• ZONE4 down?

    From Fernando Toledo@4:902/26 to Fidonet.FN_SYSOP on Sun May 23 01:14:22 2021
    Again, I do not receive traffic from the Z4

    =(
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
    * Origin: Dock Sud BBS - http://bbs.docksud.com.ar (4:902/26)
  • From Wilfred van Velzen@2:280/464 to Fernando Toledo on Mon May 24 13:32:24 2021
    Hi Fernando,

    On 2021-05-23 01:14:22, you wrote to Fidonet.FN_SYSOP:

    @MSGID: 1482.fidonetfn_sysop@4:902/26 250f1268
    @PID: Synchronet 3.19a-Linux master/f6108f302 May 23 2021 GCC 6.3.0 @TZUTC: -0300
    @TID: SBBSecho 3.14-Linux master/f6108f302 May 23 2021 GCC 6.3.0
    @BBSID: DOCKSUD
    @CHRS: UTF-8 4
    Again, I do not receive traffic from the Z4

    What do you mean with "the Z4"? You are in Z4...

    =(
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
    * Origin: Dock Sud BBS - http://bbs.docksud.com.ar (4:902/26)
    SEEN-BY: 1/123 4/0 30/0 88/0 90/0 1 92/1 103/705 105/81 120/340 123/131 SEEN-BY: 124/5016 129/305 154/10 203/0 218/700 221/0 1 6 226/30 227/114 SEEN-BY: 227/702 229/101 200 424 426 550 664 700 981 1016 1017 240/1120 SEEN-BY: 240/5832 249/206 307 317 400 261/38 280/464 5003 5555 282/1038 SEEN-BY: 292/854 8125 301/0 1 101 103 113 123 812 310/31 317/3 322/757 SEEN-BY: 335/364 341/66 342/200 396/45 423/120 460/58 633/280 712/848 SEEN-BY: 770/1 900/0 100 105 106 107 108 902/0 6 7 10 19 26 27 100 2452/250
    SEEN-BY: 5020/1042 5058/104
    @PATH: 902/26 27 90/1 229/426 301/1 280/464

    Bye, Wilfred.

    --- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
    * Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)
  • From Wilfred van Velzen@2:280/464 to Matthias Hertzog on Mon May 24 13:51:46 2021
    Hi Matthias,

    On 2021-05-24 13:42:20, you wrote to me:

    Again, I do not receive traffic from the Z4

    What do you mean with "the Z4"? You are in Z4...

    It looked like 4:4/0 was not processing any mails for a couple of
    days. There's some indication of a "disk full" condition, but that's a
    bit of guessing. Mails are being processed now again, i've just
    received 831 dupes from zone 4.

    Aha, so he probably ment to say "the ZC4 system". ;)

    It's all bit wobbly over there...

    Unfortunately, this seems to happen often.

    Well maybe it's an incentive for the nodes in Z4 to route around the problem and get more links fidoweb style...


    Btw: Please don't top quote in fidonet!


    Bye, Wilfred.

    --- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
    * Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)
  • From Ward Dossche@2:292/854 to Matthias Hertzog on Tue May 25 10:16:12 2021
    Matthias,

    One of the RCs is not connectable since at least 8 hours.

    And that is a problem? Look-up the word "hobby".

    Btw: Please don't top quote in fidonet!
    Yeah, i know. Sometimes top-quoting is better to read, but i'll try to avoid it :-)

    It is plain annoying.

    \%/@rd
    --- DB4
    * Origin: Hou het veilig, hou vol. Het komt allemaal weer goed (2:292/854)
  • From Ward Dossche@2:292/854 to Vincent Coen on Mon May 31 16:49:38 2021
    Vince,

    If you are having problems with echo's and files you all more than
    welcome to use my system as your source and I get mine from a US star system as well as others. UK based with upload speeds of 20Mb and down 70Mb.

    A US star system ... hmmm ... you're still thinking of a Fidonet from another era.

    \%/@rd
    --- DB4
    * Origin: Hou het veilig, hou vol. Het komt allemaal weer goed (2:292/854)
  • From Vincent Coen@2:250/1 to Ward Dossche on Tue Jun 1 14:38:40 2021
    Hello Ward!

    Monday May 31 2021 16:49, you wrote to me:

    Vince,

    If you are having problems with echo's and files you all more than
    welcome to use my system as your source and I get mine from a US
    star system as well as others. UK based with upload speeds of 20Mb
    and down 70Mb.

    A US star system ... hmmm ... you're still thinking of a Fidonet from another era.

    Well, as i've been doing since the 80's(ish) and now coming to 74 on the 23rd it is a reasonable conclusion :)

    How ever as the site gets the bulk if not all fido and other areas and echos etc it still works !


    Vincent

    --- Mageia Linux v7.1 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.21/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)
  • From Fernando Toledo@4:902/26 to Vincent Coen on Tue Jun 1 19:36:28 2021
    El 31/5/21 a las 09:36, Vincent Coen escribió:

    If you are having problems with echo's and files you all more than welcome to use my system as your source and I get mine from a US star system as well as others. UK based with upload speeds of 20Mb and down 70Mb.

    Hi vincent!

    Thanks for the offer, for now I'm going to start connecting with the
    nodes of Flavio and Angel
    with these two I think it is enough for me
    If I see that I need to have more redundancy, I will contact you
    Thank you so much!
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
    * Origin: Dock Sud BBS - http://bbs.docksud.com.ar (4:902/26)
  • From Flavio Bessa@4:801/188 to Wilfred van Velzen on Fri Jun 4 09:08:14 2021
    Wilfred van Velzen wrote to Fernando Toledo <=-

    Hi Fernando,

    On 2021-05-23 01:14:22, you wrote to Fidonet.FN_SYSOP:

    @MSGID: 1482.fidonetfn_sysop@4:902/26 250f1268
    @PID: Synchronet 3.19a-Linux master/f6108f302 May 23 2021 GCC 6.3.0 @TZUTC: -0300
    @TID: SBBSecho 3.14-Linux master/f6108f302 May 23 2021 GCC 6.3.0
    @BBSID: DOCKSUD
    @CHRS: UTF-8 4
    Again, I do not receive traffic from the Z4

    What do you mean with "the Z4"? You are in Z4...

    Here at Z4, we have 4 regions:

    - Argentina (R90)
    - Brazil (R80)
    - Chile (R88)
    - Panama (R92)

    Manuel is the ZC4 and RC90, so all Argentinian systems
    get all of their echomail with him. Why is that? They
    don't know much about Fidoweb. The discussion about it
    has only recently started.

    The problem is that his system has been very unstable
    lately, for a variety of reasons... What we have been
    asking him is to at least move the echomail hub to a
    cloud provider, so a more updated and automated system
    could take care of handling echomail for Argentina and
    the other regions, but unfortunately he is not much
    eager to do it.

    In my case, when I took over R80 from Ioram, I raised
    a MO system for the sole purpose of handling echomail
    and netmail for the region, and started
    looking for new feeds from day 1. Now these
    instabilities only affect netmail routing, although
    sometimes a few duplicate messages appear at some
    echomail areas. John did the same for R92.

    ... Sou pessoa extremamente ocupada, tomo conta do mundo - Clarice L.
    ___ MultiMail/Mac v0.52
    --- Mystic BBS/QWK v1.12 A42 2019/02/01 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: Saturn's Orbit BBS - Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (4:801/188)
  • From Wilfred van Velzen@2:280/464 to Flavio Bessa on Fri Jun 4 14:31:36 2021
    Hi Flavio,

    On 2021-06-04 09:08:14, you wrote to me:

    @MSGID: 4:801/188 196b9ac3

    In my case, when I took over R80 from Ioram, I raised
    a MO system for the sole purpose of handling echomail
    and netmail for the region, and started
    looking for new feeds from day 1. Now these
    instabilities only affect netmail routing, although
    sometimes a few duplicate messages appear at some
    echomail areas.

    Like this one which I already got on the 28th of May with @MSGID: 4:801/188 e23c7864 ...


    Bye, Wilfred.

