> and to think that folk still complain about fidonet embracing
> the internet for certain operations...
 
I can't understand why ANYBODY would complain. Fidonet was not founded as
the anti-internet. Fidonet was founded as a message exchange network for
BBSes, in a time when an internet connection was often more difficult to
arrange than a stolen organ transplant. 
 
Fidonet has survived by virtue of its culture, and to a certain extent
outside of North America, to its availability off the 'net.
 
Back in the day, I was coughing up $20 CDN every couple of months to split
the long-distance phone between myself and thirty other people. Echomail
and Netmail from outside Net 249 arrive once, sometimes twice a day, from
Ken Whathisface (RC12 forever) in Ottawa. Ken made one, some times two,
calls a day Z1EC .. Bob??? .. This meant a round-trip time for echomail
outside of Ontario was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3-4 days.
 
Anybody who complains does not remember their history well.
 
Maybe I should let those people in on the fact that back then, I was also
calling MountainView, CA once a day (with my Telebit Trailblazer 14.4 --
uucp-g spoofing, baby!) for $0.25 CDN/min to drop off usenet and exchange
email.
 
Wes

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