FidoNews 9-52                  Page 10                     28 Dec 1992
 
POLICY4, *C ELECTIONS & YOU
by Mark Jordan, 1:205/1701
 
And so it comes to this...secrecy, clandestine affairs, hidden information
in the NODEDIFF...
 
If I wasn't looking for certain things (more later) in the NODEDIFF, I
never would have known that there was a problem in the ZC election... of
course, now that Region 10 is apparently going to control the new selection
process, I should also be happy for those up the line to be looking out for
my best interests, no?
 
Never mind that Policy4 complaints took forever to be processed...never
mind the admission in a police report by the sysop who was subject of the
PC...never mind that even though Policy4 *specifically* states that
precedent is useful but not binding, but the *C structure is 'afraid of
setting a precedent', even when POLICY supersedes precedent...never mind
that we are told that Policy4 is binding on Zone 1... this all part of the
'more later' from above...
 
Now, those who have decided on how to control the process of choosing
candidates admit that they have had a problem!  Perhaps this problem is
founded in the 'creativity' of their *new* interpretation on how Policy4 is
to be made, no?
 
I, for one, would be very interested in hearing about how this new
'selection of candidates' process came about...what authority decided that
this was going to be the way to do it---and what authority has now decided
to abandon that process for another, one which is coming from a structure
that is, in my own experience, both painfully slow and inexorably petrified
so badly, it can't realize it's own problems fast enough.
 
As much as I am for the ideals of Policy4, I am afraid that the time has
come to state what no one else has been willing to do...
 
POLICY4 is toothless.  It is ineffective.  It is these things because it is
*NOT* a valid policy controlling Fidonet.  It is observed by the *C
structure only when it is convenient---it is ignored when those it is
designed to protect ask for its solace.  It is being used as a shield to
protect those in power, and allow them justification to both abuse and
exceed the very limited authority that it grants them.  Even when a
precedent exists, it is ignored; when one doesn't exist to guide in a
decision, no one in the *C structure is willing to make one.
 
It is time for some sort of action to take place, whether it is to give up
and leave Fidonet, or to wrest control back from the current by means of a
coup...up to and including issuing a nodelist independent of the current *C
structure.
 
Face it, folks...we are a grass-roots organization, right?  We do this for
love and communications, not power or money, right?  We do this all because
we wish to communicate freely and openly, and make our world available to
everyone else to share in, right?
 
So, tell me, then---why is it that the ZC selection process was closed to
anyone except former or current RCs?  Why is it that RCs now have the power
to *appoint* a NC?
 
If Policy outweighs precedents in Fidonet, what are these 'processes' from,
and on what authority?
 
So, I ask openly and honestly, to all the *C and *EC structure---
 
Please explain yourselves.  Please cite the authority you suddenly have
granted yourselves.  Please show us why you are doing this, and on what
grounds you have exempted yourself from, at the least, openly advising the
sysops-at-large of your actions, whether (as Tom Jennings himself has
asked) in the official news-organ of Fidonet or at least bulletins for the
NC/NEC structure to send out, rather than leaving it in the NODEDIFF, where
automatic list processors never even realize it is on the file!
 
There are enough people I've contacted or been contacted by in Fidonet who
are not at all pleased with this heavy-handed display of authority...and I
truly have no interest in Fido Politics beyond running my system and
keeping my users happy.
 
But when your actions coddle those who would violate my system and my
privacy; when you begin changing the organization to suit what seem to be
naught but personal goals; when the subjective outweighs the objective;
when you begin the process to interfere with my enjoyment of being part of
Fidonet, I *demand* answers.
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

--- D'Bridge 3.59