-Caveat Lector-
On Sat, 23 Jan 1999, Carl Amedio wrote:
>Subscribers used Prodigy's own electronic bulletin boards to express
>skepticism that the Year 2000 problem was to blame for the service's demise.
>Some openly suggested that the company manufactured the explanation to
>encourage them to migrate to its newer Internet service.
My first 'online experience' was via Plodigy many years ago...probably on
what they now call "Prodigy Classic"...I was on it only a few months,
service was lousy, expensive, and then they changed certain policies so
that there would be LESS service costing MORE money...
Anyways, the die-hards on "Prodigy Classic" probably have a point when
they claim that its demise is an excuse to get them to migrate to the
updated service...but that's not to say that Prodigy is totally lying
about the 'problem', either...
It all comes down to money...for enough money, ANYTHING can be made
compliant...the caveat is, is it worth throwing that much money into a
system which has a limited life span, and which is planned to be phased
out in a short time anyways? The answer is 'no'...
If there was no Y2K thing around the corner, my guess is that Prodigy
would have kept its 'Classic' system going for another 2 to 5 years max,
before phasing the whole thing out...as a proprietary system which is
considered 'antique', it's probably already getting prohibitively
expensive to maintain it. The only thing Y2K has done is moved the
timeline up for phasing it out...
But one COULD ask why, back in the late 80s, Prodigy chose to go with a
system which was non-compliant, if they really DID plan for it to 'keep
on going and going and going and going' like the Energizer Bunny, into
the late 90s and beyond...THAT was the really poor decision, not the
current one to phase it out.
>Unlike the Internet, Prodigy uses censors who monitor its bulletin boards to
>ensure messages are appropriate and do not contain obscenities.
e.g., free speech isn't allowed...which is why any thinking person jumped
the Prodigy ship early...
>Prodigy boasted 1.13 million Classic subscribers in 1995, but that number has
>declined sharply in recent years as users fled to Internet service providers
>that offered faster, more reliable access to the Web.
At a much cheaper price, too...(at least for that time)...
June
=======================================================================
The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,
Of wailing winds and naked woods, and meadows brown and sear.
-- Wm. Cullen Bryant: The Death of the Flowers
=======================================================================
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------*
revcoal AT connix DOT com
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------*
It is UNLAWFUL to send unsolicited commercial email to this email
address per United States Code Title 47 Sec. 227. I assess a fee of
$500.00 US currency for reading and deleting such unsolicited commercial
email. Sending such email to this address denotes acceptance of these
terms. My posting messages to Usenet neither grants consent to receive
unsolicited commercial email nor is intended to solicit commercial
email.
*========================================================================*
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
