Subj : Re: Mystic BBS v1.11 Alpha 1 RELEASED
To   : Alan Ianson
From : Paul Hayton
Date : Tue Oct 20 2015 08:32 am

On 10/19/15, Alan Ianson pondered and said...
 
 AI> Bjorn mentioned something about removing the mystic echo becuase he
 AI> thought it was a gated newsgroup. I think it was in the fidonews echo. I
 AI> told him it was not and a few others also chimed in to let him know that
 AI> as well.

Hi Alan.

The echoarea is gated by me to alt.bbs.mystic and has been for a number of
months now. I set the bi-directional gate in motion with the knowledge of
and blessing of both Nick and James (MYSTIC moderators). It was set up to
allow those on either side of the Usenet/Fidonet spectrum to be able to
engage with each other and access the support of the author. I had seen
requests for help in the Usenet newsgroup go unanswered previously.

If you have access to FN_SYSOP head back to mid August of this year and
re-read the thread 'Why I hate Usenet Gateing' and that will outline the
concerns/views raised by several. It also shows the steps I took to
ally/accomodate most of them. e.g. adjusted kludge settings on the gateway
software, nodelisted the gatway address.

In sum, the views of a few were that anything coming from Usenet into Fido
should be viewed as spam and a cheap method for generating traffic/activity
in the echoarea.

My view is that if the dialouge is on topic and there are those who want to
engage with other like minded souls on a area of interest then I see no issue
with providing a conduit (managed as well as it can be in terms of spam
filters etc.) to allow folks to connect.

The CBM and RBERRYPI echoareas are the other two that I gate in the same
manner.

Hope this helps explain things for those who were unaware. In any regard when
I started the gateway in MYSTIC I announced it at the time and what little
spam has come across from the Usenet side in the form of bot BBS adverts
posted monthly has (for the most part) been stopped at the gate :)
It's not 100% full proof but I remain proactive to ensuring it's on-topic
stuff the gate allows through.

Best, Paul

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