    --- FMail-lnx64 2.1.0.18-B20170815
    * Origin: FMail development HQ (2:280/464)
  • From John Dovey@4:920/69 to Fernando Toledo on Thu Jun 3 18:07:52 2021
    Re: Re: ZONE4 down?
    By: Fernando Toledo to Vincent Coen on Tue Jun 01 2021 19:36:29

    Thanks for the offer, for now I'm going to start connecting with the nodes of Flavio and Angel
    with these two I think it is enough for me
    And I'm bringing everything in from 2:301/1 so between us I think we've got it covered for now.

    JD
    ===
    * El Gato de Fuego * 4:92/69 (FidoNet) * Pedasi, Panama


    John

    ... No one wants war. Kirk, Errand of Mercy, stardate 3201.7.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: El Gato de Fuego - Pedasi, Panama (4:920/69)
  • From Ward Dossche@2:292/854 to John Dovey on Sat Jun 5 21:15:52 2021
    nodes of Flavio and Angel
    with these two I think it is enough for me
    And I'm bringing everything in from 2:301/1 so between us I think we've
    got it covered for now.

    It is very wise to crosslink even more ... you're making the "all eggs in one basket" mistake.

    \%/@rd
    --- DB4
    * Origin: Hou het veilig, hou vol. Het komt allemaal weer goed (2:292/854)
  • From John Dovey@4:920/69 to Ward Dossche on Sat Jun 5 17:10:52 2021
    Re: Re: ZONE4 down?
    By: Ward Dossche to John Dovey on Sat Jun 05 2021 21:15:53

    And I'm bringing everything in from 2:301/1 so between us I think
    we've got it covered for now.
    It is very wise to crosslink even more ... you're making the "all eggs in one basket" mistake.

    Ok. Good advice. Just want to be careful not to cause a Dupe Storm..

    John
    ===
    * El Gato de Fuego * 4:92/69 (FidoNet) * Pedasi, Panama


    John

    ... It is illegal to make liquor privately, or water publicly.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: El Gato de Fuego - Pedasi, Panama (4:920/69)
  • From Fernando Toledo@4:902/26 to Ward Dossche on Sun Jun 6 02:10:54 2021
    El 5/6/21 a las 18:15, Ward Dossche escribió:
    nodes of Flavio and Angel
    with these two I think it is enough for me
    And I'm bringing everything in from 2:301/1 so between us I think we've got it covered for now.

    It is very wise to crosslink even more ... you're making the "all eggs in one basket" mistake.

    \%/@rd

    I am not happy to take emails from uplinks that are not from Z4 (I just
    a simple node and some downlinks points). It seems to me that it breaks
    with the fido topology and it should not do it if the Z4 main hub worked without problems.

    Saludos!
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
    * Origin: Dock Sud BBS - http://bbs.docksud.com.ar (4:902/26)
  • From Alan Ianson@1:153/757 to Fernando Toledo on Sat Jun 5 22:52:32 2021
    Hello Fernando,

    I am not happy to take emails from uplinks that are not from Z4 (I
    just a simple node and some downlinks points).

    Just tell them thanks but no thanks.

    It seems to me that it breaks with the fido topology and it should not
    do it if the Z4 main hub worked without problems.

    Moving mail and files is a node thing, it has nothing to do with ZC/RC/NC or the fido hierarchy.

    As a node, if you want echos/files/netmail it is up to you to do that however you choose. Nodes can do this. ZC/RC/NCs have responsibilities but it is not moving mail.

    Nodes working together is the way to get that done.

    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)
  • From Ward Dossche@2:292/854 to John Dovey on Sun Jun 6 10:50:28 2021
    John,

    Ok. Good advice. Just want to be careful not to cause a Dupe Storm..

    That's something you shouldn't worry about anymore. There are dupe-elimination techniques which work well.

    Worrying about dupes is a thing from the past, that was then due to limited disc space and the cost associated with PSTN bandwith. When you lost a link, whatever the reason, you were out. In the WWoD ... the Wonderful World of Dupes :-) ... not any longer ... The Fidoweb brings the redundancy which you don't have right now.

    Give it a try, nobody will complain ... except Matthias ... :-)

    \%/@rd
    --- DB4
    * Origin: Hou het veilig, hou vol. Het komt allemaal weer goed (2:292/854)
  • From Ward Dossche@2:292/854 to Fernando Toledo on Sun Jun 6 11:30:44 2021
    Fernando,

    It is very wise to crosslink even more ... you're making the "all eggs
    in one basket" mistake.

    I am not happy to take emails from uplinks that are not from Z4 (I just
    a simple node and some downlinks points). It seems to me that it breaks with the fido topology and it should not do it if the Z4 main hub worked without problems.

    Z4 is still too small to run a Fidoweb anarchy but depending upon a single main hub is a thing from the past.

    When that single-hub/backbone/Star-topology fails, you're out. Period. Even worse when it becomes dictatorial.

    Some examples:

    * When around 1996 there was something to get concensus about in the ZCC, then ZC4 Gamey Garcia mailed me appologizing saying he was with me but had been told by his uplink in the Star distribution-system (the late Bob Seaborn) that the whole of Z4 would become disconnected if he voted with me.

    * ZCs exchange a file called ZONEx with eachother which then gets compiled into the nodelist for each zone. These files were exchanged via the North American Star distribution system. When my colleagues remorked there was only now and then a ZONE2-segment I started looking into it, it was discovered that the North American Star system I linked to was holding ZONE2-segments and only passed them now and then. As these were still the times of many weekly mutations it was not appreciated so I started inserting the day-number whenever a new segment was produced. This was in 1997 ... BTW, same system as the previous paragraph...

    * Many years later that same North American Star distribution system at that time run by Janis Kracht, Bob Seaborn and Ross Cassel decided to grab Fidonews and unlinked the whole of zone2, a few friends excluded. That was the beginning of the Fidoweb ... link whatever you want where-ever you want and the dupes will sort themselves out.

    There are reasons, Fernando, why things are the way they are ... take my word for it ... linking out of zone is a good thing, despite what "backbone people" try to feed you.

    Take care,

    \%/@rd

    BTW, I am extremely pleased to see life coming out of Z4 ... and some growth ... For years it looked like a morgue
    --- DB4
    * Origin: Hou het veilig, hou vol. Het komt allemaal weer goed (2:292/854)
  • From Ward Dossche@2:292/854 to Alan Ianson on Sun Jun 6 11:43:14 2021
    Alan,

    As a node, if you want echos/files/netmail it is up to you to do that however you choose. Nodes can do this. ZC/RC/NCs have responsibilities
    but it is not moving mail.

    100% with one exception ... you cannot dictate netmail to run via a specific route.

    I know about the silly North American routing tables from days gone by and that is pure nonsens. Following the network-tree is the way to send netmail ... the *C-structures are vertically in touch with eachother and netmail will arrive....

    I get a lot of out of zone netmail as a ZC and will forward that to my colleague ZCs in other zone from where it trickles down to final destination. I also handle a lot of netmail for all other regions, easy, I'm in touch with all RCs by default, hence I can assure a guaranteed delivery.

    You cannot dictate how netmail flows, whatever the "backbone sysops" tell you that they can route everything from anywhere to anywhere.

    Indeed, *Cs are not obligated to route but that's also an antiquated thing from the PSTN-days and metered calls. I started routing netmail the day I became a ZC and that has worked without complaints since day-1 ... that was now close to 27 years ago.

    Feel free to disagree.

    \%/@rd
    --- DB4
    * Origin: Hou het veilig, hou vol. Het komt allemaal weer goed (2:292/854)
  • From John Dovey@4:920/69 to Ward Dossche on Sun Jun 6 15:10:36 2021
    Re: Re: ZONE4 down?
    By: Ward Dossche to John Dovey on Sun Jun 06 2021 10:50:28

    That's something you shouldn't worry about anymore. There are dupe-elimination techniques which work well.
    Fantastic

    Give it a try, nobody will complain ... except Matthias ... :-)
    LOL.. Ok. Will do!.

    JD
    ===
    * El Gato de Fuego * 4:92/69 (FidoNet) * Pedasi, Panama


    John

    ... RCs come and RCs go, but a good NC lasts forever!
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: El Gato de Fuego - Pedasi, Panama (4:920/69)
  • From Ward Dossche@2:292/854 to Alan Ianson on Mon Jun 7 10:52:22 2021
    Hey Alan,

    I know about the silly North American routing tables from days gone AI>WD> by and that is pure nonsens.

