>Since we are on the topic of comparing interfaces, what aspect of the CIS interface is more appealing than what is found here? Once of the nice things here is that I can pull up EVERY post I have ever made. Also, I can create my own folders for managing messages. The ability to search for messages here is far superior to what can be found on CIS. The threaded message paradigm works just as well on the UT as it does on CIS.
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First, I should make it clear that I'm referring to Classic CompuServe, not the web-based interface. I've never found any web-based forum interface that I consider the equal of what I have on CompuServe. Second, I have to add that I use an offline reader and have since approximately 1989. If I were using CompuServe's software, I'd probably feel differently about it.

Now why do I think it's better? I start TapCIS in the morning and I push one key combination. It goes online and downloads all my waiting messages (including email) in the forums I've configured. I read those offline (using only the keyboard if I choose - a big deal since I have carpal tunnel and using the mouse exacerbates it), write my replies and they sit in TapCIS's outbox until my next pass. I can edit them if I want since they don't get sent until I tell them to. Several times a day, I repeat this process, sending out the messages I've written and retrieving what's waiting for me.

Once a day generally during the week, I use a single key combination to go online and retrieve the headers of all threads that have activity since I last did this. Offline, I mark those threads I want to download. (The ones I've previously downloaded or otherwise been involved in are already marked for me.) With one keystroke, I go online again and download all the marked messages. Offline, I read them, writing replies. Again, I can choose not to touch my mouse. I can configure Tap so I can see the current message and the thread structure (much as I do here). When I'm done, I go online again to post my replies.

I have TapCIS configured so that all the messages I get are saved offline, though I could choose to discard them once I've read them. That means that when I'm offline, all those messages are available to me to look up the information I vaguely remember reading. I guess this isn't really interface, though.

What drives me nuts here the most is that I'm constantly having to go to the mouse and the whole day-at-a-time orientation of the message base. I know I can use the Map of the thread, but it appears in place of the message. When I read my CompuServe messages, I hit the spacebar to get to the next message, not click on a Next button.


As for the quality of the political discussions there, I've had many interesting discussions that have caused me to think hard about what I believe. I don't know that they've changed my beliefs, but the conversations have made me work to explain my thinking and not take it for granted, a very valuable exercise.

Tamar