The FidoGazette Volume 2008, Number 1 23 Jan 2008 +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+ | | A Montly Magazine | | Dedicated to the former Debate Echo | | | published by Fidonet | | moderator. Peter Bradie we miss you! | | | to promote BBS Usage | +------------------------------------------+ | | everywhere! _________| | | | | / __ | "Wherever we are, we have the capcity | | | / / \ | to enjoy the sunshine, the presense of | | | WOOF! ( /|oo \ | each other, and the wonder of our | | \_______\(_| /_) | breathing | | @/ \ _ | | | Just a |USB|= \ \\ | -- Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh | | bit more / \ ))| | | modern. |/|| / \// | Editor: Allen Prunty | | ____ _//|| _\ / | allen @ alprunty . com | | /FIDO\ (_/(_|(____/ | or Allen Prunty@2320/100 | | (______) (jm) | | +--------------------------+------------------------------------------+ THIS MAST HEAD IS AN OLDER VERSION - WE HAVE LOST OUR REALLY NEAT ONE THANKS TO THE GAZETTE CURSE BUT WILL HAVE IT BACK NEXT ISSUE. +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ From The Editor: Some of you may have remembered me as the founding NC of Net 2320 in Louisville Kentucky. Net 2320 was founded in 1988, my senior year of high school. The LiveWire was my BBS... we accomplished many firsts in our day. The first to get a 14.4 modem (that was fast back in the day). The first to go multi-line with TBBS... we had over 1000 active users and in our peak had eight dialup lines. I moved from my parent's house in 1994 and got my first apartment. the callers had declined and we downsized to four lines and eventually went down to two. Then in 1998 we lost everything to an apartment fire and I never invested the time to put things back up. I was contacted by a few friends in August of 2007 about bringing back the BBS. It seems that there are a few old timer's who wanted to have Tradewars and the games back online. I gladly put the BBS back up to accomodate... and eventually figured out how to bring fidonet back to Louisville. Sadly, fidonet has dwindled down to a shadow of what it once was... but I have seen a resurgance of BBS telnet nodes pop up all over the usenet. Thanks to Rob Swindell and his free Synchronet BBS Program... but many of those Synchronet systems do not have fidonet... if we could get more of them to carry fidonet then the network can grow. So after a ten year absence... the LiveWire BBS is back as the Derby City BBS (everyone's welcome to stop by) this e-zine will be archived, hopefully, on http://www.derbycitybbs.com/gazette and I hope that it will continue for many years to come. -- Allen Prunty Editor, Fidogazette +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Zone 1 Coordinator News by Janis Kratch,. ty, Editor +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Zone 1 had over 15 sysops join us this year through the application generators at http://www.filegate.net/zone1/ and http://www.fidonet.ca/. Unfortunately, the pages at http://z1.fidonet.org/ still do not have the CGI application generator installed, but people have emailed me from that site. I'm sure there are other sites as well that have taken in applications :) Anyway, a number of these sysops are new, never having been in Fidonet before... but we also welcomed a number of our friends back into Fidonet, which is great :) Allen Prunty, who has agreed to publish FidoGazette for us, is an old friend of mine from Louisville, KY's Net 2320 and when he contacted me about re-joining Fidonet, I was so happy to hear from him. Thanks again, Allen for taking on FidoGazette! Well, I'm going to wish everyone a great 2008, and I hope the holidays were exciting for you and your families this year :) +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Curse of the FidoGazette by Allen Prunty +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ The FidoGazette was rumored to be cursed... I did not believe it... and this first issue has been long and painful to get out. Already in the Month of January we have had freezing temperatures, then a sudden warm-up... and then an F3 tornado which put a tree branch through my roof. Then I was visited by a possum... my what big teeth you have I was saying as I chased the little monster into my shower. All the while I was recovering from Cancer surgery and I have six more chemos to go through and I think they can stick a fork in my and I'll be done. Hopefully we will get this all together and things will start to normalize. But then again what is normal. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Echo of the Month: DEBATE by Allen Prunty, Editor +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ I have watched the echos closely (I carry them all) and one that has caught my eye was the Debate echo. I see many names I remember from my long absence from Fidonet... but one was missing Peter Bradie. Peter Bradie was the long-time lead moderator of the Debate echo... and I have learned that he passed away October 1, 2007 leaving another void in the BBS Community. Sadly I don't remember him enough to properly honor him, but you will find tributes to him below. The DEBATE echo can get heated, but the thing that amazes me the most is how the people who are in the echo often agree to disagree about hot topics. It's a very busy echo, and the current moderator Bob Klahn keeps the order in the rare occasion things start to get out of hand. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ In Memorium and Dedication, Peter Bradie by Allen Prunty, Editor and Seven Horn 1:17/67, Contributor +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ I am sad to report the passing of the Moderator of the Debate Echo, Peter Bradie. Peter was a long-time user of Fidonet, and a moderator of the Debate Echo. When Peter was not moderating the DEBATE echo you could find him posting in the MEMORIES, MENSA or the BBSLAW echos. Peter was a successful attorney, and the senior partner of a family- owned law firm in Houston Texas. Peter practiced law with Anna (his Wife) and Michell (his daughter) Bradie. This was posted on their firm's website... "Many may be unaware that Peter Bradie lost his battle with cancer in October 2007. He was our Senior Partner, my father, a very dear friend, and a wonderful mentor. He has left some very big shoes to fill. I will do my best. He will be greatly missed." ... From some of the postings I have read from Peter... I agree. He contributed heavily in the BBSLAW echo, and was a friend to many. He has indeed left some very big shoes to fill. Peter's online tribute page can be found here... http://snipurl.com/bradie +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ What's Cooking: Strufoli (Honey Balls) Contributed by Janis Kracht, Z1C +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 2 cups sifted flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 eggs 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Strufoli Honey Mixture: [optional] 2 cups honey juice and rind of 1 lemon 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup walnuts Put the flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour, and add the eggs one at a time, mixing slightly. Add the vanilla and mix well making a soft dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead. Divide the dough in half. Lightly roll each half to 1/4" thickness forming a rectangle. Cut into strips, 1/4" wide. Use the palm of your hand to roll the strips to pencil thickness, and then cut into pieces 1/4 to 1/2 inch long. Heat a deep saucepan, or deep-fryer to 365F. Fry only as many pieces of dough as will fit without touching each other, uncrowded in one layer. Fry 3-5 minutes or until lightly browned, turning occasionally. Drain over the fat, and remove to absorbant paper. When finished frying, you may use either the Stufoli Honey mixture above heated over low heat, or you may heat 1 cup of honey over low heat. Pour the warmed honey over the fryed pieces. Mound on a large serving dish in cone fashion, and sprinkle with colored candies. Chill in refrigerator. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Old School BBS: The Chinese Social Networking Phenomenon Written by Gang Lu, 17 Jan 2008 - Royalty Free Article Editor's Note: AsianLink is a fido echo where you can communicate with English Speaking Chinese people. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ According to latest report from China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), by end of 2007, there are over 200 million Internet users (including 163 million broadband users) in China. 2008 is shaping up to be a very busy year for the Chinese Internet, and the Chinese market seems to be pulsing with social networking activity. But for Chinese Internet users, social networking has taken on a very different form than it has in Western countries. In China, the most popular form of networking may just be the traditional Internet forum system, or BBS. That's not to say traditional social networking is dead -- far from it. You can find QZone which is owned by Tencent with the support of QQ's over 220 millions active users. Then there is 51.com which proclaims 160,000 new users daily; Linkist and Wealink are two popular professional networks based in Shanghai; Tianji.com is another professional network based in Beijing and it has partnered with Viadeo, one of the world's largest online business communities to create a premier business platform for online networking between China and Europe; Xiaonei, Zhanzuo and many others are sharing the campus social networking market. With its massive user base, the Chinese market is naturally one of the most attractive places for Western networks to attemp to set up shop. MySpace has set up an office in Beijing; Facebook might acquire a Chinese SNS, Fenbei.com, and surely will have local presence in 2008; Friendster has done very well in the South East Asian market and expects similar success in China. Xing, a professional network from Europe, set up a Chinese office back in 2005; Last.fm is trying to be more localized in China to compete with 9Sky, Yobo, and 8box. Surprisingly, though, one of the most popular methods for Chinese netizen to communicate exists far from the web 2.0 scene: traditional Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). BBS actually plays a very significant role in Chinese Internet life. In China, registered BBS users have reached 3 billion (one netizen might register at multiple BBS sites); 80% of Chinese sites are running their own BBS and the total number of daily page views across bulletin board systems has reached over 1.6 billion, with 10 million posts published every day. The BBS is an undiscovered and untalked about Chinese Internet phenomenon. To understand more about why BBS is so hot in China and how it will co-exist with modern social networks, we interviewed Kevin Day the CEO and founder of Comsenz Inc., owner of Discuz!, the first ever social platform - a BBS system - for the Chinese Internet. More than 400,000 BBS sites are built on the Discuz! system in China, or in other words, Discuz! controls over 70% of the Chinese BBS market. == The Phenomenon of Chinese BBS == According to a report produced by iResearch Consulting Group in 2007, around 36.3% of users in China spend 1-3 hours per day on BBS sites, about 44.7% of users spend 3-8 hours, and even 15.1% of users are on BBS sites for more than 8 hours each day. Over 60% of users will log in to at least 3 BBS sites more than 3 times each week. According to the report, the primary reasons for using BBS sites is finding solutions to problems, general discussion, finding information, and sharing life experiences. 