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Skriven 2012-09-03 00:07:41 av FidoNews Robot (2:2/2.0)
Ärende: FidoNews 29:36 [03/07]: General Articles
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                        GENERAL ARTICLES
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                       It's not a total "goodbye"
                            By Frank Vest
                             1:124/6308.1

 Last week, I announced that I was resigning the Editorship of the
Fidonews. It had been coming for a while and I had asked Björn Felten
to take the position. He agreed and we had plans to change over around
the first of February. It didn't happen that way and my apologies to
Björn for that.

 I want... no... I need to tell everyone that it wasn't any one thing
that caused me to leave.

 The Editorship of the Fidonews is a demanding position. Unless you
have been there, you really don't know how demanding it can be. Even
if every article that you receive (providing you receive any at all)
is perfect in format and other technical aspects, the Editor still
has to receive, test, proof read, compile and produce then hatch the
Fidonews each week. To do this all but requires that the Editor be
available and checking the different methods in place for receiving
articles on a daily basis. When one accepts the Editorship, one
suddenly finds that their world revolves around the Fidonews. Planning
a trip or vacation is many times made to allow for the final testing,
compiling and hatching of the Fidonews. Even if much is automated,
some things can not be.

 One may say that much of the production of the Fidonews /could/ be
automated. Maybe so, but there is still the need, nay, the requirement
of human intervention. To simply set up programs to receive articles,
compile them and then hatch the finished product would work to some
degree, but not always. A file could come in that, while formatted
correctly and with no errors, is not meant to be an article. An
article can be received that meets all the technical qualifications,
but was not meant to be or shouldn't be an article. There will always
be the need for an Editor.

 No, my friends, it was not any one thing or person. It was a build up
of things. I knew it was coming.

 I'd like to thank some people in this article. I'm sure that I'll
miss some names. Consider yourself thanked any way. So, in mo
particular order:

Björn Felten; for taking the Editorship... even though I didn't give
him as much time as we both would have liked. :-)

Warren Bonner and Steve Quarrella; Both have been my "shoulder to cry
on" many times. I believe that an Editor needs that as much, or more,
than anything else.

Michiel Van Der Vlist; We had our disagreements, but you handled them
with respect and dignity. I commend you for that.
Carl Austin Bennett; You posted the Fidonews to the echo like
clockwork except for the times that I screwed up and didn't get the
Fidonews to you. :-)  Thanks!

 I'm sure that I've missed some. My thanks to you as well. <smile>

 I'll still be around to some degree. I have some things that I still
want to do that have little to do with Fidonet politics. I'll write
the occasional article and, maybe, visit the echo from time to time.
Who can say what the future will bring. :)


 Thanks to all,

 Frank Vest

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