    I think that's a valid way to do it, if folks do indeed do it.

    Those routing tables are a thing from the past ... Same with backbone systems, with the demise of PSTN as our prime connection method in favour of IP. There are just a few people left with antiquated perceptions about that calling their system "backbone" ... backbones are gone.

    This method is simple and effective if ZCs/RCs/NCs are setup for that,
    but of course they are not required to do that and are not always ready
    for that.

    From day-1 it was set up that way here, it made sense then, makes sense now ...

    I think that *Cs have enough on their plate.

    With the exception of RC50, certain R50 NCs, ZC1, ZC2 (and RC46 perhaps) I doubt that *Cs really have a tough job. At times trying to get a sign of life is like kicking a dead horse and expecting it to get up.

    I still think that getting mail and files is a node thing and that we
    don't need to rely on *Cs or some backbone. Make the connections and get
    it done yourself.

    100% ... I carry no files except the nodelist files which are produced here, plus Fidonews. And barely echomail ... the ones that are needed ... plus a few others if a downlink or a point asks for it. There are others more suited for it doing a good job.

    In Z1 we have largely counted on the NAB to do that and
    more recently in Z2 they use a mesh they call the the fidoweb. It's all good as long as that meshing happens.

    I'm biting my tongue ...

    Sun's out ... as a consequence me too ...

    \%/@rd

    --- DB4
    * Origin: Hou het veilig, hou vol. Het komt allemaal weer goed (2:292/854)
  • From Matthias Hertzog@2:301/1 to John Dovey on Mon Jun 7 18:03:52 2021
    Hello John!

    And I'm bringing everything in from 2:301/1 so between us I
    think we've got it covered for now.
    It is very wise to crosslink even more ... you're making the "all
    eggs in one basket" mistake.
    Ok. Good advice. Just want to be careful not to cause a Dupe Storm..

    As i've told you so some weeks ago: Use a second link, but be careful with rescans and choose your uplinks wiseley. If you found someone out there, feel free to ask here if i have a link as well so you know the flow and find problems more quickly.

    Your system seems to be stable now for a while, i've not seen anything strange for some time. So: go 4 it.

    Matthias
    --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: MHS Systems (2:301/1)
  • From John Dovey@4:920/1 to Matthias Hertzog on Mon Jun 7 16:10:08 2021
    Re: ZONE4 down?
    By: Matthias Hertzog to John Dovey on Mon Jun 07 2021 18:03:52

    As i've told you so some weeks ago: Use a second link, but be careful with rescans and choose your uplinks wiseley. If you found someone out there, feel free to ask here if i have a link as well so you know the flow and find problems more quickly.
    Your system seems to be stable now for a while, i've not seen anything strange for some time. So: go 4 it.

    Awesome. WILCO.
    ===
    BoonDock
    El Gato de Fuego - elgato.synchronetbbs.org 4:92/1 - Pedasi/Panama



    ... Martyrdom is the only way a person can become famous without ability.
    --- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
    * Origin: El Gato de Fuego - elgato.synchronetbbs.org (4:920/1)
  • From Matthias Hertzog@2:301/1 to Ward Dossche on Mon Jun 7 18:12:46 2021
    Hello Ward!

    There are reasons, Fernando, why things are the way they are ... take
    my word for it ... linking out of zone is a good thing, despite what "backbone people" try to feed you.

    I fully agree with you, Ward.
    Not all systems carry all the content and not all even reply to netmails. But there are a lot of well maintained and very complete systems around.

    Fernando: Get a second link, it's easy and as long as your system does not mess with seen by lines, extra-zone traffic is hassle free.

    I have several links to zone 4 and i'm happy to connect to you as well. But feel free to get another link as well. One by one, not everything together as this can make debugging hard.

    Matthias
    --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: MHS Systems (2:301/1)
  • From Matthias Hertzog@2:301/1 to Ward Dossche on Mon Jun 7 18:24:42 2021
    Hello Ward!

    Those routing tables are a thing from the past ... Same with backbone systems, with the demise of PSTN as our prime connection method in
    favour of IP. There are just a few people left with antiquated
    perceptions about that calling their system "backbone" ... backbones
    are gone.

    My system is called "backbone" in the nodelist because it always
    was like that. Same with "MHS", which is a company long sold. Pure
    nostalgia.

    Since your system is up & running, it does not seem to be frozen
    like a glacier, so we can agree that a system's name has not
    always something to do with it's purpose.

    :-)

    Matthias
    --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: MHS Systems (2:301/1)
  • From Ward Dossche@2:292/854 to Matthias Hertzog on Mon Jun 7 19:51:30 2021
    Matthias,

    Since your system is up & running, it does not seem to be frozen
    like a glacier, so we can agree that a system's name has not
    always something to do with it's purpose.

    Becaue you asked so nice ... :-) ... Many Glacier is the english translation of the Pikuni word for the area which you can now google as "Glacier National Park" in the USA in the Blackfeet indian reservation. I stayed there in 1972, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1982 ... the mountainous beauty of the Rockies there is beyond description ...

    \%/@rd

    --- DB4
    * Origin: Hou het veilig, hou vol. Het komt allemaal weer goed (2:292/854)
  • From Ward Dossche@2:292/854 to Matthias Hertzog on Tue Jun 8 09:21:08 2021
    Matthias,

    That every system should carry all the content is another POTS era MH>MV> idea that you should let go of.

    If someone wants to have every echo, getting all of them from at least
    two other nodes can be a lot of work. Connecting with "have everything"-nodes makes life much more easy. Obviously, these are quite seldom, which is interesting.

    Michiel is right, live with it. Michiel is often painfully right.

    Your backbone concept from 20 years of nothingness and then inflating yourself to the proportions which you have in not time at all ... we've seen it before. They're all gone because such backbone services are no longer necessary.

    And once you have it all and nobody comes flocking ... time to go milk the cows.

    Backbones are a thing of the past ...

    managing echo protection is manual work.

    I call that bullshit.

    \%/@rd

    --- DB4
    * Origin: Hou het veilig, hou vol. Het komt allemaal weer goed (2:292/854)
  • From Matthias Hertzog@2:301/1 to Michiel van der Vlist on Tue Jun 8 12:27:02 2021
    Hello Michiel!

    In case you forgot: ZCC and Z1C was leaked due to lack of care by
    sysops. I was the one who helped fix that.
    And you think everyone is grateful for that <s>help</s> interference
    of yours?

    Probably not.

    But doing things the correct way is always better than offending others
    by ignoring the rules.

    Matthias
    --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: MHS Systems (2:301/1)
  • From Matthias Hertzog@2:301/1 to Michiel van der Vlist on Tue Jun 8 12:28:40 2021
    Hello Michiel!

    If someone wants to have every echo,
    "if someone wants to have every echo.." Why would anyone want that?
    Why do YOU want to have every echo?

    It's not up to me to decide what my colleagues want to have.

    Not that i'm personally reading all of the crap that i'm
    transporting here,
    Right, you do not want it for yourself. Understandable, it is just too much. So why do you want all of it?

    TBH, i sometimes peek into some echos that are not on my usual focus. Reading things other than my usual "input sources" helps to leave the personal bubble. Not only in fidonet, all over the world as well.

    Having content/information at hand and sweep through it can be interesting. I've found stuff i'd never had searched for.

    Obviously, these are quite seldom, which is interesting.
    The reason they are rare is obvious. Most have come to the conclusion
    that there is not much point in having everything for the sake of
    making life easier for those who want to have everything.

    That depends on what the sysop sees itself within the network. Some see themself as endusers, some as distributors. Both forms are fine. I'm
    an enduser willing to share what i have. There's nothing wrong with it.

    It is only those locked in in the POTS era conception of backbones
    that carry everything.

    Having the same paranoia as Ward now? Only because i like to have a
    lot of choices here does not define me as stuck in POTS era.

    Carrying * is hassle free if you have the right tools to handle
    it.
    I do not carry everything. I only carry the echos that I am interested
    in myself. I know the cost of carrying more is neglegible. But it
    clogs up my areamanager config and makes it harder for me to keep
    track of what is interesting for me. Those who want an echo that I do
    not carry can link it elsewhere at zero cost.

