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F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 05 1 February 1999
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: |
| FidoNet community | "FidoNews" |
| _ | +27-41-515-913 [5:5/23] |
| / \ | |
| /|oo \ | |
| (_| /_) | |
| _`@/_ \ _ | |
| | | \ \\ | Editor: |
| | (*) | \ )) | Henk Wolsink 5:7104/2 |
| |__U__| / \// | |
| _//|| _\ / | |
| (_/(_|(____/ | |
| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
+----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Submission address: FidoNews Editor 5:5/23 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MORE addresses: |
| |
| submissions=> editor@fidonews.org |
| hwolsink@catpe.alt.za |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
| obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ |
| please refer to the end of this file. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1
2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2
Free Elections - getting your money's worth in Romania ... 2
New FTSC website ......................................... 4
Grunged Echomail Deleted - Roy J. Tellason ............... 4
3. NOTICES .................................................. 6
4. FIDONET BY INTERNET ...................................... 7
5. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 11
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 1 8 Feb 1999
=================================================================
EDITORIAL
=================================================================
Greetings,
It's nice to see, FidoNews is read and appriciated by those in far
away places such as Northern Russia. ;-)
Still extremely hot here in Africa with unbelievable temperatures,
the worst or is it highest, for many a decade and not pleasant at all.
Preparing for another business trip and will be back in time for the
next issue.
Enjoy.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 2 8 Feb 1999
=================================================================
ARTICLES
=================================================================
Free Elections - getting your money's worth in Romania.
Free Elections
Getting Your Money's Worth in Romania
Douglas Myers, 1:270/720, doug@mtdnbbs.com
I've got to confess to some feeling of inadequecy in reporting
events in Romania. I'm not there, I don't really know the people
involved, and my contact started out simply as part of a mass
mailing. Nonetheless, a lot of information has come through here,
and it's too disturbing to simply ignore.
Region 53 has recently undergone elections to determine a new
Regional Coordinator to replace the fired Catalin Bradu. Catalin
was fired by Ward Dossche, Z2C, for refusing to implement Ward's
order to reinstate the excommunicated Gabi Andrei. Ward named
Costin Manda as temporary R53C, charged with conducting an election
for a permanent RC.
Candidates in the recently concluded election were Mihai Banciu and,
ironically, Catalin Bradu. Catalin claimed victory with a final
vote of 11-7, however Ward Dossche awarded the victory to Mihai
Banciu based on a 25-13 return which included point nodes.
Catalin is currently petitioning Bob Satti for a "zone independant"
regional assignment, to operate his region outside the influence of
Ward Dossche. He has announced that the region will leave Fido and
function as a network independant of Fido if all else fails.
Those are the facts, as nearly as I can determine them, primarily
derived from email and netmail from Catalin Bradu, Ward Dossche, and
Codrut Popescu (R53C prior to Catalin). There are many unanswered
questions concerning appropriatness, however.
The first concern is the appropriateness of excommunicating Gabi
Andrei. While it seems that he was sufficiently annoying to warrant
complaints based on "Excessively Annoying Behavior," his own NC
would not file such a complaint and even supported Gabri. Is it
appropriate that an RC will then implement excommunication?
Granted, it was a popular move - but it was done without the consent
of the Z2C. Bob Satti informs me via echomail that a node is not
normally removed from the nodelist until arguements have been heard
at the zone level, so the excommunication appears to be procedurally
incorrect. However, there is a concern that nodes should not be
forced to connect to those they find offensive.
