• Re: Fidonet [Was: Re: Linux Command-Line Editors Vulnerable to High-Severity Bug]

    From Steve Hayes@hayesstw@telkomsa.net to comp.os.linux.misc,alt.os.linux,alt.bbs on Tuesday, June 25, 2019 07:37:47
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs

    On Sun, 23 Jun 2019 14:02:12 +0200, "Carlos E. R."
    <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

    On 22/06/2019 07.02, Grant Taylor wrote:
    On 6/21/19 2:01 PM, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
    IIRC did wvdial just made it easy to dial via ppp. I am bold and say
    if you wanted you could even establish a DSL connection with it.

    <https://linux.die.net/man/1/wvdial>

    $ReadingList++

    I never used FIDO for news.

    I think FidoNet echos had (still have) their own ecosystem with
    different content, but similar in nature to Usenet newsgroups.

    Correct. Except that most were moderated. The moderator posted the rules >(like what charset to use), and could expel misbehavers. There was a
    longish document with Fidonet rules. No, two docs, one generic, one for
    the echoareas. The structure was hierarchical, with elected or appointed >bosses. Routes had to be defined according to resources, schedules >negotiated... All that was not automatic.

    When Usenet newsgroups first started being gated to Fidonet, many
    usenet users feared that letting the Fidonet rabble in would mean the
    end of Usenet. Now Usenet is full of spammers, trolls and fanatics and
    only about one article in 20 is worth reading, and I long for the days
    of Fidonet and the interesting conversations.


    --
    Steve Hayes
    http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
    http://khanya.wordpress.com
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  • From Bud Frede@frede@mouse-potato.com to comp.os.linux.misc,alt.os.linux,alt.bbs on Sunday, June 30, 2019 09:36:55
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs

    Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> writes:


    When Usenet newsgroups first started being gated to Fidonet, many
    usenet users feared that letting the Fidonet rabble in would mean the
    end of Usenet. Now Usenet is full of spammers, trolls and fanatics and
    only about one article in 20 is worth reading, and I long for the days
    of Fidonet and the interesting conversations.

    I remember seeing some of those abuses on FIDO, RIME, and some of the other echo networks back then too.

    There was one group of people that advocated Antivirus software, with
    one group aligning behind one brand and another group championing
    another brand. Two particularly strident ones were Zvi Netiv and Rod
    Fewster, IIRC. I think they even carried their battles with them from
    the BBS world to Usenet. (Nowadays they'd probably be the stars of some
    reality TV show.)

    The sad thing was that I think both of them had knowledge they could
    have shared and that people would have learned from, but they were so
    busy fighting that anyone with any sense avoided both of them and the
    products they argued about.

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