FM> I prefer Peter's suggestion, if it comes to the crunch. We remain a
FM> national echo which is available to any sysop who is prepared to carry
FM> it (maybe a few get lost) but are responsible for moving our own mail.

BL> No...

Yep, way to go IMO. And it wouldnt surprise me in the slightest
if its all just mindless political games and they dont actually do
a damned thing at all, just want to discourage UUCODES in volume,
and we mostly dont give a damn if thats done by FREQing anyway.

BL> not all of us can offer the same reliability of Paul,

Not all of the current mail movers do anyway, never have done.

BL> and some of us would still be relying on the kindness
BL> of strangers by using their dollar to move mail.

Thats a rather dubious proposition too. If for example the main
mail movers choose not to cart it to Melburg, and one person in
Melburg chooses to do that, say Alex, and then feeds that into
the Melburg system for any sysop who wants it, nothings changed.

Alex may in fact end up getting AVT CHEAPER than currently because its
less than 25c and the others in Melburg keep paying the SAME amount.

BL> My ideal AVT-net would be a system where all of us
BL> moves our own mail able to point of any other one of us,

This wont work, points cant be relied on to answer the phone. BBSs can.

BL> with perhaps one or two feeds into Fido.

What have you achieved over replacing any current mail mover who chooses
not move AVT being replaced by one of the current users of AVT ? Nothing.

BL> All we need is a simple BBS/tosser like TinyPoint, and an agreed
BL> time when each of us leaves our computers online (after 3 AM, say).

Thats what a mail only BBS is Bob. Points dont EVER answer the phone.
That is in fac the ONLY real difference between a MO BBS and a point.

And what the hell is the point of it anyway ?  It makes more
sense to continue to have points poll Paul. You gain nothing
except more phone calls and more organisation required if people
call other points. Which are in fact Mail only BBSs anyway.

BL> It would also be very convenient to be
BL> able to send each other stuff unattended.

Yes, thats why people have mail only BBSs. You can do that yourself anytime.

FM> On the original question, isn't one of the functions of the moderator
FM> to keep the FidoGods off our backs? Shouldn't Rod Speed be fixing this?

BL> It'd be nice to have a fallback position already in place, though.

We have, if any current mail mover stops moving mail, someone else does instead
The potential candidates for doing that arent points anyway, so its trivial.
@EOT:

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