98% of users have contributed to a BBS by publishing articles, replying to posts, participating in polls, etc. Users tend to trust BBS sites because they think the information found on them is first-hand, updated frequently, and presented in a comfortable, community environment. Chinese BBS life has apparently extended offline, as well. The report also says 64.5% of users have attended some offline events organized by BBS administrators or users. More than 80% of users are using BBS sites to search for information about products they plan to buy, and 61.7% of users are keen to ask other BBS users for opinions before making a purchase. Astonishingly, BBS sites are even acting as ecommerce hubs themselves, with 47.3% of users having bought products directly from a BBS. The screenshot below {{Editorial Note: snipped due to ascii... but this shows a web interface BBS}} shows a BBS set up by the fans of Jinglei Xu, a very famous Chinese celebrity and blogger. This site has over 65,420 registered users, and you can find thousands of online communities like this one built on traditional BBS software. == The History of Discuz! == If you ever log onto a Chinese BBS site, most likely it is built on the Discuz! system. Discuz! was originally developed by Kevin Day when he was at his first year in university. In 2002, the first version of Discuz! was sold to a Hong Kong based company, and in 2003, Day decided to discontinue his studies and founded Comsenz Inc. in 2004 in Beijing. In 2005, Comsenz Inc. partnered with Zend and established the Zend China support center. Later in 2005, Day announced that Discuz! was going open source, which has been described by local media as an earthquake for the Chinese software industry. Comsenz Inc. got its first round of funding for around $10 million from Sequoia Captial, Morningside, and Google in 2006. Now Comsenz Inc. has grown to a household name with 200+ staff and a complete product line that includes Discuz! (bulletin board), X-Space (social Network platform), SupeSite (content management system), ECShop (open source B2C and C2C system) and SupeV (online videosharing system). It is also running a few Internet services, including a free forum hosting service 5d6d, a free B2B shop hosting service Maifou, and a community advertising network Insenz. Day is just 26 years old, but he has been publicly recognized as the one of the most successful entrepreneurs born in 1980s. == The BBS and Social Networks == With 70% of Chinese BBS sites built on Discuz!, Day is obviously a key figure behind the phenomenon. So we asked him why he thought BBS systems have become so popular in China. "The first Chinese BBS was probably set up back in 1997. Like Email, BBS is one of the first Internet services recognized by Chinese netizens," he told us. "Chinese like the communities, they are normally a bit quiet in real life but in Internet they love to express their opinion and to follow up some discussion of hot topics. BBS provides a perfect and easy-to-setup show stage for everyone. BBS has evolved as a media platform, it is not the main stream media yet and might never be in China, but the latest and hottest news are always from various forums, spread and discussed by millions of users. "Take a look at how fast the blog grows in China, you will understand my point here. The BBS users are more mature, they are mainly at the age of 20 to 40, well-educated and with various professional background, and their contribution to all sorts of forums make BBS a valuable information source." With social networking on the rise in the Western world and also in China, we asked Day if he thought social networking sites would eventually replace the BBS in Chinese culture. "BBS will not be replaced by SNS and they will not be the competitors to each other either," he answered. "BBS is a must-to-have application in SNS, at least in China. The features of BBS can help the social network users to exchange their ideas efficiently. On the other hand, SNS is a people-centric networking platform but BBS is a topic-centric platform. SNS is to map the social relationship in real life into the cyber space, which in my opinion is one of the reasons people love Facebook; But BBS is there for users to follow the hottest topics and expand your social experience virtually. In BBS, people go there because they are interested in the topics, and whom they communicate with does not really matter." == The Monetization of BBS == The global social networking market is still struggling to seek the best methods for monetization, but it seems that BBS sites have already found a way to drive revenue. Day introduced us to his Insenz product, a BBS-based marketing service that was launched about six months ago. At its core, Insenz is basically a Chinese version of Google's Adsense/AdWord services focused on BBS sites. If you are running a BBS focusing on the mobile phones market, for example, you can join the Insenz advertisement program and get mobile phone related ads or articles posted on