Hello Kees,

 BF>>    We might get the answer in just a few weeks, now that all of us
 KvE> *Cs
 BF>> have the proper tool available. Then the sysops could chose what
 KvE> character
 BF>> encoding they prefer, rather than have a specific ditto forced upon
 KvE> them
 BF>> from above.

 KvE> I am not completely shure what you have in mind, nor that it will
improove
 KvE> communication within Fidonet.

It is time for an upgrade.  Should have been done long ago.
But now is good, as waiting longer only means more delay.

 KvE> Is it your expectation, that the ZC will accept nay 8 bit encoding,

It matters not a witt what any ZC accepts or does not accept.
It is sysops who matter, and if this what sysops want (an upgrade)
then it will be done - regardless of what any ZC chooses to accept
or not accept.

 KvE> or is
 KvE> everybody going to build his own Nodelist,

If that is what it takes, and is necessary, then that is what
will be done.

 KvE> with just HIS name spelled in some weird encoding.

Weird to you, perhaps.  But not to the one who spells his/her
own name.  ;)

 KvE> Whatever superduper environment you use, the more people you want to
 KvE> communicate with, the more you have to step down to a common denominator.
 KvE> For Fidonet that is ASCII. Others cannot read your message, if you offer
 KvE> your opinions in an encoding they cannot decypher. They will not go out
 KvE> of their way to adapt to your encoding, even for people with your
stature.

Okay, let's follow this to its logical conclusion ...

 KvE> It is my beleif, that even if we stepped down to numerical ID's, we would
be
 KvE> better served than by using incompatible encodings as we whish, or an all
 KvE> encompassing encoding, that the majority cannot use.

.... from now on every Fidonet sysop around the world will start
communicating in Mandarin Chinese, the most widely spoken language
in the entire world.  ;)

--Lee

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