On 13 Feb 97, Chaim Yankel wrote to Amy Ballantyne:
 CY> I want so badly to scream "SHUT UP" at
 CY> Mr.-Rifle-Through-Your-Pockets!
How interesting.  Those families and folks who _have_ obtained otherwise 
unavailable old Disney releases through me really like the fact I had the 
forethought to put away a few copies of them for the future.  I've been 
affectionately called "the little squirrel" by several of my friends because 
like the little creature, I stash my pecans for the winter.  I guess it's 
just what side of the fence you're on.
I never "push" any of the stuff I have on the echo.  I posted the list of 
what I have twice, in response to requests both times.  That's about it.  The 
rest of the recent discussion on here from me was about a certain person's 
totally erroneous understanding of copyright.  I felt the posting of their 
erroneous view might be dangerous to other people who might go off and think 
that that interpretation of the law was correct.  I was, in essence, trying 
to proclaim the world as being round, to one who obstinately wanted to 
believe that it was flat.  That's about it.  Then when the person refused to 
even investigate for himself the truth of the matter, but openly professed to 
want to remain ignorant of the correct knowledge of the issue, that's when I 
had my fill.  I don't think there's anything wrong in what I've done, or in 
trying to provide guests of this echo with accurate information.
 CY> The sysop here is considering dropping this echo
Many sysops and systems are dropping this echo - and many others.  The sad 
truth is, that the internet is literally killing off Fidonet.  My area here 
in Northern Calif. used to have over 40 boards, maybe half of them were fido 
networked boards.  Now we have only 9 boards left, only 4 fido networked.  My 
own system used to be busy every second.  Now I get maybe 3 of 4 calls a day, 
and that's it.  22 hours a day the system now sits idle.  The Fido Nodelist, 
the list of all Fido BBSes in the world (which all fido boards need to 
operate correctly), which is updated weekly, is shrinking frantically.  North 
America used to have 16500 nodes in the nodelist.  Now, it's just a tad over 
11000 in just a year, and dropping fast.  By 1999, Fido may become an extinct 
species altogether as the internet takes over completely.  It's terrifying.  
And it's sad to see this happen.  Internet newsgroups are largely 
unmoderated, and every 4th message is a pyramid scheme or advertisement for a 
new site.  Fido conferences are much higher quality - but people seem to be 
forgetting this and flocking to the internet anyhow.  Anyway, that's probably 
why your sysop may be considering dropping this - and possibly other echos. 
You shold encourage him to hang in there and fight the internet takeover.
 CY> But lately, this echo has been hijacked by people intent on selling to 

Wrong.  Obviously, you didn't read all the messages in the various threads. 
But it doesn't matter.
--- GoldED 2.50
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