Text 22222, 115 rader
Skriven 2015-03-29 19:59:52 av Lee Lofaso (2:203/2)
  Kommentar till text 22189 av Paul Hayton (3:770/100)
Ärende: Fidonews.us
===================
Hello Paul,

 LL>> The point I am making is that Fidonet no longer attracts
 LL>> people outside of the Fidonet community.  It is not so much
 LL>> that people have chosen other venues to play in, but rather
 LL>> that Fidonet sysops have failed to promote Fidonet as being
 LL>> the place to be.  Or at least a place to be.

 PH> Hi Lee. Thanks for your comments. My goal is to try and take some
proactive
 PH> steps to help promote Fidonet to people not involved with it. I think
there
 PH> are good opportunties to appeal to many former sysops that were involved
in
 PH> Fidonet 10,20+ years ago to consider joining again. For many the nostalgic
 PH> appeal will be there to return. It was certainly a driver for me.

What is the purpose of being a sysop, and setting up a bbs?
Fidonet is defined as being an international community of
sysops, limited to only system operators (sysops), meaning
nodelisted sysops.  This very narrow definition is much too
limited to be meaningful, if Fidonet is to survive.

Fidonet is about communication.  And communication is about
people.  People communicating with other people.  The original
purpose of Fidonet (international community of sysops) was to
form a network that people (sysops and non-sysops alike) could
use in order to communicate with each other.

Limiting this means of communication to sysops-only or to
those within a particular zone is even more limiting.  And
that is anti-democratic - the complete opposite philosophy
of what Tom Jennings and his fellow sysops had in mind.

If you want to "help promote Fidonet to people not involved
with it" then it is an absolute must to include non-sysops
as well as former sysops.

 PH> To tap into that nostalgia I hope to collaborate with other like minded
 PH> souls to try and pubish online content (HTML etc.) that provides current
 PH> info on
 PH> how to join etc.

The rules will have to be changed in order to promote
Fidonet to what it should be.  P4 is a flawed document,
and should be discarded by all sysops, as it is and has
been abused for nefarious purposes.  Echopol1 is dated,
and used as an alternative to P4 outside of Zone1, but
is also flawed.  The entire zonal system is flawed, and
should be discarded, as each zone is independent unto
itself (each zone is headed by its own self-declared
tinhorn dictator).

 LL>> People do not feel wanted, or welcome, when they have sysops
 LL>> harrassing and intimidating them, etc.  Especially with so
 LL>> many other places they can go to spend their time.

 LL>> Fidonet has become a small group of Fidonet sysops sniping
 LL>> at other Fidonet sysops, with virtually everybody else having
 LL>> left the scene for greener pastures.

 PH> Whilst that may be a view of some, it is not a view I share.

As a totality of sysops that may be true.  But a small
percentage can make that totality of sysops look bad.  And
it is that small percentage that has been making so much
noise, harrassing and intimidating participants, creating
a "fake" edition of the fidonews, dicking with the nodelist,
etc.

 PH> My values are alturistic when it comes to supporting sysops and users
 PH> returning to BBS and I have equally received this from fellow Fidonet
 PH> sysops upon my return to BBS and Fidonet a year ago.

Then you should prove your worth by distancing yourself from
those who seek to harm the network by their actions.  And also
encourage other like-minded sysops to do the same.

You did agree to abide by the principles as set forth in P4?
It is supposed to be a binding agreement among all Zone 1 sysops.
However, not all Zone 1 sysops have chosen to abide by those
sacrosanct principles.  Even though they had agreed to do so.
They know who they are.

 PH> We all have choices over how we choose to behave and interact with each
 PH> other in this life - both face to face and online.

Some choose to do so honorably.
Others grudgingly.
And still others not at all.

 PH> Others can behave as they wish but the sniping etc. is not my style. My
 PH> approach has always been (and continues to be ) to treat others as you
 PH> would like them to treat you.

You would be surprised at what an individual would do if pushed
to a limit.  People can be taught to do things they would normally
never do, things beyond imagination.  No matter how good a person
you might think you are, you are capable of committing the most
evil of atrocities, under certain conditions.

Shutter Island.  Shutter the thought.  :)

 LL>> It remains to be seen which Fidonet sysop will be left behind
 LL>> to turn out the lights.  But by then it will no longer matter,
 LL>> as nobody will care.

 PH> There's always hope, and I remain hopefull for Fidonet in 2015 :)

The Audacity of Hope.  Worked for Barack Obama.  :)

--Lee

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