Internet newsgroup<>echomail
gating service now available
By Joe Jared (1:103/301@fidonet) joejared@webworldinc.com

Special thanks to Remarq.com, (formerly supernews.com) for making control
messages available to me for creation of newsgroups. If what I'm told is
correct on this topic, newsgroups once added, are global in scope.

TO ANY MODERATORS INTERESTED:

Your echo can be gated to the internet on request. To initiate gating of
your echo, simply send netmail or an email to one of my addresses as listed
above and respond to the confirmation message. Once the echo has successfully
be made global, the moderator may assume the gating duties assuming software
is available to do so. The software I am currently using is compatable with
most news servers and works with Windows 95/98/NT and is freeware. The key
solutions however in performing this gateway are available from
newsgate@webworldinc.com, a listserv open to all.

The structure as the echo would appear on the internet would be fidonet.*,
where the * is the name of your echo. In some cases, it may appear as
fidonet.name.*, replacing the underscores '_' with dots if deemed
appropriate to the heirarchy. For example:

SIP_ACA would be mapped to fidonet.sip.aca, because it is a part of a
group of echoes preceded with the keyword SIP.

Your message as the moderator of an echo would need to include heirarchy
if it's not readily visible as well as a request to have it added to
internet distribution. I will then respond to the elisted moderator address
for all cases except where the moderator is a known highjacker, in which
case the recognized moderator will take precedence. No gated echo need be
elisted but it would make things easier for me if you as moderator elisted
the echo.

If you are in contact with moderators of other newsgroups and would like
your echomail conference merged with their newsgroup, a request from both
moderators are required, and can be broken on request by either party.

As a moderator the ONLY requests honored will be to add "known" spammers
to the kill list, and to add and remove it from internet distribution.
The object of this gateway is to improve the volume of traffic while
minimizing some of the hazards (Spam, Viruses, trojans, twits etc). A
gated echo will disappear from distribution if it is deemed to be a
problematic echo (I.E. too much used cowfood involved in distributing it).
This service is free and as such should have reasonable expectations.
Initially this system will be limited in terms of echoes that can be
gated (I'm using soon to be replaced and outdated tosser that only
supports 2048 echoes), but I doubt this will be a problem for a few
months.

As a final note, once mail leaves or enters fidonet, it is no longer
bound by policy4, nor can it be expected to, as it is no longer just
fidonet mail. The gateway assumes no liablity for traffic whether it
be legal or otherwise and will take prompt action once notified of an
repeated offense, but it cannot be expected that all internet gated
echoes will be free of clutter. One a positive note however, your
echomail area will receive the exposure that it desperately needs
to thrive and grow.

