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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!amdcad!lll-crg!lll-lcc!well!tenney
From: tenney@well.UUCP (Glenn S. Tenney)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: WELL (and maybe BIX, too)
Message-ID: <730@well.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Mar-86 16:40:10 EST
Article-I.D.: well.730
Posted: Wed Mar  5 16:40:10 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Mar-86 08:08:15 EST
References: <1240@brl-smoke.ARPA> <514@lzaz.UUCP>
Reply-To: tenney@well.UUCP (Glenn S. Tenney)
Organization: Whole Earth Lectronic Link, Sausalito CA
Lines: 67

In article <514@lzaz.UUCP> psc@lzaz.UUCP (Paul S. R. Chisholm) writes:
> ...
>     But I've got some questions:
>
>     o  Are WELL conferences moderated?  Some, most, all, none?

Each conference has a "host".  I am the co-host of the Amiga conference
(btw, a VERY active conference).  A host is a bit different than a
moderator.  I feel the host's job (btw, unpaid!) is to help users, help
focus postings into the appropriately titled topics, help manage the
online upload library (the Amiga conference has acquired over 100 items
in the last month or two), and generally keep the "room" neat and the
conference active.  This type of moderation does not usually entail
censorship, but would if the need arose.

>     o  I've noticed ...!well!foo on netnews.  Can you send and receive
>Unix mail as a vanilla WELL user?  Are netnews articles cross-posted?
>Vice versa?

Yes.  Any user can post netnews and/or mail and can receive net mail.
Although, some users just want the tele-conferencing benefits of the
Well and don't want to deal with long strings of paths.  The Well runs
a 4.2bsd system, so much (all?) of Unix is available to the knowledgable
user.

>     o  Is the user interface such that your can write a script for your
>terminal program to read all your mail and download all your conference
>messages?  (I like reading off-line.)

Yes.  You can write a various scripts in different shells to handle
mail and netnews.  PicoSpan (the conferencing software used on the
Well) also supports scripts that would let you capture all unread items
of interest in those conferences of interest.  (ie. You can selectively
join conferences as well as selectively read topics within each
conference.)

>     Come to think of it, how would BIX users answer those same
>questions?  (I know BIX doesn't offer Unix mail.)  Or other
>conference services?

I personally feel that other systems such as BIX and CSI are poor price
performers because the useful information content is very low compared
to the number of messages making each useful tidbit very expensive.  I
also use Delphi because it is less expensive than BIX/CSI and has
worldwide access, but I've found access to usenet mail and netnews to
be VERY valuable (I missed it for a long time).

All in all, since the Well now has Uninet access, it might start being
used by people worldwide as an economical alternative as well as a
gateway to UseNet.  Besides Uninet, there is PCPursuit which would cost
(I believe) $25/month flat rate for telecom access to various cities
including to the Well.  At 10 hours a month of Well usage, this would
come to $4.50/hr inclusive.  Hmmm, the more hours you use PCPursuit the
cheaper it is /hr (20hrs=$3.25/hr).

>-- 
>       -Paul S. R. Chisholm, ihnp4!lznv!psc or {pegasus,ihnp4}!lzaz!psc
>       or attmail!psrchisholm or AT&T Mail !psrchisholm (TLX 150249361)
>       The above opinions might not be shared by any telcomm company.
>NOMINATE MARK LEEPER (mtgzz!leeper):  HUGO AWARD FOR BEST FAN WRITER IN 1986


-- Glenn Tenney 
UUCP: {hplabs,glacier,lll-crg,ihnp4!ptsfa}!well!tenney
ARPA: well!tenney@LLL-CRG.ARPA              Delphi or MCI Mail: TENNEY
As Alphonso Bodoya would say... (tnx boulton)
Disclaimers? DISCLAIMERS!? I don' gotta show you no stinking DISCLAIMERS!