> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As Lisa requested, the several K of
> text which came along was deleted here. Lisa, I am also greatly
> disappointed at how internet has become in the past several years. I
> suppose it was unrealistic of me to expect it would always retain the
> same status quo as it had in the 1980's, but still ... PAT]
Alas, you are trying to place an American value system on all of this,
which is a value system shared by main-stream America in the past, but
is mostly gone now.
Also, you have folks in other parts of the world that view Americans
as rude, arrogant, repulsive, too rich and or too consuming and thus,
long overdue for a good fleecing.
And, there are the terrorists with their hate of America.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is it 'rude and arrogant' of me to
question "why would anyone dislike Americans?" or "why would
terrorists hate America?" or did you happen to notice maybe I am just
a bitter old man with enough losses of one kind or another under his
belt that the transition of internet/usenet from a medium by and for
the citizens of the world into a cesspool is going to be no big thing
to me either way?
After all, I watched as Citizens Band radio in the 1970's changed from
a very popular, very worthwhile 'medium for the people' to a sewer as
the spammers (of those times, in that era and that style) wrecked it
for everyone.
I very early got in on the (then new) phenomena called 'Citizens Band
for Computer' as Compuserve stuck its neck out with its (then) new
product called 'CB Simulator'. A program producer at Compuserve
developed this new thing called 'CB Simulator' and he begged and
pleaded with H & R Block (then the owners of Compuseve) to give it a
try. They said they were not sure; it won't go over; people use
computers in their homes to read stock market reports, read the Wall
Street Journal and now and then -- but rarely in those days -- use
what was being termed 'email' to write letters, and check out our
forums. "No one is going to be interested in just chattering on line
with others. But we will try it for six months; it will fail, we will
drop it, and you will be out of a job." In about six months the 'CB
Simulator' program had grown in popularity to the point it was paying
the bills for Compuserve, and CIS/H&R Block was thrilled that this new
product offering was doing so well for them.
And many of us migrated our CB Radio forums over to computer and the
'CB Simulator' service since there were so many promises here of good
things to come; we had none of the 'usual annoyances' we had become so
accustomed to on the radio, with 'bad people' raising all kinds of
hell 24/7; turn the radio on any more and it was just solid heterodyne
from all directions; we'd raise our power, we'd go out of band; none
of it kept the 'spammers and scammers' (although those words were not
known then) away; we got followed everywhere. So, 'CB Simulator' was
our Messiah. At last, I mentioned to Bill Pfieffer, we can have our
community meetings and information- collecting and -passing along
sessions in peace and quiet. Or so we thought ... within six months or
a year, that had been taken over also. Of course we all know the
reputation chat programs have gotten in recent years, as a place for
young guys -- and some older guys as well -- to get in big trouble.
Anyway, you were saying, people in other parts of the world seem to
sometimes dislike or disrespect internet -- basically an American
invention -- mainly because so many of them hate Americans. That's a
very good point. I guess if our country wants to be part of the world
community we need to make some changes, eh? PAT]
Tim@Backhome.org