Hello VAFNET/Net 500 Sysop! Current Veterans/Armed Forces Network Officers Ed Maycen President Lance Cooper Zone Administrator (ZC) Lance Cooper Zone Echomail Administrator (ZEC) Jeff Beck Zone Backbone Administrator Doug McArthur Chief Executive Officer Vacant Administrative Administrator Vacant Technical Administrator Doug McArthur Information Administrator Region Administrators United States RC Vacant Northern Administrator (RC) Vacant Eastern Administrator (RC) Vacant Souhern Administrator (RC) Vacant Western Administrator (RC) World Administrators Lance Cooper Region 1 Vacant Region 2 Vacant Region 3 Vacant Region 4 On behalf of the Staff of the Veterans/Armed Force Network (VAFNET(tm))we would like to welcome you to Net 500. As the group of Veterans and compatible Sysops. your system is welcome to participate in and enjoy the benefits of VAFNET Information Network and particularly Echomail. Net 500 is a small net covering the Worldwide area, Our Net was started to cover all areas of the Servicemen's life to include their lifetime as a veteran. With the participation of everyone in the net we can make it something worthwhile. It is suggested that you make yourself available to the rest of the network, so we can know your phone number, address, birthday and your BBS specialty. Please send this information or such to the Administrative Coordinator. Sysop List @ 500:100/ c/o Administrative Coordinator or posted in the "Network" conference as soon as you have access if you are using the QWK side of the network. Once you offer the information, you will be sent an updated list, and will be eligible to receive future updates as they occur. We are starting from scratch here. As a requirement to a node number, you must read and understand POLICY4, the Fidonet Bible. If you have any questions about the rules and requlations, this is where you turn to first. If the matter is still unresolved, bring it up with your Hub Administrator. If you require further assistance, bring it up with your Network NC. listed at the top of this document. If the matter is VAFNET(tm) related, it should be directed to your Network NEC. Policy4.Zip is a file requestable from any of the NET 500 networks. Again welcome to the Veteran/Armed Forces Network and if you have any further questions, please feel free to ask all you want in the NETWORK area echos. We have the following Network Echos for all VAFNET Network Sysops, they are required. VAF-NET-ADMIN sysops only, general conversation Conference 995 VAF-NET-FORSALE sysops and all users Conference 996 VAF-NET-USERS sysops and new users Say Hi Conference 997 VAF-NET-NEWS sysops for news announcements Conference 998 VAF-ADMIN sysops only, administrative actions Conference 999 Please request and read these conferences at least once a week, we will have Roll call at least once a month which will be a News letter called VAFNyymm. News articles, gossip, success stories and anything else we feel is interesting will be placed into this publication. Your contributions to the newsletter are welcome and we hope that this can ultimately become a printed newsletter for the millions of veterans and servicemen out there that have never had their hands on a computer. Echomail Cost Sharing --------------------- All Network Administrators, should ask for phone bill costs to toss Echomail to and from Network areas. We are in continuing to setup Area Administrators to help cut the cost of polling for mail. The only contribution is the $24.00 start- up cost to help with the Virginia Network to pay for any administrative costs, to help defray the costs of publicizing the network, mailing out press releases, and to help with the phone bills. Once each quarter the Administrative Coordinator will publish a summary of these costs... The policy on VAFNET(tm) and FidoBone all state that Command Posts will not cut anyone off for not being smart about their Areafix and FidoBone requests. If you are having a problem with a hub please write your concerns. Guide to Echomail Etiquette --------------------------- This is an etiquette guide to the VAFNET(tm) network. Why do we need an etiquette guide? Simple! Many new Hubs, as well as our conference hosts and sysops are going to need it. They will feel that by giving a new hub an idea of what is expected of them when they post mail, will make all of our jobs a lot easier. This guide was not intended to tell you how to get a mail packet or how to use an offline reader. We're assuming you can either figure that out for yourself, or ask your Mail Hub or another Sysop to help you. This guide should get you, a New VAFNET(tm) Node, "Up to Speed" quickly and try to point out a few pitfalls that new nodes traditionally seem to fall into. A lot of these "Unwritten rules" come down to us from Sysops and Nodes who have read thousands of messages and have been into BBSing for years. Some have been the direct result of very lively discussions from hosts who deal with problems like these on a daily basis. Other items are the result of some of our more memorable fights :} In any case, if you follow them , you will fit in with us just fine and will be on your way to becoming a member in good standing. If you choose to ignore them, expect to reminded from time to time by our good hosts! 1. BE HELPFUL AND FRIENDLY ------------------------- The electronic acquaintances you'll make on our network may well turn into lifelong friends. You may see a lot of characters in messages like :-) or :) or ;-). These aren't line noise characters. They're smiles (if you hold your head right). You'll also see grin S and other manifestations of this idea everywhere. Many of our callers use these little touches to indicate that the comment was meant to be friendly and humorous. 