AOL Shuts Down CompuServe

Oracle Goddess writes "After 30 years, CompuServe is all but dead, as AOL has pulled the plug on the once-great company. The original CompuServe service, first offered in 1979, provided its users with addresses such as 73402,3633 and was the first major online service. CompuServe users will be able to use their existing CompuServe Classic (as the service was renamed) addresses at no charge via a new e-mail system, but the software that the service was built on has been shut down. Tellingly, the current version of the service's client software, CompuServe for Windows NT 4.0.2, dates back to 1999."

Wow this is a day...

[SerpentMage]

I still remember my compuserve address... 70324,1777...

I can't for the live of me remember my pins, or phone numbers, but this ancient email address I have remembered to this day...

Nothing new

[YrWrstNtmr]

AOL shut down Compuserv LONG ago, when they bought it. The only thing that remained was the name. The techy goodness that differentiated CS from the mass appeal of AOL was gone.
They even dialed into the same modem bank, with exactly the same phone numbers.

[hanging head] Yes, I had an AOL acct and a CS acct at the same time.

Migrating from CompuServe

[Anonymous Coward]

Goodbye to what was once an incredibly innovative service...

For any Slashdot readers who need to get a friend or relative off of CompuServe:

Users who are running CompuServe 3 or 4 can export the address book using:
http://www.connectedsw.com/Overview/57262

Users who are running CompuServe 2000, 6 or 7 can export the address book and email using:
http://www.connectedsw.com/Overview/57267

Anyone remember Cubby v. CompuServe?

[Meshach]

The case of Cubby, Inc. v. CompuServe Inc. was one of the first of it kind and set an important precedent for online BBS. In that case CompuServe was sued because they hosted a BBS where defamatory content was posted. The court rules that although CompuServe provided the medium they were not responsible for the content (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubby_v._CompuServe).

Re:Nothing new

[JohnHegarty]

Exactly , the Compuserve clients released by AOL were just re-branded version of the AOL software.

Started with AOL 4.0 if i remember correctly.

Re:Nothing new

[R.Mo_Robert]

This article is wrong: AOL isn't shutting down the entirety of CompuServe.

AOL simulatenously operated both CompuServe 2000 (the AOL-based network) and CompuServe Classic, as it came to be called. AOL isn't "pulling the plug" on the entire company as this summary says; they're merely shutting down the CompuServe Classic service, which they have hardly touched one bit in the last ten years anyway. There are no plans to shut down CompuServe 2000, and users have the option of migrating to this service.

So, while your comment is mostly on the mark, it's important to note that AOL neither shut down CompuServe when they bought it (they operated Classic simultaneously with the new service for 10 years!), nor are they shutting down the service (CompuServe 2000) to which you refer.

Also, this was announced in April, so it's hardly news, other than the June 30 shutdown date--which already happened.

Re:Wow this is a day...

[a9db0]

71052,3331

Great. That I can remember, but I can't remember my ATM PIN!

I still have the CS binder-in-a-book that came with my subscription, and my old OzWin (Anyone else remember that?) logs and email files around. Last email date: 1998.

Re:Good Riddance

[noidentity]

I remember them a long time ago. Around 1992 I got a Tandy 102 portable computer [8bit-micro.com] which included a 300 baud modem and a free trial for CompuServe (you can probably see where this is going...). Being able to download programs very slowly (the screen scrolling reduced the effective speed to well under 100 characters per second) was cool. Having my parents question me about a $50 bill a couple of months later wasn't. Needless to say, I wasn't a member very long.

Re:Wow this is a day...

[phil reed]

I wonder if Compuserve was running on DEC hardware with TOPS-10

Originally, yes. I believe they moved to VAX in later years, but kept the user IDs.

Re:Wow this is a day...

[MaxiCat_42]

Yep, Compuserve probably knew more about DECsystem-10s than DEC did. At one point
they even designed their own power supply to replace the DEC one as it was much
more efficient. They designed and built their own disk controllers to use cheaper
(IBM) disks. They had a LOT of them!

Phil.

Re:Signed up in 1987

[IntlHarvester]

That was the major difference between BBS culture and Usenet/Internet culture. On pre-september Usenet, everyone posted under their real names, their sigs often contained their job titles and phone numbers, and there was a sense of responsiblity because your account was closely tied to your real life.

For the most part, web discussion boards follow the BBS tradition of using handles and discouraging the posting of personal information. However, that doesn't serve the needs of people who want network their real life as opposed to hanging out with a bunch of internet phoneys called "DarthMegaBlade666". So its natural that things like Facebook or LinkedIn appeared.

Re:The one thing I hope to forget one day...

[symbolic]

is the $300-$400 monthly bills for all the time spent using the CB Simulator. That was addictive, but man those bills hurt.

Re:Good Riddance

[SirLurksAlot]

What else could have happened? Compuserve eat $400 on every customer who wanted a cheap computer?

No, they shouldn't've eaten the cost once the customer agreed to the terms but these rebates could've been handled much differently. For one thing they could've at least have pro-rated the rebate so if a customer cancelled say, halfway through the 2-year term they would only have to pay back half of the rebate. For another the way these rebates were marketed was fairly reprehensible; they were aimed at lower income families at a time when an average system could cost upwards of $1400. We're talking about the same market segment that makes large credit card purchases and doesn't think far enough ahead to manage their finances to pay the card off easily.

It may have been that some of the customers were foolhardy, but you shouldn't fault yourself for that, the terms were perfectly reasonable (for people who don't know how to simply finance expenses).

I didn't blame myself, but it didn't help me feel any better when I was assisting these customers. I knew what they had gotten themselves into even if they didn't, and trying to explain that to someone and then listening to all of the (often valid in my opinion) reasons they gave for wanting out of the agreement was painful. If you've never worked in customer service lucky for you, but don't ever let anyone fool you into thinking it is a cake job. That work makes one lose faith in humanity sometimes.

Now salespeople who sold to customers with no local access ... that's kissing-close to fraud.

Essentially yes. This was going on when Circuit City and Radio Shack were paying their sales staff fairly decent commissions, and we all know how unscrupulous some sales folk can be. The problem was really that the sales folks didn't have a listing of what numbers were available in the area, and if the customer didn't consider this or the salesperson didn't make the effort and call to find out (And why would they? It would only hinder their ability to make the sale if they found out there was low/no availability in the area.) then the sale got pushed through and the rebate was established anyway.

Re:Wow this is a day...

[rduke15]

Yes, OzWin was great. My first "email program" and "news reader" of sorts.

I must still have the OzWin files somewhere on some backup, but they don't seem to be on my notebook. Had always intended to convert them to mbox-like format, but have never done it.

The great thing about Compuserve was that they had a dial-in number in just about any country in the world. It was expensive, but I could email in 1990 or so from Africa and Asia by dialing a local number.

100111,3271