jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (The Beach Bum) (09/20/88)
I was reading mail and noted an entry which asked if portal actually
contributed anything to the net in return for the burden they place
on the machines and people, that's us, responsible for seeing to it
that the network continues to operate.
This is part of the UUCP map entry for Portal. For those of you who are
just casual readers and aren't familiar with UUCP maps, I'll narrate
as I go ...
#N .portal.com, portal
-- this is the site name, portal. they are also in the .com domain.
#F sun.com
-- this is their MX (mail exchange) forwarder, which means they can
-- receive Internet mail through sun.com. so, all their mail pretty
-- much clogs up the internet.
#U
-- list of USENET feeds. empty? i wonder why?
#W portal!jel (John Little); Mon Aug 22 09:39:38 PDT 1988
#
portal .portal.com
portal= portal.portal.com, portal.com
portal sun(EVENING), atari(EVENING), hoptoad(EVENING), claris(EVENING)
-- list of mail connections. hmmm. not too many, are there?
What we have here is a system which consistently ranks in the top five
producers of news traffic. What they don't do is contribute anything
back to the net. No news feeds, no mail traffic, NOTHING. They rake
in the money from the kiddies, and spit out megabytes of garbage.
Even the mail connections they list are of a less than useful variety.
As our little friends have been so kind to point out, Portal
Communications has annual receipts in excess of $1,800,000 and expenses
consisting most likely of salaries and phone lines. The principles
are getting rich on the backs of the net and no one seems to care.
Unless steps are taken to curtail this wanton abuse of the good will
of the net, I will take whatever steps needed to raise the required
capital to create a Portal Communications Company clone which I will
then use to compete directly, head to head, with .portal.com for
their revenue and subscriber base. The profits which are being
generated are most certainly high enough that subscriptions could be
sold for well under $10 per month while still guaranteeing that I
will be a millionare before too long.
You are invited to watch, or join, or come to your senses and remove
that site from existence. And should the need arise, you will also
be invited to invest your money in this venture. Surely an oppurtunity
such as this only comes once or twice in a lifetime. UNLESS, someone
acts now. These are not empty words. Surely there are other John
Little's willing to make the big bucks babysitting a BBS. And surely
there are investors willing to produce the needed funds to create that
BBS.
--
John F. Haugh II (jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US) HASA, "S" Division
"If the code and the comments disagree, then both are probably wrong."
-- Norm Schryerdtynan@sultra.UUCP (Dermot Tynan) (09/21/88)
In article <6849@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US>, jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (The Beach Bum) writes: > > [...] Portal > Communications has annual receipts in excess of $1,800,000 and expenses > consisting most likely of salaries and phone lines. The principles > are getting rich on the backs of the net and no one seems to care. > I care. See my article in news.admin (no, I won't X-post). Is this figure for real??? Any comments? I know that USENET could be *vastly* improved with only 10% of that!!! How much of that $1.8M is coming from USENET pockets? > Unless steps are taken to curtail this wanton abuse of the good will > of the net, I will take whatever steps needed to raise the required > capital to create a Portal Communications Company clone which I will > then use to compete directly, head to head, with .portal.com for > their revenue and subscriber base. The profits which are being > > John F. Haugh II (jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US) HASA, "S" Division I would suggest that perhaps UUNET has the facilities in place (and hopefully the courtesy to ensure the goodwill of the net is maintained) to do just that. Again, referring to what I posted in news.admin, I wouldn't suggest that such a service "drop" any offenders, just limit their distribution. I presume that UUNET will send me some hate-mail for suggesting this, but if they are worried about generating revenue, this could certainly provide an answer. Who knows, maybe they could even give themselves a small salary??? I think they (uunet) deserve it. As usual, I welcome comments... - Der -- Reply: dtynan@sultra.UUCP (Dermot Tynan @ Tynan Computers) {mips,pyramid}!sultra!dtynan Cast a cold eye on life, on death. Horseman, pass by... [WBY]
ray@micomvax.UUCP (Ray Dunn) (09/21/88)
