woolard@uns-helios.nevada.edu (MIKE WOOLARD) (10/04/90)
I have received MANY replies to my original posting of "Reviews Wanted." They all say primarily the same thing... That it is not their idea of a "good time". I was overwhelmed by complaints, and have decided on whether or not to get it or not. Thanks for all the replies...Take it easy. ------------------------------------------ I accept sole responsibility for the content of my postings. Period... Nuf' said. ------------------------------------------
bevans@tanus.oz.au (Brian Evans Esq) (10/07/90)
Since we are on the topic of Prodigy in this newsgroup, could someone please
clarify for me if Prodigy carries newsgroups of this kind direct from the
internet?
--
_--_|\ Brian Evans Internet: bevans@tanus.oz.au
/ \ P.O Box 232 Compu$erve: 72500,1355 | Fax: +61 3 412-1551
\_.--._/ Avondale Heights, 3034 VoiceMail: +61 3 506-1629
v Victoria, AustraliaJJL101@psuvm.psu.edu (J.J. Lehett) (10/09/90)
In article <214@jabaru.oz.au>, bevans@tanus.oz.au (Brian Evans Esq) says: > >Since we are on the topic of Prodigy in this newsgroup, could someone please >clarify for me if Prodigy carries newsgroups of this kind direct from the >internet? > No, prodigy is not connected to the net. They have their own smaller slower version of newsgroups though which, if one is patient enough can be used in a similiar way as usenet. However, rememeber, only other Prodigy users can read and post. ************************************************************************* * J.J. * Internet: JJL101@PSUVM.PSU.EDU * Penn State * * * * Center for * * John Lehett * Bitnet: JJL101@PSUVM * Academic Computing * ************************************************************************* * Limit(Continuous Luck) = Skill * *************************************************************************
whitejon@acf5.NYU.EDU (jonathan white) (10/09/90)
In article <214@jabaru.oz.au> bevans@tanus.oz.au (Brian Evans Esq) writes: >Since we are on the topic ofn Prodigy in this newsgroup, could someone please >clarify for me if Prodigy carries newsgroups yes > of this kind direct from the >internet? no where near it. Prodigy decides what the news groups will. Prodigy censors the posting to the news groups. and for some of them prodigy by deciding which news articles are posted fro discusion controls the content. If I were prone to conspiracy theories I'd think that there is some data gathering going on. Jonathan
zech@leadsv.UUCP (Bill Zech) (10/10/90)
In article <214@jabaru.oz.au> bevans@tanus.oz.au (Brian Evans Esq) writes: >Since we are on the topic of Prodigy in this newsgroup, could someone please >clarify for me if Prodigy carries newsgroups of this kind direct from the >internet? > Prodigy has no direct connections with Internet or any other network service that I know of. However, I think it would be a Good Thing if they did. - BZ
dave@westmark.WESTMARK.COM (Dave Levenson) (10/10/90)
In article <214@jabaru.oz.au>, bevans@tanus.oz.au (Brian Evans Esq) writes: > Since we are on the topic of Prodigy in this newsgroup, could someone please > clarify for me if Prodigy carries newsgroups of this kind direct from the > internet? My chief beef with Prodigy is its total lack of any gateways to any other mail or news networks. It ignores the existence of the Internet, MCI Mail, AT&T Mail, etc. -- Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Warren, NJ, USA AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave [The Man in the Mooney] Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857
ralphs@halcyon.wa.com (Ralph Sims) (10/10/90)
zech@leadsv.UUCP (Bill Zech) writes: > Prodigy has no direct connections with Internet or any other network > service that I know of. However, I think it would be a Good Thing > if they did. With their history of censorship, um... content control, it would be a Bad Thing. They are in the position to moderate the content of their message bases now, and they probably wouldn't be if they decided to allow e-mail to the outside world. *HO's, etc. apply.
ron@woan (Ronald S. Woan) (11/30/90)
In article <5481@orchid5.UUCP>, kraus@motcid (David Kraus) writes:
Dave> First of all, Prodigy access went up to $12.95/month as of 1
Dave> October(?). I was on a free month right about then, was
Dave> considering keeping it for $9.95, but the increase was enough
Dave> for me to drop for the second time. It MIGHT be worth
Dave> $10/month, but not $13, especially when I have access to USENET
Dave> and FidoNet conferences.
Actually it is still $9.95/month if you choose to pay for it a year at
a time... Anyway, I too find USENET far more useful, but I don't think
that I am really in their target market; they seem to be aiming at
families and recreational computer users, not us hardcore nuts...
Dave> The discussion groups seemed a bit lame. More specific info on
Dave> the other nets I have access to. Keep in mind that the groups
Dave> are HEAVILY moderated (not censored), so that may stifle some of
Dave> the information value, especially re: IBM products and direct
Dave> competitors.
There is a lot of IBM slamming and discussions regarding Northgate and
Gateway products.. IBM has nothing to do with Prodigy's day to day
operations; they just own half of it. Prodigy is an independent
company, just as Rolm and MCI were when they were under partial IBM
ownership. Blatant moderation seems to limited discusions of certain
aspects of Prodigy operation (i.e. email charges), slandering of
individuals, and dirty words...
