PC> Fido and charging $$$:

RS> Thats entirely your prerogative, and you are free to never go near
RS> a system like that. And others who think its acceptible can use it.

RS> They mostly are actually charging for the hardware and stuff.

PC> Yes, i'm appreciative for the zone gates and hus who are really
PC> the backbone of fido as they cop the charges in the end, NOT the
PC> end sysop who gets it for free, charges users to use it like it's
PC> some kind of privilage.. No pay, no Echos..? A bit rough.

Welp, its their choice, and yours to avoid using system that go that route.

I'm not even convinced you really can say its quite unacceptible.
The mailbase has to be stored somewhere, if they have a significant
number of echoes stored at a significant depth in terms of message
age its not that small a space. They would be paying something for
the mail runs, even if thats only local calls. If they choose to
try to recover some of those costs, thats their choice and yours
to use a system which doesnt do that if you dont like that.

PC> I think of all the sysops who poll at long-distance
PC> rates to provide their community with a link to the
PC> world freely cos that's the spirit of fido.

I dont believe you can declaim thats the only viable
approach. And if you feel that, you are perfectly
welcome to only use systems which agree with you on that.

Then there is the more complicated question of how many more BBSs
there might be to use for mail some do it when they can get part of
their costs paid, and would otherwise not be able to afford it, justify
spending that much to the wife etc. Its more complicated than it looks.

PC> There is a policy on charging to pay for costs, and
PC> that's fair to everyone, but I have seen obvious mutations
PC> of this that are nothing but large money making boards
PC> providing fido as another feature of their enterprise,

There are very very few that actually make any money out of it. And
you are perfectly free to hold your nose and never use those systems.

PC> and that isn't right.

I'm not convinced you can declaim that.

PC> I've seen "0055" boards with Fido listed in their adverts..

Yes, and thats entirely their prerogative, and the prerogative of
those who dont like that approach to never use those. I wouldnt myself.

PC> It's my perogative to take offense to that too.

Yes, it is indeed. But you cant declaim that they should be stamped
out. Or that people shouldnt feed mail to those systems. I doubt
there are too many that actually just make a commercial operation out
of just fidomail. Largely because there are free sources of fido mail.

RS> Anyway, whether you like it or not doesnt really matter much,
RS> thats the way Fido has chosen to operate. You are perfectly free
RS> to setup another operation which does it differently if you want to.

PC> So all those Tom jennings interviews i listened
PC> to are to be taken with a grain of salt? How sad...

The world has moved on considerably since then. He didnt have a clue what
it would end up like, hardly anyone ever does with things that take off.

--- PQWK202