VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH:                      [Mike Taylor, VNS Correspondent]
=====================                      [Nashua, NH, USA               ]

                         Conversations with Fred
                   Middlesex News, Framingham, 11/6/90.
                  via BITNET Computer Underground Digest

    The story is bizarre but true, swears Herb Rothman. Seems Prodigy,
    the network run as a joint venture by Sears and IBM, wouldn't let
    somebody post a message in a coin-collecting forum that he was
    looking for a particular Roosevelt dime for his collection. Upset,
    the man called "member services." The representative told him the
    message violated a Prodigy rule against mentioning another user in a
    public message. "What user?" the man asked. "Roosevelt Dime," the
    rep replied. "That's not a person!" the man said. "Yes he is, he's a
    halfback for the Chicago Bears," the rep shot back.

    Rothman is one of those alleged compu-terrorists Prodigy claims is
    harassing other users and companies that advertise on the service by
    sending out thousands upon thousands of increasingly hostile
    messages in protest of a Prodigy plan to begin charging users who
    send more than 30 e-mail messages a month. Rothman and the others
    say they sent very polite messages to people (Penny Hay of Los
    Angeles says her messages were even approved by the Prodigy legal
    department) telling them about the new fees and urging them to
    protest.

    What's really happening is that Prodigy is proving its complete
    arrogance and total lack of understanding of the dynamics of on-line
    communication. They just don't get it. People are NOT going to spend
    nearly $130 a year just to see the weather in Oregon or order trips
    to Hawaii.

    Even the computerphobes Prodigy wants to attract quickly learn the
    real value of the service is in finding new friends and holding
    intelligent "discussions" with others across the country.

    But Prodigy blithely goes on censoring everything meant for public
    consumption, unlike other nationwide services (or even
    bulletin-board systems run out of some teenager's bedroom).
    Rothman's story is not the only one about capricious or just plain
    stupid censoring. Dog fanciers can't use the word "bitch" when
    talking about their pets, yet the service recently ran an advice
    column all about oral sex. 

    So when the supposed technology illiterates Prodigy thinks make up
    its user base managed to get around this through the creation of
    private mail "lists" (and, in fact, many did so at the urging of
    Prodigy itself!), Prodigy started complaining of "e-mail hogs,"
    quietly announced plans to levy charges for more than a minute
    number of e-mail messages each month and finally, simply canceled
    the accounts of those who protested the loudest!

    And now we are watching history in the making, with the nation's
    first nationwide protest movement organized almost entirely by
    electronic mail (now don't tell Prodigy this, but all those people
    they kicked off quickly got back onto the system -- Prodogy allows
    up to six users per household account, and friends simply loaned
    their empty slots to the protest leaders).

    It's truly amazing how little faith Prodigy has in the ability of
    users to behave themselves. Other systems have "sysops" to keep
    things in line, but rarely do they have to pull messages. Plus,
    Prodigy is just being plain dumb. Rothman now has a mailing list of
    about 1,500. That means every time he sends out one of his
    newsletters on collectibles, he sends 1,500 e-mail messages, which,
    yes, costs more for Prodigy to send over long-distance lines and
    store in its central computers. But if they realized their users are
    generally mature, rather than treating them as 4-year-olds, Rothman
    could post just one message in a public area, that everybody could
    see.

    Is this any way to run an on-line system? Does Prodigy really want
    to drive away the people most inclined to use the service -- and see
    all those ads that pop up at the bottom of the screen? Prodigy may
    soon have to do some accounting to the folks at IBM and Sears, who
    by most accounts have already poured at least $750 million into
    "this thing."

    {Contributed by Wes Plouff}

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