From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Feedback to the Forth Interest Group
Date: 8 Apr 92 12:33:14 GMT
Organization: (n.) to be organized.  But that's not important right now.

Category 1,  Topic 2
Message 142       Tue Mar 24, 1992
D.RUFFER [Dennis]            at 02:26 EST
 
Re: Eric Johansson

 > you can get "chear" access via the WELL, Worl, and a host of
 > waffel BBSs

Sure glad you added the quotes on "cheap" Eric, since at $6/hour GEnie _is_
cheaper than I pay to call outside the LA area.  When you measure costs,
please don't forget the long distance charges that most people incur when
calling these services.  Yes, I know some people do not have a GEnie node near
them, but that problem will soon be virtually eliminated.  I just heard about
some interesting plans that are in the works, but I just can't alk about them
yet. Never the less, stay tuned to see how the _big boys_ play this game.

 > ... and a 2 week expire on c.l.forth

<grin> do I even need to mention that we have _no_ expire time on GEnie
messages?  The most any of the RoundTables excersise is a 30 day purge on
their most active topics.  In our Forth RoundTable, we manage to deal with
things on a yearly basis (i.e. we are just now archiving 1990).  I'd sure love
it if all the I only had to answer "which Forth for x" questions once.  People
who can get on GEnie have the answers right at their finger tips.

 > figure out how to build a kill file.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this still mean that you have to
download all messages before you can kill them?  What Brad was talking about
was not even paying to transfer them to his computer.  This can be very
significant if there is a lot of chatter going on in some line of conversation
that you are not interested in.

 > It's Unix all over :-)

Some people must like it.  I know many who don't.  In fact, even the Aladdin
interface is consider to be archaic and it will soon be improved.  We've come
a long way since "rn or nn" was even considered to be usable.

 > not more than 20$/mo unlimited usage 19.2kb/sec.

Keep dreaming!

Re: Doug Philips

 >+ ...poor choice of going exclusively with GEnie...
 >
 > I would like to see an answer to this.

On access, see my note to Eric above.  We are riding on _the_ largest privatly
held network in the world (GEIS).  We used to be "excess capacity", but now
are driving their resources over the edge of their capabilities.  Many changes
are in the works to resolve the problems that GEnie growth has presented to
the system.  I will report on them as soon as I can, but having just gotten
back from a conference at GEnie headquarters, I must say that my commitment to
GEnie has been reinforced.  I'm convinced we made the right choice. Maybe the
simple fact that GEnie is the _only_ information service that managed 30%
growth in the middle of a recession might help to convince some of the
doubters.

On FIG Board agendas, I will only say that _we all_ have agendas and they do
not always mesh as nicely as we all would like them to.  It is only by working
_together_ that we will ever accomplish anything. Obviously, this means that
we must first agree on what agenda items we want to concentrait on.  No one
should ever assume that their personal agenda is shared by others.  Forcing
your will on others is a sure way to waste everyone's time.

   {B-{)>   DaR

   {B-{)>   DaR
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