[nos-bbs] Re: JNOS closer to Winlink than many realize + hf.ampr.org anyone ?

[Tim Gorman]

My two cents worth:

Do we really want to turn the amateur bands into telecom access channels for 
the purpose of providing regular access by any and all to email ala WL2K?

I may be in the minority but I truly have a philosophical problem with WL2K 
carrying third party traffic to and from the internet on a regular basis in 
competition with commercial services that offer exactly the same service. 
Carrying third party traffic *is* part of the definition of a telecom carrier 
and I just shudder to think of amateur radio being viewed in that manner, 
especially if my use of jnos contributes to the view.

If the centralized email server being discussed here is for the use of 
amateurs primarily with designated emergency traffic a secondary use I see no 
problem with that. That is what the amateur spectrum *should* be used for.

I would applaud the use of the IMAP protocol in jnos because of its ability to 
leave mail on the server for others to access -- an important functionality 
where the mail may be to a tactical address that multiple people might need 
to read during the duration of an emergency.

The use of a fetchmail functionality to automatically download mail to the 
local server on a regular basis would also be a benefit.

I don't mean to start a flame war on this server but we need to carefully 
think through what our goals should be. Just because something *can* be done 
doesn't mean it *should* be done.

tim ab0wr