MSGID: 2:2/2.0 10488238   
   REPLY: 2:2/2.0 10488236   
   CHRS: CP850 2   
   =================================================================   
                               EDITORIAL   
   =================================================================   
      
                            Taking P4 seriously?   
      
        A recap from five years ago. Problem still not solved.   
      
   Yes I know that I'm violating one of the rules that I myself have been   
   adament about during my entire tenure here, but since this issue has   
   come up so many times now, I felt it important to make it official by   
   posting it in our official channel, and not only in the FIDONEWS echo.   
      
      Ponder this quote from Fidonews Vol. 9 No. 52 (28 December 1992)   
   for some time:   
      
      
   /*********************************************************************   
   * IMPORTANT NOTE: The FidoNet address for FidoNews has been changed. *   
   * The new address is:                                                *   
   *                                                                    *   
   *                     FidoNews  =  1:1/23                            *   
   *                                                                    *   
   * Starting January 1993 email sent to the old address will not be    *   
   * forwarded! You were warned!                                        *   
   *********************************************************************/   
      
      It took just two and a half years to start ignoring P4, that says   
   that the Fidonews should be at 1:1/1.   
      
      When I became Fidonews Editor in 2002, it became even more obvious   
   why hard coding the Fidonews address into P4 was a mistake. By then it   
   was unthinkable that anyone but someone from zone 1 could ever be the   
   editor. And yes, for a few months there was one, a handful of years   
   before me, but he never really acted as one.   
      
      The z:z/1-6 node numbers were previously reserved for Zone Gates.   
   If you look at today's Zone 4 entry, you can see how it used to be 20   
   years ago.   
      
      Already in 2002 the idea about Zone Gates was rather obsolete, but   
   even so, there never was any need for a Zone Gate to the zone itself,   
   i.e. z:z/z. The 2:2/2 node number was removed already in November 9   
   1988 after less than a year and almost a year before P4 was written,   
   so reserving the z:z/z node should never had been any problem.   
      
      With the help from Ward we tried to make the first change to P4 for   
   more than a decade, suggesting that the Fidonews should have the ZIN   
   node number z:z/z rather than the hard coded 1:1/1.   
      
      Unfortunately a bunch of RCs came out of the woodwork and hijacked   
   our policy change attempt, adding all kinds of more or less futile   
   changes. Needless to say, it all crashed miserably. Our attempt to   
   take it one small step at a time, just to demonstrate that it could be   
   done, failed. Leaving us with the present dinosaur in effect still   
   today.   
      Thanks to the foresight of ZC2, Ward Dossche, in 2002 I got the   
   node number 2:2/2 just the same. The nodenumber that Fidonews holds   
   still today, almost two decades later, in clear violation of P4...   
      
      About the history of 1:1/1, here's some interesting reading. Notice   
   the futile attempts to hijack Fidonews using the nodelist between 2011   
   and 2015.   
      
      http://tinyurl.com/y3c64efr   
      
      Special thanks to Pavel Gulchouck (2:463/68) from Kiev, Ukraine,   
      who gave us the above amazing service and who has served Fidonet   
      well for more than 25 years.   
      
      Go there and find out a lot about yourself and those around you.   
      
      
      
   -----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
   --- Azure/NewsPrep 3.0   
    * Origin: Home of the Fidonews (2:2/2.0)   
   SEEN-BY: 1/19 2/2 16/0 19/37 123/130 142/104 203/0 2 124 412 218/700   
   SEEN-BY: 226/30 227/114 229/110 112 113 307 426 428 470 700 230/0   
   SEEN-BY: 240/5832 280/464 5003 5555 320/119 219 319 2119 322/0 423/81   
   PATH: 2/2 203/0 320/219 229/426