Dave> As far as I know, the discussions/most everything is at the flat
Dave> rate. Not sure about Eaasy Sabre, as I didn't sign up for that,
Dave> but I think that's included as well.
Yes everything is under flat rate on Prodigy; the only exception will
be the over 30/month email charges to kick in at a yet to be released
time next year.
Prodigy isn't bad for what it offers and I use it over other services
like Compuserve when I can, i.e. shopping, news, and Easy Sabre, due
to its relative low cost. Anyway, it isn't for everyone, but it does a
relatively good job for its costs...
+-----All Views Expressed Are My Own And Are Not Necessarily Shared By------+
+------------------------------My Employer----------------------------------+
+ Ronald S. Woan woan@peyote.cactus.org or woan%austin@iinus1.ibm.com +
+ other email addresses Prodigy: XTCR74A Compuserve: 73530,2537 +cb@tamarack12.timbuk (Chris Brewster) (03/22/91)
I just hooked up to Prodigy for the first time. I have two kids and thought its family orientation might be useful. In fact, some of the material intended for kids looks pretty good, but I find the service unsatisfactory over-all. Prodigy is designed to be able to run ads and other graphics at any time or location, so it's all in graphics mode. And it has to be legible on systems using even the earliest graphic standards, so bulletin boards and other text are done in HUGE type at 40 characters/line, 16 lines/screen. Even with a new 386, the whole thing works very slowly. Since you only get a little bit of text on a screen, you have to page down frequently; then you run into the problem of pausing as the system redraws the screen over and over (with a different ad on EVERY screen!). Prodigy's news service is a mediocre digest of material that's widely available in other, better formats. The bulletin boards are greatly inhibited in tone and content, not just by the graphics-mode problem, but by apparently heavy-handed and unpredictable censorship (not just of "bad words" and the like, but purely at the censor's whim). Compared with the freewheeling and diverse content of Usenet, Prodigy feels like a straitjacket. I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences with, and opinions about, Prodigy. Christopher Brewster Cray Research Inc. 612: 683-5759 cb@timbuk.cray.com
elund@graphics.rent.com (Eric W. Lund - Subop) (03/22/91)
cb@tamarack12.timbuk (Chris Brewster) writes: > Prodigy's news service is a mediocre digest of material that's widely availab > in other, better formats. The bulletin boards are greatly inhibited in tone > content, not just by the graphics-mode problem, but by apparently heavy-hande > and unpredictable censorship (not just of "bad words" and the like, but purel > at the censor's whim). Compared with the freewheeling and diverse content of > Usenet, Prodigy feels like a straitjacket. I'd be interested to hear other > people's experiences with, and opinions about, Prodigy. I was a subscriber to Prodigy for a year, and the only thing that kept me there was the $12/month flat rate and free email. The censorship was annoying as hell -- I ran into it many times. So, I just avoided the public boards. I was using *p* mainly for the email anyhow. And then they dropped the final barbell: 25 cent charge on email. Goodbye. It took effect January 1st, and I was out of there the day before. Prodigy is going down the tubes, and most of their income comes from silly users who get it in a bundled system or some similar way, and who don't user it but are too lazy to cancel because it's only 12 bucks a month. %^O Most of my email friends there and I moved to GEnie at the same time. The Star Services (includes email) are only $4.95/month. And finally I get to use Procomm again ...
phil@brahms.amd.com (Phil Ngai) (03/23/91)
cb@tamarack12.timbuk (Chris Brewster) writes: >at the censor's whim). Compared with the freewheeling and diverse content of >Usenet, Prodigy feels like a straitjacket. I'd be interested to hear other >people's experiences with, and opinions about, Prodigy. I agree, the difference between Prodigy and USENET is startling. I don't plan to go back to Prodigy until they raise the expected IQ of their audience to at least three digits. It's the USA Today of networks. -- Help! I just got a Macintosh. Anyone got a magnifying glass?
mattl@ritcsh.csh.rit.edu (FaceMan) (03/23/91)
In article <CB.91Mar21124826@tamarack12.timbuk> cb@tamarack12.timbuk (Chris Brewster) writes: > >I just hooked up to Prodigy for the first time. I have two kids and thought its >family orientation might be useful. In fact, some of the material intended for >kids looks pretty good, but I find the service unsatisfactory over-all. > [ bunch of description of PRODIGY deleted ] >at the censor's whim). Compared with the freewheeling and diverse content of >Usenet, Prodigy feels like a straitjacket. I'd be interested to hear other >people's experiences with, and opinions about, Prodigy. > Everything you said is true... PRODIGY is, basically one big advertisement. But trying to compare Usenet to PRODIGY is like comparing apples and sports cars.. PRODIGY is designed to be easy and somewhat mindless. Usenet, on the other hand, is more for research, discussion, etc. Do you have access to online stores in Usenet? For that matter, does the average American household have access to Usenet? So naturally it feels like a straitjacket... As for me, well, I like PRODIGY (when I was able to use it over break). It's fun to play the games, and you can E-Mail people across the country, without having to have access to Usenet. It's made to be used by just about anyone without having to learn how to use a modem, etc. -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= mattl@ritcsh.csh.rit.edu ! Swapping memory to disk is virtually indespensible.. mal6315@ultb.rit.edu ! ---------------------------------------------------- mal6315@RITVAX ! new book: "#define art of C programming..."