2. READ THE MESSAGE BASE UNTIL YOU'RE COMFORTABLE ------------------------------------------------- Jumping into message base can be a scary thing at first. Read the conference description (which is available from your VAFNET(tm) Hub - ask the Sysop) and understand what type of discussions are welcomed in the conference in which you want to be participating. Try to read several day's worth of messages before you post that first message. 3. KEEP YOUR MESSAGES ON TOPIC ------------------------------ When you start to post, try not to stray off topics of the conference. If you are posting about chili cooking in the Agent Orange conference you are causing nodes to download messages they don't want. They're reading Agent Orange to talk about herbicide poisoning. You are probably also duplicating topics that are under discussion in other, more appropriate conferences. In the above example, it would be good idea to move your unread messages to the NETUSERS conference and ask the others to join you. Another thing to avoid is posting personal chitchat messages in Subject Specific areas. If you find you want to chat informally with someone, move your thread to Netusers or pick up the phone. It saves us all money. Of course, occasional chitchat does happen in conferences. It's to be expected when people are comfortable and having a good time. But when it threatens to become an unreasonable percentage of the mail, or pulls the focus of the conference off topic, or goes on a long time. the host will usually step in and remind you to "take it to NETUSERS". 4. POST ONLY PUBLIC MAIL ------------------------ VAFNET(tm) does not support private mail. That means that all your mail posted in the VAFNET(tm) message conference message bases should be flagged "public" 5. MIND THE MODERATOR --------------------- Moderators have volunteered their valuable time and efforts to be responsible for a conference. By taking their advice, you can help make a conference useful to the maximum number of readers. If they ask you to move a message or request your cooperation in staying on topic, do it gracefully. They have been empowered to enforce the rules in the conferences, should it become necessary. This is generally done by discussing your behavior with you and if that fails, with your VAFNET(tm) Hub and local sysop. You should know that your access to conferences can be cut off, although this is not frequently done. What's a conference host or moderator, you ask? The moderator is a caller or Sysop responsible for a conference. In VAFNET(tm) conferences, the Moderator has final say to what is on topic and what the rules of the conference are. 6. NO PERSONAL FLAMES OR PROFANITY ---------------------------------- Although nodes are encouraged to express personal opinion in conferences where appropriate, the use of personal flames in messages directed at other members of the conference is prohibited, and can result in formal suspension and expulsion from the VAFNET(tm) by your Hub. There is a difference between a direct, personal attack directed toward an individual, and likely discussion or expressions of personal opinion. We encourage *idea* exchange, but if you cannot communicate those ideas without attacking another caller personally, you will be better off dropping the conference. Your moderator will let you know what is acceptable. Remember, treat people as you would have them treat you. The issue of profanity is clear as well. We all know the "Seven Dirty Words". Avoid them in our conference message bases. 7. AVOID DUPLICATIONS --------------------- You can help us! These hints will help your Hub and all the other links in the VAFNET(tm) chain save money and time when they transfer your messages. Remember, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch and so someone is using long- distance or measured service to transfer YOUR MAIL and some Sysops must call long-distance to get their board's mail. * AVOID UPLOADING DUPLICATE MESSAGES Ensure that your packets created by your Msg or offline reader are erased after it is uploaded successfully to your Mail Hub. There are a number of good Utilities available to you to aid in reading, packing and transferring of Echomail. Ask any Sysop for help in finding them. * DON'T QUOTE EXCESSIVELY Most message readers offer "quote" functions. Quotes are parts of the original message that you copy into your reply to help maintain the continuity of the thread. Big quotes mean big phone bills to transfer, since these messages are effectively duplicates. Experience also shows that people just don't READ posts with lots of big quotes. Use quotes sparingly!!! Of all problems, this is the biggest and most blant one plaguing private E-Mail systems. Help stamp out big quotes! Also, you might obtain a copy of FTS-0004, the Echomail specification document. It describes the acceptable format and contents of Echomail messages. 8. YOUR CALLERS --------------- One last area that can become a problem for you, and needs watching, is anyone who has access to the Echomail areas through your BBS has to conform to the same rules as everyone else. Also you must watch who has access to what echomail areas as some areas have special access requirements or restrictions (ie: No Users in NETWORK area) If a person posts messages through your BBS, and (s)he refuses to adapt to the rules, you will be asked to restrict their access to that area. Revisions ---------