Re: Genie...is it worth it?

[cav@strauss.udel.edu (Steve Cavanaugh)]

I think that GEnie is definitely worth it. I signed up a year ago
and I am glad that I did. At first I found it a little difficult
to navigate (I had been using America Online before, which was 
easier to find your way around in), but once I got the hang of it
it was indeed a useful and fun spot to visit (I log on every day
now).
As to software that helps you save money, there are several off-
line navigators for GEnie...GEM, which works from within AppleWorks,
which you mentioned, along with several telecom programs, and Co-
Pilot, which works on a IIGS with several telecom programs. These
off-line navigators are basically collections of scripts (which are
program specific...one for TIC, one for ProTerm, one for Point-to
Point, etc.) which allow you to log on, get and send mail, read
messages in the Bulletin Boards, and upload messages to the same.
Since the typing is done before you log on, you save money because you
are connected for a shorter time period.

However, it is fine to log on manually. GEnie, at the present time,
only has 2400 baud access if you dial direct (you can access it
via SprintNet at 9600 baud, but that involves an extra charge).
You could write your own TIC scripts to do things like get/send mail
if you wanted, so you wouldn't be limited to the off-line navi-
gators that are already written. I did that with a Mac telecom
program for when I am traveling with a Powerbook and want to
access the Apple II BBS and get my daily GEnie fix!

GEnie is organized in RoundTables which deal with a specific interest.
There are two Apple II RoundTables...A2 and A2Pro (for programming,
hypermedia, scripting discussions). Each Roundtable is "divided"
into a BBS, for discussion and announcements, a Library, for keeping
files (there are presently more than 24,000 files available in the
A2 library, including archives of BBS discussions) and Chat areas.
I also suggest that you download GEnieLamp (which you may have already
done) which gets posted here and to grind, for a sample of what goes
on in the BBS discussions.

Steve