Charles Angelich (1:106/2000) wrote to Mark Lewis at 01:56 on 18 Apr 2003:

 CA> There were many who charged for access to FIDO at the start. There
 CA> is someone who setup satellite access to FIDO who was
 CA> charging last I knew. I don't recall his name but I'm sure you know
 CA> who I am referring to.

You're thinking of Planet Connect.  And Fidonet nodes in some region were
required to contribute to Cost Recovery Programs (CRPs) to cut the cost of
getting and sending the mail. 

ml> normal (aka routed) == sent to next system for further
ml> processing direct == sent directly to destination system
ml> when schedule allows crash == sent directly to destination
ml> system right now 

 CA> Seems a bit un-necessary to have multiples.

You might not need "direct" and "crash" but normal
routed netmail was and is much cheaper. 

 CA> I would guess that some thought they _had_ to while others were
 CA> aware of the lack of privacy.

Some systems permitted encrypted mail but privacy has always been an issue. 

 CA> Yes, I know. Netmail being dumped deliberately. Read and then
 CA> selectively deleted. Lots of fun. 

For all of its failings, I've had reasonably good luck with routed netmail.
 Very little of my mail has ever been lost and I've kept in touch with a
lot of people that way.

Take care,

Steven Horn (steven_a_horn{at}yahoo.ca)
Moderator, ALASKA_CHAT 
--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+