I'm having some trouble while sitting here recalling what my last article for Door World was about. I suppose I could go find it but I only have a short time and just hope I don't repeat myself. One part of it I do recall well is that RoAnn and I started some controversy about the death of BBSing. Somehow we both got on the same subject or at least close enough. Also we both wrote about the lack of feedback from readers. This has been puzzling me for a few months because my BBS and web site are the main support site for Door World Magazine. The web page has been taking quite a few hits and my front end mailer has been doing many freq's for the magazine software. We also release the magazine through the DDS (door distribution system). So I know it's out there and being looked at. We just never seemed to get any feedback? I read Boardwatch magazine and the editor there seems to have no lack of feedback. We were both getting a bit discouraged with the whole thing. Lo and behold, this month plenty of feedback came in and we are looking forward to more this upcoming month. You can check out the feedback in the letters to the editor section to see what you could have looked like in print. Speaking of controversy, last month was fun in the fidonet DOORGAMES echo. I read some of the messages from both sides of the argument. I wish now I had saved some of them to reprint here as they were quite amusing. It seems one of the participants in the echo was insulting and off topic with another member of the echo. The moderator sent him a private netmail about it. The participant in question then sent back a netmail to the moderator of which they didn't appreciate the content and kicked the participant out of the echo. The participant was then angry enough to post the problem in a few other related echos to show everyone his supposed mistreatment by the moderator. The moderator, upon finding out about this, then made his netmail to her public in her echo for all her readers to see. Of course once this was done, it was free bait for anyone to comment upon in the echo. Which they did! It seems everyone has opinion, again bringing me around to the lack of feedback here. When problems occur and someone gets a chance to insult someone else, it seems the letters fly! The participant in question from the above echo sent Door World an article about his alleged abuse from this moderator. We have sent the moderator of the echo a netmail asking for a response but we never received anything back. I guess she either wants the whole thing to end or she doesn't answer her netmail. The latter is a possibility as more than one person in her echo was complaining about her not returning netmail. Of course the former could be true as well. Why add to the mistake of making everything public. RoAnn is not going to publish the participants article because she wants to be fair to both sides and never heard back from the moderator. I on the other hand do not need to be fair in my article as it is only my opinion. This is public mail I picked up in another related echo about the problem in the doorgames echo. You can get the gist of what's going on from these messages and also see how one flame or controversy leads to others. The messages follow. Just skip through them if you would rather not read them. The end of my article is at the end of the messages. BEGIN PUBLIC ECHO MAIL EXCERPTS: >> What I am looking for is for everyone who reads >> this to write Ruth >> Argust message telling her to STOP her erratic >> behavior and allow me >> back into her echo! > What you will GET will probably be a VALID Policy 4 > compliant filed against you if just two people send > her netmail. This is what is called "excessively > annoying". Hi Gerry. Rob no longer has access to this echo. His access was cut as soon as I found out that he hit my echo with his bombing run attacking Ruth. That's something I won't tolerate. > Most all are Rob, and we love them anyway :) What you > do not understand is what effect your actions here may > have on your door registration site. If you carried MY > doors, you would not after your stunts, sport. This was pointed out to him in a message I sent him. I don't think he had a clue as to who he was attacking and how many door authors participate in her echo. He said he had gotten hundreds of supporting netmail messages, but if the request went out, I'm sure his mailbox could be flooded with a lot more supporting messages. Of course I refrained from making such a suggestion to everyone. ;D > If you thought what Bruce wrote was a flame, you ain't > seen nothing yet. I hope you meant he hasn't seen nothing yet in other echos... cause we don't do flames in here... unless it's a door game of course. > I hope life is nice to you after fidonet Rob,, It has been proven that there is