Hello Terry,

 MvdV>> "Connecting BBS systems" is how it began. But the world has changed
 MvdV>> and so has Fidonet. Here in this part of the world where - contrary
 MvdV>> to where Fidonet was born - local calls were never "free", Fidonet
 MvdV>> participants moved to participating as points, rather than users.
 MvdV>> Users became an almost extinct species in the second half of the
 MvdV>> ninetees. I'd say the last Dutch user was spotted in the wild in
 MvdV>> 1996. With the users went the BBS. Look at the MO flags in the
 MvdV>> nodelist.

 TR> There are still a lot of Fidonet sysops who run a BBS and still get users,
 TR> in
 TR> my case I get (telnet & html) mainly users but nothing like before when
most
 TR> BBS has a 1000+ callers.

 TR> What has changed in Fidonet, we still move echos and files, there are some
 TR> new protocols being used and the Fidoweb. Still moving A to B etc.

 TR> I know there are now many sysops who don't run a BBS and just use the
echos,
 TR> they may as well be points. I am all for that, get more users whether they
 TR> be
 TR> nodes or points.

There is always change.  Making Fidonet a museum piece will do
nothing to save it from the future.  Change is hard, but necessary,
for survival.

Fidonet is about communication.  A community of sysops (and others)
from around the world, not each individual acting by and for his/her
own self.

There have been many different policy documents written over the
years, all of them flawed, and none of them recent.  Many sysops like
to point to P4 as some kind of godsend, even though it is 30 years
old and never passed/ratified in any zone, with nobody having a clue
as to who wrote it.

As an informal opinion piece that has some information of interest,
it can be used as a very limited means of reference.  But sysops should
never have to depend on any opinion piece that is so outdated and
unsigned.

Holidays coming up.

Fun days ahead when an NC receives a netmail.

More fun if an NC sends me a netmail in return.  :)

 MvdV>> That argumentation might hold if I were the only one claiming binkd
 MvdV>> is the dominant protocol and Fidonet still operated with the "tree
 MvdV>> structure". But we now have the Fidoweb. Many sysops see more than
 MvdV>> just their uplink and their downlinks. And they all say Binkd is the
 MvdV>> dominant protocol.

 TR> Like I said you are probably right, but it hasn't changed Fidonet.

The FidoWeb has removed the blinders of sysops who falsely believed
FidoNet needed to have a rigid structure in order to survive.

Which is the best argument FidoNet sysops can make for others to join.

RelayNet (RIME) needed a rigid structure.  FidoNet never did.
That is why FidoNet is still here, and RelayNet is not.

The FidoWeb saved FidoNet from itself.

 MvdV>> In case you have not heard about the Fidoweb yet:

 TR> I have been using it for some months, mainly to get some echos my main
 TR> uplink
 TR> doesn't get. If your uplink was reliable and worked like designed you
really
 TR> don't need the Fidoweb.

One has to be a FidoNet sysop in order to enjoy all the benefits
of the FidoWeb.  Probationary sysops (users and points) do not get
that benefit.

 MvdV>> Well, I am not. I am not a wildcat sysop, I am not even a BBS sysop,
 MvdV>> Like most sysops in this part of the world, I shut down the BBS
 MvdV>> because the users either switched to pointing or went to greener
 MvdV>> pastures.

 TR> Your choice, mine is to still run a BBS like so many other Fidonet sysops.

That is your choice.  You are lord and master of your own system,
and free to run it any which way you want.

I have my own choice, which shall be revealed in the very near future.
And I will be lord and master over my own system.  Just as all others
are lords and masters over their systems.  See how that works?  P4 is
irrelevant.  Every FidoNet sysop is his/her own god!

 MvdV>> So expressed in pecentage of active participants, it is a lot more
 MvdV>> than 10%. And the figure is rising. While Fdionet as a whole is
 MvdV>> shrinking the list of IPv6 nodes is still growing.

 TR> Of course it is growing, it is the future but not ncessary or readily
 TR> available at this time for many.

It will eventually be a necessary evil.

 MvdV>> I am sure you are familair with the expression: "fix the roof when
 MvdV>> the sun shines".

 TR> Yes, I live in the tropics :)

So do I.  And more soon will be, thanks to global warming.

 MvdV>> Translated: get familiar with IPv6 now, now that it is not yet a
 MvdV>> matter of life and death. If you wait until you no longer have a
 MvdV>> choise, it will be much harder.

 TR> I am not against it, I am actually all for it and have ideas about how I
 TR> can make use of it but until my provider supports it I will stay with
IPv4.

It will not be a long wait.

--Lee

-- 
Our Nuts, Your Mouth

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