Subj : Echo Rules
To   : Reverend Shaft
From : Lee Lofaso
Date : Thu Sep 19 2024 04:21 pm

Hello Reverend,

 LL>> The issue is the use of "real names only" in Fidonet.
 LL>> Do keep up.

[..]

 RS> This particular returning sysop wishes he hadn't asked in the first place.
 RS> :)

It is a relevant topic. German courts have ruled that Germans
must be allowed to sign up under pseudonyms to comply with privacy
law. Google has apologized to users for having forced them to use
"real names", and has publicly stated "There are no more restrictions
on what name you can use."

Such "real names only" rules are a thing of the past, and have
gone the way of the dinosaur. Facebook still tries to hang on to
such an archaic rule, but continues to lose users thus making it
an obsolete forum.

 RS> Mike, this is obviously not directed at you:

The entity known as Mike continues to use an obsolete rule
that not even himself complies with.

 RS> My thought, from my early days, was that FidoNet was a collection of people
 RS> who organized conversational and informational topics into categories, and
 RS> -- either through reasonable moderator mandate or collective opinion of the
 RS> participants -- decided on rules of conduct. Those rules. of course,
 RS> included the issue of real names or aliases.

It is not up to any sysop to decide what others can/cannot do.
A sysop is master of his/her own board, and nobody else's.

 RS> I was a member of other networks that followed a similar system. It's a
 RS> guideline for order and civility, akin to telling the kis to stop fighting
 RS> or lose the toy, and asking guests to take their shoes off and not prop
 RS> their feet up on the coffee table.

"Real names" policies are not empowering - they are an authoritarian
assertion of power over vulnerable people. There is nothing "civil"
about that at all. It is a power grab. By a small handful of people
gone mad.

 RS> It's a group of hobbyists and enthusiasts, not a geopolitical government
 RS> entity. Either you complied wth the rules or lost access to the echo (or
 RS> the net, in severe cases). If you didn't like the rules, you started a new
 RS> net.

Tom Jennings described himself as an anarchist. Where is he now?
Does anybody really care? He certainly lost interest in his own "hobby"
years ago. Not really worth his time, I guess.

 RS> I'm beyond flabbergasted that a simple request for clarification started
 RS> such a flood of insults and posturing.

My sincerest apologies. What is your name again?

For Life,
Lee

-- 
GOP thinks banning guns won't elminate guns.
GOP thinks banning abortion will elininate abortions.

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