 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Eddies in the Ether Dave Mitchell |
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It had to happen eventually - it happens to all great writers so I'm told. Writer's block they call it. The total and seemingly incurable inability to think of anything to write about. Partly it stems from wondering how much weirdness you guys can take-or, in fact, want to see-but mainly it stems from the fact that I ran out of booze yesterday and I don't get paid till next Tuesday. Still there is a possibility I can write this stone cold sober but I'm not promising anything.
You Will Answer the Question!
Recently there has been a subtle shift of responsibilities on the BBS. Barry, of course, maintains his pre-eminent position of sysop (read God), Peter and Allan being his most able and constant acolytes with Phil and Terry adding their expertise when it's required. However to this team of dedicated, resourceful and highly knowledgeable individuals has been added a factor never before utilized to its full potential. That factor is a fellow called Alistair Lloyd (otherwise known as The Llama) and my good self (known to all and sundry as Dirty).
Alistair is now Assistant sysop in charge of registrations. This means he can kill your access any time the mood-swing takes him but in reality what his job entails is checking if people who have logged on to the BBS are members. This process can take a few days so if you are waiting for your access to be upgraded have patience.
Your humble author? Well, I've become Assistant sysop in charge of messaging. Which means I get to answer the messages to the sysop. Oh Joy! (By the way that was sarcasm). It also means I can kill all your messages before they get out! The Power! The POWER!.
Sorry, got carried away.
Anyway the upshot of this is that both Alistair and myself are so twisted that we actually seem pretty straight and in our perversity we decided that, as the two newest minor deities on the BBS, we would creatre a new power cabal tastefully named the Dirty Llamas. (Is this getting too weird? Hey! This is what it's like in the less technical areas.) As a consequence of this some of the other lunatics have either
- (a) been badgering us for admission to the Dirty Llamas or
- (b) forming their own groups to oppose our activities. Insults, snipes, accusations, putdowns and other sundry weirdness continues on a daily basis.
Access All Areas
Once again here's a rundown on five more of our local message areas. That damn sysop has gone and added some more, but I'll backtrack to them next month.
Area 19: Volunteer
An unfortunately under-utilised area. The club is run for and by you, the members. We can always use more volunteers for all sorts of things. As they say in the ads "Please Consider".
Area 20: Melb PC Training
Training reports, list of who, what and where, possibly questions on content of a particular course or clarification of times, etc. This is the area for you.
Area 21: User group to User group
I'm a little unclear about this one. I think it's an area which we can chat to other user groups but I don't think I've ever seen a message in here.
Area 22: Flames
Ahhhh, Flames! My favorite area. If you're at all thin-skinned do not post in here because what is light ragging and bagging in the general areas turns to full on insults in here. My activities in here lead directly to the Dirty tag which I wear with a good deal of pride. (It's because I fight dirty not because I swear, by the way.)
Area 23: Local Humour
If you think Bum is an intolerable swear word then I suggest you read this area with a fair amount of caution. There are, surprisingly enough, some clean jokes in here as well. (But not that many.)
More Pornography
You may recall in the Communications issue of PC Update (March 94) I had a good rabbit on and, in fact, got a bit heated about Government moves to regulate and possibly fine BBSs (not Melb PC because we don't carry it) that have "pornographic material" available to their users. The charge to save us from ourselves was basically led by the more sensationalist sections of the media (who else) who, in the vast majority of cases unfortunately, neither knew or, in fact, cared to know anything about the immense range of activity available on BBSs other than this, so called, pornography.
Anyway, I said at that point that I'd keep you up to date with subsequent developments in this area - here it is.
As a direct consequence of the beat-up against pornography a new organization has been formed by sysops from all over Australia. It is called "Electronic Frontiers, Australia" and it's aims are to
- (a) inform the uninformed (basically the Government) of the realities of BBSs and their activities and
- (b) to set some minimum standards for all BBSs, Australia-wide, particularly pertaining to establishing the identity and age of their users.
The upshot of this is that this issue has been put somewhat on the backburner and the "EFA" is lobbying as we speak to be a major voice in any decisions made on anything to do with BBSs or electronic communication.
You see what happens when fm sober! I go all serious! This has got to be fixed ASAP!
Here's the tag.
Physics tag: A perambulating piece of igneous material will gather no parasitic lifeforms.
Reprinted from the June 1994 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