A second concern is the appropriateness of a ZC firing a
popularly-elected RC. Policy gives the ZC this power, but practice
has been to honor elections. Further, the Z2C has a policy of
allowing elections... does this imply an obligation to back the
results of such? Ward Dossche, in email to Bob Satti with a copy to
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 3 8 Feb 1999
me, claims that Catalin was never popularly elected as RC, only as
NC. Codrut Popescu, who conducted the elections in question,
explains the actual events in email to me:
----------------- extracted from email --------------------
Almost a year ago I was the elected RC53 in Romania. The Network
Coordinator position in 530 was open, so I organised elections. You
have to know that in R53 there are two networks, 530 and 531. 530 for
Bucharest and 531 for the rest of the country. If you still have the
nodelists for that period you'll see that 530 was 80% of the total
nodes number in R53. Now is over 95%.
The candidates were Alex Sovu, Catalin Bradu and Gabi Andrei. They
gained 8, 11 and 3 votes, respectively. It is to be mentioned that
from these 22 votes, 2 were from 531. The NC position in 530 was so
very important for 531 so I allowed the nodes (very few) from 531 to
express their votes in these elections.
So Catalin Bradu gained most of the votes. There was a big rivalry
between Catalin and Alex, the last one was about to leave the network
because of his failure in the elections. At the same time I was
involved in a new position in a bank and when you're 27 years old
there are some priorities in life. So I appointed Catalin as RC and
Alex as NC after both of them agreed to stick together for the good of
the network. Mr. Ward Dossche was informed about this elections at the
end, and he agreed with the replacement. Though, he was not announced
about this shifting in the *C hierarchy due to my retirement.
----------------- end extract -----------------------------
It would appear that Ward Dossche is technically correct that
Catalin was not specifically elected as RC, but, from Codrut's
description of events, it seems to me that his appointment was in
order and reflected the will of the voters.
A third concern is the appearance that the outcome of the recent
election was predetermined. This appearance comes from two sources:
1. A netmail message from Ward Dossche to Costin Manda instructing
him that Mihai Banciu was the winner of the election despite an
early return which favored Catalin by about 2-1.
2. The inclusion of point nodes in the final vote count, despite
the assertion that points were only permitted advisory input
throughout the election. Since the points essentially determined
the election, this is a vital issue. Ward Dossche claims in email
that points were traditionally allowed to vote in R53 elections, but
both Catalin Bradu and Codrut Popescu inform me that point nodes
have never had a vote in any election until Ward included their
totals in this most recent vote count.
A fourth concern is the appropriateness of resolving political
incompatibilities by entire regions leaving Fido. Though this may
be a mere threat, it's hardly conducive to the concerns of many that
nodelist shrinkage must be halted somehow. Of course, it may be the
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 4 8 Feb 1999
only way which Catalin Bradu can get the "zone independant number"
he's asking for... by forming a new zone. I'm not sure how Bob
Satti can issue a "zone independant number."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
New FTSC website
Hi Folks,
The FTSC website and anonymous FTP site have new names.
The new URL for the website is
http://www.ftsc.org
The anonymous FTP server is now to be found at ftp.ftsc.org
-=-
If you have links to the website I'd be grateful if you could update
them.
http://www.piglets.com/ftsc (the old URL) and http://www.ftsc.org are
exactly the same place but the latter is clearly easier to remember.
-=-
More importantly....
If you are mirroring the FTP site on ftp.piglets.com then you should
now mirror ftp.ftsc.org.
I will maintain the old archive for a brief time, but it's location
(pub/FTSC) is /not/ the same as the new location which is actually in
ftp.piglets.com/ftp.ftsc.org.
So if you don't change over before I remove the old archive you could
have a problem ;-).
The CGI script on the webpages is already accessing the new document
repositry.
CT.
---
* Origin: - FTSC Member - (2:443/13)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Grunged Echomail Deleted.
Grunged Echomail Deleted
Roy J. Tellason
1:270/615
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 5 8 Feb 1999
roy.j.tellason%tanstaaf@frackit.com
John Souvestre wrote in a message to Roy J Tellason:
JS> This is to inform you of what seems to be a discrepancy
JS> between a message from your system and the currently
JS> accepted specifications for echo mail.
