Hello Donna!
Wednesday September 17 1997 11:14, Donna Lewis wrote to All:
 MAW >> I guess because I'm a sysop it's easy.. in fact easier for me to
 MAW >> send it by netmail than email.. email I have to log on.. You
 MAW >> shouldn't feel obligated to pay for netmail.  It doesn't cost
 MAW >> the sysop a dime unless he sends it direct.
 DL> My son (my sysop and NetCo-ordinator for his Zone) and his father
 DL> (sees the phone bill) would disagree with this.  It depends on where
 DL> the sysop gets his feed from to bring all the mail into his machine
 DL> for us to go and pick up.  If a sysop is lucky and can get it local,
 DL> great, but I would guess that most sysops have to go long-distance
 DL> either intra-state (more expensive) or inter-state (less expensive).
<
Donna, I have to agree that there are costs to being a sysop.  I know in a 
big way that there are.  Our local Fido Net has a Cost Recovery Plan that we 
contribute to if we carry more than 5 FIDO echos.  Each of our downlinks that 
are full nodes are also asked to contribute to the CRP.  Our cost for the CRP 
is very, very minimal -- $2.00 per month.  That is a bargain at any price!  I 
pay my CRP a year at a time and often forget that it is due again until I get 
a bill <  It's not a big sum, but then I also hub 10 other networks 
internationally.  For this I get NO Donations, and I don't solicit any 
either. 
Many times my system has accidently called Canada, Spain, Germany, England, 
Luxembourg, Mexico, The Caribian Islands, Denmark, South Africa, Netherlands, 
New Zealand or South Korea and multiple US locations, because some way or 
another I didn't configure something just right.   So yes there are long 
distance costs involved.  That and the cost of my Internet Service Account.  
I use the internet to move Fido or other Network's mail around the world and 
it works pretty slick!
I get a lot of enjoyment from reading about the various crafting echos, and 
other echos that I participate in from the other networks.  I figure my 
$20.00 a month to my ISP is a small price to pay for my "recreational 
habits". <
Many times the reasons that sysops don't want to send netmail out for users 
is that they DO have to pay long-distance charges and trust me it DOES add 
up.  I celebrate with an extra cup of tea when the long distance is under 
$150 a month!  We go to McDonalds and celebrate when it's under $75 a month!
So it's all a matter of priorities, and how badly one wants to read mail and 
where they want to participate. <  The feeds for the networks that I hub 
come from many, many places and only my FIDO feed is local to me.
Each night I poll in Austin,Texas; St. Louis, Missouri; Oxford, Michigan; and 
Sequim,Washington.  My other networks come in by way of an internet relay 
through my ISP from Edmonton, AB, Canada; Tucson, Arizona; Matoaca, Virginia.
I have over 50 downlinks, and there are only four that are local calls to me. 
Anything that is long distance we are working hard to move to internet 
transport so we can all take a rest from our long distance phone bills.
Anyway, just thought I'd add my 2 cents worth and tell you the way it is out 
here on the left coast <
Take care!
Anne McReary
mcreary@oz.net
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