In article <9310010728.AA15983@anon.penet.fi> you write:
If a user sends a "private message", the user has no control over the number of intermediate systems through which that message is routed. A sysop who sends a message to another sysop can control this aspect by sending the message direct to the recipient's system, thus guaranteeing that only the recipient or another individual to whom that sysop has given authorization can read the message. Thus, a sysop may have different expectations than a casual user.
translated: we have a hierarchy of rights. sysop-gods have a right and expectation to private mail. the user-peons have neither.
Translated back to the real world: The sysop can always choose to pay for a direct connect to deliver mail items directly from his machine to the target machine, rather than route mail through intermediate systems. That priveledge, (and this is the important bit, so I'll shout) AND THE COST of providing such a facility may or may not be extended to customers of the system. FIDONet is, in general, payed for out of the pockets of ordinary folks. A typical BBS system is owned by an ordinary folk (bad singular), who owns the system. It's their system, they make the rules (what internet folks call "Acceptable Use Policy") that customers of the service have to abide by. If the Sysop wants his stand alone BBS to join an network (ANY NETWORK), then their system has to abide by the Acceptable Use Policy of that network. If a customer of a service doesn't like a service (any service), he can: (a) put up and shut up (b) go to somewhere that does provide satisfaction (c) start his own service on the basis there is a market opportunity The bottom line of communications is: someone has to pay for it. You're sitting out there, shouting from an anonymous remailer, access to which somebody else probably paid for anyway, about things of which you have little comprehension. If you feel FIDONet policy is wrong, and you want to do something about it, get involved. Otherwise, don't use FIDOnet, and don't just winge. (Never thought I'd have to get into this kind of discussion in a high quality mailing list like this one. Please note none of the above is intended as a statement of support for FIDOnet politics, which are as <fill in your choice of description here> as internet politics...) ----------------------------------------+------------------------------------ David Buckley of Electric Solutions Ltd | Email: dbuckley@cix.compulink.co.uk Services to the Computing,Electronics | dbuckley@esl-hub.demon.co.uk and Entertainment industries. | 2:254/90@fidonet -----------------------------------------------------------------------------