Editorial: The war years by Tom Jennings (1:1/1) This editorial is in two parts. Both are contentious and angry. The first is an item that keeps coming up in the current war in Zone 2. The other relates directly to the process we think of as "FidoNews". This is the WAR ISSUE of FidoNews. Or maybe it should be the HUMOR ISSUE. Oh wait, that was a few weeks back. * * * * * Once upon a time, there was POLICY 1, circa 1985. I believe Thom Henderson wrote a lot of it, and it was mainly a record of currently accepted policies, ie. how you apply for a node number, net mail hour (now called ZMH), that sort of thing. It worked for a long time and only became obsoleted as we grew in complexity. It was Good. This original "policy" grew and grew. I don't have copies of the old ones (I'd love to though) and somehow culminating into the monstrosity of POLICY4, which is not a policy, but an attempt at law, related to POLICY 1 only in name. It stinks. Has anyone actually tried to read it?! It's so bulky and contrived -- quoting POLICY4 makes a fine weapon for putting your opponent on the defensive. One idiot in Germany, justifying the expulsion of a gay sysop on purely hateful personal reasons, actually quoted section and paragraph THAT IS NOT IN THE DOCUMENT and NO ONE NOTICED!!! Here are some more reasons why POLICY4 should be disregarded, and anyone who attempts to use it upon you should be looked at with suspicion: o It has the ZC (a completely non-functional post) appoint RCs as a sort of governor of networks and NCs. o It imposes the RC hierarchy upon FidoNet where none existed before. o It has the RCs appoint NCs! o It imposes the amusing concept that only the RCs (appointed by the ZC) as the only people who can get rid of the ZC! o It mandates message *content* -- stating no encryption allowed (and by implication, the right of *Cs to examine message contents). This alone is flatly illegal in many countries, including the U.S. o No one had the NERVE to sign it! It does however contain what was the original and good intent of the "policy" documents -- it outlines existing practice regarding getting a node number, etc. POLICY4 is available from the FidoNews BBS via the usual methods (download, Wazoo filerequest) as file POLICY4.ARC. * * * * * Many people have been trying to involve me into various flame wars over out of control self appointed dictators in Zone 2. I have told each one of them, on all "sides" to take me off their "CC" lists. Since I was asked, what follows is the editorial part of my response. It was written about a month ago. RANT MODE ON: For the past year or more, I've been getting rumblings and hints of trouble emanating from FidoLand in zone 2. Things are not well there. There are scoundrels attempting to force their tiny-minded moral standards upon other peoples voluntary communication. I hear bits and pieces. I get sent CCs of messages. I get huge files of bundled up gigantic quoted messages. In the last few weeks, it's escalated to daily batches of hundreds of lines of text from a dozen sources, from many sides. From this, as well as other second-hand sources both FidoNet and voice, I get the sense of real troubles there. The things I've seen -- I think. How the hell can I tell? It's like trying to decode the Dead Sea Scrolls. What passes for communications is pretty poor. Yes, I am disgusted by the censorious bastards, but I'm also angry with the self-described "innocent victims". I have a few questions to ask, and a few complaints of my own. The word "democracy" is a magical incantation used to ward off bullying behavior in FidoNet. I'm not sure it's working though. People forget that magic spells only focus energy; actual work must be applied to solve problems. Clamoring for the self-appointed dictators to "do something" is like asking lawyers, or the police, to investigate themselves. It is very revealing that so many of the "democracy!" callers run to me, as the designer of FidoNet and all of existence, to throw a thunderbolt or something and kill all the bad guys like in some movie. What the hell do these people think "democracy" and "self-determination" mean?! This is Complaint #1 of 2. Complaint #2 of 2, far more disturbing: It would seem that we are all completely helpless, in spite of our claim to be a COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK! Dammit, write! FOR OVER A YEAR the censorious scumbags have been at work in Zone 2, and NOT ONE PERSON has written up the story, as a story, written for and comprehensible to non-participants. I bet most of zone 2 doesn't even know what is going on! I know not everyone can write decent prose, but if one tolerable writer cannot be found on a small continent, I have one piece of advice: GIVE IT UP. I was asked for my help. Here it is. I am not kidding. o Offline-readers with VGA color screens and fancy text manipulation toys like >quoting are not substitutes for WRITING. "On Tuesday So and So said this to Mary:" followed by 20 quoted lines with "I agree" as a reply is embarrassing to read. It merely inflates the authors ego and ignores the readers plight, which is to understand what the hell is going on. Use a TEXT EDITOR. PRACTICE WRITING. o I ACTUALLY RECEIVE "serious" messages with three-level deep quotes! 200 plus line messages, with over 75% quotes from previous messages! I am not kidding -- I delete this stuff without reading it. >>> You said I said you said this. >> I said you said this. > You said this. I say this. GIMME A BREAK! Think about why people send captured and/or quoted messages to each other: the messages generally unfold over a period of time, among the participants. (Most if it being previous messages, quoted.) Because it unfolds slowly, the participants can follow it, and can form in their minds the picture or story it represents. Now: Somehow they think that by packaging up a series of messages, they'll be able to transmit this understanding-picture to other people. Oh gimme a break! Most people can't read your mind! They didn't experience those messages unfolding, and whatever went on in between, such as your prior knowledge and experience with the participants. WE ARE ALL SEPARATE PEOPLE WITH SEPARATE REALITIES. I cannot see into your head. You need to WRITE THE STORY. It is HARD WORK. IT IS STILL NECESSARY. Most "CC'ing" is disgustingly smug self-reassurance of the importance of ones own writings. It is safe to say any CC you get when people are arguing is USELESS. Stop transmitting MESSAGES to FidoNet nodes, and start writing STORIES to the people who dwell in them, for them to read and understand. Short is better; with exceptions, under one screenful. And that's EXCEPTIONS! Start treating FidoNet as a social organization that you ARE PART OF, and you'll find you will stop being treated like an object for your "managers" to "manage". POLICY4 is an old crock of smelly shit. It is a weapon used to intimidate the fearful and ignorant. It was written by damn fools, ignore it. Maybe you like being cowered and fearful at work and at home, but you don't have to put up with it in here. We need to toss the useless power-mongering RC/ZC structure out on it's collective ass. (I said structure not necessarily people -- many are genuinely helpful people, but it is NOT the *C position that makes them so; it is because they are helpful people in the first place.) Before you non-RC/ZCs get too smug, get off YOUR lazy asses and do the work you let them turn into your leash. Maybe the moral fascists will now declare FidoNews obscene, and banish it too from all of Europe. I'll probably never hear about it. RANT MODE OFF OK, so it's a bit self-serving. Maybe it will give you an idea of what I get subjected to. At least half of it has direct application to FidoNews and my editorship, which other than these self-indulgent rants, is more properly called publishership. I don't write the news, I publish it. This is as it should be. 190 lines long. Disgusting. Ref: FidoNews 9-34 (24-Aug-1992) http://195.226.109.55/jhassler/wif/doks/fnews/fido934.txt By: Tom Jennings