    That's fine. Every sysop is free to choose his selection of areas.

    I want to keep my areamanager config clean.

    So do i.

    I'm offering all i have to my links, if i'm allowed to pass it
    ...
    So you still want to play "backbone". Let go of that idea. AD 2021 backbomes are no longer needed and moreover: they are no longer
    wanted.

    You're wrong with your interpretation about my intensions. Only very few
    people in world know my intensions, and not even all of them understand
    them. So let's leave that aside.

    Please reread this: http://www.vlist.eu/downloads/fidonews/myarticles/nads.txt
    Search for "control".

    I've read that already some time ago, but thanks for linking again.

    People are arguing about technical views a lot. That brings no progres
    at all. Fidonet lacks of content and that's the most important issue we
    all have. This might not be important to everyone, but it's still a fact.
    We have a cool transport network with no real content to transport.

    Matthias
    --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: MHS Systems (2:301/1)
  • From Michiel van der Vlist@2:280/5555 to Matthias Hertzog on Tue Jun 8 14:25:22 2021
    Hello Matthias,

    On Tuesday June 08 2021 12:27, you wrote to me:

    In case you forgot: ZCC and Z1C was leaked due to lack of care
    by sysops. I was the one who helped fix that.

    And you think everyone is grateful for that <s>help</s>
    interference of yours?

    Probably not.

    Make that: certainly not.

    But doing things the correct way is always better than offending
    others by ignoring the rules.

    "Correct way" according tho whom? The "rules"? What rules? who's rules?

    As I have already explained Fidonet is a cooperative anarchy. It is now anyway In the POTS age it were de facto the distributors that set the rules for echomail distribution. THAT is no more. Now there is no single set of rules that is accepted by all as the one and only truth.

    That Fidonet AD 2012 is not the same as Fidonet AD 1996 is something that apparently has not yet sunk in.

    Getting yourself involved in a controversial situation that has existed for many years without knowing exactly what you are getting yourself into is diving into a hornet's nest. Before you know it, you are the bull in the china shop.

    Ever so often it is better to let sleeping dogs lie. Or step back and let others who know how a situation evolded do the job. Instead of jumping in to "help the bull fix the china shop".


    Cheers, Michiel

    --- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20170303
    * Origin: http://www.vlist.org (2:280/5555)
  • From Daniel Path@2:371/52 to Michiel van der Vlist on Tue Jun 8 17:05:36 2021
    Hello Michiel.

    08 Jun 21 16:24, you wrote to me:

    Hello Daniel,

    On Tuesday June 08 2021 14:03, you wrote to me:

    "if someone wants to have every echo.." Why would anyone want
    that? Why do YOU want to have every echo?

    ok, so my primary reason is to have every echo is the bbs and its
    users.

    BBS users? Hmmm I thought they became an extinct species in the fall
    of 1996. At least in Z2.

    The odd thing os that with all te returnees I often hear sysops claim
    they have BBS users. But I never see these users in echomail. The only user I have seen in the last five yers is Lee Lofaso in Fidonews...

    i am a bbs user as well, sometimes i am reading echomails on other bbses, not on mine, for me it's part of the fun and i'm getting inspiriations for my system as well.

    i also enjoy reading some ESP and GER echoes to polish
    my language-skills,

    For that you do not need them all. I have a few German echos too, but certainly not all of them. I even have some Russian echos. French
    echos are extinct AFAIK.

    sadly, i don't speak french.
    but for example, in the beginning i was not using husky, but when i started it was great to have this echo and read the topics before i started configuring.

    bandwidth and storage is not a question nowadays, and you can make nice excludes/groups with golded if you want. so its easier for me to carry all. :)

    --
    Daniel

    ... BBS: Uptime is 00d 04h 37m 43s (BT-Uptime/OS2, V1.5)
    --- GoldED+/EMX 1.1.4.7
    * Origin: Roon's BBS - Budapest, HUNGARY (2:371/52)
  • From Matthias Hertzog@2:301/1 to Michiel van der Vlist on Tue Jun 8 17:43:26 2021
    Hello Michiel!

    But doing things the correct way is always better than offending
    others by ignoring the rules.
    "Correct way" according tho whom? The "rules"? What rules? who's
    rules?
    As I have already explained Fidonet is a cooperative anarchy.

    You better talk to Nick about that. I'm not a fan of restricted echos,
    but there are people who are. Ward an Nick at least are fans of
    them, speaking of ZCC.
    An Nick is fan of it, speaking of Z1C which is open only for Z1 nodes.

    Ever so often it is better to let sleeping dogs lie.

    I did under the title "cooperative" you've mentioned earliers.

    If there will be a movement to open ZCC and Z1C to the public, i'm in immediatly. But until it's publicly open, i follow the rules of the people
    who belong in there.

    Matthias
    --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: MHS Systems (2:301/1)
  • From Nick Andre@1:229/426 to Matthias Hertzog on Tue Jun 8 12:59:22 2021
    On 08 Jun 21 17:43:27, Matthias Hertzog said the following to Michiel Van Der V

    You better talk to Nick about that. I'm not a fan of restricted echos,
    but there are people who are. Ward an Nick at least are fans of
    them, speaking of ZCC.
    An Nick is fan of it, speaking of Z1C which is open only for Z1 nodes.

    I believe I already explained to you very politely about this in Netmail. And Michiel doesn't need to talk to me about anything especially about cooperative anarchy.... he's smart and correct about the use of that phrase.

    You may not be a fan but cooperative anarchy decided that its good to have
    nice things... there is just something nice about having an echo for Zone 1 Sysops only, just as its equally nice that theres an echo for Zone 2 Sysops only. The audience participating in both think its nice.

    Its not nice for someone to come along with a new "backbone" system, get
    their hands on every echo just because "they can" and then start altering the intended audience of these echoes by opening them up to the world. If you're going to do this, why stop there? Why not gate every single echo to Usenet?

    Nick
    --- Renegade vY2Ka2
    * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)
  • From Ward Dossche@2:292/854 to Matthias Hertzog on Tue Jun 8 19:35:42 2021
    Matthias,

    You better talk to Nick about that. I'm not a fan of restricted echos,
    but there are people who are. Ward an Nick at least are fans of
    them, speaking of ZCC.

    Please talk about items you know something about.

    The status of the ZCC-echo is determined by its membership, not by me. I have advocated in the past for it to be an open read-only echo. That was rejected by Bob Satti ZC1 at the time, Henk 'WASP' Wolsink who singlehandedly killed a number of black regions in Z5, whatever ZC6 at the time not knowing what we were talking about and just parroting what ZC1 said plus ZC4 Gamey Garcia who was threatened by Bob Seaborn to have all links between Z4 and the NAB cut if he were to support my proposal. Talk about zone-warz Bjorn ... that were zone warz.

    While I did not agree with the outcome, certainly not how it was achieved, I honour it ...

    So I created the ZCC-PUBLIC echo to bypass that.

    An Nick is fan of it, speaking of Z1C which is open only for Z1 nodes.

    That is a decision by the Z1-sysops and Nick respects that, he didn't decide that. I'm not even certain if he approves.

    If there will be a movement to open ZCC and Z1C to the public, i'm in immediatly. But until it's publicly open, i follow the rules of the
    people who belong in there.

    The proper thing would be to disconnect yourself. I have done so before ...

    Mind you, I found it shocking myself to find out the behaviour af another ZC...

    \%/@rd
    --- DB4
    * Origin: Hou het veilig, hou vol. Het komt allemaal weer goed (2:292/854)
  • From Matthias Hertzog@2:301/1 to Nick Andre on Tue Jun 8 20:24:58 2021
    Hello Nick!

    You better talk to Nick about that. I'm not a fan of restricted
    echos, but there are people who are. Ward an Nick at least are
    fans of them, speaking of ZCC. An Nick is fan of it, speaking of
    Z1C which is open only for Z1 nodes.

    I believe I already explained to you very politely about this in
    Netmail.

    You did, i explained that the problem was not my fault, i helped Ward
    find the leak and i respect the rules.