life after FidoNet... it's called AOL. another: > After I sent her the netmail message she elected to write to my feed >and cut my access to the Fido Doorgames echo without warning. I NEVER >sent another message in the doorgames echo, I NEVER posted another flame >but yet she cut my access behind my back going against what she said in >her netmail to me. I understand your problem but my suggestion to you is don't bother with it. You don't "need" that echo and since you are going to start your own, you definitely don't need it either. I should also tell you that people "in power" tend to have friends. The moderator is _not_ the only who can complain and have your feed cut. I'm not the sysop but as a user I _do_ know that regular participants on any echo can complain. If the complaints occur often enough, you might find yourself banished from the echo. People with friends can make up a lot of complaints even if _they_ were the ones who started the flaming. Here is the article Mr Mooney sent me regarding his side of the controversy: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From : Rob Mooney 1:323/1017 To : All My name is Rob Mooney I am a long time sysop of Coherent Spectrum BBS. I am a 36 year old father of 2 boys who is running a BBS that also serves as a Door registration site for some of the BEST BBS Doors that are a available. I have had my access to FIDO Doorgames revoked by Ruth Argust the moderator of this message area for what I perceive to be NO reason at all: It all started a few weeks ago when a person by the name of Bruce parker in the Fido Doorgames echo flamed me in a reply to one of my posts in that echo, I in turn trying to be funny returned the remarks in the doorgames echo 1 time in the doorgames echo. I received what I thought was a rather spiteful netmail message from Ruth Argust the Moderator of the Fidonet Doorgames echo telling me that this was my first and final warning to NOT post any more flames in HER echo or my access would be cut. I returned Ruth's NETMAIL in the same tone that she her netmail message was in explaining that I really had NO intention of continuing the flame's and that I would not be a problem for her, I also told her that she was extremely one sided in a lot of her echo discipline. She continue's to flip flop on who and what she has problems with in her echo. After I sent her the netmail message she elected to write to my feed and cut my access to the Fido Doorgames echo without warning. I NEVER sent another message in the doorgames echo, I NEVER posted another flame but yet she cut my access behind my back going against what she said in her netmail to me. Since then I have sent her (3) THREE netmail's apologizing for ANY and ALL problems that I have caused in her echo. To date my apologies have gone unanswered. There is a person named Ryan Gralinski who is a local sysop who is also a subscriber to my BBS, who has taken upon his self to download messages from MY Coherent Spectrum BBS and post them in the Fidonet Doorgames echo for me, NOW Ruth Has sent him a warning to stop posting these messages for NO apparent reason except for the fact that I am locked out of her echo. What I am looking for is for everyone who reads this to write Ruth Argust message telling her to STOP her erratic behavior and allow me back into her echo! As a SYSOP or BBS caller you can understand what kind of effect this would have on everyone if ALL FIdonet Moderators were to be like Ruth Argust. I have also started a NEW Fidonet Message Echo called: BBSDOORS and am looking for sysop who are interested in receiving this echo. Please help me in this endeavor and put a STOP to this kind of censorship! If you are interested in receiving the BBSDOORS echo please contact me at one of the following address's: Rob Mooney Systems Administrator Coherent Spectrum BBS 401-435-4349 (Voice) 401-435-6759 (BBS) rob.mooney@coherentbbs.com 1:323/1017 ANOTHER: I have been seeing messages from this guy in just about every echo there is! This means that I have been grabbing this guys messages on my dime and so has everyone else. If his feed was cut, good. He is getting rather annoying with all of his postings.... > Hi Gerry. Rob Mooney no longer has access to this > echo. His access was cut as soon as I found out that > he hit my echo with his bombing run attacking Ruth. > That's something I won't tolerate. I can't say I blame you. If anyone did that in one of the echos I moderate (I have 1 and share 2 more with my S.O.), they would be out very quickly. Not only for the bombing, but the off topic flaming. > This was pointed out to him in a message I sent him. > I don't think he had a clue as to who he was > attacking and how many door authors participate in her > echo. Ya, at least two..... Mike somebody that put out Gem Stealer (or something like that) and Rob*.