You didn't need to be directly connected to the internet. Dialup UUCP feeds were available starting in the late 80's. I had a UUCP feed of about a dozen groups

You didn't need to be directly connected to the internet. Dialup UUCP feeds were available starting in the late 80's. I had a UUCP feed of about a dozen groups when I was in high school, around 1992 or so. I used AmigaUUCP and dialed up to a local internet provider. I also had 4 or 5 other sites dialing into me and indirectly had a few other upstream UUCP connections. Fun times!