Hi everyone,                            -[ Repost of 2006-Mar-27 17h37]-

I'm under Windows XP right now, all favourites are gone since the repair
procedure trashed them - and my old habits with it...  The first install
had killed my DOS partition, which was bad enough, then Win 2K (where my
virtual DOS machine stood) stopped connecting and Win 2K3 (a 3rd option)
died hard somewhere in the middle (another rescue attempt).  What energy
do i have left to rebuild a DOS BBSing environment after i've been using
most of my spare time DownLoading "Live" Linux CDs trying to decide what
distribution i should adopt?  Well, not much and i've moved to disparate
forums hoping that FidoNet might get rid of a couple bad elements in the
meantime - which it won't (i'm thinking of the default moderator and his
followers suite in DOSINet who litterally took over the place to discuss
trivial reminescences as Windows v3.1:  they mistaken "DOS" for
"LEGACY"
and, speaking of that, it was my insistance over having on-topic content
that got me banned, actually).  The founders have turned into predators,
that's the conclusion i drawn after sustained but useless efforts.  Am i
one of those who witnessed the decay of my favourite hobby in a complete
indifference?  I don't think so...  Did things improve just because i've
stepped back, after i was considered to be the nuisance?  Not really!...

Euh...  And as i write this i realize how easy it is to violate a sacro-
saint rule that used to differenciate NNTP articles posting from BBSing:
topic relevancy!  There again, i tried hard to stay on focus with topics
on file transfer protocols so that i keep a link, even remote, to TG but
the truth is it's not wanted, like a nuisance once again.  That, my dear
BBS companions, explains a few things if mutiplied by the number of guys
who were dropped along the road because Windows (the source of my misery
these days) seemed the only way to go!...  Then, lets not neither forget
all those who did convert to Windows and ended up being diverted to some
other medias outside of the BBS world, euh...  And on top of that, a few
more that couldn't stand all the bullshit related to Windows and who had
no real option other than converting to Linux (which is a whole hobby in
itself).  Considering this premise, is it reasonable to expect a regular
user to fight desperately to keep his former favourite hobby alive while
it's being eaten from inside?  I'm curious to see your reactions, to say
the least!  Did the BBSing community think of a "Live" CD to promote the
hobby like Linuxies are doing in order to promote theirs?  Not so!  None
i've ever heard of, euh...  and for a very good reason:  reaching people
on FidoNet is such trouble i grew tired of fighting the machine and some
of the gurus behind it.  My health is decaying, life is simply too short
to play SuperMan in lost wars such as BBSing.  Lost?  Can i DownLoad the
.QWK packets through TelNet/ZMoDem and hope they won't be dammaged while
the BBS SoftWare is still going to update my pointers, despite failures?

HyperTerminal?  First of all, i hate it but if i didn't i'd use energy i
don't have for exploring the meanders of Windows looking for packets and
then i'd recall there's no .QWK reader installed yet!...  Can i fallback
to FTP/HTTP, euh...  That's another problem because:  1) i've never used
these interfaces other than on a trial basis!;  2) because of #1 i don't
know where i'd go get my .QWK packets anyway.  Why insist over such .QWK
packets then?!?  Good question, as one might wonder why users would want
to endure all this to begin with!!!  Did i enjoy my last reading of FdN?
Nope, we're lucky enough to have Web-based copies of the echoes but this
interface sucks on my 15" display because at least one sixth of the page
is covered by all sorts of Windows/navigation stuff, not two mention two
and a half inches on the side, plus the same height, taken from whatever
remains, for navigating thru the message base-itself!  Overall, that's a
heafty 8" x 4" surface for the actual content and i wear 1 $ glasses for
i can't afford real ones!...  Euh...  Is BBSing a convivial hobby, under
these circumstances?...  Well, the words that come to me are quite a bit
different:  exclusion, indifference, reject and the like.  Not really an
open media from where i stand!  I'm sorry people but reading you on a 32
inches square screen with headaches caused by bad visual conditions (and
my ass on a bad chair which hurts until veins burst!) isn't what made me
attracted to BBSing.  Life is hard enough, this hobby needs to transform
or it may die, simple but true.  Now, i recall being chased and insulted
only because i wished the hobby was more inclusive!...  How nice really.

Do i want BBSing to survive?  Well, does it really matter at all!  Can i
make it safe for a blind person to pass thru the highway during business
hours, while the dog stays behind?  The saying is there's no people more
blind than those who refuse to see;  another says it takes two to tango,
or in this case three:  the author, the operator and then the user base.

Running BBSes is only a start.  Operators need authors and users around!

The ones who take decisive actions are operators, not users.  Those whom
actions affect both the operators and users are the authors and very few
of them can pretend to have any capability to imprint a new life to this
dying hobby - when they're not just as faulty as some default moderators
and their friends.  Really, who can tell me how to re-organize all this?

My finger joints hurt, lets cut the arm...  A foot hurts, lets cut above
the knee...  I can't write and taking a walk to distract myself isn't an
option anymore so my head starts to hurt then, euh...  What to cut next!

BBSing was like that, dropping a few marginal users seemed natural, then
more and if they don't go by themselve lets just trash the hobby so much
only a few will remain but at least we'll know they're "pure"!  Ha!  Ha!

Where does it lead?  Nowhere:  just a note on the margin of a lost page.

                                    Salutations,

                                    Michel Samson
                                    a/s Bicephale
                                    http://cf.geocities.com/dosinternet/


P.S.:  Best luck with your lives everyone!  The same to you Sean...  ;-)


... DOS+TCP/IP+TelNet+Kermit+.QWK technologies will run on XTs or better
___ MultiMail/XT v0.46

--- Maximus/2 3.01