* who wrote who knows uno :) oh, I forgot about some other little power crazed woman who spends some time there. I heard all about her new Rolls Royce :) > He said he had gotten hundreds of > supporting netmail messages, but if the request went > out, I'm sure his mailbox could be flooded with a lot > more supporting messages. Of course I refrained from > making such a suggestion to everyone. ;D I heard Ruth had her share of netmail. Of course it was all backing her in her actions and none supporting the other side. > I hope you meant he hasn't seen nothing yet in other > echos... cause we don't do flames in here... unless > it's a door game of course. Does that mean we can expect a new game, Jewel Fire to be released soon? Maybe I should just "side step" this issue for now. > It has been proven that there is life after > FidoNet... it's called AOL. You forgot the G, Mike, It's AOLG= Another On_Line_Game :) I just wanted to thank you for posting messages pertaining to that thread. I hope I was able to stop the message to Ruth in time. >> It has been proven that there is life after FidoNet... it's called AOL. Are you saying you're an AOL user or do you dislike it? If you are a user then I'd suggest getting a decent account with an ISP. You get more respect and don't have to put up with all the "ME TOO" morons. If you're not an AOL user then more power to you and I'm sorry for wasting bandwidth and straying from topic guidelines. R there any rules here on fido as to length of signatures? I know relaynet restricts to 2 lines so here's the short version. Hi again Gerry, > I can't say I blame you. If anyone did that in one of > the echos I moderate (I have 1 and share 2 more with > my S.O.), they would be out very quickly. Not only for > the bombing, but the off topic flaming. It's too bad that a few more moderators didn't do the same thing... but then some are more tolerant than I am. ;D >> This was pointed out to him in a message I sent him. >> I don't think he had a clue as to who he was >> attacking and how many door authors participate in her >> echo. > Ya, at least two..... Mike somebody that put out Gem > Stealer (or something like that) and Rob*.* who wrote > who knows uno :) oh, I forgot about some other little > power crazed woman who spends some time there. I heard > all about her new Rolls Royce :) LOL! That's Jewel Thief, and Rob Williams who wrote Uno.. of course figuring out which Rob it is hard sometimes with the number that pop up. And yes, I hear that Nannette is taking the Rolls to Colorado for that job interview next week. >> I hope you meant he hasn't seen nothing yet in other >> echos... cause we don't do flames in here... unless >> it's a door game of course. > Does that mean we can expect a new game, Jewel Fire to > be released soon? Maybe I should just "side step" this > issue for now. Ha! More like "Fizzel Stick" if I don't get busy and get back to work programming. I've not been able to work on "Side Step" in almost 2 weeks. Between ice storms and wind storms and the large web page projects I've been working on, it's been hard finding time to do my stuff. >> It has been proven that there is life after >> FidoNet... it's called AOL. > You forgot the G, Mike, It's AOLG= Another > On_Line_Game :) LOL! Yea, there you go. Take it easy, Gerry. MORE: > I have been seeing messages from this guy in just > about every echo there is! This means that I have been > grabbing this guys messages on my dime and so has > everyone else. If his feed was cut, good. He is > getting rather annoying with all of his postings.... He has been cut from this echo and DoorGames, but I don't know about any others that he might have been cut from. I have noticed that most replies to him in the echos and newsgroups have not been very supportive of his actions. The only thing I have to add in all this is that it's obvious some of the moderators are not being fair in that they continue to post in their echos about the individual in question, but because his feed has been cut he can not make a reply. I can't have an opinion about these types of things because I am not the moderator of an echo. Their rules are the rules and they can't be disagreed with. Whatever they decide in their echos is the law for the echo. I guess I would love this if I were a moderator and dislike it, if I were on the receiving end. Luckily, most moderators seem to be pretty fair folks. I hate to say it but I like the flame messages almost as much as the information type posts. I normally make it a rule not to have an opinion because I sell doors in the echos and really do not want my software to become the object of flaming. But what the hell, some times you just have to take a chance. Dave Wendling dwendlg@bcn.net http://www.bcn.net/~dwendlg BBS 413-684-0145 FIDO 1:332/107 þ