237 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
237 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
Well, I don't know if it's just me, but innumerable hell has
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been flying about the the tri-chat area as I see it. The three
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boards involved are namely, Cheers, CyberChat, and Imperial
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Fortress, alphabetically to avoid favoritism. Does the debate
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range further than these three boards? Undoubtedly. I hear
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references about the chaos on the Iron Cross BBS, and I'm sure
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there's others. But to alleviate any brain strain on my part,
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these are the only three that I shall deal with, and in the end,
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the only three that will feel the full out repercussions of the
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conflict.
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Indeed, I am a reporter (you can read me bi-monthly in the
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Forked River Gazette... hey, ya gotta start somewhere), and as I
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view more and more, I must admit a conservative reporter, and I
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often I find myself drawn into highly inflammatory, opinionated,
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conflicts and find it necessary to contribute my two cents.
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Anyone who knows me from my Commodore days, (few will), will
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acknowledge my methods especially with mention of the Final
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Frontier BBS. It was on this board I began to 'come outspoken,
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openly defying the sysop, Joe Irving, though pointing out to him
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that I had NOT violated any of his rules, and if he wished to
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suspend me would have to either wait until I did break one of his
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rules, or change those rules.
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Invariably, coupled with many a personal issue that came
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between us, Joe began to dislike me a great deal, BUT, he never
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deleted me. Often I'd push the envelope, bending to rules so far
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as to nearly break, and Joe would just watch them fall right
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back. I knew, and he knew, that he was waiting for that one slip,
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that tiny, accidental slip, which we knew I would make, for no
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one, not even I, is perfect, and he would suspend me.
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Well, that day came. Used to the chat network method of also
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calling people by their real names, as well as their handles, I
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blurbed someone's name accidentally on the Final Frontier, which,
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there, is against the rules, and -=<poof>=- I was gone. I finally
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broke the rules, and Joe deleted me. It may sound rash, but you
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must realize the extents that I had pushed him, and yet how we
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both maintained as separate individuals on the board, never
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bringing into contact our interpersonal problems. He had every
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right to do what he did, and in light of recent events, I
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actually respect him for having waited so long. Despite what I
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might think of him personally, (which, in reality, I don't know
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what I think :) ), he has show some of the greatest sysoping I
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have ever seen.
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But, return we now to the topic at hand. It all starts, I
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suppose, at Cheers, though I knew nothing of the system before
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CyberChat went up just over a year ago. It would seem, to the
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uninvolved eye, which is how all eyes SHOULD be on a BBS or chat
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system, that there was a distinct conflict in the upper
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management of the system. I've always been an advocate of no more
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than 1 sysop and at most 2 co-sysops on any system. Not that, if
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the sysop desires should only he and two others have complete
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"sysop level" access to the system, certainly the programmer, and
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any other staff should be able to receive the access they need to
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carry out their duties, BUT there should only be a maximum of 3
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people who have the final word on the goings on of the system.
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And even more, the sysop is the one who should have the FINAL
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word. Things such as deletions, suspensions, ect, should only be
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able to be carried out by the sysop and with ample notice to the
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user. Also, the sysop should be available for conference with the
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user should he or she question why his access was altered. Well,
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this is where the problems began.
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It seems that the sysop of Cheers, Malone, actually had a life,
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or at least something that took up his time, and was unable to do
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the duties a sysop should, especially a chat system sysop. A
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regular system operator of your standard message base and email
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bulletin board system would do fine to only check in on his
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system three or four times a week, but with a chat system,
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everything is sped up to the point where if the sysop does not
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spend at least a few hours a day responding to his email, he is
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very soon left out of his own system. This, unfortunately befell
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Malone. And instead of allowing himself to be recognized as
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merely the owner of the system, and promote someone else to the
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sysop position, Malone simply added a CO-sysop... or five. I can
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see, Malone's wishes to be recognized as the provider of the
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service, but he just didn't have the ability. He should have
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known that people DO place some respect in the owners of a
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system, even if they never meet them, for does not everyone thank
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General Electric at least a little bit, for owning NBC and in
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turn providing David Letterman with the ability to entertain us
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every night? ( Or at least, having provided? ) Well, it seems
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Malone may have learned his lesson, now his name no longer
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appears on the Cheers log-on screen and Bhawk is now seemingly
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system operator. We shall see what becomes of this.
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But again, it is not the present, but the recent past this is
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here to discuss, more aptly, the new spawn into the chat realm,
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The Imperial Fortress (TIF). Where did they come from? How did
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they get there? And most importantly, why? For this, we will have
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to step back to what I spoke of about the "problems with
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upper-management" at Cheers.
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It would seem that at least four, if not all (co)sysops of TIF
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were at one time cosysops of Cheers. The exact reasons why the
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split has occurred I am not totally sure of, as I know many
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aren't, but I'll get to THAT in a second.
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The greatest complaints, and thereby justifications for their
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succession, were that Malone was never around for them or the
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system, and he never expressed enough thanks for their work on
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the system. There is also a claim that Malone would often spy in
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on "private" chats and other such things that he should not be
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doing. Well, foremost, I must reply to the accusation that Malone
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spied in on private conversations. I have been BBSing for
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innumerable years at this point, and as I recall, EVERY system I
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have ever logged on to has had a message proclaiming "there is
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no such thing as private [conferencing] on this system. The sysop
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reserves the right to look at [anything private]". So, on this
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point, if he did do this, the immoral, and I myself would find it
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offensive, he has every right. Every user agreed to let him do so
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once they signed onto the system.
