[OZAPRS] Melbourne APRS Digipeater Status

[Richard Murnane]

On 25/03/2011, at 3:05 PM, Ray Wells wrote:

> Why did packet die? As sysop of a BBS (6 radio ports plus axudp  
> links) for near 14 years I often pondered that question and my  
> conclusions are;

You forgot one other factor: a certain individual who in the mid-90's  
went around threatening defamation suits against anyone who dared  
criticise the shenanigans he and his mates got up to as directors of  
you-know-what-organisation. I was told that also threatened a number  
of packet sysops with legal action if they allowed any critical  
messages to appear on their bulletin boards, claiming they were  
"knowing publishers" (or some such nonsense) of defamatory material.  
(Hypocritically, he himself was a prodigious producer of defamatory  
messages himself.)

He was full of $#!+ of course, but it cast a pallor over much packet  
activity at the time. And the supposedly defamatory messages were for  
the most valid criticism and information that members of you-know-what- 
organisation had every legal right to know. Packet radio was the most  
effective means of distributing that information, which is why said  
individual expended so much effort (and who knows how much money)  
trying to prevent it.

73 Richard VK2SKY