From: Ralph Sims <ralphs@remote.halcyon.com>
Newsgroups: misc.emerg-services
Subject: Re: Short, personal, annoying, space eating, time consuming messages
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 06:30:30 PST
Organization: Halcyon's Remote

kra@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Kenneth R Aron) writes:

> 	OK.  Apparently, over the last couple of weeks, someone,
> somewhere, connected Fidonet and the Internet with respect to
> emergency services related material.  All in all, a good idea,
> but there are obvious protocol conflicts between the previously
> separate groups.  Let's address a few things:

This was done years ago, when Fidonet folks STARTED misc.emerg-services
through the efforts of David Dodell and others.  It is far from new.
I am the only authorized gateway between the Fidonet echo and Usenet.

Internet and Usenet are two entirely different things.  Usenet is to
the evening news stories as Internet is to the network that carries
them.  Internet != Usenet.

> quite a few corporations.  Fidonet (as it appears to me) is a
> collection of BBSs from around the country.

20,000 systems, worldwide.  While most Fidonet systems are operated
as bulletin boards, the collective users and administrators of those
systems pay real, out-of-pocket money to send news and mail.  The man
that conceived Fidonet has been the recipient of the coveted Flugelman
Award for his efforts.  Fidonet has an administrative structure while
Usenet does not.

> 	3) Our address tells whomever reads our post exactly who
> we are.  I'm 'kra@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu' That makes me Kenneth R
> Aron at the CUNIX-A computer at Columbia University, an education
> site.  A site ending in '.mil' is military and '.com' is
> commercial.

...and '.org' is for social organizations, professional groups, etc.
(There's also .net, .us, and a couple of hundred others.)

fidonet.org is a valid, registered Internet domain.  I am Ralph Sims
at Fidonet Node 94, Net 343 (Seattle, WA), in Zone 1 (North America),
in the valid, registered fidonet.org domain.  This is represented as
Ralph.Sims@f94.n343.z1.fidonet.org, no different from yours.  Fidonet
addresses are assigned geographically, and are precise as to location,
while there's nothing standard about forming an Internet domain address.

> 	What we need is for someone, who preferably knows both
> nets, to develop some kind of standing protocols.  Any takers?

Protocols?  What ideas do you have?  The Internet more or less adheres
to RFC's (Requests for Comments), and Fidonet strictly adheres to FTS's
(Fidonet Technical Standards).

> For the time being, Fidonet people, keep the personal messages in
> e-mail where they belong, and Internet people, keep the .sigs
> short.

Good medicine for all.  You might add another: let the moderators
moderate.  A lot happens behind the scenes that passes unknown
to the group's readers.  Contact some of the folks that post
off-topic and personal communications here and see what their
experiences are re: chastisement.

The Fire Service (and EMS field) is a highly social activity.
It's hard for people not to take the espirit de corps and
comradeship (sic) to all phases of their life.  We are by
our nature a gregarious folk.  But we learn, not only through
disciplined instruction, but from the experiences and actions
of our peers.

If site administrators have problems with the technicalities
of the gated messages, feel free to contact me.  If there's a
problem with content of those messages, contact the person
who wrote the message, using e-mail, or send mail to the
moderator of the group.  Oh, that's right, misc.emerg-services
doesn't have a moderator.  Oh, well.  For messages that originate
on Fidonet (as this one does--check the 'sig'), you can send
mail to Woody.Wood@f16.n128.z1.fidonet.org (or to Woody Wood
@ 1:128/16, for you Fidonetters).

ralphs@remote.halcyon.com
+1 206 955 1050 (Memorex)