dmb@TIS.COM (David M. Baggett) (12/21/89)
I've never felt compelled to write a netnote about anything political before, but the proposal to establish a one-way link from Usenet to GEnie really bothers me. I agree with Diane Close that this is a bad thing, for many of the reasons she gave. (See her early posting "The Rape of Usenet", 20 Dec 89) The one-way nature of the link absolutely goes against the "freedom of information exchange" which Dave Small is seeking. It is unfortunate that GEnie's policies make it look like we Usenet folks are "hogging information", but unless a two-way link is established Dave Small will essentially be SELLING the FREE information provided here --- there is no exchange whatsoever (Usenet gets nothing). Let me point out that I believe Dave Small had noble intentions in proposing this. I am NOT accusing Dave Small of any ill intent. On the contrary, I believe he thought he would be providing a service for the ST community. I just think his proposal for a one-way Usenet->GEnie link would start a trend that could damage the Usenet permanently. My humble opinion: A two-way link or none at all. David Baggett (mail to dmb@TIS.COM) ---------------- My opinions on this matter do not in any way represent the opinions of my employer.
dsmall@well.UUCP (David Small) (12/24/89)
I'm writing this (brief) note to help bring the discussion to the close. The USENET-> GEnie link is down and will stay down until many, many things are cleared up, like 2-way access, email, etc. I've posted a fuller explanation of my intent and what happened .. which I can sum up with, *sigh* ... in the "link is down" note. I wanted to do this to hopefully cap the discussion; it's about something that no longer exists. Ever since I got the first batch of email teling me of the problems with the idea, I shut the thing down, and it's stayed off since, okay? Now can we please get back to a discussion of Chaos Strikes Back? -- thanks, Dave / Gadgets