In article <6849@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US> jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (The Beach Bum) writes: >I was reading mail and noted an entry which asked if portal actually >contributed anything to the net in return for the burden they place >on the machines and people, that's us, responsible for seeing to it >that the network continues to operate. Hmm. Interesting isn't it. The email between these anti-portal posters certainly seems to have been busy! >This is part of the UUCP map entry for Portal [.....] >Unless steps are taken to curtail this wanton abuse of the good will >of the net, I will take whatever steps needed to raise the required >capital to create a Portal Communications Company clone which I will >then use to compete directly, head to head, with .portal.com for >their revenue and subscriber base [....] Can we now see the reason. Naw. I can't believe its *that* simple! >You are invited to watch, or join, or come to your senses and remove >that site from existence. Why does this phrase make chills run down my spine, and the hair on the nape of neck begin to rise? > And should the need arise, you will also >be invited to invest your money in this venture. Surely an oppurtunity >such as this only comes once or twice in a lifetime. UNLESS, someone >acts now. These are not empty words. Surely there are other John >Little's willing to make the big bucks babysitting a BBS. And surely >there are investors willing to produce the needed funds to create that >BBS. >-- >John F. Haugh II (jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US) HASA, "S" Division Is all this *really* because these dolts want to start up a rival system?? I doubt it, but I suppose that *would* be the most charitable conclusion we could come to! -- Ray Dunn. | UUCP: ..!philabs!micomvax!ray Philips Electronics Ltd. | TEL : (514) 744-8200 Ext: 2347 600 Dr Frederik Philips Blvd | FAX : (514) 744-6455 St Laurent. Quebec. H4M 2S9 | TLX : 05-824090
werner@utastro.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (09/22/88)
In article <2416@sultra.UUCP>, dtynan@sultra.UUCP (Dermot Tynan) writes: > In article <6849@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US>, jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (The Beach Bum) writes: > > [...] Portal > > Communications has annual receipts in excess of $1,800,000 and expenses > > consisting most likely of salaries and phone lines. The principles > > are getting rich on the backs of the net and no one seems to care. I'd like to see this info substantiated; is it public info, inside info, rumour, educated guess, wild guess ... ??!! somehow I don't feel real good reading those quoted 3 lines ... > > Unless steps are taken to curtail this wanton abuse of the good will steps?? gee....hmmm... who is supposed to have just jumped of his/her "easy-chair"?!..... > > of the net, I will take whatever steps needed to raise the required > > capital to create a Portal Communications Company clone which I will > > then use to compete directly, head to head, with .portal.com ... I'm sure everyone I know would like to see you compete! after all, it's the American way to keep prices reasonable and service quality high ... noone I know cares to just read pre-announcements only, though .. I'd be most impressed if this were not just empty words ... > I would suggest that perhaps UUNET has the facilities in place... I'd like the idea of UUNET or STARGATE considering to make some money in this area (if there is any to make ?!) -- --------------------> PREFERED-RETURN-ADDRESS-FOLLOWS <--------------------- (ARPA) werner@rascal.ics.utexas.edu (Internet: 128.83.144.1) (INTERNET) werner%rascal.ics.utexas.edu@cs.utexas.edu (UUCP) ..!utastro!werner or ..!uunet!rascal.ics.utexas.edu!werner
david@ms.uky.edu (David Herron -- One of the vertebrae) (09/26/88)
I noticed the other day while reading news (I watch the Path: lines as
I'm reading to keep an idea of how well the news system is running here)
that ALL of the articles I saw come through portal came through uunet
just after portal. (...uunet!portal!... in Path:).
Which means that portal *is* pulling some weight on the net, and that
they have links which aren't advertised in their map entry.
--
<-- David Herron; The official MMDF guy of the 1988 Olympics <david@ms.uky.edu>
<-- ska: David le casse\*' {rutgers,uunet}!ukma!david, david@UKMA.BITNET
<-- What does the phrase "Don't work too hard"
<-- have to do with the decline of the american 'work ethic'?allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Phil Smith) (09/30/88)
As quoted from <3152@utastro.UUCP> by werner@utastro.UUCP (Werner Uhrig): +--------------- | In article <2416@sultra.UUCP>, dtynan@sultra.UUCP (Dermot Tynan) writes: | > In article <6849@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US>, jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (The Beach Bum) writes: | > > Unless steps are taken to curtail this wanton abuse of the good will | > > of the net, I will take whatever steps needed to raise the required | > > capital to create a Portal Communications Company clone which I will | > > then use to compete directly, head to head, with .portal.com ... | | I'm sure everyone I know would like to see you compete! | after all, it's the American way to keep prices reasonable | and service quality high ... +--------------- Actually, with ncoast becoming a fee-based system (assuming we get the hardware problems resolved), Portal now *has* some competition. Not that I expect ever to make any money directly from ncoast (e.g. contacts THROUGH ncoast have resulted in income, but working with ncoast itself has not and will not), and I daresay the other sysadmins won't profit either. (They may be recouping losses for a while, though.) I like to think ncoast does a bit more for the net than Portal does. (If you feel we don't, let me know! --Email, please. No point in flooding the net with it, I won't read it any faster.) ++Brandon -- Brandon S. Allbery, uunet!marque!ncoast!allbery DELPHI: ALLBERY For comp.sources.misc send mail to <backbone>!sources-misc comp.sources.misc is moving off ncoast -- please do NOT send submissions direct ncoast's days are numbered -- please send mail to ncoast!system if you can help