FidoNews · Vol 1, No 3 · 17 Dec 84
fidonews.man -- 17 Dec 84 23:27:16 Page 1
Volume 1, Number 3 17 Dec 84
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| / \ |
| - FidoNews - /|oo \ |
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| Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ |
| Users Group | | \ \\ |
| Newsletter | (*) | \ )) |
| ______ |__U__| / \// |
| / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / |
| (________) (_/(_|(____/ |
| (jm) |
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Editor: Tom Jennings
Publisher: Fido #1
HOT NEWS
Oh boy ... the hot news this week is that Fido #1
dropped dead. The hard disk is in the junk pile. Any
articles that were submitted for this weeks newsletter are
lost forever. Please send them again, I'll see if I cant
hold on to them.
Fido is running on two floppies, no room for
anything. Until further notice, Fido cannot be downloaded
from #1. I have a solution though; I'm getting an ancient
old multibuss machine,three 8 inch floppies, at least 660K
each, for a total of 1.98 megs. If I can get double sided
drives, that might go up to almost 3 megs. It will take a
week or two, though.
More good news: the Sanyo 555 version of Fido is
ready. The bad news is, you can't have it! I have no space
to store it ... There will also be a "generic" version of
Fido, so that you can write your own IO drivers. It will use
INT 14, which you can trap and do things with.
Bumper stickers are going to be made tomorrow; they
should be done who knows when, because of Christmas.
Possibly before. I'm going to sell them at cost, merely to
recover my own money. They will cost about $165 for 500;
about 34 cents each. I'll mail them in onesies for a buck
each (postage .20, envelope .25, etc) or if you buy 25,
$10.00. I'll let you know when they are done.
I will also mail you a copy of the master if you
ask, so you can make them too.
fidonews.man -- 17 Dec 84 23:27:23 Page 2
NEWS
ARTICLE SUBMISSION
The format of this thing is totally ad hoc; please
make recomendations as to formats, sections needed, liked,
or hated, columns you'd like to see, or see removed,
anything at all. If you want to submit something regularly,
we can start a column for you.
You are ENCOURAGED to send things in for the
newsletter. ANYTHING is fit for the newsletter, such as a
description of your board, problems found, questions, jokes,
fixes, horror stories about wrong FidoNet numbers, things
for sale, etc etc etc.
SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE
An article should have your name, node number (if
applicable), followed by the text. Text can be any ASCII
derivative; WordStar, soft paragraphs, 8th bit set, etc are
all OK.
Articles can be uploaded at either Fido #1 or #51,
into the NEWS File Area, or by sending it by FidoNet. There
is a convention for naming the files, so that the newsletter
can be published automatically.
ARTICLE FILENAMES
file.ART For article type things
file.SAL Things for sale
file.NOT Notices
file.MSC Miscelaneous things
file.EDT an Editorial
file.NEW News items
file.WNT Wanted items
Make sure the name is unique, especially if you send
it by FidoNet, so you dont overwrite another article.
HOW THIS IS PUBLISHED
This is a totally electronic newsletter; articles
are written of course by users and sysops, but all other
parts and proceedures are machine generated.
For each newsletter, the Editor (thats me folks)
does the date and volume of the title page (tough job), and
whatever editorial there may be.
Articles are checked out for being readable (ie.
more or less English language), and bum copies (bad uploads,
etc) are deleted.
The lists generated by FidoNet Admin (St. Louis)
fidonews.man -- 17 Dec 84 23:27:29 Page 3
such as the node list, Fido list, and the route list, come
in via FidoNet during the week.
On the day the newsletter is to be published, Fido
#1 runs the text formatter (as a schedule) to produce the
newsletter, using all the articles, the node and Fido lists.
The completed newsletter is then copied into the NEWS file
area. All of the article submissions are saved as last
week's news, and deleted to make room for next weeks.
Some canned messages are copied into Fido 1's mail
area, which file attaches the newsletter to the distribution
points. This completes the FidoNews Newsletter publication.
TOM TCIMPDIS' LA BUST
The LA BBS bust is far from over. There hasn't been
any news lately, apparently because they are going through
the usual legal maneuvering, of hearings, pre-hearings, etc
etc.
However it turns out, this is an important case, and
whether you believe it or not, it will affect you directly,
even if you are not in LA and even if you are not a sysop.
Tom's guilt or innocence is only a small part of the
importance of this, and since most of us were not regular
callers to his board, it is hard to comment on it.
The underlying issue here is one of control: who is
liable for the contents of a BBS? It was related to me (by
someone who had lawyers persue it) that the status of BBS's
is quite up in the air; are they common carriers (ie. the
phone co.) or are they publishers (ie. newspapers). Phone
companies have limited liability because they provide a
medium, and not the contents, and are generally not liable.
(If you arrange a sale for a stolen bicycle by phone,
Pacific Bell is not resonsible). Publishers control their
contents, and I think are liable for even the contents of
their classified ads, though that is obviously impossible to
ensure.
You really should voice your opinion on this issue.
It will not mark you as a political radical, and the FBI
will not harrass your neighbors. It is your right, and our
right to free communications.
Losing this case will be a large step towards
regulating BBSs. Regulation will mean the death of BBSs as
we know it. We are unregulated, and are quite responsible
and take care of our own problems. The trouble makers are
far and few between.
Take the time to think about all of the systems you
have ever called and patronized, and consider how they were
run, how they were handled and how problems were solved. I
think you will find that they take quite good care of
themselves on the whole, and problems are resolved between
fidonews.man -- 17 Dec 84 23:27:36 Page 4
the users and the sysops.
If you want to help keep it this way, where you have
a very large say in what BBSs do, what they are used for,
and how they are run, please write!
The sample letter below can be used if you want.
Please send a copy to both people listed below; Lindner is
defending Tom Tcimpidis, and is a BBS user himself.
TAKE THIS OUT, FILL IT IN, AND MAIL IT!
(your address and the date
goes into this space
3 lines )
Ira Reiner -- LA City Attorney Charles E. Lindner, Atty
Suite 1800 City Hall East The Bradbury Building
20 N. Main St. Los Angeles CA 304 S. Broadway, Suite 420
90012 Los Angeles CA 90013
Dear Sir,
I would like to take this oppurtunity to speak in
behalf of computer bulletin board sytems (BBSes). Bulletin
Boards are excellent ways to meet other computer users and
hold intelligent conversations with them. Bulletin boards
are a very convenient way to get any help you might need for
your computer, from advice on a game to programming
techniques and technical information.
The idea that all of these bulletin boards are used
solely for pirating of software and illegal telephone usage
is one that is ill-conceived, stemming from the occasional
"bad seed" of BBSes. In reality, these illegal BBSes are
few and far between, and are frowned upon by the general
BBS-using public.
I urge you to consider all the good of which BBSes are
capable, and not the bad side shown by several rare and
unacceptable examples.
Thank you in advance for your consideration in this
matter.
Sincerely,
(print and sign your name here)
NOTICES
fidonews.man -- 17 Dec 84 23:27:42 Page 5
FOR SALE
WANTED
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