    What more can i do? I'm on your side in this.

    You may not be a fan but cooperative anarchy decided that its good to
    have nice things... there is just something nice about having an echo
    for Zone 1 Sysops only, just as its equally nice that theres an echo
    for Zone 2 Sysops only. The audience participating in both think its
    nice.

    From what i've seen in there, it's quite boring and not worth the trouble
    to get it under the radar. My request to get permission was ignored and i'm fine with that. Your echo, your rules. No bad feelings on that.

    Its not nice for someone to come along with a new "backbone" system,
    get their hands on every echo just because "they can" and then start altering the intended audience of these echoes by opening them up to
    the world. If you're going to do this, why stop there? Why not gate
    every single echo to Usenet?

    If i want to be in usenet, i go there. If i want to be in fidonet, i do so.

    Some people might see a benefit of gating and i know, that you're offering that.
    I see no benefit for me ... as well as i don't see why telegram gateways
    exist. But it's not up to me to judge that. If people have fun doing it, that's okay.
    It's simply not my thing.

    I'm happy with what i get from my fidonet links. Contentwise, gating makes sense,
    but that's fighting the symptoms, not the cause.

    Matthias
    --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: MHS Systems (2:301/1)
  • From Matthias Hertzog@2:301/1 to Ward Dossche on Tue Jun 8 20:34:12 2021
    Hello Ward!

    You better talk to Nick about that. I'm not a fan of restricted
    echos, but there are people who are. Ward an Nick at least are
    fans of them, speaking of ZCC.
    Please talk about items you know something about.

    It's always a pleasure to get enlighted :-)

    An Nick is fan of it, speaking of Z1C which is open only for Z1
    nodes.
    That is a decision by the Z1-sysops and Nick respects that, he didn't decide that. I'm not even certain if he approves.

    Maybe we find out sometime.

    Mind you, I found it shocking myself to find out the behaviour af
    another ZC...

    Yep, sad story. And we're (partially) back to the former discussion about correct protection of echomail areas. The lack of communication of the said ZC is "interesting", at l(e)ast.

    Matthias
    --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: MHS Systems (2:301/1)
  • From Nick Andre@1:229/426 to Matthias Hertzog on Tue Jun 8 15:08:44 2021
    On 08 Jun 21 20:24:59, Matthias Hertzog said the following to Nick Andre:

    What more can i do? I'm on your side in this.

    It doesn't really seem like it, based on your response to Michiel it sortof came off as singling me out in particular because I want to keep Z1C restricted. Then you appear to make silly uninformed remarks at the end about supporting a "movement" to open up access to ZCC and Z1C.

    Yeah its fine that you disconnect yourself from Z1C but it just doesn't seem to occur to you for a moment that maybe I know what I'm doing by keeping it restricted, that maybe things are what they are for a good reason.

    The mere presence of certain non-Zone 1 systems in Z1C is enough to cause a flame war I wish to avoid. I try very hard to respect Zone 1 Sysop's wishes and not rock a boat that is smooth sailing in quiet water since July 2018.

    But anyway... moving on... the bigger problem is ZC4.

    Nick
    --- Renegade vY2Ka2
    * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)
  • From Matthias Hertzog@2:301/1 to Nick Andre on Tue Jun 8 21:57:00 2021
    Hello Nick!

    What more can i do? I'm on your side in this.
    It doesn't really seem like it, based on your response to Michiel it sortof came off as singling me out in particular because I want to
    keep Z1C restricted.

    That was not what i meant to say. I only made clear, that i'm not
    the right party to discuss that.

    Then you appear to make silly uninformed remarks
    at the end about supporting a "movement" to open up access to ZCC and
    Z1C.

    I only wanted to say, that if they are open, i'm in. As long as they are
    not, i'm also fine with that. "Movement" is the wrong word.

    Yeah its fine that you disconnect yourself from Z1C but it just
    doesn't seem to occur to you for a moment that maybe I know what I'm
    doing by keeping it restricted, that maybe things are what they are
    for a good reason.

    No problem with that.

    The mere presence of certain non-Zone 1 systems in Z1C is enough to
    cause a flame war I wish to avoid. I try very hard to respect Zone 1 Sysop's wishes and not rock a boat that is smooth sailing in quiet
    water since July 2018.

    No problem with that at all. Keeping things smooth is always fine.

    But anyway... moving on... the bigger problem is ZC4.

    Oh yes.

    I was chatting with 4:920/1 today about his IP issues with his provider.
    CGNAT problem on his private system 4:920/69, but the important one (4:920/1) is connectable fine. John is working on that. But that's only one small problem in that zone. ... oh well....

    Matthias
    --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: MHS Systems (2:301/1)
  • From Michiel van der Vlist@2:280/5555 to Matthias Hertzog on Tue Jun 8 22:33:52 2021
    Hello Matthias,

    On Tuesday June 08 2021 17:43, you wrote to me:

    You better talk to Nick about that. I'm not a fan of restricted echos,
    but there are people who are. Ward an Nick at least are fans of
    them, speaking of ZCC.

    You are wrong about that, but Ward already explained that himself.

    An Nick is fan of it, speaking of Z1C which is open only for Z1 nodes.

    I have no problem with resticted echos an sich. We have always had restricted echos in Fidonet and I have been a member of quit a number of such "clubs" and even been the moderator of some restricted echos.

    So if the Z1 sysops wish to have an echo for members only I have no problem with it.

    What I do have a poblem with in the specific case of Z1C and ENET.SYSOP is the asymetry. ENET.SYSOP is open for read to anyone and it is relatively easy to become an invited guest. When I was till a point, I discovered the magic word and Ron Dwight, then then ZC2 accepted me as an invited guest. An arrangement that I also have no problem with.

    But the situation is asymetric. Every Z1 sysop can read ENET.SYSOP. Many are an invited guest. Z1C is closed. Not open for reading ouside Z1 and getting an invitation is extremely difficult.

    The asymmetry annoys me. These things should be based on reciprocity. If Z1 sysops are welcome in ENET.SYSOP then the favour should be returned and Z2 sysops should be welcome in Z1C. Or the other way around, if Z2 sysops are not welcome in Z1C, then Z1 sysops should not have invitations for ENET.SYSOP.

    Ever so often it is better to let sleeping dogs lie.

    I did under the title "cooperative" you've mentioned earliers.

    When you discovered you had accidentially gained acces to a restricted echo, you could just have delinked it, removed it from your system and left it at that. No need to to expose the sysops who - by design or by accident - leaked the echo.

    Then again, had you taken my advice and go more slowly and taken more time to get to know the ropes in Fidonet AD 2021, before expanding your Fidonet footprint, you might have avoided opening this can of worms...


    Cheers, Michiel

    --- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20170303
    * Origin: http://www.vlist.org (2:280/5555)
  • From Nick Andre@1:229/426 to Michiel Van Der Vlist on Tue Jun 8 17:14:36 2021
    On 08 Jun 21 22:33:53, Michiel Van Der Vlist said the following to Matthias Her

    The asymmetry annoys me. These things should be based on reciprocity. If Z1

    Not all invitations were denied... I didn't yank Vince's access.

    It could be argued that Z1C needs to have read-access the same as Enet.Sysop but am pretty sure theres a BBS or two that have it on the Web... if one really wants it, one can use their brains and find a way in.

    But as long as you remain annoyed, I remain perfectly content to happily
    deny any invitations to you and some others. As long as I'm alive.

    You were a whiner "then" and still a whiner "now". Z1C doesn't need that.

    Nick

    --- Renegade vY2Ka2
    * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)
  • From Michiel van der Vlist@2:280/5555 to Daniel Path on Wed Jun 9 00:02:44 2021
    Hello Daniel,

    On Tuesday June 08 2021 23:38, you wrote to me:

    The asymmetry annoys me. These things should be based on
    reciprocity. If Z1 sysops are welcome in ENET.SYSOP then the
    favour should be returned and Z2 sysops should be welcome in Z1C.
    Or the other way around, if Z2 sysops are not welcome in Z1C,
    then Z1 sysops should not have invitations for ENET.SYSOP.

    i don't really get this. if they want to talk privately, why not?

    I said, I had no problem with that.


