• FidoNews 33:34 [03/09]: Guest Editorial

    From Fidonews Robot@1:2320/100 to All on Mon Aug 22 00:11:02 2016
    1.71.5.204-B20160823 =================================================================
    GUEST EDITORIAL =================================================================

    Barking up the (wrong) Tree
    By Frank Vest
    1:124/6308.1
    (2002-01-16)

    Dear Readers:

    Tom Jennings created Fidonet. He designed the Fidonet system around
    the Bulletin Board Systems that were already in existence. You
    remember, those Bulletin Board Systems that were/are run by those "cantankerous" Sysops. :-) Tom gave this new thing he created a name.
    He called it Fidonet. Why he choose that name, I don't know. Maybe
    there is a reason. The reason for the name, however, isn't the point
    of this article and I'll "let sleeping dogs lie" on that. :)

    Fidonet... What's in a name? Well, the trademark that Tom registered
    is a drawing of a dog with a diskette in it's mouth. I guess you could
    say that Fidonet is a dog. To be more descriptive, a female dog. I say
    female because she can be a real... well... er.. you know. :-)

    Since Fido is female, I suppose that Sysops could be considered her
    puppies. After all, Fido started out as a couple of dogs barking back
    and forth and grew from there to be thousands of dogs barking back and
    forth. One thing /is/ certain. Dogs bark and puppies learn to bark. Of
    course, puppies have to learn what to bark at. How? Maybe the mother
    teaches them? Maybe other influences are involved? At any rate, these
    puppies grow into dogs and have more puppies and so on. Some die off
    and others leave while new ones join. Each generation learns to bark
    and what to bark at from the previous group of dogs or some other
    influence.

    Many times, dogs bark up trees. They sit, or stand, at the base of
    trees and bark while looking up into the trees. Maybe they see
    something that they want or something is up there that they are trying
    to get down. Maybe there was something there, but it is now gone and
    they just bark because others are barking. Sometimes they bark at each
    other. Maybe they are trying to figure out what they are barking at
    and are asking each other;

    "What the heck is up there?"
    "Nothing."
    "Then why the heck are we all barking up this tree?"
    "I wasn't. You were. I was barking up this other tree that has
    something in it."
    "Oh yeah?? That tree is empty too!"
    "Are you saying that I'm stupid or something?!? I'll show you!!"

    And the fight is on.

    Now when the fight is started, the other dogs stop barking and join in
    the fight. They growl, snap and bite at each other. Each takes it's
    place on the "proper" sides and while the dog fight rages, whatever
    was, or might have been, in the trees goes somewhere else and is lost.

    So, what was up in those trees that was once so interesting to us
    dogs? What did we have then that we don't have now? Could it be Nodes?
    Well, yes. We are low on Nodes. Once Fidonet had tens of thousands of
    nodes. I'm not sure that is it... at least not totally. Maybe it's
    technology? Well, we had that then and we have it now. It may not be
    totally up to the current standards, but we use a lot of fairly high
    tech stuff. The old technology has and is still being replaced in
    Fidonet. Sure, we're not the Internet, but we're a hobby, not a
    business. I'm not sure that is it either... at least not totally.

    Again, what was up in those trees?? Could it be "Users"? You remember
    them, don't you? The people that used to call your BBS to talk to
    friends, DL a file or two, play a game, ask a question or just chat.

    Oh... You don't run a BBS? You've never run a BBS? :(

    Then please, read on.

    Fidonet started out as a few friends sharing messages between each
    other. With the advent of echomail, Fidonet grew to tens of thousands
    of Nodes with ten times that many Users and more. Why did Fidonet have
    so many Users? I'd venture that for every Node, there was a minimum of
    ten Users. Why?? Well, those "cantankerous" Sysops ran their Bulletin
    Boards for their own reasons. Mostly for, and to attract, the Users.
    Without the Users, why run a BBS? Sysops barked up the trees to get
    the Users to come down and play.

    Dogs like to play. :)

    Now, you might believe that the Internet took all the BBS Users. Did
    it really?? Maybe the Sysops in Fidonet let them leave. When the
    Internet started coming into the computer scene, it started barking up
    trees to attract Users and it worked. Users started leaving Fidonet to
    become a part of this new Internet dog. Some BBSs left because of the
    Internet and probably because they saw their Users leaving. Why run a
    BBS if the Users are leaving and new Users are not coming in?

    So, why did the Users leave and why didn't/don't they come back? Why
    didn't they use both the Internet and Fidonet? I'll give one theory
    that I have.