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The other points of argument I find just silly, if not
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justified. As I said, with Malone never being around for the
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system, that was his folly, and perhaps he should have been more
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caring about what went on with it, but he wasn't. (Though Malone
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was always available to me when I needed to talk to him, and many
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times (no offense) wanted to talk to me even when I didn't. :) )
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In turn, Malone left the operation of the system up to his, what
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should truly be acknowledged by any BBSer, CO-the-real-sysop-is-
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busy-so-tell-me-your-problems-SYSOPS, so him not being there for
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the system was not necessarily a problem.
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And the complaint of not enough thanks. First. complaints of
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him never being there, and then of him not giving enough thanks.
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How could he give thanks if he was never there? And what indeed
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did they want? President Clinton does not turn around after the
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head of congress settles a debate and thank him for doing his
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job, but he still does it. Lee Iacocca does not turn around and
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kiss the hand of the thirty second to the left rivet welder in
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the assembly line every time he welds another rivet, but he still
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does his job. I know these are extreme, but it's the way it is
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people, get a grip. Some people just don't say thank you so
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easily. And it wasn't really Malone you were doing a favor, it
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was US, the users, and I haven't said thank you either. You going
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to boycott me too?
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And finally, I've seen innumerable people on Cheers, sysops,
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users, people who never met him, tear apart Malone for reasons I
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know not. I've never had a problem with him, everyone I've ever
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talked to who did not put him down have never had a problem with
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him, but it is these people who did put him down who claim, "Oh,
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you'll never understand," and then they never even offer to tell
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us, to give us the chance to TRY and understand. I still maintain
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personal problems should be kept off the BBS, for example, of the
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many reasons I was disliked so by Joe Irving was due to the fact
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I dated his sister, once "stole" his girlfriend, and then later
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dated a second of his girlfriends (this one an ex), and yet all
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of this we succeeded in keeping off of the Frontier. To the folks
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at Cheers, I assume this is a foreign concept. As I am fond of
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saying, be it the only phrase I can recall from my 2 semesters of
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college French, it applies, C'est comma ca. (That is how it is.)
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Now, one other topic must be addressed here, and that is of the
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forwarding lines. You may or may not know that I used to be the
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home of the Toms River area forwarding line to Cheers. Come the
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day of the birth of TIF, I called my local Lakewood number to
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contact Cheers, and low and behold, I contacted TIF. Well, after
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a bit of thought I decided to disconnect the forwarding line that
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I had. (The Toms River forwarding line forwarded to the Lakewood
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line, which in turn, forwarded to Cheers.) Malone paid me to
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forward the calls to Cheers, not to TIF, and so I was under
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contract, albeit a verbal one, to either forward the 269-4549
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number to Cheers, or, as I chose, to not forward it at all.
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Though the situation involving my line is not at issue, but all
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the lines. A user on Cheers and TIF symbolized the split as the
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early colonists breaking away from England and her tyrannical
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rule, but, as I pointed out, the colonists had given notice to
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Mother England in the form of the Declaration Of Independence,
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that which TIF did not bestow upon Cheers. No, in my eyes, a more
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equal symbol would be the south breaking from the north and the
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Civil War, neither side was necessarily correct, but they did it
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without style, and without warning. Many users of Cheers called
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their local numbers to find TIF spontaneously in its stead. What
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were the users to do about the money they paid to Cheers? I quote
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an anonymous source (simply, I can't remember who said it) on TIF
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(not, mind you, a sysop) who said, "They are shit out of luck."
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The TIF's staff's position was more kind, though not necessarily
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giving either as they simply said, "Cheers is still up, but you
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can't get there from here." As par the Germans response to the
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loss of 3/4 of Berlin after World War II, "It's yours, but I'd
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like to see you get there."
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My personal opinion of TIF's usage of the Cheers forwarding
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lines for their own system, without posting warnings in advance,
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without simply changing the numbers used to dial, without
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informing people seeking Cheers in way of a system wide message
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that they have NOT reached Cheers, is simply an acknowledgment of
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one of the oldest cons in the book, "bait and switch." In the
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same parallel I've drawn for others, it is like filling a Pepsi
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bottle with Coke and not telling the consumer of the switch until
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after they have used and enjoyed the product. And then offering
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them Coke, in a Coke bottle.
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To this day, I am sure there are new users out there dialing
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(908) 905-2524 or some other such number in search of what was
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raved in the advertisement as "Cheers, a really great board," or
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some such, and getting TIF. Will they ever get what they were
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looking for? One may never know.
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Before wrapping up, where does CyberChat fit into all this? It
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don't. Surprisingly CyberChat has been able to keep it's nose
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clean of all of the chaos, despite it's happening in "their own
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back yard," and to this I offer them applause. This is the kind
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of attitude displayed but that other board I hold high, Final
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Frontier. With that, my only question is, does Hegz have a
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sister?
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Well, you choose the system you wish to call based on your own
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opinions, not mine, which is all these were. Call, one, call two,
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or if you're a severe cyberspace junkie, call all three. Just
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remember, BBSes are there for the users, and we call to talk to
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other users, not SYSOPS. Though the sysops are users, and when
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looked at in that light...
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- IronHorse
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-=<Cheers>=- Sysop: Bhawk
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(908) 972-2387, (908) 727-2752, (908) 969-9360, (908) 360-1209
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(908) 303-0135, (609) 443-9008 Voice Support (908) 536-6985
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-=<CyberChat>=- Sysop: Hegz
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(908) 506-0610, (908) 506-7637, (908) 901-0762, (908) 363-8511
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(908) 308-3371 Voice Support (908) 506-6651
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-=<The Imperial Fortress>=- Sysops: Pigpen, ChooChoo,
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Carl, Adagio
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(908) 972-1001, (908) 254-3175, (908) 525-9472, (908) 969-1866
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(908) 351-6149, (908) 308-4585, (908) 905-2524 No Voice Listed
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These are the numbers as listed on the log-on screens of the
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respective systems, I am not responsible for their validity.
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