172 lines
9.5 KiB
Plaintext
172 lines
9.5 KiB
Plaintext
A
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Msg #: [13/20] Base: BBS Problems
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Date : Sat 14 Mar 1992 8:59p Stat: Public
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From : Dragon #8
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To : Shit Man!
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Title: Telegard what else?
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Reply: This message has 1 reply
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*******************************************************************************
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From: Martin Pollard Msg Num: 66 of 108
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To: All Date: 08 Dec 91 03:07:09
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Subj: So long, and thanks for all the fish...
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Attr: Sent Read: N
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Conf: Telegard BETA Discussion
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*******************************************************************************
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MSGID: 1:120/187 2941e46d
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PID: TeleMail 1.50
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On December 13th, 1991, the TELEGARD conference will be removed from the
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FidoNet EchoMail backbone, and the Telegard software will come to an end.
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This is being done for various reasons... but first, a little history...
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I have been with Telegard almost since the beginning... close to three years.
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When it was first released by Carl Mueller, it was little more than the WWIV
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version 3.21 public domain source code with Carl's name on it. At the time,
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Carl was involved in a number of illegal activities, such as hacking,
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phreaking, credit card fraud, and software piracy. Telegard was originally
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intended to be used by his friends who were into the same activities.
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As time went on, Carl added modifications to the software, and people began to
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take an interest in the software. It mai
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nly attracted software pirates
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[more] because of its ability to hide pirated files. It was also full of
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back doors
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so that Carl could hack into any board running it and have full SysOp access.
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Carl eventually got caught and busted for phone phreaking (the charges were
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eventually dropped), and the source code was turned over to Eric Oman, who
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removed the back doors and continued to modify it. Later on, Todd Bolitho
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joined the Alpha team in an organizational capacity, and I joined as Alpha and
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co-programmer by version 1.8. After version 2.4 I was doing almost all of the
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programming. It was around this time that the TELEGARD conference was placed
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on the FidoNet EchoMail backbone, as version 2.5 was enhanced to support
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EchoMail.
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During these three years, we've seen the software grow quite a bit, and its
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popularity along with it. Unfortunately, its reputation as a pirate BBS
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preceeded it, and has been an albatross around the neck of the developers
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since its inception. Today, "Telegard" is synonymous with "Pirate BBS Hack",
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even though that definition has not applied for two years.
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Due to creative differences between Eric, Todd and myself, the team split up,
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and I was the only one left supporting Telegard. For the past year and a half
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I have received quite a few compliments about the software, but many more
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demands, threats and complaints, not to mention illegal hacks of the software
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that claim to be the "REAL" Telegard.
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This conference was supposed to be a place where Telegard SysOps around the
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world could participate in a round-table forum to receive technical support.
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I moderated the conference openly and fairly, and was very lenient upon people
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who broke the conference rules. From the moment that TELEGARD was put onto
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the backbone, however, it has been dominated by insults, foul language,
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flaming, software piracy, and overall childish behavior. I put Scott Raymond
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-- who has been involved with Telegard almost as long as I have -- in charge
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of the conference because he is a lot more heavy-handed than I am, and I
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wanted it that way. According to the current Backbone Operating Procedure
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(BOP) being followed by the Net, Regional, and Zone EchoMail Coordinators,
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backbone conference moderators and co-moderators have unilateral control over
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a conference, and NO ONE, not even the ZEC, is supposed to interfere in the
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workings of a conference as long as it does not interfere with backbone
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operations. In short, it means that a conference moderator is allowed to cut
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ANY feed o the conference he sees fit without providing a reason or fair
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warning; the only thing required is a note to the offending node that they
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have been cut from the conference.
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Over the past two months, ten individual links and an entire net gateway were
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cut from access to TELEGARD. In response, several of these people filed
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policy complaints against Scott Raymond, which they had no grounds to do,
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since he was well within his rights as the co-moderator of this conference.
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The NCs and NECs involved decided to ignore the BOP, however, since it seemed
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convenient to do so.
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Since it's still obvious that human stupidity is rampant and there will never
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be a way to curtail it in a completely public forum, we are taking that forum
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away. If you can't play nice with others, your toys get confiscated. This
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conference will be moved to the sanctioned Telegard support network, USTGNet.
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In that net, when a link is cut from the conference, it stays cut and no
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policy complaints will be accepted (as the policies of FidoNet do not apply to
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USTGNet).
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What does this have to do with Telegard itself? In a nutshell, version 2.7
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will be the very LAST version of Telegard ever to be released, and that
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includes Beta and Alpha versions. In exchange for free software, free
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utilities, and free tech support, I and the remaining Telegard support team
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have received insults, hacks, stabs in the back from ex-Beta sites, and piracy
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of a Beta version (several, in fact) still in the testing stages... and still
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buggy. Therefore, after version 2.7, there will be no more Telegard. As far
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as I am concerned, the software will be dead and buried. The source code will
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NOT be released to the public.
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(The name "Telegard" itself is trademarked. Any BBS software using the name
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Telegard is in violation of current trademark ownership law. The source code
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for version 2.5g that found its way to the public is owned by both myself and
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Eric Oman. You may not put your own name on it as the programmer unless 75%
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or more of the code has been rewritten from the ground up. If this is not the
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case, then you must give credit to Martin Pollard and Eric Oman in the
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copyright notice. Any software not following the above requirements is in
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violation of current copyright law.)
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Why am I doing this? It's very simple: I'm tired of giving away something for
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nothing and getting nothing but grief in return. Except for a relative
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handful of people, the majority of the Telegard users have no respect for
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software authors, conference rules, or copyright laws. They not only expect
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everything handed to them for free, they DEMAND it, and expect me to kiss
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their asses while doing it. Thanks, but I'll pass; I'm not required to put up
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with this kind of grief over a goddamn HOBBY.
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Some of you may say that I'm chickening out, that I'm giving up, that I'm
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caving in to pressure from the ones who caused the trouble. I won't argue the
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point. On the other hand, those of you who caused the trouble will probably
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start partying and rejoicing after receiving this news, thinking you've "won"
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your battle against "the bad guy". All I can say is, party away, and rejoice
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in the fact that you've destroyed a great software package and reduced it to
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the level of Celerity, LSD, ViSiOn, Emulex/2, and their other pirate/hack
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siblings.
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To those people who have been loyal to Telegard and respected my wishes as
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author, I commend you on your perseverance and thank you for the support; you
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couldn't begin to guess know how much it meant to me. If you aren't already a
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[more] member, I invite you to consider USTGNet (headed by Jack Reece);
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you stand a
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much better chance of receiving the tech support you deserve in that network.
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To those people who stabbed me in the back, pirated the software, turned this
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conference into a circus, and in general destroyed what was supposed to be an
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enjoyable hobby, congratulations; you got what you worked so hard to attain:
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the end of Telegard. You made your bed, now die in it.
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-=[> Martin Pollard <]=-
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... TELEGARD Conference Moderator and Author of Telegard (Retired)
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--- Blue Wave/TGq v2.02/C+ Beta
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* Origin: The I/O Bus - TG_BETA Conference Moderator (1:120/187.0)
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PATH: 120/187 278/624
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[13:20] Read (1-20,<CR>=Next,?=Help) :
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm)
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& the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845
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Salted Slug Systems Strange 408-454-9368
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Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766
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realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043
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Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102
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Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 408-961-9315
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My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078
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Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives,
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arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality,
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insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS.
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Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are,
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where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother.
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"Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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