    Until the Internet really started becoming popular, Fidonet was "the
    only show in town". As such, there was really little need for Sysops
    or BBSs to "attract" Users. People were getting new computers. Users
    were telling friends about this "Fidonet" dog that was so great and
    showing their friends how to use that new computer to connect to this
    dog. Basically, The Dog barked once and the Users took it from there.
    In time, the dog stopped barking, certain in the belief that the Users
    would "keep the ball rolling".

    As time went on, This Internet "dog" came along. It started barking
    up a few trees and, like Fidonet, the Users took it from there. As
    Users started leaving Fidonet, Nodes started leaving. Now, Fidonet BBS
    Sysops didn't worry about this too much at first. It didn't matter if
    a User left your BBS, there were hundreds to replace that one User...
    But now, suddenly, these Users were leaving and no new ones were
    coming in to replace them. Of course, this had to be blamed on the
    Internet. There's no way that the Fidonet BBS Sysops could be at
    fault.

    "Hey you! Who are you and why are you barking up our tree?!?"
    "I'm the Internet. "I just wanna bark a few times." "It looks like
    fun!"
    "Ok, It won't matter anyway." Them stupid Users won't come to you
    because we're better!" "Besides, I too lazy to bark anyway."

    <time passes>

    "Hey!!" "Where are my Users?!?"
    "They went to us."
    "Who are you??"
    "We're the Internet!"
    "Why did they go to you???"
    "Because you let them go. You were too lazy and smug to bark for them
    to stay with or come back to you."

    <turns to other Fidonet dogs>

    "Hey guys!" This Internet dog says that we let our Users go!"
    "Did not!"
    "Did to!"
    "It was your fault!"
    "Was not!"
    "Was too!!"
    "So what!?!" "What do we do now?!?"
    "We need to get more Nodes!"
    "Yeah!" "That's it!!" "How???"
    "We do it this way!"
    "No!" "We do that way!!"
    "NO!!" "MY WAY!!"

    And the fights start because of this, or other excuses. Of course,
    all those Fidonet dogs stopped barking up the trees to get the Users
    down to play. In fact, those Fidonet dogs stopped barking at almost
    everything. Instead, those Fidonet dogs fought amongst themselves
    about the loss of Nodes saying; "Who's to blame?" "How do we get new
    Nodes?" "It's your fault!" and other things, until more Users and
    Nodes left and went to the Internet.

    Now, what about this Internet? How does it keep Users and what does
    it do?

    The Internet and Fidonet aren't that much different in many ways.
    Both started out as individual systems. The Internet was government
    and education systems while Fidonet was single computers ran by
    Sysops. A way to network all these systems together via phone lines
    came along and things took off from there.

    I'm not saying that Fidonet can compete with the Internet. I'm saying
    that Fidonet has stopped trying to attract Users and is, instead,
    fighting amongst themselves while ignoring the real reason for their
    existence. The Internet is always trying to attract new Users.

    Tom Jennings said:
    "But FidoNet's most basic element is a bulletin board. What FidoNet
    is, is a set of protocols that lets the bulletin boards communicate.
    FidoNet started as a bunch of bulletin boards, running my Fido
    software. FidoNet was added later, to allow point - to - point email
    between Fido boards."

    Take all the *Cs, Policy, geography and whatever away and "FidoNet's
    most basic element is a bulletin board."

    I'd add that the Bulletin Board's most basic element is the User.

    It's been argued that with Internet connectivity, telnet and other
    technology, Fidonet doesn't need geography and forcing geography is
    costing Fidonet it's Nodes.

    Maybe it really doesn't matter if geography is forced or not. What
    difference does it make if you are forced into a certain Zone, Region
    or Net? Does that affect your communication? Not really. The Internet connectivity removes that problem. What does it matter if you are in
    this or that Net or group? The only reason that it matters is for the
    perceived power it might bring or the political motivation.

    At the risk of being rude, You people on all sides of the geography,
    abuse, power, P4 and other arguments need to get a life!! You fight
    and fight while the Users that could make Fidonet something all stay
    in the Internet trees because they can get fights, argument (and spam
    as a bonus) there already. Nothing new or interesting in connecting to
    a dial-up or telnet BBS. We lost those Users to the Internet because
    we didn't move as fast with technology as the Internet. We now have
    some of that technological ability back, yet we sit and fight over
    attracting new Nodes instead of barking up the Internet trees and
    telling the Users that we are here. Many don't even know that we exist
    because they grew up with the Internet.

    I ask you; Does Fidonet need more Nodes?

    It's argued that Fidonet needs more Nodes to grow. That shouldn't be
    real hard. With the ability to connect world wide, Fidonet could make
    a package that would automatically install at the click of a mouse,
    fetch a nodelist, parse it and determine a Node number based on what
    is not currently in use. It then sends an update to the person that
    handles the Node segment for that Net and a new Node (puppy) is born.

