Text 23978, 115 rader
Skriven 2015-04-23 02:55:08 av Lee Lofaso (2:203/2)
  Kommentar till text 23915 av Björn Felten (2:203/2)
Ärende: Echo terrorists
=======================
Hello Björn,

 BF> (Originally an editorial posted in Fidonews 19-08, 25 Feb 2002

 BF> The theories about why Fidonet is going down the drains have been
 BF> numerous. Most of them take aim at Policy 4 and FTS, but can we really
 BF> blame everything on the policy and the outdated technology? No, of
 BF> course not!

It is sysops who are to blame!  That's right!  Fidonet sysops!
Fidonet sysops have only themselves to blame for the demise of
Fidonet!

If Fidonet is to survive, it is up to fidonet sysops to promote
fidonet.  And the only way to successfully do that is for fidonet
sysops to get new blood!  And you know what that means!

You might not want to admit it, but you do know what that means.
Fidonet sysops have forgotten their true role.  No longer knowing
what that role is, they have become like a roomful of cats chasing
their own tails.  Not each other's tails, but their own tails.

What I am getting at is this -

Where are the users?  I prefer to call them participants, rather
than users, as participants is a more inclusive term, one that can
mean sysop and non-sysop alike.

Questions to all fidonet sysops -

How many non-sysop participants do you sponsor on your BBS/board/server?

What have you done, or doing, to attract new non-sysop participants?

What are you presently doing to encourage other fidonet sysops and
former fidonet sysops to promote fidonet?

 BF> This editor thinks that the main reason for the demise is a handful
 BF> of echo terrorists effectively scaring off all the good writers, that
 BF> we once had, from our echoes.

Echo terrorists?  More like wannabe dictators.  But these wannabe
dictators are harmless.  The only way a wannabe terrorist becomes
harmful is if others allow that wannabe terrorist to realize his
or her own fantasy of actually becoming an echo terrorist.

There is one other way for a wannabe terrorist to become a real
echo terrorist.  That is if a wannabe terrorist has the dictator
training manual.  But that won't happen.  Because I have the
only copy.  After all, I wrote it.  And they can't have it.

 BF> We are all too familiar with them. Some of the good remaining
 BF> writers spend lots of time producing a good posting, that some other
 BF> good writers can continue upon, but all of a sudden one of those echo
 BF> terrorists shows up, together with his friends (without whom he would
 BF> be nothing) and picks up some small part of the great posting, to
 BF> which he starts picking on and starts bashing about. Soon he have his
 BF> handful of terrorist friends he brings along, spinning away on this
 BF> minor detail, sometimes a stupid thing like a misspelt word, sometimes
 BF> just a small part of a sentence, that really meant nothing to the
 BF> total picture.

John Belushi was a master of that technique.  Start a food fight
and then have a toga party!

 BF> Since they do not spend a single moment on research or anything
 BF> even similar to afterthoughts, they can produce dozens of comments in
 BF> just a couple of minutes, spamming the echo with their non-productive
 BF> trash, which of course in itself is an insult to the writers, that may
 BF> be spending an hour or so on just one posting.

Insult is a fine art.  Don Rickles would insult you in Swedish, as he
insulted me in Cajun French, without breaking a sweat.  These "echo
terrorists" - as you call them - do not deserve such crredit as they
are not capable of such a thing.  Cursing and cussing, perhaps.  But
even that is a stretch ...

 BF> The persons that originally looked forward to the ongoing debate,
 BF> naturally get tired of spending all this effort on postings, while the
 BF> terrorists, who's mental capacity is far beyond any constructive
 BF> thoughts, and only are capable of negativisms, bad quoting and
 BF> bashing, take over the echo, effectively lowering the signal-to-noise
 BF> ratio to a level where all serious writers decide to leave the echo
 BF> for any remaining one, where the terrorists still have not found their
 BF> way - yet.

What fidonet needs is a new FLAME or FLAMES echo.  With master
flamers to inhabit the place, showing the world what fidonet
used to be all about.  But nobody seems to be up to the task
these days.  No more designated flame echoes for flamers, as
these wannabe echo terrorists have only one desire - to bring
their own (or borrowed) meager flames to the anti-Obama.

Yes, Björn Felten, editor of the Fidonews, is the anti-Obama.
The wannabe echo terrorists have said so themselves, always
accusing him of being all things anti-USA.  Not sure how many
folks believe them, as Björn Felten has been spotted in various
cities thoughout the USA.  Kind of like Waldo, except with
everybody asking "Where's Björn?"

 BF> The only way to get Fidonet on it's feet once again, is, IMHO, to
 BF> spot the terrorists and ban them from Fidonet. How this is best
 BF> achieved is of course not an easy task to solve.

Fidonet sysops do not negotiate with terrorists.
Shaking hands with them, yes.  But negotiating with
them?  And spotting them?   A pool sharp does not
spot anybody his balls.  And a card sharp does
not spot anybody his cards.  And no self-respecting
Swede would show off his horns.

--Lee

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 * Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2)