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Previous: MSN To Launch Paid Search Ads Yes, there really were people online 17 years ago. I was one of them. In fact, I had already been online for a couple of years as a service user when I opened my first online forum in 1988 on the GEnie service. It was called The Home Office/Small Business RoundTable, and was the precursor of Business Know-How. What was it like online back then? Well, to begin with, the computer screen you looked at as you worked (or played) online was likely to be black when it was turned on. And the type was green or sometimes orange. Those colors were supposed to be easy on the eyes for reading. And you couldn't point and click online. Not back in the late 1980's. You typed commands or typed numbers on menus to move around the online services or local bulletin board systems. What were people doing online back then? They were using email, reading messages in forums, chatting online and downloading files. And even way back then there was spam. A few people here and there would try to peddle their wares in email or in online forums and bulletin boards. That was before the Internet as we know it. Computer geeks and novices used bulletin board systems and commerical dial up online services to communicate with one another, do research, send files, and meet other people. GEnie (a General Electric Information Services product) and Compuserve were the two major commecial online services at the time. I knew it would be a while before this new online "thing" caught on, but I was hooked on the technology. And I wanted to get in on the ground floor. Besides, if you ran a forum, you didn't have to pay for your online account. So, after seeing there was already a thriving small business section on CompuServe, I submitted a proposal to GEnie to run one there. Forum managers were called Sysops (at least on GEnie). And we got paid a percentage of usage. The only sysops who made much were those who ran hardware forums where members could download software. Modem speeds topped out about 1200 baud (or possibly lower) back then, and usage was based on the time spent online. Users were hard to come by, too. Most consumers didn't have computers at home, and most couldn't imagine why anyone would want a home computer. Those who did have computers often found the price of using an online service back then - $35 and hour during daytime hours - prohibitive. Affordable pricing started to bring more people online. GEnie was the first of the major services to offer an "all you can eat" option - a flat fee for usage of certain areas of the service. The day they launched the flat rate service, the system, crashed. Not surprisingly the same thing happened years later when AOL switched to flat-fee pricing. For a few other glimpses into computing and online services - and where Business Know-How has been over the years, check out the online and computer museum we set up on OfTheeISing.com . Were you online in the early days? Share some of your memories with us! Comments |
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Disclaimer
The information compiled on this site is
Copyright 1999-2012 by Attard Communications, Inc. and by the individual authors. |
Business Know-How Celebrates 17 Years Online!
Janet,
Ah, the good old daze.
I got my first modem, a 300 baud behemoth, in early 87. I still have it in the garage, I think. It’s bigger than a lot of modern laptops.
The upgrade to 1200 was fun, but it really started to get exciting when I got my first Supra. A 2400. Remember having to puzzle out the configuration strings and set up the transfer protocols?
Plug and play? We don’t need no steenking plug and play. We got AT commands!
Within a month of getting “online,” I was moderating forums for a couple of local BBS’s. Then a FIDOnet echo. The standards were lower then, I guess. ;)
The environment was more civil back in those days, and just as exciting. Every user was known and accountable to one identifiable person: The sysop. And we all knew we were in on something that was going to be big.
I was using an Amiga, and I remember the first time I could point and click to navigate a message board. The old “Known World BBS,” a haven in 1989 WNY for computer crazies. Ran on Skyline, and beat the web to point and click, with bitmap graphics and audio, by years.
Not long after I got on the Net, I got to be friends with Kevin Nunley. He’s the first one I ever heard speak of you. (Always well, I might add.) I think you were with AOL at that point.
I just bought a new computer. Nothing special by current standards, but it’s literally 1000 times faster than that first one, with 280,000 times the storage space, and over 600 times the RAM - for almost exactly the same price.
For all of that advancement, the lure of the Net is the same for me as those early BBS’s: People.
Hmmm. Same people, better hardware.
It’s fun to think about the old days, but I think I like it better now. ;)
Paul
Posted by: Paul Myers on August 11, 2005 at 2:57 AM