Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!eagle!data.nas.nasa.gov!nas.nasa.gov!vancleef
From: vancleef@nas.nasa.gov (Robert E. Van Cleef)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: email's not real Mail, now, is it?
Message-ID: <1990Dec24.171425.29452@nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 24 Dec 90 17:14:25 GMT
References: <6504@crash.cts.com>
Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov
Reply-To: vancleef@nas.nasa.gov (Robert E. Van Cleef)
Organization: NASA/Ames Research Center
Lines: 31

I am beginning to get tired of some of the unjustified Prodigy bashing that I've
seen on this forum. For example:

In article <6504@crash.cts.com>, jonl@pro-smof.cts.com (Jon Lebkowsky) writes:
|> In-Reply-To: message from alien@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com
|> 
|> I am no friend to Prodigy, which I
|> consider a loathsome system designed to condition the consumer like a
|> salivating dog to buy anything and everything in his/her online path.

Come on, give me a break. Do you watch any commercial TV? Do you listen to any commercial radio stations? Do you read any commercial magazines? Do any of those actions turn you into a "salivating dog?"

I have accounts on Usenet, CompuServe, GEnie, and Prodigy. My son uses Prodigy exclusively.

   1) If I want to look at the weather; check an online service such as Eaasy Sabre; read an online Encyclopidia; or check the value of my less than massive stock portfolio (sigh...); I use Prodigy. It is a flat rate for ALL services, and those "loathsome" advertisements can be ignored as readily on Prodigy as they can be on TV. (more so as they are silent...)

   2) My 15 year old son is very comfortable on Prodigy. He monitors the Nitendo game discussions and plays "Mad Maze", all for one flat fee (which makes me comfortable with the monthly bill :). My daughter uses the encyclopidia for her school reports. (My son doesn't believe in school reports - sigh...)

   3) I've been watching the level of confusion on GEnie as the "refugees" from Prodigy try to find their way about the system. Even with the "intelligent" interface programs, such as Aladdin, GEnie and CompuServe are more difficult to use than Prodigy. (And GEnie's speed of response is almost slower than Prodigy's; without any graphics!)

For interactive discussions, I use GEnie; for software product support forums I use CompuServe; for commercial services I use Prodigy; and to support my paranoia and to feed my insanity I hang out on Usenet <grin>. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses. Just because Prodigy has set some standards that we don't agree with, no matter how clumsily they did it, is no grounds for us to become "loathsome, salivating dogs..."

-- 
Bob Van Cleef 			vancleef@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center	(415) 604-4366

VANCLEEF  - GEnie
71565,533 - CompuServe
HHFF35A   - Prodigy    (don't you love the user friendly account names :)
---
Perception is reality...