JS> Because the message appeared to be grunged, or a dupe, it
JS> was deleted in order to protect the rest of the echo mail
JS> distribution system. This copy is sent to you for
JS> information purposes, to help you find the source of the
JS> problem and fix it.
JS> The discrepancy noted in the message, as received here, was:
JS> 1) Header and text of 31,814 bytes exceeds maximum of
JS> 31,000 bytes.
JS> The message was in the 10TH_AMD area.
(...)
I post some fairly lengthy messages in that echo fairly often, and
have never *heard* of any 31,000 byte length limitation. About that
"to protect the rest of the echo mail distribution system" part, are
there people out there who carry that echo who are running software
that can't handle a message of that size? I've certainly never
received any complaints, excepting those who are running some really
old offline readers that truncate stuff at 150 lines or whatever.
As far as "currently accepted specifications" for echo mail, where
are these specifications noted? It certainly doesn't appear in the
current copy of BOFAQ901.TXT that's on my system here. The closest
seems to be this part here:
5) Due to the limitations of some current software, the Backbone
can not guarantee delivery of messages in excess of 13,000
bytes.
Backbone Hubs are encouraged to use message processing
software which allows larger messages, preferably up to 64K
bytes, to be handled.
There's a *BIG* difference between "cannot guarantee delivery" and
"your message has been deleted because..."
As far as I'm concerned, this amounts to nothing more than simple
censorship based on unpublished criteria. My position as moderator of
10TH_AMD is that you either carry the whole echo or don't carry it at
all.
email: roy.j.tellason%tanstaaf@frackit.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 6 8 Feb 1999
=================================================================
NOTICES
=================================================================
Future History
16 Feb 1999
13th Anniversary of the introduction of EchoMail by Jeff Rush.
12 May 1999
12th Anniversary of Fido Operations in Zone 4;
10th Anniversary of the creation of FidoNet Zone 4.
24 Jul 1999
XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99].
9 Jun 1999
Tenth Anniversary of the adoption of FidoNet Policy 4.07.
10 Sep 1999
10th anniversary of Zone 5 operations.
26 Oct 1999
Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles.
31 Dec 1999
Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed.
1 Jan 2000
The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec.
1 Jun 2000
EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens.
15 Sep 2000
Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens.
21 Sep 2000
10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR)
1 Jan 2001
This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E.
-- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this
Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 7 8 Feb 1999
=================================================================
FIDONET BY INTERNET
=================================================================
This is a list of all FidoNet-related sites reported to the
FidoNews Editor as of this issue; see the notice at the end.
FidoNet:
Homepage http://www.fidonet.org
FidoNews http://www.fidonews.org [HTML]
http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html [ASCII]
WWW sources http://travel.to/fidonet/
FTSC page http://www.ftsc.org/
Echomail [pending]
General http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html
http://www.nrgsys.com/orb/foti
List servers:
http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/fidonet-discussion
============
Zone 1: http://www.z1.fidonet.org
Region 10: http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html
Region 11: http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/
Region 13:
Net 264: http://www.net264.org/r13.htm
Region 14:
Net 282: http://www.rxn.com/~net282/
Region 17: http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/
Region 18: http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/
Region 19: http://www.compconn.net/r19
Zone 1 Elist http://www.baltimoremd.com/elist/
Not sure where the following should be placed:
