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From: turrell@violet.berkeley.edu (David Turrell;;;;GQ79)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems,alt.bbs,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: USR Sysop Deal Change
Message-ID: <1991Jun23.063737.15105@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 23 Jun 91 06:37:37 GMT
Article-I.D.: agate.1991Jun23.063737.15105
References: <1991Jun15.052742.29055@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <1991Jun15.191309.26172@unlinfo.unl.edu> <1991Jun15.233821.24216@dartvax.dartmouth.edu>
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On June 15, 1991, llama@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Joe Francis) wrote:

>What is USR?  It sounds like a membership organization fot BBS operators.
>What are it's benifits/drawbacks?

USR is U.S. Robotics, and they sell modems.

They sell them at a deep discount to BBS operators. Those "sysops" note on
their welcome screen that their modem is a "USR" and thus become, in effect,
paid advertisers for US Robotics. USR has gained "modem supremacy" among
sysops, and they say so in their ads:

       "U.S. Robotics "Courier" modems are the preferred choice
        of Electronic Bulletin Board (BBS) operators worldwide."

This thread began because USR now wants to make sure that they are getting a
proper bang for their advertising buck by checking BBS's for caller activity.
After all, if a BBS isn't getting many callers, then the "USR" on the welcome
screen won't be impressing many people into buying USR modems. To measure
caller activity, USR requires a relatively high level of access to the BBS,
raising privacy concerns at first that are now being discounted.

-David