Concerning _Nodelist_, Bill Cheek said to Troy H. Cheek in SCANRADIO:
 BC> To send mail was difficult until you got the hang of it....because the 
 BC> netmail address had to be to the gateway server....and your intended
 BC> recipient had to be placed just exactly so on the first line of the 
message
 BC> body.  If you didn't do it exactly right, then it bounced or went 
nowhere.
 BC> Done right, and it went.
I'm very familiar with the process.  I do it quite regularly with great 
success with my local Internet/Fidonet gateway.  I also remember quite 
clearly, back in the good ol' days when I had easy access to both Internet 
and Fidonet, testing it many times, exactly as outlined and exactly as I do 
it today.
 BC>>> But does it matter why?  What does matter is that Fido is no longer a
 BC>>> viable entity of the Internet.
 BC> 
 TC>> It apparently matters to you, else you wouldn't keep emphasizing that 
it's
 TC>> Fido's fault or Fido's choice that it's no longer a part of the 
Internet. 
 BC> You missed my point.....and now you're taking it to a personal level....
 BC> 
 BC>>> Who cares about either fault or choice?
 BC> 
 TC>> Since you're the one using those words, apparently you do.
 BC> 
 BC> Again, you miss the point, so here comes the personal slant.......
Then what is the point?  The FACT is that this particular Fido-Internet mail 
gateway no longer exists.  Claiming that its lack of continued existance is 
the fault or choice of Fidonet (as opposed to a single man) goes beyond the 
facts.  You make it sound as if, at some point, Fidonet as a whole up and 
said "Nope, we don't want to be a part of Internet" and shut it down.  You 
also seem to attribute this lack of a gateway as a contributing factor in the 
decline of the nodelist, when the FACT is that some people never got it to 
work to begin with, so it's just as much good to them now as it was before.
You also stated that Fidonet used to be a viable part of the Internet, when 
the FACT is that features regularly used by real Internet users (interactive, 
real time messaging, FTP, WWW, etc) were completely unavailable to Fidonet 
users.
 TC>> take the action yourself.
 BC> 
 BC> One man does not take "action" in Fido.......
Yet the FACT is that one man set up the gateway, and the same one man shut it 
down.  Another one man could start one up again.
 BC> All of Fido is on the downswing and it will take a collective effort to
 BC> turn it around.  It would be utterly imbecilic of me to sink time and
 BC> resources into a falling star.  That's plumb dumb, Troy.  Hell, that's 
why
 BC> Bert Juda bailed out...
I'm curious to know where you learned this FACT, as the mail I received 
stated that the reason he was shutting down was due to so many idiots forging 
mailing list subscriptions, sending mass mailings, and trying to get around 
the limitations he put in place.  And the unofficial speculation of the time 
was that the organization that had been paying for the mainframe access had 
stopped, leaving him to foot the bill.  I don't remember anything at all 
mentioned by him or anyone else about Fido's downsizing at that point.
 BC> It's also why the nodelist (the name of this thread) has been steadily
 BC> shrinking from its peak in November, 1995.
I'm not denying that the nodelist is on the decline.  If that was all you 
were saying, we'd be in complete agreement and not having this discussion.  
What I disagree with are some of your personal interpretations as to what 
causes are affecting the decline, what affects the decline are causing, and 
what our responses should be.
 BC> And regardless of my interpretation....the facts stand on the numbers 
nd
 BC> speak for themselves.
As we say in the South, if the facts speak for themselves, let them.
FACT:  Fidonet is currently on a decline.
FACT:  Internet is currently on the rise.
Anything beyond that is a conclusion based on these facts, past experience, 
personal preference, etc.
You've concluded that Fidonet is no longer a viable method of communication 
and that you should jump wholeheartedly into the Internet.  Please note that 
at no time have I ever disagreed with your conclusion.  What I have disagreed 
with is some of the statements you've made while justifying your conclusion 
to the rest of us.  If you consider disagreements of this type as making it 
personal, then this will have to be my last public message on the subject.
... They never let you live it down.  One little mistake.
--- JetMail 0.99beta22
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