What is the best commercial service to use for folks who want to partic- >ipate in bitnet discussion lists?
> I had heard from some that America On-line was cheap, but the people I >know who use it, fairly computer literate, find it a horror to use. One of >them was simply unable to continue her participation in my list. AOL is probably the easiest to use of the online services, but all of them are too expensive just for email. And Internet email is not even their main purpose. The Internet providers like Delphi are also kind of expensive just for email, since they also provide full Internet shell service. But your folks may find out that that is what they need after all: gopher, WWW, telnet, etc. If they’re in the greater Washington DC area, tell them to check into the non-profit CPCUG.ORG sponsored by the Capital PC User Group. Contact Bob Mills, [log in to unmask] . There are many such access points, and some of your members may be able to point them out.
As nearly as I can tell, the answer changes from day to day. Every time I look up there is some newcomer offering an even better deal for Internet (hence LISTSERV) access. The last time I asked, Delphi.Com offered OFF-PEAK (evenings and weekends) service at $20 per month for 20 hours (and not too expensive for more than 20 hours). Should someone want to subscribe to lists, set each list to INDEX and then use the lisst@… facility to retrieve messages of interests, it should be possible to follow 100 lists or so in the evenings for that $20 a month (not too bad). I *assume* Delphi.Com offers a POP mail server (I’ve found I can download 40 messages or so in less than 5 minutes with a 14.4 bps modem). Before you know it, someone will have a better deal. Of course, if the subscriber is a yakkity-yak like moi, then ANSWERING messages on all those lists might get expensive 😉 /s Murphy A.
