November 23, 1996

Disgruntled MSN Members
Launch Site to Air Grievances

By ROBERT E. CALEM

A Microsoft official this week denied that the company was attempting to stifle criticism of the new service.

iscontent among members of The Microsoft Network, initially fueled by the service's problem-plagued billing system, is growing into a mini-mutiny over charges that the software giant is censoring criticism of MSN2, the code name for its new Web-based service.

A Microsoft official this week denied that the company was attempting to stifle criticism of the new service and said that MSN2 was being developed with the help of MSN members who participated in a just-completed beta test period.

One MSN2 critic has launched a Web site named MSNot on which she and other disgruntled members are posting their grievances against Microsoft. Most of the members' criticism focuses on two issues: their assertions that MSN2 is too slow to load, even when using a powerful Pentium-based computer and 28.8 Kbps modem, and that Microsoft officials have deleted criticisms of the new service posted by members in at least one online forum.

MSNot, designed as a parody of MSN2, includes a doctored version of the new service's logo on its home page. The site's creator, Sabrina Dent, also issued a press release stating, in part:

Censorship of criticism over The Microsoft Network's new online service, MSN2, is forcing disillusioned MSN members to take their anger and disappointment to the World Wide Web. Members are outraged that their comments have been censored from bulletin boards across The Microsoft Network. Postings have been deleted and long-standing BBSs have suddenly been turned to "read-only" formats or removed entirely by MSN management.

MSNot, designed as a parody of MSN2, includes a doctored version of the new service's logo on its home page.

Dent said this week that thousands of MSN members had visited MSNot and had contributed comments since the renegade site was launched on Oct. 25.

Officially, Microsoft has not responded to, or commented on, the MSNot site. However, in an interview this week, Larry Cohen, group product manager of The Microsoft Network in Redmond, Wash., said that Dent's charges were without merit.

"This business is built on retention," Cohen said. "We've always been focused on, more than anything else, retaining our customers. In designing this new service, we invited 100,000 of our members to come on and beta test" MSN2, starting about two months ago.

Cohen said that it would have been "crazy" for Microsoft to have asked members to test the service and then censor or ignore negative feedback. "We want to hear from our customers," he said. "It's part of what's going to make us successful."

Cohen said he was not aware of any censorship in forums at MSN or MSN2, but he speculated that some forums might have been changed or deleted as the new service was being prepared for its public launching.

About two weeks ago, Cohen said, Microsoft asked all 100,000 beta testers to log on to MSN2 at the same time, to stress-test its system. When more than 10,000 complied, he said, "The performance was virtually the same as what we see on any given day on the old service."

Although MSN2 has many more multimedia bells and whistles than the current service, Cohen said that the new system downloaded all of its elements to users "as quickly as we thought it would."

He also emphasized that MSN2 had been designed to be usable by anyone with a computer capable of running Windows 95. But when asked whether that would include any PC based on Intel Corp.'s 486 microprocessor with a 28.8 Kbps modem, he admitted that MSN2 had really been designed for Internet newcomers, who were expected to own new Intel Pentium-based PCs.

"The main point," he said of the test period, "is that there wasn't anything that was catastrophic or abnormal that wasn't easily addressed," by adding more servers, for example.

In an interview conducted by e-mail, Dent said that she found MSN2 aggravatingly slow, even though she had logged on using a 133MHz Pentium-based PC with 32Mb of high-speed EDO-RAM and a 33.6 Kbps modem. She speculated that the average MSN member probably owned a less powerful system.

Dent also said that on her machine, it took 90 seconds for MSN2's front page to load, compared with about 2 seconds for MSN. "So, in my experience, it takes 45 times longer on the new MSN to even begin to access information and services," she said.

As for the censorship charges, Dent said that negative remarks about MSN2 had been deleted from the "cwmove" forum, while positive remarks had been left intact. She also said that the deletions had taken place before the entire forum had been converted to "read-only."

Dent quoted a message that she said had been posted by an MSN official, advising forum managers, ". . . please do not express negative opinions in chat or in your BBS's. . . . This said, if you have constructive criticism of the new MSN, which you must bear in mind is still in its early stages, then this will be welcomed from us. We don't want to censor your opinions! Any comments you may have please direct to your forum managers or community developer, who will pass them on to the relevant people at Microsoft."

At MSNot, Dent identified the Microsoft official only as Holly. A spokeswoman for Microsoft, Fran Kelly, said that Holly was a forum manager under contract to Microsoft, that she was not a Microsoft employee, and that she could not be reached for comment.

Cohen said that the original MSN service would be phased out and that all 1.6 million members would be asked to transfer to MSN2, but he did not say when the move would take place. Microsoft expects it to be rapid, he said.

---

Related Sites
Following are links to the external Web sites mentioned in this article. These sites are not part of The New York Times on the Web, and The Times has no control over their content or availability. When you have finished visiting any of these sites, you will be able to return to this page by clicking on your Web browser's "Back" button or icon until this page reappears.

• MSNot

• MSN NOTE: This site is not easily accessed without a plug-in called FutureSplash. MSN gives you this option when you go to the site.