MvdV> The intention obviously is to get the mail to its final destination
 MvdV> and in order to do that *someone* has to make a call.

 PL> Ever hear the old term "sneaker mail"... for all of what P4 says,
 PL> netmail can be copied to a floppy and "delivered".

B.I.N.G.O.  /THAT/ dog'll hunt! oh yeah!

and, AAMOF, there were many systems that were full blown nodes that
actually used tape backups for their delivery and sending of fidonet
messages... one really needs to step back and look at all the
"other" systems that were nodes in fidonet... there were RS
CoCo's, Apple II gs', Commodores, TRS-80s, System 36s, earlier mainframe
type units and more...

i'm personally aware of several "other" systems that used
"sneakernet" techniques to get fidonet mail in and out... in
fact, i've a System 36 sitting here that i'd put in fidonet as a full node
if i had the/an operating system to do such with... i don't because i'm not
going to pay IBM the fees they want for the OS of such an ancient
machine... IM(h)O, that OS for that machine should be "freely
available" these days...

)\/(ark