-=> David Drummond wrote to Dan Clough <=-

 DC> Let's not lose sight of that.  As far as I'm concerned we can
 DC> forget about the Zone thing and try to
 DC> reach some consensus on what can be done to improve the public
 DC> "face" of FidoNet.  That's all I'm really after.

 DD> Fidonet is similar to Ham radio in that it is a dying concept
 DD> populated by some old "stick in the muds" hanging on to times
 DD> gone by. As soon as you "modernise" it to have a fabulous flashy
 DD> web presence/tech then it ceases to be Fidonet and becomes just
 DD> another of the millions of useless websites.

Once again I will try to clarify what I'm advocating...

I am *NOT* trying to see FidoNet "modernized" into some flashy web 
presence.  I am against that in every way possible.

All I want to see is the public "face" of FidoNet be made (more) 
accessible via the web (WWW).  Not the actual workings of Fidonet 
echomail/FDN.  Just the "advertising" side of things.  A way for a 
potential new Sysop who wants to join Fidonet to be able to easily 
access the information needed to join.  Who to contact, and how to 
contact them.  Basic policy documents.  A nodelist.  An overview 
of how it all works.  The reason it should be more visible on the 
WWW is because THAT IS HOW THINGS ARE DONE THESE DAYS.  People 
google something they want to find out about, and then expect/want 
to be directed to some web page to read about it.  Not to a 
fucking Usenet server, or an ancient website with NOTHING but dead 
links on it.

Why is this so abhorrent to the (your words) "stick in the muds"?  
Hell, I'm probably in that category myself.  I was a Fido sysop 
long ago, then I left for a long time due to Real Life (and other 
factors), and now I'm back.  I'm just trying to promote the idea 
of making it EASIER for new people to become FidoNet sysops.  How 
can that be considered a BAD THING?  Do we not want to try and 
keep Fido alive?  If nothing is done, Fido will CONTINUE to 
decline and eventually die.  Why not try to save it?  We all know 
it will never be the same as it was in the early 90's, but it can 
be salvaged and probably grow a little from what it is today.

Can we put aside the bullshit and fears of losing the "old ways", 
and just put a shiny new public face on what curious investigators 
see when they research what FidoNet is?  Just a fucking workable 
website is what we're talking about here.



... As a matter of fact, it IS a banana in my pocket.
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