Re: Juiced.GS (Volume 4, Issue 3)

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Tony Ward writes ...
> 
> In article <38443265.49DDCB65@swbell.net>, Rubywand
> <rubywand@swbell.net> wrote:
> 
> > Maybe Apple should consider buying Genie and getting into the
> > on-line service business.
> 
> Apple has not been too successful in that department (anyone remember
> eWorld?) They might try again at some point, but I doubt buying Genie
> would be in their, or anyone else's, best interests. The days of paid
> online services are over and it's time to move on. Actually, I do like
> the way Delphi has combined the two access methods, but it's certainly
> not perfect.

     Things on the net have changed quite a bit over the last 2-3 years.
Revenues from on-line advertising means that a service does not need to charge
much if it can build up a decent user base. As the seller of Macs and
associated peripherals, Apple would have a built-in advantage.


> If someone could come up with a text-based messaging system based on
> categories and topics (rather than threads) combined with ftp and
> text-based (irc?) chat, then the Internet would be a workable solution.
> I just don't think live message reading/replying via Web browser is
> anyone's idea of a good message system. An offline message reader makes
> the experience a whole lot better.
> 
> All IMHO, of course.
 ....

     At one time the off-line reader approach worked fine. I used it for over a
year when on AOL back in 1995-1996. (1996, of course, was when the big switch
to unlimited on-line time happened and AOL service cratered.)

     Today, the trend is toward more connectedness-- look at DSL. When you do
anything related to the net, like ask and answer questions in a newsgroup, you
want to be on-line because, for one thing, the net is such a valuable resource.
For another, you can have several things going on while you hop in and out of a
newsgroup.

     Being able to have discussions organized in threads makes it easy to keep
track of what's going on. However, I mainly view newsgroup postings by date
because that shows 'current events' in the group.

     Really, there is no reason newsgroup postings could not be organized
(categorized by topics, etc.) to suit the individual user. For example, some
Csa2 participants might follow the recent SCAMP thread whereas others would be
checking for current discussions about Music.

     With better speed, it will be possible to enrich and customize access to
USENET (or whatever it becomes) in all sorts of ways.



Rubywand