    Cheers, Michiel

    --- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20170303
    * Origin: http://www.vlist.org (2:280/5555)
  • From Matthias Hertzog@2:301/1 to Michiel van der Vlist on Wed Jun 9 08:25:02 2021
    Hello Michiel!

    When you discovered you had accidentially gained acces to a restricted echo, you could just have delinked it, removed it from your system and left it at that. No need to to expose the sysops who - by design or by accident - leaked the echo.

    I did not expose anyone.

    Matthias
    --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: MHS Systems (2:301/1)
  • From Nick Andre@1:229/426 to Michiel Van Der Vlist on Wed Jun 9 04:43:32 2021
    On 09 Jun 21 00:04:41, Michiel Van Der Vlist said the following to Nick Andre:

    I may add that The UK, or what will be left of it in the near future has be drifting west for a couple of decades already. So maybe net 250 should be moved to Z1 anyway...

    So maybe you should go whine to your ZC about zone 2 net problems.

    You were a whiner "then" and still a whiner "now". Z1C doesn't need that.

    To which I reciprocate: You were an arrogant asshole "then" and still are a arrogant asshole "now". ENET.SYSOP does not need that.

    LOL. You must be fun at dinner parties.

    Nick
    --- Renegade vY2Ka2
    * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)
  • From Ward Dossche@2:292/854 to Daniel Path on Wed Jun 9 11:35:38 2021
    Daniel,

    but if you want a private echo, you can make your own and you can invite
    as many sysops as you would like.

    With any private echo, you lose control once it gets linked to at least one other person. You have no khontrol over what the other does ...

    \%/@rd

    --- DB4
    * Origin: Hou het veilig, hou vol. Het komt allemaal weer goed (2:292/854)
  • From Kurt Weiske@1:218/700 to Michiel van der Vlist on Wed Jun 9 08:26:00 2021
    Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Daniel Path <=-

    The odd thing os that with all te returnees I often hear sysops claim they have BBS users. But I never see these users in echomail. The only user I have seen in the last five yers is Lee Lofaso in Fidonews...

    I've had an uptick in new callers. Quite a few get confused by menus, expecting something similar to a web forum (I could only guess) and give up.

    I've had a couple become contributors, but typically to my othernets and not Fidonet. The othernets have fewer echoes and more traffic per echo.



    ... Am I any closer to finding what I'm looking for?
    --- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
    * Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)
  • From Kostie Muirhead@1:134/101 to Michiel van der Vlist on Wed Jun 9 11:16:46 2021
    Re: ZONE4 down?
    By: Michiel van der Vlist to Daniel Path on Tue Jun 08 2021 04:24 pm

    BBS users? Hmmm I thought they became an extinct species in the fall of 1996. At least in Z2.

    Though my board was just running on autopilot from 2016-2019 while I was not engaged with it (Just got back to being engaged with hobbies last year for reasons explaine elsewhere), even up until a hardware failure in 2019 I still had somewhere ~10-20 regular users with 5-10 daily calls on average. Being completely offline for a year has made trying to get back to critical mass a little difficult, but I still have ~5 users who pop their heads in at various times, I just need to get things to a point I can do a good push to get that critical mass of engagement going again to make things self sustaining once more. There are users out there who want a retro experience.

    The odd thing os that with all te returnees I often hear sysops claim they have BBS users. But I never see these users in echomail. The only user I have seen in the last five yers is Lee Lofaso in Fidonews...

    There's a bit of a reputation for fido echoes to be full of toxic arguments and condescending "old-timers." If we want to see more traffic there, we need to try and avoid falling into those traps so that new and returning blood isn't immediately scared away.

    But likewise, trying to cram every possible echo onto a board doesn't help you gain users either, it just clutters things up and makes it hard to find an audience. I think I may have even recently written a fidonews op-ed to that end ;)
    ===
    Underminer - The Undermine BBS
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
    * Origin: The Undermine - bbs.undermine.ca (1:134/101)
  • From Mike Powell@1:2320/105 to NICK ANDRE on Wed Jun 9 14:31:00 2021
    Yeah its fine that you disconnect yourself from Z1C but it just doesn't seem to occur to you for a moment that maybe I know what I'm doing...

    + 1.

    Mike


    * SLMR 2.1a * Four snack groups: frozen, crunchies, cakes and sweets.
    --- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)
  • From Matthias Hertzog@2:301/1 to Kostie Muirhead on Thu Jun 10 07:40:12 2021
    Hello Kostie!

    There's a bit of a reputation for fido echoes to be full of toxic arguments and condescending "old-timers." If we want to see more
    traffic there, we need to try and avoid falling into those traps so
    that new and returning blood isn't immediately scared away.

    Could not agree more. Just lost a node because of to exactly this. :-(

    Fidonet lacks of good content. It's more or less a tech-talk between sysops.
    A network for the only reason, that there is a network.

    It's really sad that it did not evolve better during all these years.

    Matthias
    --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: MHS Systems (2:301/1)
  • From Nick Andre@1:229/426 to Matthias Hertzog on Thu Jun 10 05:25:02 2021
    On 10 Jun 21 07:40:12, Matthias Hertzog said the following to Kostie Muirhead:

    Fidonet lacks of good content. It's more or less a tech-talk between sysop A network for the only reason, that there is a network.

    I've always said Othernets are a bazillion times more friendly and inviting.

    Nick
    --- Renegade vY2Ka2
    * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)
  • From Matthias Hertzog@2:301/1 to Michiel van der Vlist on Thu Jun 10 20:39:38 2021
    Hello Michiel!

    And where where you? Admit it, you too left for greener pastures in
    1997. You had your reasons and I am not saying those reasons were
    wrong. But the fact is you left and left it to others to keep the
    ships going.

    I've already informed about the personal and technical reasons for my
    leaving back then. I've passed everything to my successor and was not
    amused to learn years later, that r30 was abadoned.

    And now after almost a quarter of a century you have the audacity to
    come back storming in to tell us it is sad that Fidonet did not evolve better during all those years.

    I'm just telling the truth. Not blaming anyone, it's simply a fact.
    Glad that you don't disagree.

    I and and a couple of hundred others stayed around during all those
    years and kept going. You didn't.

    Look, when i was a school we had teachers telling us kids, that people
    down in africa die of hunger.
    Today, 35 years later, people down in africa die of hunger.

    I simply wish, that this wasn't the case, but it is. Noone who tried
    to help can be blamed for the facts, but they remain (sad) facts.

    See the analogy? fine.


    Fidonet is great at telling motivated people like me to shut up and sit
    down ... and exactly THAT is one of the core problems: People are unwilling
    to change perspective, allow new ideas to be discussed and let the network evolve. Instead we are talking about the wording of a system and BEER flags
    in the nodelist. That's rubbish. It's fun for a couple of days, but these topics
    wash off quickly.

    I've not sent in a single proposal and not a single new idea as it simply
    makes no sense at all: If the idea is good, it will be trampled down for different resaons. If the idea is bad, it will be trampled down because of
    it. The "young newbie-idiots" (yes, that's what some people make new people feel like) shall be quiet and let the gurus continue their work in peace.

    Not saing, that this is not important (it was and it is) and we all can be thankful that fidonet still exists. But i'm not predicting a bright future
    if the mentality towards "newcomers and re-joiners of any age" does
    not change significantly.

    .... and that's why some othernets (okay, few of them) have interesting
    traffic with people working out ideas, bad or not.

    We don't have to continue this thread. If have other things to do and prefer showing a helpful attitude towards people in need of support. As Nick said, Zone4
    is an important issue.

    However, i'm thankful the network still exists. Thank you all for the time
    and energy that has been devoted towards fidonet in all these years. Let's continue the work - together.

    Matthias
    --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: MHS Systems (2:301/1)
  • From John Dovey@4:920/69 to Matthias Hertzog on Thu Jun 10 14:46:38 2021
    Re: ZONE4 down?
    By: Matthias Hertzog to Michiel van der Vlist on Thu Jun 10 2021 20:39:38

    Fidonet is great at telling motivated people like me to shut up and sit down ... and exactly THAT is one of the core problems: People are unwilling to change perspective, allow new ideas to be discussed and let the network evolve.

