brantly.henr@XEROX.COM (09/15/88)
This is strictly my own opinion..... I've been using CompuServe for approximately 2 years, and have been, for the most part, quite satisfied with the services provided. I have however experienced some difficulty in communicating at 1200 baud (occassional trash characters). The current rates for CompuServe are $6 per hour @ 300 baud, $12 per hour @ 1200 baud. (Because of my 1200 baud problems I've been doing almost all of my stuff at 300 SLOW, SLOW baud.) Several months ago I saw an advertisement for Genie and decided to give it a try. Rates (non-prime time; that's the only time I use it anyway) are $5 per hour for both 300 & 1200 baud. The initial sign-up fee is $29.95 (but you get 2 free hours worth $10). Impressions of Genie from an ole CompuServe user: (1) Wow! The ST roundtable is great! I expected less, but there appears to be not only more stuff, but there appears to be newer stuff than CompuServe! (2) The Genie menus make the CompuServe (new) menu structure look pretty sick. To me, it's MUCH easier to get around on Genie than Compuserve. (3) In the ST roundtable on Genie, when you go the ST libraries, you can search ALL libraries at once! [ever had the problem where you wanted to find a file, but didn't know where to look?] (4) I can talk to Genie @ 1200 baud error free! Don't ask me why, but I can now talk at 1200 baud error free for $5 per hour, vs $12 per hour on CompuServe with trash. Genie is owned/operated? by General Electric. When I signed up they gave me a personal phone call to verify my order. They had a "free" genie intro manual to me in 3 days! They had a large "free" users manual to me in a week! Genie doesn't seem to have, as of yet, a large amount of business "stuff" like CompuServe, but I don't ever use it anyway. They do have Shopping (alot of the same businesses as CompuServe), Computer roundtables, airline reservations, etc..... (a LOT of stuff I haven't looked into yet, I'm having too much fun on the ST roundtable). A clarification here, a Genie "RoundTable" is the equivalent of a CompuServe "Forum". Anyway, Genie has won me over, I would definately recommend that individuals give it a test flight to see for themselves. I am in no way associated with CompuServe or Genie, I don't have time for another job! Dennis..... Brantly.Henr@Xerox.Com Rochester, NY