mcglk@cpac.washington.edu (Ken McGlothlen) (04/17/91)
In article <CB.91Mar21124826@...> cb@tamarack12.timbuk (Chris Brewster) writes: +---------- | I just hooked up to Prodigy for the first time. [...] Prodigy is designed | to be able to run ads and other graphics at any time or location, so it's all | in graphics mode. And it has to be legible on systems using even the | earliest graphic standards, so bulletin boards and other text are done in | HUGE type at 40 characters/line, 16 lines/screen. Even with a new 386, the | whole thing works very slowly. Since you only get a little bit of text on a | screen, you have to page down frequently; then you run into the problem of | pausing as the system redraws the screen over and over (with a different ad | on EVERY screen!). +---------- I subscribed to Prodigy for a year, back when it was $10/month. It's sad to see that, even though they upped the prices and started rigid censorship of anything even remotely naughty (making more than one foul-up in the process), that the quality of the interface hasn't improved any. Lemme tell you, you ain't see ugly until you've seen Prodigy on a CGA. The incessant advertisements are pretty annoying, since they can sometimes double the amount of time it takes to draw a page, and there's no convenient way to say "take all this text and store it in a file so I can edit it." Prodigy is best at being a nifty demo, but I found it virtually impossible to utilize it in any useful way. I couldn't make airline reservations (you need a credit card to do that, and I wasn't about to give my number to a service that couldn't even pull off a simple bulletin board), the news was pretty much old, it was slow, and even E-mail was kind of a dog (it was free at the time), because I couldn't send any outside Prodigy. They also continued to charge me for some time after I told them to buzz off. +---------- | Prodigy's news service is a mediocre digest of material that's widely | available in other, better formats. The bulletin boards are greatly | inhibited in tone and content, not just by the graphics-mode problem, but by | apparently heavy-handed and unpredictable censorship (not just of "bad words" | and the like, but purely at the censor's whim). Compared with the | freewheeling and diverse content of Usenet, Prodigy feels like a | straitjacket. +---------- It *is* a straitjacket. Everything you said is true. And more---the "bargains" they claim, the "convenience" they claim . . . all are just completely stupid claims. If you have to subscribe to a service of this sort, use CompuServe or GEnie or something---stay away from Prodigy. ---Ken McGlothlen mcglk@cpac.washington.edu mcglk@cpac.bitnet
jcwasik@PacBell.COM (Joe Wasik) (04/17/91)
In article <MCGLK.91Apr16161248@bailey.cpac.washington.edu> mcglk@cpac.washington.edu (Ken McGlothlen) writes: >It *is* a straitjacket. Everything you said is true. And more---the >"bargains" they claim, the "convenience" they claim . . . all are just >completely stupid claims. If you have to subscribe to a service of this sort, >use CompuServe or GEnie or something---stay away from Prodigy. > ---Ken McGlothlen Com'on now. Prodigy ain't all that bad... Prodigy is not aimed at the Usenet audience, nor is it aimed at the technical audience. It is simply a home service and as such it's ok. However, having said that, my household canceled Prodigy, too. We tried the one month free trial and send turned it down (They have since offerred me another free month). Advantages: With VGA, display is nice. Luxurious even, compared to text displays. Does a lot of stuff while you reading. So ads don't really suck up connect time and cause significant delays. Good integration of host-local software. News sections always looked current. Movie reviews allowed participant voting. This is nice feedback. Nice stories/graphics for kids. Disadvantages: It took several days to first connect before we figured out that these guys stop answering their phone at midnight. If you were logged in, all of a sudden you're not. Software reviews are of primary interest. Their software review section included PCTOOLS version 5. I use version 6 and I've seen 7 discussed here on Usenet. Their Bulletin Boards cannot compare to Usenet. If you read Usenet, prodigy's BB is a good joke. They censor. While Usenet has it's share of jerks, I reserve the right to be that jerk should the urge come (no flames please). You want censorship, see Jesse Helms or Prodigy. They have no software libraries. CompuServe does. They have no forums where companies like Microsoft, HP, Central Point, can talk to its users. CompuServe does. There was never an intelligent response to any of my email to them. Always, "We'll pass that suggestion on..." Yeah, right... Their "stores" sell nothing special. It's the ideal place to sell hard-to-get items, but that idea hasn't yet occured to them. etc etc etc Oh, in case Prodigy's attorneys are reading... These opinions are mine, they are not my employer's. -- Joe Wasik, Pac*Bell, 2600 Camino Ramon, Rm 4E750V, San Ramon, CA (415)823-2422 email: jcwasik@clib.PacBell.COM or [...]!pacbell!clib!jcwasik "I didn't do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can't prove anything"