Hello Rod!

On 01 Jul 95, Rod Speed said to Paul Conroy, and I quote...

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

It's not a matter of "use systems which you agree with". I could
poll off a system, whether i agreed with their bbs-use charges or not. I
don't call my uplinks' BBS really, so i wouldnt know what goes on there,
they could be using it to fund a right-wing militia for all i know..

I would pay uplinks if the situation deemed it necessary, but in the city
it's unecessary as most links are local.
Yes, i can keep clear of uplinks via commercial boards, but if their
incentive was based only on profit, i doubt they'd allow downlinks anyway..

I'm not gonna put down any one's approach, My real disagreement is with the
double-standards arising out of some host's defending their own commercial
interests by using the hierarchy to oust competition. Either they should
stick to policy or allow others the same allowances as they give
themselves..

I, personally, don't have any commercial interests, well none that have
anything to do with BBS's/ FIDO/MODEMs etc, but I have seen nodes lose
their FIDO link due to pressure from competitors, even just because of
simple disagreements, and i've only been a node for a short amount of time.
I've even seen a "PAY BOARD" node in Sydney charging local
downlinks for the privilage at $90 for the basic start-up link, plus a
monthly fee on top.. The downlinks don't have a choice to hold their nose
because fido policy says that downlinks must become a node under their
"AREA's" HUB.. Sure they could poll from anywhere else, but they
have to become a node under that HOST unless they phisically move to
another suburb...

I'm not gonna winge to you, cos such matters are a global problem. The
"hierarchy" structure of fidonet sounded good at the time, and
i'm sure Tom Jennings didn't think that somewhere in the middle of the
pacific a few assholes would abuse their position as a HOST/HUB and
re-write the policy to suit themselves..

Yes FIDO has changed since it's origional concept, and i'm not a stickler
for rules anyway. I just hope, AND THIS IS NOT AIMED TOWARDS ANYONE IN
PARTICULAR, the next time a sysop gets their ass kicked  because an uplink
doesnt favour their opinion or msg, they get to ask "WHO MADE YOU GOD
AND WARDEN"? before their node is cut. :-)

--- FMail 1.0g