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From: davel@booboo.SanDiego.NCR.COM (David Lord)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Prodigy bashing. was: Re: mail to Prodigy
Message-ID: <1991Apr1.181020.8836@SanDiego.NCR.COM>
Date: 1 Apr 91 18:10:20 GMT
References: <DrPHILLIPS.91Mar26133225@fozzie.nrl.navy.mil> <1991Mar26.205510.19869@linus.mitre.org> <Mar.26.20.17.49.1991.9220@remus.rutgers.edu>
Sender: @SanDiego.NCR.COM
Reply-To: davel@booboo.SanDiego.NCR.COM (David Lord)
Distribution: usa
Organization: NCR Corporation, Rancho Bernardo
Lines: 44

I see a lot of prodigy bashing. For a change here's a few words in
defense of prodigy.

In article <Mar.26.20.17.49.1991.9220@remus.rutgers.edu> rauscher@remus.rutgers.edu (Rich Rauscher) writes:
>Quite simply, prodigy sucks if you've ever used the internet.

    Hardly a reasonable comparison. OK, Prodigy is not internet, never was
    never will be, but it offers a host of usefull features that aren't
    available here: stock quotes, headline news, gulf war updates (surprisingly
    well done), Dow Jones news retrieval, and of course all the infamous
    comercial services.

>When I used it I remember:
>  1)  No "chat" mode to talk to other users

    I haven't noticed that here either, and probably wouldn't use it if it
    was available.

>  2)  One bandwidth-hogging advertisement per a screen
>  3)  A complete waste of ten dollars a month

    Well during one not entirely typical month I logged on nearly every day,
    checked the Gulf War update and the headline news (now I only buy the
    paper on Sundays and save a tree), then I checked the price of my stock
    (NCR of course), checked the Dow Jones news retrieval for the latest
    on AT&T's takover attempt, and checked "PC News". Also during the month
    I looked at consummer reports for info on watersaver toilets, and queried
    one of the BBS's for info on laser printers.

    That amounted to at least half an hour a day. Of course I could have
    done the same thing 'commercial free' on Compuserve for only about $150.
    For a savings of $140 a month I'll live with a few advertisements.

    Personally I've never run up against Prodigy's infamous censorship but
    I don't use Prodigy to post notices complaining about Prodigy. Most of
    the 'censorship' occured after Prodigy started charging for E-mail
    services when a few very vocal people started seriously abusing the
    system by flooding the BBS's and other user's personal mailboxes with
    "Boycott Prodigy" messages. I for one was happy to see some of those
    people get kicked off. I'll bet such tactics wouldn't have been dealt
    with kindly here either. Admittedly Prodigy did go overboard for a time
    in trying to squelch such practices.
--
Dave.Lord@SanDiego.NCR.com