Xref: utzoo comp.misc:11444 comp.org.eff.talk:1465 alt.censorship:1238
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!wuarchive!udel!rochester!kodak!uupsi!psivax!ashtate!dbase!tomr
From: tomr@dbase.A-T.COM (Tom Rombouts)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,comp.org.eff.talk,alt.censorship
Subject: Re: Prodigy Special Offer hits my mailbox...
Message-ID: <1991Feb12.005515.835@dbase.A-T.COM>
Date: 12 Feb 91 00:55:15 GMT
References: <7569.27addc02@zeus.unomaha.edu>
Reply-To: tomr@dbase.UUCP (Tom Rombouts)
Organization: Ashton-Tate
Lines: 26

In article <7569.27addc02@zeus.unomaha.edu> jsaker@zeus.unomaha.edu (Jamie Saker) writes:
>This afternoon, I received an "entertaining" form letter in my U.S. Mailbox
>from Fred Larson, Vice President of Prodigy Services Company.
>Because of the discussions in various newsgroups about PRODIGY, I
>thought I'd post the letter and hear what others have to say about
>it.  I'd be especially interested in hearing PRODIGY user's and
>ex-user's comments. 

    [ incredibly hyped introductory offer letter deleted ]

Despite what the letter stated, to "really see what Prodigy is",
read some of the recent articles in the computer press about people
having their accounts terminated for daring to protest sudden
changes in the Prodigy e-mail rules.  Compared to USENET, BIX or
GEnie, Prodigy is a (somewhat scary) joke.  IMHO, Prodigy is to
on-line services as McDonald's is to restaurants or USA Today is
to newspapers.

There have been many times when IBM has been unjustly criticized,
but the outcry over their recent Prodigy actions is _not_ one of
those times.  To get even higher on my soapbox, Prodigy has more in 
common with The Home Shopping Club than it does with USENET or
Compu$Serve.  


Tom Rombouts  Torrance 'Tater  tomr@ashtate.A-T.com