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Oh yeah, I didn’t do anything on the Internet in 1990 apart from typing ‘go internet’ into CIX (my BBS at the time), sitting there wondering what you could do w

Oh yeah, I didn’t do anything on the Internet in 1990 apart from typing ‘go internet’ into CIX (my BBS at the time), sitting there wondering what you could do with it, then killing the connection when my dad pointed out that we paid by the minute for the phone line :) I don’t think I knew anyone online that wasn’t on CIX either.

ghaff 8y ago
I used CIS for some things but as you say the charges were pretty high. I mostly used a private local BBS at the time. I’m guessing it was more like 1994 or thereabouts when I started FTPing files and getting into Usenet.
DanBC 8y ago
People don't understand just how expensive early online access was. Here's a page from 1988 Whole Earth Catalogue "Signal - Communication tools for the Information Age" http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2janfrd&s=7#.WwcJwiAh200 http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2janfrd&s=7#.WwcJwiAh200 Compuserve, charging $11 per hour, had "more than 250,000 subscribers". The Source, charging $8 per hour, was popular for its conferencing system "parti". Delphi, charging $6 per hour had a loyal but small (less than 10,000 users) following. BIX, $9 per hour, grew from a magazine. I like the quote: "This is the computer industry as it used to be: people sharing ideas and solutions without the greed and grit with associated with today's corporate driven, litigation-laced, industry" (written 30 years ago). http://www.wholeearth.com/issue-electronic-edition.php?iss=1300 http://www.wholeearth.com/issue-electronic-edition.php?iss=1...
- robin_reala 8y ago
  CIX supplied Ameol (a most excellent offline reader) which could connect quickly and disconnect. In the UK we didn’t have the luxury of the US’s free local calls, so that was an added expense on top of that.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    >In the UK we didn’t have the luxury of the US’s free local calls Although free local calls could be quite limited in area. Intrastate long distance (which could be as little as 15 or 20 miles away) could actually be more expensive than interstate long distance. I don't remember the details but I used a private BBS service in the nearest major city in the 80s. I had some sort of phone plan that optimized for this but I still used offline tools to minimize my online time. (i.e. Login, suck down content, logoff, read and reply offline) I used similar tools for Compuserve. As you say, it was extraordinarily expensive by today's standards. People complain about the pricing of a lot of things but telecoms and pretty much everything related to computing is incredibly cheap.

ghaff 8y ago

I used CIS for some things but as you say the charges were pretty high. I mostly used a private local BBS at the time. I’m guessing it was more like 1994 or thereabouts when I started FTPing files and getting into Usenet.

DanBC 8y ago

People don't understand just how expensive early online access was. Here's a page from 1988 Whole Earth Catalogue "Signal - Communication tools for the Information Age" http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2janfrd&s=7#.WwcJwiAh200 http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2janfrd&s=7#.WwcJwiAh200 Compuserve, charging $11 per hour, had "more than 250,000 subscribers". The Source, charging $8 per hour, was popular for its conferencing system "parti". Delphi, charging $6 per hour had a loyal but small (less than 10,000 users) following. BIX, $9 per hour, grew from a magazine. I like the quote: "This is the computer industry as it used to be: people sharing ideas and solutions without the greed and grit with associated with today's corporate driven, litigation-laced, industry" (written 30 years ago). http://www.wholeearth.com/issue-electronic-edition.php?iss=1300 http://www.wholeearth.com/issue-electronic-edition.php?iss=1...

robin_reala 8y ago
CIX supplied Ameol (a most excellent offline reader) which could connect quickly and disconnect. In the UK we didn’t have the luxury of the US’s free local calls, so that was an added expense on top of that.
- ghaff 8y ago
  >In the UK we didn’t have the luxury of the US’s free local calls Although free local calls could be quite limited in area. Intrastate long distance (which could be as little as 15 or 20 miles away) could actually be more expensive than interstate long distance. I don't remember the details but I used a private BBS service in the nearest major city in the 80s. I had some sort of phone plan that optimized for this but I still used offline tools to minimize my online time. (i.e. Login, suck down content, logoff, read and reply offline) I used similar tools for Compuserve. As you say, it was extraordinarily expensive by today's standards. People complain about the pricing of a lot of things but telecoms and pretty much everything related to computing is incredibly cheap.