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Latest reviews
| Name: |
Poetworld |
| Web Address: |
www.poetworld.net |
| Cost: |
$7.95 month for dial-up |
| Setup Fee: |
None |
| Hours included: |
200 |
| Postal address: |
1530 NE Cleveland #315 Gresham OR 97030 |
| Toll-free phone: |
877-291-9714 |
| Fax: |
N/A |
| Reviewed on: |
Mon Apr 14 2003 |
| Reviewed by: |
ACougar |
| Rating: |
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Poetworld: The Speedy Gonzalez of the (almost) Free Web.
I know what it’s like to take a risk, to pour your heart and soul into something because so many people think it’s a great idea. “It’s about time,” they say, swearing that they will be “right there with you, man.” Well over the course of my quasi-adult life, stuff like that has cost me a boodle of money and if time is money, a triple boodle . . . and counting.
On visiting the pages of poetworld.com one gets the sense that its start-up went something like that. People no doubt told Steve the poet what a cool idea it would be to have an ISP site that caters to the needs of one’s inner poet. Poetworld.com, the dial-up ISP, came on line to provide lost-cost service to starving artists while also giving them an alternative place to meet and share their work. As I later found out, the poetry page preceded the ISP operation; however after touring the site and checking out comments elsewhere on the web, it’s clear to see that it ain’t the poetry that is turning poetworld into a hot little ISP.
Blank Verse, Anna Nichole, Webheads & Speed
What the poetworld faithful talk about when they discuss their beloved ISP doesn’t have anything do with the virtues of free verse; it has to do with speed, service…and more speed. You see, in discovering poetworld, one also rediscovers that world of webheads devoted to keeping the net as cheap and free flowing as possible. (I was wondering where they went, whether annanicholsmith.com had made them rethink the value of a free web. And by the way I bet you didn’t know that Anne was “the best damn waitress” at Jimmy’s Krispy Fried Chicken).
This world of without-a-lifers is peopled by folks who talk about kbps kilobytes per second and know the difference between throughput and corrected throughput. And that little world adores poetworld. The fact is that the poetry section at poetworld makes the poet who feels alone in the world even more alone. They have places to post poetry, which some people have done; the opportunity to make comments, which few people have done; and a 24/7 chat room for people to talk about their poetry, which is a great place so it seems to talk to oneself. (If you need a quiet place to work out details with a hired hitman, this is it)
Great Price, The Value of Restraint and Speed
Poetworld’s price is absolutely right, although folks still whine about the days of free service. They charge $7.95 a month for national access at 2000 points of entry, for 200 hours of service, plenty for all but the most devoted users. (Our house burns up about 300 hours, but then I work some 100 hours a week, which should be a warning for parents to rush their children to counseling if the little ones dream of becoming writers). If you happen to exceed your usage, you needn’t worry about the grocery money going to overage, as poetworld will teach you the meaning of restraint, shutting you off until the start of the next billing cycle. Low prices means simple service and that means no elaborate accounting system for overage. Harsh! But in the world of wholesalers and unit pricing, when you’re running a very narrow margin of profit, you can’t give away nothing. (Think of Las Vegas where the profit margins pay for chorus girls, chandeliers, and free booze; then imagine the polar opposite and you’ve got the under ten dollar a crowd ISPs, where if people don’t put money in the coffee club there is no coffee) Respect, Dignity, and Speed
In the age of broadband it’s sort of funny to see people trying to figure out ways to squeeze out a few extra bytes per second out of their dial-up. In my reviews I tend to avoid the speed issue, as my own phone lines sux (Serge says I can swear as long as I do it in Latin) and I’m not equipped to measure anybody’s benchmarks, so most of what I would offer (like I’m doing today) is hearsay. To satisfy your curiosity about how your kbps stacks up, you can have your surfing speed measured at numion.com. We’ll devote more time to the haste/waste issue another day.
Poetworld users who are folks who know about such things, swear that the little ISPs are faster than the big boys (they’ve the numbers to prove it) and that of the little guys, whom we at the ISP list affectionately call moms and pops, nobody burns rubber better than those B.A. (Serge says acronyms are okay too) poets.
You can’t help but like poetworld. Steve who is both mom and pop to his crew of five and burgeoning membership has a rosy outlook –you would never know it by his poems which bear such titles as “Dead” and the bit cheerier “Almost Dead.” In his own words, Steve says, “Our ISP is doing great; we are growing by leaps and bounds lately, well for an operation this small, which is very nice…” Steve learned the biz from the consumer’s perspective as an administrator of another "dotcom".
“I was approached by an ex-vice president for Freei.net…and was asked if I would like to make a go at running my own ISP. I said sure why not…. One year later, we have one of the most successful ISP's out there… not only because of the price… the customer is always Number One… they should always be treated with the respect and dignity they deserve.” Viva la Revolution.
Part of the double-edged sword of running cheap is that you need numbers, but can’t afford advertising. (Did you know that 80 percent of what you paid for your new car goes to cover the advertising? If in fact the car industry were run like the net, those who do their homework would be driving $5,000 luxury cars.)
Poetworld depends on word of mouth, and fortunately for them, no where are people more mouthy than the World Wide Web. So what else do you get for your $7.95 besides one of the fastest turtles in the Internet world? You get email accounts for you and your family (I suspect it’s an each according to his or her needs thing), a couple of addictive games, support for Playstation 2, responsive toll free service (6am to 10pm pacific time), and as much grim poetry as you can stomach. Oh, and did I mention the speed thing?
Poetworld isn’t for everyone. But if you don’t need a lot of bells and whistles, still yearn for the FreeWeb, have a bit of net savvy, and don’t mind saving money, this ISP is a very good choice. For price, personality, reliability, simplicity, clarity and yes speed, I give poetworld.com four thumbs-ups. |
