dsmall@well.UUCP (David Small) (01/09/90)
In the interests of heading off some useless notes, I need to point out that a future issue of ST-World has an article on the USENET->GEnie link. This article was written FAR in advance of the flamewar here, way before it was closed down (it is STILL down, okay?). Articles have to be written far in advance because of the necessities of printing and distribution. Most of the readers, I think, that have seen this stuff will understand that it's dated material; I wanted to make it clear to the rest that the material *NO LONGER APPLIES*. Please, no "rape of usenet" style flames! It may be of interest to note that GEnie has told me they are quite interested in a 2-way link (a 1-way isn't wanted), good 2-way email, and a complete lack of copyright hassles. GEnie has a compilation copyright, but as they put it, what's the point of it when USENET is doing the compiling, and not only on their system, but thousands of others, in nearly the exact same format? Putting it mildly, the depiction of GEnie as profit-mongers interested in mass-rape-of-USENET-notes is false. I hope to post an official reply from GEnie to this phantom stuff shortly which will confirm what I'm telling you -- basically, they want to do what WELL and PORTAL do, just offer another service to their subscribers. And anyone who can read an ad knows they're not gouging; as for me, I pay WELL happily, and get irritated when someone tells me I shouldn't even have the option to pay such money. I realize I sound defensive, but you've got to realize I spent pre-Christmas having accusations with nearly no ground in fact flung at me, being threatened, and so forth. Anyway. In summary, the ST-WORLD article is OLD NEWS, was written BEFORE any of the flames here, and DOES NOT REFLECT WHAT'S GOING ON NOW. (It's largely future tense anyway, and partly a technical description.) -- thank kew, Dave Small / Gadgets by Small