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GUEST EDITORIAL =================================================================

Stirring the Pot


First off, this article has been very difficult for me to write as
I am recovering from a brain injury. I'm sorry if I'm not the most
eloquent writer, or the best at choosing words. Please read it
knowing that I care deeply about FidoNet. I will not hurl stones
or flame people by name. If you feel guilty keep reading on, it's
really not all about you. But I'm sure there will be some that will
think it is.


I have read the well written editorial that Frank Vest wrote in the
previous edition of fidonews. Yes there once were BBS systems out
there that had many users. My BBS, in it's heyday, had over 2000
users that called in from all over the world. My phone lines were
supported by user donations. I would always receive kind notes in
the mail with a dollar or two cash in them. There was always a
spirit of appreciation for what I did. Amazingly there were few
months that the donations did not pay for the multiple POTS lines.

I felt that the users respected me and were grateful for the service
that I provided. Upon my return to Fidonet in 2016 I find that there
are few echos left where "topical" discussion is maintained. There
are a hand full of echos that still maintain topics. The fidonet
cooking, recipes, memories (nostalgia), asian chat and automotive
are a few that come immediately to mind.

In last weeks article it seemed to blame the sysops for the decline
of fidonet... yes there is plenty of fighting and arguing to go
around, but unfortunately, it's not always the sysops that are doing
it. I am not naming names because that is not an avenue I want to
go down. Those who are guilty will surely be the first ones to stir
the pot and raise a stink for where I am about to go.

There are a core group of users (and a few sysops) that want to stir
the pot (an old Southern saying) and get an argument going. There is
no respect or regard to the main topic of an echo. Their goal is to
disrupt and cause discord among the networks.

Some think that the FN_SYSOP echo should be open to everyone... but
the echo is a sysops only admin echo. It is a place where we can
discuss the forest... and the forests infrastructure. It is a place
where we can gather and work things out. It is a place where we can
plan and discuss new things to delight the users. We deserve an echo
where we can discuss, chat, and decompress amongst ourselves.

Unfortunately, there are a few that sit on the sidelines and take
every opportunity that they can to hurl stones and stifle progress.
Many echos have shut down and become abandoned because of abusive
users who do not respect topics. It seems that all that's left that
has any movement in Fidonet is a few echos.
The users who are hurling stones know that this behavior would not be
tolerated in the Asian Chat echo, or the cooking echo as there are
enough people active in there that would not tolerate this behavior.
Yes folks... this handful of users takes great delight in their bad
behavior. Even when there are some that are willing to help them at
every turn.

You want to know what is killing fidonet and making the good sysops
shut down... it is because some have crossed over from being USERS to
becoming ABUSERS. Their behavior is ABUSE plain and simple, and much
is unwarranted.

Again there's another cancer that's running rampant in fidonet it is
called APATHY.

Apathy NOUN pronounced App-ah-thee

1. lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern:
"widespread apathy among students"
synonyms: indifference + lack of interest
lack of enthusiasm

How can an sysop be interested in maintaining and building a good BBS
and creating echos with topics that would interest people when there
are a handful of malcontents, Debbie downers, and troublemakers. A
deep cloud of Apathy falls over the BBS and the Sysop says why am I
doing this? Why should I continue to do this? Ultimately the lack
of appreciation causes the sysop to shut things down. Many of the
sysops of the 1980's and 1990's are now up there in years and they

just don't feel the joy that is returned for their efforts.

And apathy is CONTAGIOUS... yes it spreads. Indifferent and
apathetic sysops have contributed as much to the decline of fidonet
as the negative, disruptive posters. Apathy will spread fast in any organization when there's no return for our efforts. You can just
feel it take hold... the unmotivated, donAt-care folks just suck the
energy and life right out. You can sense mediocrity settling in like
a dense fog or wet blanket. You reach a point where you don't care
about maintaining your system anymore and it just becomes a place
where negativity will abound.

The BBS just isn't fun anymore... and isn't time to make it FUN again
like it once was back in the day. The strange thing is those who are
raising the most hell are also some of the most intelligent and good
writers on the net. They -are- creative people... even though they
are destructive in their creativity they are generating traffic and
sometimes something that is very interesting comes by.

There was some very useful information on Statins, and other health
matters shared in between the arguments. Even when the "trouble-
makers" disappear for a time those who disagree with them ask if they
are alright. After all, when tornados kokomo, fires, earthquakes,
floods in North Carolina and Louisiana happen we ask where the people
are. FidoNet still is a very caring place at times and when a user
or sysop disappears, people ask what happened to them.
And then there's another cancer that has settled in to FidoNet.
Some have become very close minded, they don't want to think about
new innovations or ways to do things. There are great programmers
out there, but no one is motivated to make something new. As the
new computers become faster, bigger, and better... the software we
have has become incompatible with a lot of new equipment.

But there's no innovation because collectively we have become rigid
and inflexible with trying new things... looking at better ways to
do things... if it wasn't for someone getting inspired in Russia,
we would not have the Bink-P protocol... perhaps fidonet would have
met it's demise if the Bink-P protocol was not developed. There is
still development out there in the open source scene and much of it
is coming from outside of Zone 1.

Then we have the developers of Mystic and Syncrhonet who have done
so much to bring life back into the BBS scene. I sometimes find
myself guilty of not appreciating the gift that they have given us.
I know the developer of Mystic has taken a much needed break away
from it's development and I pray he comes back with a renewed and
creative spark. Unfortunately nothing will extinguish the creative
spark of an individual than being surrounded by a crowd of those
who criticise, those who do not appreciate your efforts, or worse
the apathetic few who just don't give a shit

If we truly want to see FidoNet grow again we have to remember
what brought joy to us in the past. We have to have respect for
those who volunteer to bring the service to one another. We have
to let go of all the baggage from the great Z1-Z2/Z3 feud and
realize that we all need to cooperate to bring it all back.

We also have to think of what brought people to fidonet... right
now all that's moving is cooking, and policies with a mixture of
chat that does not apply to the echo's topical name. We need to
return to a time when FIDONEWS contained discussion of the articles
that were written in FIDONEWS and chat went on in the CHAT echo.
(I'ts still around but nobody uses it.) The echo topics need to
be respected. The COOKING echo mostly has discussions about cooking
in it... the ASIAN LINK echo is a darn good chat echo, unfortunately
there are no Asians left in there to link to. Perhaps it should
become the official chat echo. POLITICS should stay in the
politico echos and the [ADM] Sysops echos need to remain a place
where we can discuss new ideas and approaches to build the network
all of the backchannel negativity needs to be contained and it has
come to the point where we need to have a return of respect and
reciprocity between the users and the sysops once again.

The madness needs to stop... old wounds need to heal... we have
to realize that we are ONE fidonet... not a handfull of Zones who
feel the need to compete for control.

Allen Prunty
1:2320/100 NC Net 2320/100
But a member of the -GLOBAL- Fidonet


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