Review: NETCHAT - WHERE TO MEET PEOPLE IN CYBERSPACE, Kelly Maloni, ed.
ISBN: 0-679-75814-3  281 pages paperbound $19.00 US $25.00 Canada
published by Random House Electronic Publishing/Michael Wolff & Co. 1994

This companion to NET GUIDE and NET GAMES focuses on interacting with
others through newsgroups, mailing lists, IRC chat groups, forums and 
support groups - in a word, contact.  Coverage is not limited to the 
Internet, but also the major on-line services such as AOL, CompuServe, 
Prodigy, and BBSs.

The book is divided into chapters titled Cybersex, Fans, On the Fringe,
Net Op-Ed, Coffee House, Identity and Support. Each of these are sub-
divided into many sub-categories covering every imaginable subject from
AIDS to ZEN. Its timely too: O.J. Simpson coverage is listed under a
newsgroup called alt.fan.oj-simpson.  There are several listings on where to
discuss sexual matters of all kind and even perhaps meet that "special
someone" waiting out there just for you.  Some of this discussion gets 
pretty graphic, so parents and the easily offended should take note.

I find these Net Guide books fascinating and give me a peek at several
dark corners I would never normally see.  The Net Guide series are well
researched, written, presented and illustrated.  I find there's some overlap
between the NET GUIDE and NET CHAT, but this is bound to occur in trying to
classify comething as fluid and ever-changing as the Internet and the
commercial on-line services the NET GUIDE series covers.  

The folks at Michael Wolff & Co. and Random House Electronic Publishing
are promising several new NET GUIDE titles this year - including guides
to finances, sports and Star Trek related subjects.  I'll be reviewing 
them as they are released, so stay tuned to this newsgroup for further
details.

(C) 1995
Michael Crestohl
mc@shore.net

Review of other Internet books I have written are available by anonymous
FTP from x2ftp.oulu.fi  in the /pub/books/crestohl directory