Hello Kees,

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

 KvE> So what, spanish is probably the second language, and where are they in
 KvE> Fidonet, ASCII is only a minor limitation to the use of their language,
 KvE> not so prohibitive that it justifies the low number of participants.

Spanish is the loving tongue.  As such, fidonetters should make
love with Spanish, and love will abound in Fidonet forever.

As you know, Spanish and most (if not all) European languages
can easily be written in Fidonet echoes, including the Fidonews,
given appropriate software for messaging.  Even Cyrillic can
be used, which is one of the reasons why Fidonet is so popular
in Russia and the Ukraine.

I can see no reason (other than a zone coordinator being on
a power trip) for UTF-8 to be denied.  Sysops should have the
freedom to choose for themselves what they want, not having
to rely on the whims of a zone coordinator who wants to make
himself/herself feel self-important.

I would love to see more participants from Hispanics, as well
as participants from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, and
the rest of Europe.

I am looking forward to having fidonet conversations in Spanish
once again, as it has been years.  ¨Habla espa¤ol?

--Lee

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