Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site cithep.UucP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!escher!cithep!tim
From: tim@cithep.UucP (Tim Smith )
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: USENET and Compuserve
Message-ID: <136@cithep.UucP>
Date: Tue, 24-Sep-85 22:53:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: cithep.136
Posted: Tue Sep 24 22:53:35 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Sep-85 05:59:19 EDT
Organization: Caltech HEP, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 17

Has anyone done any serious comparison of USENET with Compuserve ( or any
of the other non-free networks ( I know USENET is not *really* free, but it
appears that way to the typical user ) ) ?

I don't know how many poeple Compuserve has, but the forums ( sort of like
newgroups on USENET ) that I read on compuserve have a lot more traffic than
the corresponding newgroups on USENET, and do not have a problem with
lots of junk.  I do not know exactly why this is so, but if someone could
discover why, maybe it could be applied to USENET.

Besides the issues of how to deal with a large number of users, perhaps
there would be some relevence to the legal issues that USENET brings up.
The forums on Compuserve are not moderated, yet there does not seem to
be a lot of worry about legal problems.
-- 
					Tim Smith
					ihnp4!cithep!tim