    I've been told that's what Future4Fido is supposed to be for.
    I've not sent in a single proposal and not a single new idea as it simply makes no sense at all: If the idea is good, it will be trampled down for different resaons.
    LOL. I tried. I've had a lot of experience making all sorts of wierd networks happen in strange places with strange combinations of hardware and software. Apparently that experience doesn't count. <shrug>

    However, i'm thankful the network still exists. Thank you all for the time and energy that has been devoted towards fidonet in all these years. Let's continue the work - together.

    Ditto!

    JD
    ===
    * El Gato de Fuego (The Fire Cat) 4:920/69 * Pedasi, Panama

    ... Hypochondria is the only disease I haven't got.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: El Gato de Fuego - Pedasi, Panama (4:920/69)
  • From Mike Miller@1:154/30.1 to Urban Oettli on Thu Jun 10 20:47:42 2021
    Hello, Urban Oettli.
    On 6/11/21 1:40 AM you wrote:

    I and and a couple of hundred others stayed around during all
    those years and kept going. You didn't.
    And what all of you have achieved over the years? A lot of effort,
    but no results. The best will is useless if too little enthusiasm
    can be generated. At some point you have to understand that it no
    longer makes sense to keep something dead alive.
    But what is already dead may never die!
    --
    Mike
    BBS: warensemble.com
    --- Hotdoged/2.13.5/Android
    * Origin: South of Heaven - warensemble.com (1:154/30.1)
  • From Urban Oettli@2:301/103 to Mike Miller on Fri Jun 11 13:31:34 2021
    Hi Mike

    10 Jun 21 20:47, you wrote to me:

    I and and a couple of hundred others stayed around during all
    those years and kept going. You didn't.
    And what all of you have achieved over the years? A lot of
    effort, but no results. The best will is useless if too little
    enthusiasm can be generated. At some point you have to understand
    that it no longer makes sense to keep something dead alive.
    But what is already dead may never die!

    Your answer is very convincing.
    That is the ultimate solution to the problem.
    Sorry that I didn't think of it myself.

    Urban
    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: Orion Systems (2:301/103)
  • From Michiel van der Vlist@2:280/5555 to Matthias Hertzog on Sun Jun 13 11:34:00 2021
    Hello Matthias,

    On Thursday June 10 2021 20:39, you wrote to me:

    And where where you? Admit it, you too left for greener pastures
    in 1997. You had your reasons and I am not saying those reasons
    were wrong. But the fact is you left and left it to others to
    keep the ships going.

    I've already informed about the personal and technical reasons for my leaving back then.

    Sure and I am not saying those reasons were invalid. Life is making choices. Your choice was to rearrange your list of priorities with the result that Fidonet sank to a place near the bottom of the list. Your reasons were valid, but it was your choice.

    I've passed everything to my successor and was not amused to learn
    years later, that r30 was abadoned.

    "not amused" is an expression that I associate with Royalty..

    Yes, R30 was abaondonned. The remaining sysops had other priorities in life and choose to leave Fidonet.

    But... There were diehards in other parts of the world than Switzerland that kept the global Fidonet infrastructure in place, so that reïncarnating R30 was easely done.

    And now after almost a quarter of a century you have the audacity
    to come back storming in to tell us it is sad that Fidonet did
    not evolve better during all those years.

    I'm just telling the truth. Not blaming anyone, it's simply a fact.

    No, it is not a fact. That "it is sad that Fidonet did not evolve better" is an opinion, not a fact.

    Glad that you don't disagree.

    I disagree on the "sad" part. Actuually I disagree on both parts. I also disagree on the "did not evolve better" part as well. There is no disagreement on the verifiable fact that the numbers are down to a fraction of what they once were. But those who stayed around still enjoy it. I still enjoy being in Fidonet and I am not a believer of "the more, the merrier". So what is there to be sad about for me?

    I and and a couple of hundred others stayed around during all
    those years and kept going. You didn't.

    Look, when i was a school we had teachers telling us kids, that people down in africa die of hunger. Today, 35 years later, people down in
    africa die of hunger.

    Very unfortunate but something out of my sphere of influence. What does it have to do with Fidonet?

    I simply wish, that this wasn't the case, but it is. Noone who tried
    to help can be blamed for the facts, but they remain (sad) facts.

    See the analogy? fine.

    Sorry, no, I do not see the analogy.

    Fidonet is great at telling motivated people like me to shut up and
    sit down ... and exactly THAT is one of the core problems: People are unwilling to change perspective, allow new ideas to be discussed and
    let the network evolve.

    No, it is NOT one of the core problems. The network HAS evolved during your absence. The world has changed, the environment in which Fidonet was born has changed. POTS is an outgoing technology and Fidonet has adapted by adopting a new technoly for transfering files: the binkp protocol. It was made possible by the coming of the Internet. It has made Fidonet a lot faster. Instead of messages taking days or sometimes even weeks to cross oceans, it is now a matter of a couple of minutes or even seconds. FOTI has also freed us from the tyranny of the echomail distributors. The flip side of that coin is that users have massively left Fidonet because the coming of the internet has given them so much other interesting things to play with. These changes were slow but they are irreversible. Binkp is here to stay and the users are gone. Those are the facts.

    Fidonet has adapted by evolution and survived. Those that remained have adapted with it. Unwillingness to change perspective and adopt new ideas is NOT a problem, let alone one of the core problems. The problems is not that Fidonet can not change perspective and adopt new ideas, the problem at hand is that it HAS changed perspective and HAS adopted new ideas, but that /you/ do not like that particular changed perspective and the adopted new ideas. But that is really /your/ problem, not a problem for Fidonet as a whole.

    That Fidonet has "not evolved better and that that is sad" is your opinion. But you were not here during that evolution... You left it to the ones who stayed to evolve and adapt.

    Fidonet has evolved and it works for us who stayed around to keep it going. It has worked for /US/. Over the decades.

    So naturally if someone after decades of absence comes back storming in to tell us we are all doing it wrong , we should open up for new ideas and we should evolve" that is not met with great enthousiasm. We HAVE evolved. We HAVE adopted new ideas. And let go of bad ideas. That is how we survived. But that evolution took years.

    Don't you uderstand that, us the survivors, are not willing to let go overnight of that strategy that has worked for us for the last decades?

    You are not the first one to come back after decades of absence to tell us what is wrong with today's fidonet. You are not the first one to come back and tell us we should open up for new ideas. We have heard these "new ideas". It is not new to us, the ones that stayed around...

    Instead we are talking about the wording of a system and BEER flags in
    the nodelist. That's rubbish. It's fun for a couple of days, but these topics wash off quickly.

    That BEER flag was not my idea. (But I have to admit it is a bit of fun..)

    I've not sent in a single proposal and not a single new idea as it
    simply makes no sense at all: If the idea is good, it will be trampled down for different resaons.

    Evolution is a slow process. What you seem to want is not evolution, you want revolution. Or maybe "revolution" is not the right word. Maybe "regression" is a better term. For what you really seem to want is to catapult us back into the 90ties when Fidonet was at its height. Well, that is not going to work. The users will not come back by reïnstalling "backbones" and "coordinated" echomail.

    Not saing, that this is not important (it was and it is) and we all
    can be thankful that fidonet still exists. But i'm not predicting a
    bright future if the mentality towards "newcomers and re-joiners of
    any age" does not change significantly.

    The "bright future" that you seem to have in mind is wishfull thinking. The reality is that the circumstances under which Fidonet once grew and florished no longer exist and those circumstances will not come back. Fidonet has become a network without users and it is kept running because the remainers like to keep it going just for the sake of keeping it going.

    Look at what happened to the horse. Up to about 150 years ago the horse was the main vehicle for transport over land. Horses were everywhere and there was a complete industrie build around it. Then came the motor vehicle and the world of transport changed dramatically... Horses are still around, but they have no significant role in transport any more. Now horses occasinally are cargo instead of carrier. Nowadays people that keep horses do so because they like to keep horses. And when they get together, they talk about horses. See the analogy?

    Fidonet has become a network that is kept alive by people who like to keep it alive just fo the sake of doing so. And when they get together, the network is what they talk about. THAT is today's reality and you can either adapt to that reality and play the ongoing game..... ... or not...

