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                         GUEST EDITORIAL
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                     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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