Yo! Troy:
Wednesday July 02 1997 10:16, Troy H. Cheek wrote to Bill Cheek:
 TC> Nor did fidonet.org gate for all of Fido.  I certainly never
 TC> sucessfully
 TC> sent or received any Internet mail through it.
It *did* require a certain technique and process to do it.  It had to do with 
where and how you addressed a netmail.  In any event, any inbound e-mail 
addressed to your standardized node-name would have been received by you 
automagically with no effort on your part.
To send mail was difficult until you got the hang of it....because the 
netmail address had to be to the gateway server....and your intended 
recipient had to be placed just exactly so on the first line of the message 
body.  If you didn't do it exactly right, then it bounced or went nowhere.  
Done right, and it went.
 TC> The longer it's been gone, the better the claims about what it could
 TC> have done have gotten.
I dunno about that.....just that e-mail was possible throughout all of Fido.
 BC>> But does it matter why?  What does matter is that Fido is no longer
 BC>> a viable entity of the Internet.
 TC> It apparently matters to you, else you wouldn't keep emphasizing that
 TC> it's
 TC> Fido's fault or Fido's choice that it's no longer a part of the
 TC> Internet.
You missed my point.....and now you're taking it to a personal level....
 BC>> Who cares about either fault or choice?
 TC> Since you're the one using those words, apparently you do.
Again, you miss the point, so here comes the personal slant.......
 BC>> What matters are the action verbs that are conspicuously absent from
 BC>> Fido with respect to the Internet.
 TC> If it's so important to you,
It isn't.  The important thing is TRUTH. FACTS.  BRASS TACKS.  That's all. 
Just a straight representation of what happened; what is happening; and where 
it's all going.
 TC> take the action yourself.
One man does not take "action" in Fido.......
 TC> From what you've said, you appear to have the hardware and full-time,
 TC> high-speed Internet connection, plus Fido know-how necessary to act
 TC> as a gateway yourself. Apply for a domain name and start shuffling
 TC> messages.  That's _exactly_ how it happened before.
Thanks for the suggestion, but no thanks.  I do not seek to be the messiah; 
the saviour; the redemption....  All of Fido is on the downswing and it will 
take a collective effort to turn it around.  It would be utterly imbecilic of 
me to sink time and resources into a falling star.  That's plumb dumb, Troy.  
Hell, that's why Bert Juda bailed out....and why most of the premier Fido 
software developers have shoved off to parts unknown.
It's also why the nodelist (the name of this thread) has been steadily 
shrinking from its peak in November, 1995.
The facts.....Troy.....the facts.  And they deserve an explanation for the 
benefit of those participants on this echo who kind of hang in the balance, 
unsure of what's happening and of which way to turn.  My point....the sum, 
total, beginning and end of it....is simply to make everyone aware of what's 
happing....and WHY it's happening in terms of what I think and what I know.
If you have contrary observations and impersonal observations, you are 
welcome to lay them out on the table.  Please do NOT make this any more 
personal than it has become.  This is not a "Bill Cheek" issue; it is a 
FidoNet issue.  And regardless of my interpretation....the facts stand on the 
numbers and speak for themselves. Just like the cards do in the game of 
ker.
If you have different numbers and facts, then cite them.  If all you have is 
an opinion, then cite it, too.....with any substance.
Do NOT continue making it personal.
Bill Cheek ~ E-mail: bcheek@san.rr.com
Windows 95 Juggernaut Team ~ Microsoft MVP
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