your BBS. Insenz's customer are from all sorts of industries, car manufacturers, telecommunications, IT companies, etc. Insenz will monitor user feeback (e.g. how many replies to the article, how many times the post has been viewed, etc.) during the campaign and issue a report to marketers that includes valuable first-hand marketing information. The BBS sites that participate in the marketing campaigns get a cut of the revenue. Of course Insenz takes the advantage of Day's Discuz! kingdom. But actually, in China, Insenz is not the only company offering this service. Daqi.com, which started as a portal service, is now also taking advantage of the BBS phenomenon for marketing purposes. Instead of distributing ads across forums, they invented a technology to help gather and analyze discussions about the products of their customers. Daqi closed its second round fund from WI Harper in 2007. == Conclusion == A universal BBS search engine will definitely be more valuable than blog search in China, though Day said that he would not bother to do this simply because he thinks the search engine giants Google or Baidu have better technology to implement it. It seems that Google China has noticed the popularity of BBS sites in the Chinese Intneret market, and have recently taken a stake in Tianya.cn, a very popular BBS-based social network with 6+ million registered users and 200,000 online users daily. So should MySpace, Facebook, and other traditional Western social networks endeavor to enhance their BBS features if they want to play in China? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Please share your comments by e-mailing the editor at allen@derbycitybbs.com or Allen Prunty@1:2320/100 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Murphy's Laws of Technology By an Unknown user +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 1. You can never tell which way the train went by looking at the track. 2. Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence. 3. Technology is dominated by those who manage what they do not understand. 4. If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs,then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization. 5. An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he/she knows absolutely everything about nothing. 6. Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe, and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it, and he'll have to touch to be sure. 7. All great discoveries are made by mistake. 8. Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget. 9. All's well that ends. 10. A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost. 11. The first myth of management is that it exists. 12. A failure will not appear until a unit has passed final inspection. 13. New systems generate new problems. 14. To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer. 15. We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything. 16. Any given program, when running, is obsolete. 17. A computer makes as many mistakes in two seconds as 20 men working 20 years make. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ BBS List will appear in the next issue of the Gazette +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Letters to the FidoGazette Editor +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ There have not been any letters sent yet... if you are interested please e-mail me at allen@alprunty.com or netmail Allen Prunty @ 1:2320/100 or even stop by telnet://derbycitybbs.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Advertisments: E-mail anything you would like to advertise to the same address above BBSMates - Find your old BBS Friends http://www.bbsmates.com USBBS List - The oldest BBS List on the web http://www.usbbs.org +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ LOOKING FOR LOVE ONLINE Next month is Valentine's Month... we want to do an article on someone who has met their honey online... on a BBS. If that's you contact us. ________ ________ _,=**************,_ _,**************=,_ _,*********************,_ _,*********************,_ ,***************************, ,***************************, ,*******************************, ,*******************************, ,*********************************, ,*********************************, ,************************ ,;ssssssss;. *********************************, ******************** ____sSSSSSSSSSSSSs, ******************************** ******************* / __O)SSSSSSSSSSSSSSs ******************** ****************** / ___O)SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS _-TTTTTT--_ ****************** ***************** / ___O)SSSSSSSSS' |///|||\\\\\\\\ ***************** **************** / __O)SSSSSS(@)S' ====/=_ '||||\\\\\\\\ **************** **************** \sSSSSSSSSSS() ~=|_ ~ ||||\\\\\\\\ *************** **************** {SSSSSSSSSS' | ||||||||||| *************** T*************** {SSSSSSS' _/~' ||||||||||| **************T `*************** {SSSSS' \ (x) ||||||||||| **************' `************* / ~-_ /~ ||||||||||| *************' `************ | / ~~~\______--~ ||||||||||| ************' `*********** | | \ ****** / ||||||||||| ***********' `********* | _-----__ | \ **** / ||||||||||| **********' ~******* | ~~-__`----/ __----_||||||||||| ********~ ~***** | ~~-_/ / |||||||\\\\\ *****~ ~** | ~~--__ \\\\\\\\\\\\ **~ ~** ~~----\\\\\\\\\\**~ ~** \\\\\\\**~ ~** --__ \\\\**~ ~**,. ~~--__ ||**~ ~****;,.. ~~~---____ .**~ ~************;,.. ~~~~~~~.**~ ~***********************~ ~*******************~ ~***************~ ~***********~ ~*******~ ~***~ `*'