> Who was sick of callback verifiers and control-freak sysops, then
 > once you g
 > onto Fidonet found the online equivalent

 EO> I've found user verifiers to be useful in preventing some people
 EO> from getting on who might abuse the system (I know they aren't
 EO> perfect, but they do prevent some).

that is one of their original design goals... another was to provide a
mechanism for validation that didn't keep the sysop working on the system
all the time... being a sysop doesn't mean being hounded by the system...
it means controlling the system... it is not a marriage... not by a long
shot :P

FWIW: in today's world, the analogue for a CBV is when signing up on a site
and you get an email sent to which you reply or click a confirmation link
in ;)

)\/(ark