Mulling over George Pope to all 25 Nov 2003

Hi George!

 GP> That's all I can think to call it -- one of my echoes (MENS_ISSUES)
 GP> seems to have been linked up to an internet newsgroup, in such a
 GP> way that even my regular postings are converted to Usenet format
 GP> (ie. "To:ALL") :|

 GP> How? What? But? Why? :(

 GP> This seems a clear abuse of Fidonet, am I right?

Not in itself. Policy 4 / 2.1.3 specifies that the gateway system must
be clearly identified (it is in the case of MENS_ISSUES), & must act
as a gateway in the reverse direction (something you might follow up).

I noticed that a point here was linked to that echo, but unlinked 
a few days ago, probably because it was full of gated messages.
(Hi Malcolm!)

It does highlight the value of putting the restriction against gating
without moderator permission in the echo description.

If you browse to http://www.relaynet.org/Subscriptions.htm you will
find a list of RelayNet Conferences you can subscribe or unsubscribe
to, including MENS_ISSUES. Most appear to be existing "FidoNet" echoes.

You could send an email to sysop{at}rime.org, asking for the gating
to stop, or perhaps that the gating software be configured to
render the From & To fields in the familiar Fido format.

Cheers, Steve..

---