    That same program, if un-installed, could send an update to a program
    that would automatically remove the Node number to allow someone else
    to receive it later. No *Cs involved, No geography. No Zones, Regions
    or Nets to worry about. All automatic and able to add Nodes by the
    dozens. Of course, there would be no Users on these Nodes... Just
    Nodes that can fight amongst themselves until tired and then leave. No
    benefit there. :(

    Maybe what Fidonet /needs/ is more Users for it to grow.
    Bulletin Boards were around /before/ Fidonet. Bulletin Boards were,
    and are, run by "cantankerous" sysops. Fidonet had to, and does, fit
    into this BBS thing. So, why did those Sysops run a BBS? Maybe it
    /was/ because that was the requirement then. Maybe it was so that they
    could fight amongst themselves back then.... But, maybe... just maybe
    it was to have and attract Users. To provide a service to Users. To
    enjoy having a BBS with Users. To see the message bases on their
    systems being read and written to by Users.

    Why did those Sysops join Fidonet? Maybe it was to fight over
    geography. Maybe it was to complain about *Cs abusing power. Maybe...
    Just maybe... it was to give a broader message base populated with
    messages for their Users?

    How many Bulletin Boards are in Fidonet today? I don't mean Nodes...
    I mean Bulletin Boards!! You remember those? The systems that are open
    to Users via dial-up, telnet or both? Bulletin Boards that offer
    message areas via Fidonet for Users to read and reply in? We've only
    mentioned them a few places in this editorial. :)

    In years past, the vast majority, maybe up to 99%, of the Nodes in
    Fidonet had a BBS for Users to connect to. How many are there today?
    I'd venture the number to be far less. Most are now just Nodes in a
    "phone book" called the Nodelist. They cry that they have no messages
    in the echos, Fidonet is dying, it's /your/ fault because of P4,
    geographical restrictions, *Cs abusing their power, Sysops abusing *Cs
    and dozens of other excuses.

    And they fight... Why??

    Maybe, in reality, it's because Sysops in Fidonet don't have anything
    better to do but fight. Maybe they have forgotten, or never learned,
    that Fidonet was/is for Bulletin Board Systems to exchange messages
    written by Users. Maybe it's because they see those bad old Internet
    trees that have all the users in them and figure "We can't compete
    with that, let's fight!" Maybe they see the Fidonet trees all but
    empty and say "What's the use, there's nobody there, /and/ it's your
    fault, let's fight!" Maybe it's because they don't have a BBS for
    Users to access and they figure "A BBS isn't needed, we need more
    Nodes and it's /your/ fault that we aren't getting them. Let's fight!"

    Whatever the reason and whatever the justification, there are trees
    full of Internet Users. Why? Maybe it's because the Internet shows
    their Users how to access them. Maybe it's because ISPs aren't just
    Sysops that have a IP address and are trying to get more people to
    become ISPs Maybe it's because they don't sit around blaming other
    ISPs for killing the Internet or not trying to attract more people to
    become ISPs.

    If the Internet operated as Fidonet now seems to, the Internet would
    be dying because they would be so busy fighting and blaming each other
    for not attracting more people to become ISPs that they would forget
    about the Users that make the Internet viable in the first place.
    Fidonet is dying because Nodes, who are the ISPs (FSPs) of Fidonet,
    are too busy fighting and blaming each other for not attracting more
    Nodes instead of doing what they should do.... attract new Users...
    offering those Users "how to" help in connecting to a BBS... and, of
    course, running a BBS for those Users to connect to!!

    Ladies and gentlemen, Fidonet is a "Service Provider". It provides
    that service via Bulletin Board Systems and Fidonet Points to the
    Users. You may say that Fidonet can't be compared to the Internet...
    it's "apples and oranges", but is it really that different??

    A "Dynamic IP address" in Fidonet = <user name> @ <some BBS>
    A "Static IP address" in Fidonet = Zone:Net/Node.Point <Note the
    Point>

    "Static Address pools" for Fidonet Service Providers are the Point
    addresses. There are 9999 of them for each FSP (Node) in Fidonet. So
    each FSP can have 9999 Users with added "features" somewhat like the
    static IP Users have. Plus, each BBS has an unlimited amount of
    "dynamic" addresses. There's not that much difference.

    People! There are telnet Bulletin Board Systems on the Internet. Many
    are not in Fidonet and they have many Users. There are still some
    dial-up Bulletin Board Systems and they have Users. Why? Could it be
    because they are barking at the Internet trees and getting people to
    come down to play? I think this is one good guess.

    With today's technology, a telnet BBS can reach many people. Even
    dial-up systems can reach many people. Fidonet can send mail for

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