On Sat, 14 Jun 2014, Paul Hayton wrote to mark lewis:   
      
    PH> On 06-13-14, mark lewis pondered and said...   
    PH>     
    ml> while it may not be evident, the editing is removing the stuff    
    ml> that makes no sense in this media... 'Ad' place holders,    
    ml> '[blahblah.jpg] place holders and the text for what would be links    
    ml> to click on... they are all already modified by the conversion to    
    ml> text... it just takes time to go through each message every time    
    ml> and clen it up... the worst is probably all the list entries that    
    ml> start with an '*' that aren't lined up properly from the    
    ml> conversion... the conversion has already been done by the time the    
    ml> messages reach me...   
      
    PH> Aha.. OK sorry then perhaps I should have asked for the status quo    
    PH> to remain .. so edited? I wasn't aware of any of the above. Thank    
    PH> you for what you are doing to get this content posted out to the    
    PH> Fidonet.   
      
   no problem, paul... comparing the two i posted with that notation with the   
   previous ones should show the difference but that depends on how well i did   
   the editing... i used to reflow the paragraphs, too, but i've since stopped   
   doing that... at least until i can maybe find the time to work on a tool to   
   automate the process the way the arnewsline is...   
      
    ml>  PH> Just wondering how it all works, author permissions to cross    
    ml>  PH> post etc.    
    ml>    
    ml> everything has already been handled AFAIK... they're certainly not    
    ml> being (re)published and there's definitely no $$$ involved... most    
    ml> certainly the non-existant links cannot work in this media ;)   
      
    PH> OK, I'm keen to see if we can get more content from sources like   
    PH> this posted to Fidonet but I'm not sure how best to start. At this   
    PH> stage I am still in slow but steady set up mode of my BBS and   
    PH> trying to get Fidonet feeds flowing again to the three downlinks   
    PH> from my New Zealand hub.   
      
   that's quite understandable... when the 'net came along, everyone got hurt   
   with the bbses shutting down... trying to keep them running and providing them   
   traffic is very beneficial... it could possibly even lead to more systems   
   returning as ex-sysops find that we're still out here and they get bitten by   
   the bug again ;)   
      
    PH> Next step for me will be to set up a gateway for usenet in/out of   
    PH> my BBS. Once I have the gating software figured out and running I   
    PH> thought if I could then find content that may make for acceptable   
    PH> reading in Fidonet from other sources I might try and get something   
    PH> flowing.... but those ambitions are a bit further down the trac...   
      
   yeah, that's gonna be fun... i do that now with souper and GIGO on my OS/2   
   system... GIGO needs the GIGOSMTP package... that whole setup is native OS/2   
   and i'm not sure what is available for winwhatever or linux... the ugly part   
   is going to be figuring out how to unmime some of the stuff that's being   
   posted... it ain't pretty when seen and i've not yet figured out which way   
   would be the best way to handle it in my environment... oh! i just had an idea   
   that might work! something else to consider...   
      
    ml>  PH> also can you tell me about some of the older echos    
    ml>  PH> (whitehouse releases etc.) and how they landed in the fidonet    
    ml>  PH> system in the [...]   
    ml>    
    ml> the whitehouse postings used to be gathered by a script... i    
    ml> forget who was doing it originally but they left and i was given    
    ml> the task... it was all automated and worked great until the    
    ml> current POTUS' media folks changed everything over to the current    
    ml> format they are using... it has made it nearly impossible to    
    ml> gather the articles and convert them for posting in fidonet... i    
    ml> sent them several emails asking for the ability and never received    
    ml> any word back from them at all so it was dropped since it didn't    
    ml> work any longer anyway... other services of similar nature also    
    ml> fell to things like this :(   
      
    PH> You have been busy!   
      
   hehehe... i've also been in fidonet since before P4 was introduced ;)   
      
    PH> I think it would be good if we can find other content that would    
    PH> be of value/interest to Fido readers to port/gate call it what you    
    PH> will across to Fido. I know the argument may be you can view it in    
    PH> HTML but I think for things where there are special interests in    
    PH> areas such as space, radio, geology, central governments etc.. it    
    PH> would be cool for Fido readers to be able to see them and BBS's to    
    PH> be able to offer them.   
      
   agreed... there are numerous systems gating newsgroups into their systems and   
   also providing those groups as echos... the problem is the format conversion   
   (mime and html) as well as keeping the spam out... the alt.* news hierarchy is   
   known as the wastelands for a good reason... the other hierarchies are much   
   cleaner and have active moderators in them to prevent the spam and off topic   
   traffic... moderated newsgroups are like wwiv groups... they work exactly the   
   opposite to FTN echos and the other common messaging formats... newsgroups   
   moderators have to see and approve each post before it is broadcast to the   
   group... it is a proactive moderating technique... our stuff is all reactive   
   in that the posts are spread before the moderator knows the post even   
   exists... in moderated newsgroups, the posts go to a special email address for   
   the moderators... there are no posts directly into the group... this can be   
   tricky to set up in one's software, too... i had to do it for the nasa groups   
   i pull and feed to a few systems... one of those just across the ''channel''   
   from you in australia ;)   
      
    PH> Perhaps I'm just too young and eager having been away from the    
    PH> scene for a number of years... but it's a happy space to be in :-)    
    PH> la la la...    
      
   hahaha... i know the feeling... having spent half+ of my life associated with   
   fidonet, there are times and things that i get excited about and pour a lot of   
   effort into... then there are some things that well... just go away after a   
   time...   
      
   )\/(ark   
      
   One of the great tragedies of life is the murder of a beautiful theory by a   
   gang of brutal facts. --Benjamin Franklin   
      
   --- FMail/Win32 1.60   
    * Origin:  (1:3634/12.71)