I started online on Compuserve, too. I have some great stories to tell and I was also a mod/Administrator for 10 years on a “regular” online forum that is long gone. I left quite a while before its demise, (not a pleasant job even back then) but it evidently tore itself apart, as far as I can gather from archives. I don’t even look at many forums anymore. Never posted on Twitter, Reddit, or TikTock. Never have had a Facebook account. Playgrounds for bullies.
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I must be an idiot and not using HO properly.
Because the last thing I come here for are recipes.
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CompuServe made some pretty big mistakes, that lead to its demise.
the underlying software was octal based, ran on totally obsolete machines/servers, and they did not move into the modern computing world . . .
then they stuck with per minute pricing as AOL/et.al. moved to flat rate plans - people were spending a lot more time on the internet and CIS became the highest cost provider - which did not end well…
as more and more content moved to the internet, the place collapsed very rapidly.
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I think it depends on which threads and which time periods.
You’re here for the witty repartee?
Interesting - Food52 is another example similar to what’s happening with the Static Media collection of similar sites.
DotDash Meredith owns Food52. They also own TheSpruceEats (which is a rebranding of the old About.com), Simply Recipes, and Serious Eats. Also Southern Living, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, and EatingWell magazines.
With all the consolidation, they are able to set trends by presenting the same content across their multiple sites. And since none of them have participatory spaces like forums (or even blog comments really), it becomes really static - no sharing, no creating new knowledge - and I would argue that globally we’re forgetting that the web could be more than a one-to-many blast of marketing and consumerism. Even massively popular social media platforms have really pivoted to individuals marketing themselves instead of sharing and creating knowledge.
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Yes, and you couldn’t send attachments with email because of the software. ( my email address was 5 digits comma 3 digits. So there was this guy in the Compaq forum who desperately needed a VESA driver so he could run a presentation in a couple of days. I had that driver, but I couldn’t send it as an email attachment. So I sent it on a floppy via overnight DHL to him … in Switzerland. He sent me back a big box of Swiss chocolates. Those were the days …
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oh yeah . . . I was .422 - veddy old timers . . .
1996 called to report a RNA modem, gave my id, ans: that’s not enough numbers
oh dear . . .
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I’m glad sites like Food52 can survive. They do provide good content but the never ending parade of products is kind of a drag. I understand revenues are part of business and how ads work now: “advertorial” , content mixed to products, or reviews that are really ads. Certainly some products are useful, helpful and cool…but I don’t need more stuff (trying to reduce) and clickbait gets tiring. The consolidation makes sense…a lot of stuff looks repackaged for different audiences.
p.s. I remember the BBS days, dial in at 2400 baud. Some of the pirate boards were hilarious.
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I was .217
In many ways, I liked the really old web a lot more. It was a treasure of great information from actual individuals that you could get to know.
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I looked at the website. Left after less than a minute. Looked liked a magazine layout .
Should men remove their hats in a restaurant. Was a topic . Clicked out of this .
Where’s Melanie and her mom ?
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I’ve been here on HO for approximately five years. And yet I can’t recall one time that an “outsider” has started a Not About Food thread. You know the ones I’m talking about from CH. What should I do, what should I do. Holiday family dilemma and all that. Are we off the radar or what?
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Me too! Building computers!
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I started at Soft Serve.
Then worked my way up to gelato.
Now I’m gunning for semifreddo.
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Compuserve and AOL are both now part of the entity currently known as Yahoo. So many acquisitions and spin-offs. I left CompuServe at 7.0. There’s nothing useful on their home page; I don’t think they even offer services to new email customers anymore. All owned by capital investors who have no idea what to do with them.
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CompuServe now is similar to Yahoo, et.al. - a “portal” to the web . . .
was cleaning out a dusty closet about a week ago and found:
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