Hi, JOHN FITZGERALD!   
   I read your message from 15.08.2013 13:01   
      
    JF>>> Wow, you guys are still here. Last time I logged on here I think   
    JF>>> Peter Brady was still with us. What about ole John Wilson? Is he   
    JF>>> still around? I still have my old rig tucked away in a box. A   
    JF>>> 286, 512k ram, 2400 baud modem, 5 1/4 inch disks, and monochrome   
    JF>>> screen (Gotta love those green letters) and 40mb, full height,   
    JF>>> hard disk, which I sometimes use as a boat anchor. :-)   
      
    JF>>> If you guys wanna lock horns on some hot topics where the debate   
    JF>>> is viewed by 100s, possibly 1000s, go to Wikipedia and check out   
    JF>>> the talk pages on some of the pages like '2003 invasion of Iraq',   
    JF>>> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:2003_invasion_of_Iraq)   
    JF>   
    JF>>> 'Separation of church and state':   
    JF>>> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Separation_of_church_and_stat   
    JF>>> e) In any case it's nice to know not everything is washed away by   
    JF>>> the tides of change.   
      
    ak>> The quotation system of forums are so poor and miserable; it makes   
    ak>> impossible to have a long deep discussions as people have had in   
    ak>> Fidonet. Going to Web forums is degradation for a discussion.   
    ak>> Well, probably such a thing is possible in Usenet if you have a   
    ak>> good NNTP client.   
      
    ak>> Just look at my answer "Re: Clandestine activity is a holy cow of   
    ak>> democracy" from August 6. The text in the message itself is piece   
    ak>> of art! ;-)   
      
    JF> Nonsense. The forum works fine for 99% of the people who   
    JF> participate. Every message is signed by the user and each new entry   
    JF> is indented from the one above it, so only the idiots who need road   
    JF> signs every ten feet are left confused. Piece of art? Are we having   
    JF> a discussion or admiring text?   
      
      A discussion text must look nice, too. Especially, a good quoting is   
   important when a discussion is written by many persons. In this case it   
   is important to see clearly the authorship of every paragraph, every   
   line, because it is very important to shorten opponents phases as much   
   as possible, so that all the discussion was before your eyes. That is   
   why, despite what you had said, you cannot find in web forums an example   
   of a long, deep, clever discussion -- only the discussions that sound   
   like dog's barking or sparrow's twitting.   
      
      In other words, the conferences like this one is an ideal place for   
   discussions. But unfortunately people on Earth have changed. Signing in   
   to the Fidonet, using cool client programs is too difficult for modern   
   (even young) people. Just look at the quotation style of your message to   
   me!   
      
   -----Beginning of the citation-----   
   -> AK>> ;=) Well, well, who doubts around the world that American history   
   -> AK>> books tell that the Vietnam war was victorious for the US?   
   -> AK>> Propaganda doesn't allow the opposite, especially if the opposite   
   -> AK>> is humiliating.   
   ->   
   -> JF> Actually, American history books do not describe Vietnam as a   
   -> JF> victory for America. And we know the US lost the war. Not all know   
   -> JF> it, but most of us do.   
   ->   
   ->   
   -> JF> We could have won that war if we 'wanted to'. Do you really think   
   -> JF> we "lost" the war because the Viet Cong had a more formidable   
   -> JF> military the the U. S.? We could have wiped them out any time we   
   -> JF> pleased.   
   ->   
   -> Good argument, of a computer gamer. ;-/   
      
   Poor reply, even for a computer gamer. The US could have turned up the   
   heat any number of ways. The war was purposely dragged out for several   
   reasons, mostly concerning the (then) USSR, who was supplying the North.   
   -----The end of the citation-----   
      
      If somebody wants to participate in our discussion he/she would have   
   a pain in his/her ass because making quotes from such messages is very   
   difficult (well, for those people who don't use a cool Quoter program   
   made by me :))   
      
      So, modern people prefer to go in places where interface so easy that   
   every dog is capable to start barking there. Generally, it is another   
   explanation for the poor intellectual content of web forums.   
      
      No new young generation has come to Fidonet. Current Fidonet/Usenet   
   users are old, cool guys, who have already discussed every possible   
   interesting subject many times. That is why they are mostly silent now.   
   You can see in Fidonet only messages written by the people who are   
   always young. ;=)   
      
   Bye, JOHN!   
   Alexander Koryagin   
   fido7.debate 2013   
   --- FIDOGATE 5.1.7ds   
    * Origin: Pushkin's BBS (2:5020/2140.2)