about everything all at once? We can't,
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so we'll deal with them a piece at a time. This week we'll lead
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off by mentioning something for the techies out there.
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No doubt you saw our product announcement for SEAdog 4.50 last
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week, and saw lots of interesting goodies in there. How do they
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work? How does a chat link work, and what's this "domain"
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business?
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To answer those questions (and others) we've started publishing a
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series of Technical Memoranda. These are machine-readable
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documentation files describing various aspects of our software.
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Techies will appreciate these for the hard data they provide on
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how our stuff works, and everyone will appreciate the many
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helpful tips and suggestions.
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Here is the current list of titles for our Technical Memoranda
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thus far:
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Number Title
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====== =====
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TM0001 Technical Memoranda
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TM0101 Using SEAdog within FidoNet
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TM0102 Using SEAdog with TBBS
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TM0103 Using SEAdog with Fido
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TM0104 Using SEAdog with Opus
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TM0105 Using SEAdog with RBBS
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TM0201 SEAdog 4.50; Session Passwording
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TM0202 SEAdog 4.50; Domain Addressing
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TM0203 SEAdog 4.50; Event Scheduling
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TM0204 SEAdog 4.50; External Event Triggers
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TM0205 SEAdog 4.50; Chat Mode Functions
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TM0206 SEAdog 4.50; TTY Interface Functions
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TM0207 SEAdog 4.50; Chat Session Protocol
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TM0208 SEAdog 4.50; Shells and USNO
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TM0209 SEAdog 4.50; Undocumented Features of MAIL
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TM0301 Technical Aspects of Implementing Group Mail
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TM0302 GROUP 2.05; Undocumented Features
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FidoNews 6-07 Page 8 13 Feb 1989
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TM0303 Coupling Group Mail to EchoMail
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TM0304 GROUP 2.05; High Volume GroupMail
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Any of these may be downloaded from our technical support
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bulletin board at (201) 473-1991, or may be file requested from
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node 520/1015@Alternet or 1:107/1015@FidoNet. The names of the
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files are the TM number with an extension of ".TXT". For
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example, TM0304 is in a file named "TM0304.TXT". The complete
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set of technical memoranda may be had by requesting "TM.ARC".
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Next week: XlatList and route files
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 6-07 Page 9 13 Feb 1989
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=================================================================
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LATEST VERSIONS
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=================================================================
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Latest Software Versions
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Bulletin Board Software
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Name Version Name Version Name Version
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Fido 12K* Opus 1.03b TBBS 2.1
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QuickBBS 2.03 TPBoard 5.0 TComm/TCommNet 3.2
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Lynx 1.10 Phoenix 1.3 RBBS 1.71C
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Network Node List Other
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Mailers Version Utilities Version Utilities Version
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Dutchie 2.90C* EditNL 4.00 ARC 5.32
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SEAdog 4.50* MakeNL 2.12 ARCmail 2.0*
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BinkleyTerm 2.00 Prune 1.40 ConfMail 4.00
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D'Bridge 1.10 XlatList 2.90* TPB Editor 1.21
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FrontDoor 2.0 XlaxNode 2.31 TCOMMail 2.0
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PRENM 1.40 XlaxDiff 2.31 TMail 8901*
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ParseList 1.30 UFGATE 1.02*
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GROUP 2.04*
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EMM 1.40
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MSGED 1.96
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* Recently changed
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Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by
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reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list
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||
all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 6-07 Page 10 13 Feb 1989
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=================================================================
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NOTICES
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||
=================================================================
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The Interrupt Stack
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||
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19 May 1989
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Start of EuroCon III at Eindhoven, The Netherlands
|
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24 Aug 1989
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Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
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24 Aug 1989
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FidoCon '89 starts at the Holiday Inn in San Jose,
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California. Trade show, seminars, etc. Contact 1/89
|
||
for info.
|
||
|
||
5 Oct 1989
|
||
20th Anniversary of "Monty Python's Flying Circus"
|
||
|
||
If you have something which you would like to see on this
|
||
calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1:1/1.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 6-07 Page 11 13 Feb 1989
|
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OFFICERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIDONET ASSOCIATION
|
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Hal DuPrie 1:101/106 Chairman of the Board
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Bob Rudolph 1:261/628 President
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||
Matt Whelan 3:3/1 Vice President
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Ray Gwinn 1:109/639 Vice President - Technical Coordinator
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David Garrett 1:103/501 Secretary
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Steve Bonine 1:115/777 Treasurer
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IFNA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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DIVISION AT-LARGE
|
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|
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10 Courtney Harris 1:102/732? Don Daniels 1:107/210
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11 Bill Allbritten 1:11/301 Hal DuPrie 1:101/106
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12 Bill Bolton 3:711/403 Mark Grennan 1:147/1
|
||
13 Rick Siegel 1:107/27 Steve Bonine 1:115/777
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||
14 Ken Kaplan 1:100/22 Ted Polczyinski 1:154/5
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||
15 Larry Kayser 1:104/739? Matt Whelan 3:3/1
|
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16 Ivan Schaffel 1:141/390 Robert Rudolph 1:261/628
|
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17 Rob Barker 1:138/34 Steve Jordan 1:102/2871
|
||
18 Christopher Baker 1:135/14 Bob Swift 1:140/24
|
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19 David Drexler 1:19/1 Larry Wall 1:15/18
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2 Henk Wevers 2:500/1 David Melnik 1:107/233
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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FidoNews 6-07 Page 12 13 Feb 1989
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|
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|
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__
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The World's First / \
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BBS Network /|oo \
|
||
* FidoNet * (_| /_)
|
||
_`@/_ \ _
|
||
| | \ \\
|
||
| (*) | \ ))
|
||
______ |__U__| / \//
|
||
/ Fido \ _//|| _\ /
|
||
(________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm)
|
||
|
||
Membership for the International FidoNet Association
|
||
|
||
Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
|
||
pays a specified annual membership fee. IFNA serves the
|
||
international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to
|
||
increase worldwide communications.
|
||
|
||
Member Name _______________________________ Date _______________
|
||
Address _________________________________________________________
|
||
City ____________________________________________________________
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||
State ________________________________ Zip _____________________
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||
Country _________________________________________________________
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||
Home Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________
|
||
Work Phone (Voice) ______________________________________________
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||
|
||
Zone:Net/Node Number ____________________________________________
|
||
BBS Name ________________________________________________________
|
||
BBS Phone Number ________________________________________________
|
||
Baud Rates Supported ____________________________________________
|
||
Board Restrictions ______________________________________________
|
||
|
||
Your Special Interests __________________________________________
|
||
_________________________________________________________________
|
||
_________________________________________________________________
|
||
In what areas would you be willing to help in FidoNet? __________
|
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_________________________________________________________________
|
||
_________________________________________________________________
|
||
Send this membership form and a check or money order for $25 in
|
||
US Funds to:
|
||
International FidoNet Association
|
||
PO Box 41143
|
||
St Louis, Missouri 63141
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USA
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||
|
||
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
|
||
and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted by the
|
||
membership in January 1987. The second elected Board of Directors
|
||
was filled in August 1988. The IFNA Echomail Conference has been
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established on FidoNet to assist the Board. We welcome your
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input to this Conference.
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