Hi Michiel!

Friday May 12 2006, Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Vladimir Donskoy:

 MV>>> As for the real name issue, since I discovered that many so
 MV>>> called international echos are gated into the InterNet and its
 MV>>> content is indexed by the search engines, I am having second
 MV>>> thoughts about it. I am not all that enthousiastic about finding
 MV>>> on the InterNet what I wrote five years ago in Fido: under my
 MV>>> real name...

 VD>> Yes but this gates only FIDO-to-Internet, not return back (at commnon
 VD>> case). So - mail from Internet to FIDO is difficult.

 MV> But it is the Fido *to* InterNet part that bothers me. These ever getting
 MV> better search engines are a mixed blessing. The allow me to find things,
 MV> which is good, but they also allow everyone else to find things about me.
 MV> Like some stupid remark I made in a FidoNet echo five years ago. One may
 MV> have the illusion to be among friends and not having to weigh every word
 MV> on a gold scale when chattering in FidoNet but it is no longer so. Thanks
 MV> to this gating *into* the InterNet the whole world can - and does -
 MV> listen. It is like having a mike in the local bar and blurping everything
 MV> all over town.

 MV> The gating into the InterNet has made what once was an asset: use of real
 MV> names only, into a liability.

Yes, but un-anonymous at FIDO (one address for all) is make it easy. But
let think about it only criminals.

 MV>>> Yeah, I know these blurbs. What you describe is how it *was*.
 MV>>> Connect FIDONEWS or FN_SYSOP and see how it is now. :-(

 VD>> I read many our echoes and I see this moderate status - it is very
 VD>> good. May be moderators in these echoes are absent or no working?

 MV> Learn from the experience of others. In the past users wehere limited to a
 MV> few points to connect to the network. Long distance calling cost prevented
 MV> them from seeking a link far away from home. This is no longer so where
 MV> InterNet is widely available and so it is difficult if not impossible to
 MV> permanently cut off a user. In a few years the situation at your end wil
 MV> be like that too.

For nodes - may be, but for points - hardly.

 MV> Trust me, the big advantage of Fidonet: moderation is at an end.

It is not follow by this!

 VD>>>> Second advantage FIDONET is basic absence of any necessity for
 VD>>>> continuous connection of the user to the Network:

 MV>>> Yes, that is how it was designed. But with a continues
 MV>>> connection, it works a lot better...

 VD>> Yes, but this is not necessary.

 MV> It is not necesary for usenet either. So it is not an advantage specifiv
 MV> for FidoNet.

In INTERNET more peoples using Web-browsers not usenet. For this permanent
connection is necessary.

 MV>>> Again: that is how it *was*....

 VD>> I see this now, so - _is_.

 MV> On your side, maybe it still _is_. In a few years that too will be
 MV> history.

May be, but we is living now.

Regards, Vladimir Donskoy

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