    .... and that's why some othernets (okay, few of them) have
    interesting traffic with people working out ideas, bad or not.

    Those othernets are riding piggy back on the technology and structures developed in Fidonet. They would not even exist without Fidonet.


    Cheers, Michiel
    --- Fmail, Binkd, Golded
    * Origin: http://www.vlist.org (2:280/5555)
  • From Kees van Eeten@2:280/5003.4 to Michiel van der Vlist on Sun Jun 13 12:42:08 2021
    Hello Michiel!

    It always strikes me, that those who maintain the infrastucture of Fidonet
    are also held responsible for the content of Echomail.

    Ofcource the maintainers also use Echomail to communicate, and that
    communication may not seem attractive to outsiders.

    But where are the Moderators? In my opinion the task of the moderators is not
    only to inform the users to keep the conversation cvil. I think it is also
    their task to seed the echo's with subjects, that are attractive to the
    readers of the echo's they moderate.

    Kees

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5--b20180707
    * Origin: As for me, all I know is that, I know nothing. (2:280/5003.4)
  • From Daniel PATH@2:371/52 to Michiel van der Vlist on Sun Jun 13 21:58:32 2021
    MvdV> in which Fidonet was born has changed. POTS is an outgoing technology
    MvdV> and Fidonet has adapted by adopting a new technoly
    MvdV> for transfering files: the binkp protocol. It was
    MvdV> made possible by the coming of the Internet. It has

    just from a technical perspective: what is the difference between a
    normal mailer over telnet and binkp? (ok, maybe encryption)
    because in '90something i was already using my xenia over IP and
    carried a huge amount of international traffic to the hungarian backbone

    --
    dp


    --- Maximus/2 3.01
    * Origin: Roon's BBS - Budapest, HUNGARY (2:371/52)
  • From Alan Ianson@1:153/757.3 to Daniel PATH on Sun Jun 13 14:25:52 2021
    just from a technical perspective: what is the difference between a
    normal mailer over telnet and binkp? (ok, maybe encryption)
    because in '90something i was already using my xenia over IP and
    carried a huge amount of international traffic to the hungarian backbone

    ITN or IFC mailers use the EMSI protocol used by mailers like FrontDoor, BinkleyTerm and others we used back in the day.

    Those mailers never had any idea about binkp.

    --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-5
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.3)
  • From Alan Ianson@1:153/757.3 to Daniel PATH on Sun Jun 13 15:52:12 2021
    Those mailers never had any idea about binkp.

    yep. but they are transferring pkts and tic+files. so whats the difference?
    i can do the same with it :)

    They accomplish the same task in different ways. :)

    Binkp is the most used protocol by far these days and it will do what you need it to do.

    BBBS has both an ITN and IBN mailer, so I have both options available but IBN is the most used.

    --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-5
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.3)
  • From Michiel van der Vlist@2:280/5555 to Daniel PATH on Mon Jun 14 11:17:08 2021
    Hello Daniel,

    On Sunday June 13 2021 21:58, you wrote to me:

    just from a technical perspective: what is the difference between a
    normal mailer over telnet and binkp? (ok, maybe encryption)
    because in '90something i was already using my xenia over IP

    Xenia is a mailer written in the DOS era, a single user, single task environment. Running it over IP requires a shim like netserial. It works, but it is not optimal.

    The binkp protocol is written and optimised for use over IP connections and implementations can support multi threading and multi session. Binkp supports IPv6.

    There are reasons binkp is the most used protocol these days.

    and carried a huge amount of international traffic to the hungarian backbone

    Those were the days... ;-)



    Cheers, Michiel
    --- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20170303
    * Origin: http://www.vlist.org (2:280/5555)
  • From Mike Powell@1:2320/105 to ALAN IANSON on Mon Jun 14 17:21:00 2021
    ITN or IFC mailers use the EMSI protocol used by mailers like FrontDoor, BinkleyTerm and others we used back in the day.

    Out of curiousity, if I set up BinkleyTerm in a dosemu session where the
    com port is redirected to a listener, does this mean I could transfer mail
    that way over the internet?


    * SLMR 2.1a * Acid absorbs 10 times its weight in excess reality.
    --- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)
  • From Nick Andre@1:229/426 to Deon George on Mon Jun 14 22:58:34 2021
    On 15 Jun 21 12:07:58, Deon George said the following to Mike Powell:

    Portal of Power and FrontDoor with it. Couldnt get DBridge to work with it, seems it's EMSI implementation is different somehow which I need to debug further.

    Its not different.

    Nick
    --- Renegade vY2Ka2
    * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)
  • From Nick Andre@1:229/426 to Deon George on Tue Jun 15 00:16:10 2021
    On 15 Jun 21 13:48:11, Deon George said the following to Nick Andre:

    Yeah, I dont expect it to be - since there are multiple references to the E implementation being created for DBridge and FrontDoor. But I've had a lot trouble trying to get DBridge to talk to anything with EMSI - that said I'm

    Not trying to be Captain Obvious but D'Bridge was never designed with TCP connections in mind. I understand what you're trying to do but it was written for a target customer-base of MS-DOS XT's, Tandy 1000's, Amstrads, etc. Much
    of the serial code is heavily dependant on DOS interrupts and timings. Lots
    of assembler and trickery to exploit the most out of an 8088.

    Its also one of a few reasons why its a challenge to port it to Linux or any other modern OS. I'm verrrrrrrrry reluctant to touch any of that code. It
    works perfect on dialup and I was feeding a Wildcat/Viamail downlink for 2 years at 9600 baud with a pseudo-Voip service and a cheap Grandstream ATA.

    That said... a few months ago I tested D'Bridge with Frontdoor via TCP with the help of TJ Mcmillen at 1:129/305 when he had it running... we traded packets perfectly. The Zmodem "turnaround" you mention was there but worked.

    Nick
    --- Renegade vY2Ka2
    * Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)
  • From Carol Shenkenberger@1:275/100 to Matthias Hertzog on Sun Jul 18 08:09:00 2021
    Re: ZONE4 down?
    By: Matthias Hertzog to Ward Dossche on Mon Jun 07 2021 06:12 pm

    Hello Ward!

    There are reasons, Fernando, why things are the way they are ... take my word for it ... linking out of zone is a good thing, despite what "backbone people" try to feed you.

    I fully agree with you, Ward.
    Not all systems carry all the content and not all even reply to netmails. Bu there are a lot of well maintained and very complete systems around.

    Fernando: Get a second link, it's easy and as long as your system does not m with seen by lines, extra-zone traffic is hassle free.

    I have several links to zone 4 and i'm happy to connect to you as well. But feel free to get another link as well. One by one, not everything together a this can make debugging hard.

    Matthias

    That's how I've done it through the decades. Used to have links to all 6 zones. Russell's was problematic at times. (once someone stole all the copper phone lines?).

    I don't have one with Z4 now, but do with the others. A lot of the Z2 links were to bring over ASIAN_LINK which for some odd reason was hard to get there. I have a friend who updates the echolist for me. He's got a nice little automated routine for it along with some 20 others or so.

    xxcarol
    --- SBBSecho 2.11-Win32
    * Origin: SHENK'S EXPRESS (1:275/100)
  • From Carol Shenkenberger@1:275/100 to Nick Andre on Sun Jul 18 08:46:46 2021
    Re: Re: ZONE4 down?
    By: Nick Andre to Daniel Path on Tue Jun 08 2021 05:57 pm

    On 08 Jun 21 23:38:42, Daniel Path said the following to Michiel Van Der Vlist:

    i don't really get this. if they want to talk privately, why not? do you think that they're solving the watergate scandal there? :)
    but if you want a private echo, you can make your own and you can invite as many sysops as you would like.

    Thank you... you might just get an invite. ;)

    Nick

    That would be good. Daniel is a sane person, not there to conduct zone wars.

    xxcarol

    PS: Ive been an invited guest for decades in enet.sysop. Z6_sysop before I moved there too. Even when someone in Z2 says something I don't agree with, I am circumspect and say nothing to rise animosity. It's usually just a POV on operations and the 2 zones have always been a bit different.


    --- SBBSecho 2.11-Win32
    * Origin: SHENK'S EXPRESS (1:275/100)