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/snwvlly/fido.html
============
Zone 2: http://www.z2.fidonet.org
ZEC2:
Zone 2 Elist: http://www.fbone.ch/echolist/
Region 20: http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish)
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 8 8 Feb 1999
Region 23: http://www.fido.dk (in Danish)
Region 24: http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (German)
Fido-IP: http://home.nrh.de/~lbehet/fido (English/German)
Region 25: http://www.bsnet.co.uk/net2502/net/
Region 26: http://www.nemesis.ie
REC 26: http://www.nrgsys.com/orb
Region 27: http://telematique.org/ft/r27.htm
Region 29: http://www.rtfm.be/fidonet/ (French)
Region 30: http://www.fidonet.ch (German)
Region 33: http://www.fidoitalia.net (Italian)
Region 34: http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm (Spanish)
REC34: http://pobox.com/~chr
Region 36: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7207/
Region 38: http://public.st.carnet.hr/~blagi/bbs/adriam.html
Region 41: http://www.fidonet.gr (Greek/English)
Region 42: http://www.fido.cz
Region 48: http://www.fidonet.org.pl
Region 50: http://www.fido7.com/ (Russian)
Net 5010: http://fido.tu-chel.ac.ru/ (Russian)
Net 5015: http://www.fido.nnov.ru/ (Russian)
Net 5030: http://kenga.ru/fido/ (Russian & English)
Net 5073: http://people.weekend.ru/soa/ (Russian)
============
Zone 3: http://www.z3.fidonet.org
============
Zone 4:
Region 90: http://visitweb.com/fidonet
Net 903: http://www.playagrande.com/refugio
Net 904: http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish)
============
Zone 5: http://www.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/index.htm
============
Zone 6: http://www.z6.fidonet.org
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 9 8 Feb 1999
Region 65: http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html (Chinese)
============
Pages listed above are as submitted to the FidoNews Editor,
and generally reflect Zone and Regional Web Page sites. If
no Regional site is submitted, the first Network page from
that Region is used in its place. Generally, Regional pages
should list access points to all Networks within the Region.
TCP/IP accessible node access information should be submitted
to the FidoNews Editor for inclusion in their Region or Zone.
-----------oOo-------------
Fidonet Via Internet Hubs
Node# | Operator | Facilities (*) | Speed | Basic Rate
-----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------
1:12/12 | Ken Wilson | FTP | T1 | $24mo.
1:13/25 | Jim Balcom | FTP | 56k | $20mo.
1:106/1 | Matt Bedynek | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 64k | $5/$15mo.
1:106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin | FTP,VMoT | 64k | $5/mo.
1:107/451 | Andy Knifel | FTP, VMoT, UUE | 33.6 | n/c
1:124/7008 | Ben Hamilton | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 64k | $10/$20mo.
1:140/12 | Bob Seaborn | FTP | T1 | $5/$20
1:270/101 | George Peace | FTP | T1 | $30mo.
1:271/140 | Tom Barstow | UUE | T1 | n/c
1:275/1 | Joshua Ecklund | UUE | 28.8 | $10/yr.
1:280/169 | Brian Greenstreet | FTP | 33.6 | $2mo.
1:2401/305 | Peter Rocca | FTP,UUE | T1 | unkn
1:2424/10 | Alec Grynspan | FTP,UUE | T1 | n/c
1:2604/104 | Jim Mclaughlin | FTP,VMoT,UUE | 33.6 | $1mo.
1:2624/306 | D. Calafrancesco | VMoT | 33.6 | $15yr.
1:345/0 | Todd Cochrane | FTP | T1 | n/c
1:346/250 | Aran Spence | FTP,UUE | T1 | $10mo.
1:396/45 | Marc Lewis | UUE | 33.6 | $26/yr.
1:3651/9 | Jerry Gause | FTP,VMoT | 33.6 | $3/$6
1:396/1 | John Souvestre | FTP,VMoT | T1 | $15mo.
2:33/505 | Mario Mure | VMoT,UUE | 64k | n/c
2:254/175 | Alex Kemp | UUE | 56k | n/c
2:284/800 | Jeroen VanDeLeur | FTP,UUE | 64k | n/c
2:335/610 | Gino Lucrezi | UUE | 33.6 | n/c
2:469/84 | Max Masyutin | VMoT | 256k | n/c
2:2411/413 | Dennis Dittrich | UUE | 64k | n/c
2:2474/275 | Christian Emig | UUE | 64k | unkn
3:633/260 | Malcolm Miles | FTP | 33.6 | n/c
4:905/100 | Fabian Gervan | VMoT, UUE | ??? | n/c
5:7104/2 | Henk Wolsink | FTP | 28.8 | n/c
--
* FTP = Internet File Transfer Protocol
* VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various)
* UUE = uuencode<->email type transfers
[I'm only cataloging transfer methods, eg, ftp, email, telnet.
