> This is a terrible weakness in Australian Fido,

 NP> Maybe the mail movers don't see it as a weakness. They may see
 NP> it as a source of power ????

  I don't think so... it's more likely they've been sucked into it;
taking up the slack as others drop off. It's totally unfair to
interstate links if AVT is 100K and costs 10c a day, say, to a node
who has no interest in us but pays $37 a year extra to carry us.

  As long as the load is spread it's okay (everyone wins a few and 
loses a few), but it seems to me that Fido is shrinking to just a few 
nodes carrying most of the load. The principle of Fido is that mail 
is carried interstate and interzone by the one who wants that area 
for himself, and who then makes that area available to everyone else 
at no extra cost, locally. That's not the way it works now.

 > It puts too much cost pressure on just a few nodes, and they end
 > up paying for shit like AVT that none of them wants.

 NP> The volume load on the backbone is very heavy, I'd hate to have
 NP> their phone bills. 

  Yes.

 > It will be a terrible shame if Fido falls apart.

 NP> I agree. I'm told that internet is just so.... big. And the
 NP> time involved online wih a slow service provider is
 NP> astronomical. I can afford a local call a day to get all the
 NP> mail I can read. 

  Fido is great!

Regards,
Bob
 
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