fidonews.man -- 17 Dec 84 23:27:16 Page 1 Volume 1, Number 3 17 Dec 84 +----------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | - FidoNews - /|oo \ | | (_| /_) | | Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ | | Users Group | | \ \\ | | Newsletter | (*) | \ )) | | ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +----------------------------------------------------------+ Editor: Tom Jennings Publisher: Fido #1 HOT NEWS Oh boy ... the hot news this week is that Fido #1 dropped dead. The hard disk is in the junk pile. Any articles that were submitted for this weeks newsletter are lost forever. Please send them again, I'll see if I cant hold on to them. Fido is running on two floppies, no room for anything. Until further notice, Fido cannot be downloaded from #1. I have a solution though; I'm getting an ancient old multibuss machine,three 8 inch floppies, at least 660K each, for a total of 1.98 megs. If I can get double sided drives, that might go up to almost 3 megs. It will take a week or two, though. More good news: the Sanyo 555 version of Fido is ready. The bad news is, you can't have it! I have no space to store it ... There will also be a "generic" version of Fido, so that you can write your own IO drivers. It will use INT 14, which you can trap and do things with. Bumper stickers are going to be made tomorrow; they should be done who knows when, because of Christmas. Possibly before. I'm going to sell them at cost, merely to recover my own money. They will cost about $165 for 500; about 34 cents each. I'll mail them in onesies for a buck each (postage .20, envelope .25, etc) or if you buy 25, $10.00. I'll let you know when they are done. I will also mail you a copy of the master if you ask, so you can make them too. fidonews.man -- 17 Dec 84 23:27:23 Page 2 NEWS ARTICLE SUBMISSION The format of this thing is totally ad hoc; please make recomendations as to formats, sections needed, liked, or hated, columns you'd like to see, or see removed, anything at all. If you want to submit something regularly, we can start a column for you. You are ENCOURAGED to send things in for the newsletter. ANYTHING is fit for the newsletter, such as a description of your board, problems found, questions, jokes, fixes, horror stories about wrong FidoNet numbers, things for sale, etc etc etc. SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE An article should have your name, node number (if applicable), followed by the text. Text can be any ASCII derivative; WordStar, soft paragraphs, 8th bit set, etc are all OK. Articles can be uploaded at either Fido #1 or #51, into the NEWS File Area, or by sending it by FidoNet. There is a convention for naming the files, so that the newsletter can be published automatically. ARTICLE FILENAMES file.ART For article type things file.SAL Things for sale file.NOT Notices file.MSC Miscelaneous things file.EDT an Editorial file.NEW News items file.WNT Wanted items Make sure the name is unique, especially if you send it by FidoNet, so you dont overwrite another article. HOW THIS IS PUBLISHED This is a totally electronic newsletter; articles are written of course by users and sysops, but all other parts and proceedures are machine generated. For each newsletter, the Editor (thats me folks) does the date and volume of the title page (tough job), and whatever editorial there may be. Articles are checked out for being readable (ie. more or less English language), and bum copies (bad uploads, etc) are deleted. The lists generated by FidoNet Admin (St. Louis) fidonews.man -- 17 Dec 84 23:27:29 Page 3 such as the node list, Fido list, and the route list, come in via FidoNet during the week. On the day the newsletter is to be published, Fido #1 runs the text formatter (as a schedule) to produce the newsletter, using all the articles, the node and Fido lists. The completed newsletter is then copied into the NEWS file area. All of the article submissions are saved as last week's news, and deleted to make room for next weeks. Some canned messages are copied into Fido 1's mail area, which file attaches the newsletter to the distribution points. This completes the FidoNews Newsletter publication. TOM TCIMPDIS' LA BUST The LA BBS bust is far from over. There hasn't been any news lately, apparently because they are going through the usual legal maneuvering, of hearings, pre-hearings, etc etc. However it turns out, this is an important case, and whether you believe it or not, it will affect you directly, even if you are not in LA and even if you are not a sysop. Tom's guilt or innocence is only a small part of the importance of this, and since most of us were not regular callers to his board, it is hard to comment on it. The underlying issue here is one of control: who is liable for the contents of a BBS? It was related to me (by someone who had lawyers persue it) that the status of BBS's is quite up in the air; are they common carriers (ie. the phone co.) or are they publishers (ie. newspapers). Phone companies have limited liability because they provide a medium, and not the contents, and are generally not liable. (If you arrange a sale for a stolen bicycle by phone, Pacific Bell is not resonsible). Publishers control their contents, and I think are liable for even the contents of their classified ads, though that is obviously impossible to ensure. You really should voice your opinion on this issue. It will not mark you as a political radical, and the FBI will not harrass your neighbors. It is your right, and our right to free communications. Losing this case will be a large step towards regulating BBSs. Regulation will mean the death of BBSs as we know it. We are unregulated, and are quite responsible and take care of our own problems. The trouble makers are far and few between. Take the time to think about all of the systems you have ever called and patronized, and consider how they were run, how they were handled and how problems were solved. I think you will find that they take quite good care of themselves on the whole, and problems are resolved between fidonews.man -- 17 Dec 84 23:27:36 Page 4 the users and the sysops. If you want to help keep it this way, where you have a very large say in what BBSs do, what they are used for, and how they are run, please write! The sample letter below can be used if you want. Please send a copy to both people listed below; Lindner is defending Tom Tcimpidis, and is a BBS user himself. TAKE THIS OUT, FILL IT IN, AND MAIL IT! (your address and the date goes into this space 3 lines ) Ira Reiner -- LA City Attorney Charles E. Lindner, Atty Suite 1800 City Hall East The Bradbury Building 20 N. Main St. Los Angeles CA 304 S. Broadway, Suite 420 90012 Los Angeles CA 90013 Dear Sir, I would like to take this oppurtunity to speak in behalf of computer bulletin board sytems (BBSes). Bulletin Boards are excellent ways to meet other computer users and hold intelligent conversations with them. Bulletin boards are a very convenient way to get any help you might need for your computer, from advice on a game to programming techniques and technical information. The idea that all of these bulletin boards are used solely for pirating of software and illegal telephone usage is one that is ill-conceived, stemming from the occasional "bad seed" of BBSes. In reality, these illegal BBSes are few and far between, and are frowned upon by the general BBS-using public. I urge you to consider all the good of which BBSes are capable, and not the bad side shown by several rare and unacceptable examples. Thank you in advance for your consideration in this matter. Sincerely, (print and sign your name here) NOTICES fidonews.man -- 17 Dec 84 23:27:42 Page 5 FOR SALE WANTED