Specific programs using these protocols are no longer being listed.
Contact the system operators for details of which programs they have
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 10 8 Feb 1999
available.]
Compiled by C. Ingersoll, 1:2623/71, (609)814-1978, fbn@dandy.net
Posted on the 1st of every month in FN_SYSOP, R13SYSOP and Fidonews.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 11 8 Feb 1999
=================================================================
FIDONEWS INFORMATION
=================================================================
------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION -------
Editor: Henk Wolsink
Editors Emeritii: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell,
Donald Tees, Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg
"FidoNews Editor"
FidoNet 5:5/23
BBS +27-41-515-913, 2400/9600/V.34/V.90
more addresses:
Henk Wolsink -- 5:7104/2, hwolsink@catpe.alt.za
(Postal Service mailing address)
FidoNews Editor
P.O. Box 12325
Port Elizabeth,
6006
South Africa
------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET
INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation
of individual articles contributed by their authors or their
authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation
does not diminish the rights of the authors. OPINIONS EXPRESSED in
these articles ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS and not necessarily those of
FidoNews and/or the Editor.
Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
Copyright (C) 1999 Henk Wolsink. All rights reserved. Duplication
and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For
use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or
the Editor.
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic
form may be obtained from the FidoNews Editor via manual download or
file-request, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet.
PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above postal
address. File-request FIDONEWS for the current Issue. File-request
FNEWS for the current month in one archive. Or file-request specific
back Issue filenames in distribution format [FNEWSGnn.ZIP] for a
particular Issue. Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP
where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the
current year [8], i.e., FNWSJAN8.ZIP for all the Issues from Jan 98.
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 12 8 Feb 1999
Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number
1 - 15 for 1984 - 1998, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in
size from 48K to 1.4M.
INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via:
http://www.fidonews.org
** http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm
** ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/
ftp://ftp.irvbbs.com/fidonews/
ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/Fidonet/Fidonews
And in non-English formats via:
** http://www.hvc.ee/pats/fidonews (Estonian)
http://www.fidonet.pp.se/sfnews (Swedish)
** LINK HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED
*=*=*
You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to:
jbarchuk@worldnet.att.net
with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist
and no message in the message body. To remove your name from the
email distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist
with no message to the same address above.
*
You may retrieve current and previous Issues of FidoNews via FTPMail
by sending email to:
ftpmail@fidonews.org
with a Subject line of: help
and FTPMail will immediately send a reply containing details and
instructions. When you actually make a file request, FTPMail will
respond in three stages. You find a link for this process on
www.fidonews.org.
*=*=*
You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at:
http://www.fidonews.org
STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request -
Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from:
ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/
FIDONEWS 16-05 Page 13 8 Feb 1999
Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents
for that year's issues. The total set is currently about 13 Megs.
=*=*=*=
The current week's FidoNews are now also available almost immediately
after publication on the FidoNews Editor homepage on the World Wide
Web at:
http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html
There are also links there to jim barchuk's HTML FidoNews source and
to John Souvestre's FTP site for the archives. There is also an
email link for sending in an article as message text. Drop on over.
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews Editor, or file-requestable
from 5:5/23 [5:7104/2] as file "ARTSPEC.DOC". ALL Zone Coordinators
should have copies of ARTSPEC.DOC. Please read it.
"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
trademarks of Tom Jennings, P.O. Box 410923, San Francisco, CA 94141,
and are used with permission.
"Disagreement is actually necessary,
or we'd all have to get in fights
or something to amuse ourselves
and create the requisite chaos."
-Tom Jennings
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