AOL Shuts Down CompuServe 224
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."
Signed up in 1987 (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't remember my Account Number, but I signed up in 1987, shortly after I bought my Atari 1040ST and a 2400-baud modem. I got hooked on the CB Simulator, and spent myself into severe debt. Good times.
The PITS (reward) (Score:5, Interesting)
Does anyone remember playing the game "The PITS" on CompuServe? Or, even better, know if thesource survived?
http://games.wwco.com/pits/
RIP (Score:2, Interesting)
compuserve was the first thing i ever dialed with my first real computer, as it was the first actual service provider to have a local phone number in my area when i was a kid
i was completely in awe of it when i first used it, it cost me a good chunk of my allowance, but i remember it made the local BBS systems, as well as some other service providers that eventually crept into my area seem like toys
i used it for quite a long time even after everyone else had proper internet service (the internet took quite a while to get here)
i'll always have fond memories of it
suprised it took this long to die, but RIP anyways
Good Riddance (Score:5, Interesting)
Compuserve might've been great at one time, but it hasn't been for a much longer period. I used to do customer service for them back when they were offering a $400 rebate on new computers... as long as people signed up for a 2 year service agreement with them. I felt dirty every time I had to take a call from someone that had one of those rebates. Half the time the callers wanted to cancel their service because of how piss poor their dial-up connection was and it was my job to "remind" them about the terms which stated that they had to pay back the rebate PLUS a cancellation fee. I put remind in quotes because it was often the customer's first time hearing about the terms in the first place (Admittedly this was usually the sales person's fault, and usually not Compuserve's.). I remember one call in particular when a customer in Pennsylvania had purchased a computer with the rebate only to find out that they only had TWO dial-up numbers in the whole state available to them, neither of which was a local call for them. I had to tell this poor soul that they had accepted the terms of the rebate, received the $400, and if they cancelled they would owe Compuserve all that back, etc even though they couldn't even use the service. Now Compuserve was obviously not the only ISP that played the rebate game, but their participation left a bad taste in mouth and lowered my opinion of them greatly.
Brings back memories (Score:5, Interesting)
Oddly ironic that Compuserve was around before AOL. Gah, I still remember the days when AOL users first flooded the net. They were rude, they were shrill and they were legion.
The days you would actually still use a gopher server.
We got our first internet connection from the local library.
Some admins would actually block AOL users from their web servers.
Exciting times.
What? (Score:5, Interesting)
Allow me to be the first to say... Compuserve still existed?
It was still up ?! (Score:5, Interesting)
Compuserve was shut down? It was still up!?
Those of us who live outside of the US are vaguely aware of its existance...
memories of $12 an hour for 300 baud (Score:2, Interesting)
I remember in mid 80's paying alaskanet? $6 an hour to get connected from Naknek AK instead of long distance charge & then paying another like $6 an hour for the compuserve, plus a monthly $25 or such to compuserve....
all for 300 baud ... watching those characters come in..... just about as fast as you could read...
Remember "The Source"? (Score:1, Interesting)
So any old timers remember, "The Source"? I used that until its subscriber base got so low you could hear the crickets chirping when you logged on and then switched to CompuServe.
I remember being on "The Source" around 1984 and chatting with someone in the Middle East. Really quite "cool" at the time.
Oh yeah, and my CompuServe ID was 73707,3450 (must have typed that thousands of times until I got TAPCIS to automate downloading). Out of nolstagia I checked my CompuServe mail once every 6 months for years after I gave up on CompuServe.
Good memories...
Of course, now you've got easily accessible on-line porn. Things are MUCH better now!
Re:Wow this is a day... (Score:2, Interesting)
I wonder if Compuserve was running on DEC hardware with TOPS-10 I remember my University username was [201,108]. Never seen user id like that anywhere else.
Anyone know ?
Prodigy? (Score:3, Interesting)
The more things change (Score:2, Interesting)
Before all the tubes got connected business cards were full of email addresses. One had at least a Compuserve address, a Prodigy address, an AOL address, a company VAXMail address, a company VM/VMS address and perhaps a DARPA/ARPA address.
All that is changed now.
Now we list Company main telephone number, Company direct dial number, Company fax number, Home number, Company cell number and perhaps a Skype id.
Re:Signed up in 1987 (Score:2, Interesting)
God you know how many people I've explained this to, to BLANK STARES?
I never did the whole AOL/Compuserv/GENie/Prodigy thing (Too expensive and it was WELL before I could get a job.)
But I did every local BBS I could get a local access # to, and was on chatting terms with 2 or 3 sysadmins, plus a few friends who boarded too.
Anyways nobody who I associated with during that era passed out personal info unless we already knew each other.
It wasn't until the late '90s when I was MU*ing online that people started doing that, and even then coaxing info out of anyone who'd been online for more than a year was pretty rare.
Nowadays though everybody posts a face picture, and their name/dob/everything short of street address, and they're HAPPY about it?
I try and warn people just how bad of an idea that is, but it seems like nobody has the comprehension anymore to understand it.
And we wonder why privacy, at least in America, is on the decline.
Ahh CI$ (Score:1, Interesting)
Back in the days before the Internet, CI$ (Compuserve Information Service) was one of the first nation wide BBS type systems. It was the place where nationwide online tech support started to become somewhat useful. I used to logon for Novell downloads and Atari support. Of course I also pirated the heck out of everything back then. And I loved their freebie $15 credit thingy they'd include with new modems. Use that code to start an account, randomly pick name/addr/phone number out of phone book, get a bank routing number, then randomly pick account number. Tada free Compuserve until they shut it down. If you did it on a Friday it'd usually last until Monday or tuesday of the following week... Of course this was pre-18 yrs old for me, and I stopped doing it about that time. I remember the adult areas on Compuserve. 320x200x256 GIF files! wohoo! :)
My Life as Girl on Compuserve (Score:5, Interesting)
Compuserve was my first real foray into an online community and all the good and bad that comes with it. I was 16 and in High School when the Computer Programming teacher (BASIC on Apple II+ computers) signed up for a school account on Compuserve. This was years before I had even heard of the Internet. Since nobody in the school had the first clue what to do with this "Information Superhighway" thing, and I was the only geek around, the teacher just gave me the login info and let me do whatever I wanted on it.
It didn't take me long to gravitate towards the various chat rooms. Those of you who grew up with the availability of the Internet and the like probably take it for granted that you can communicate with people all over the world (or nation, at least). Back when my only communication with the world at large was my pen pal, these simple chat rooms were mind-blowing!
There was one little hitch. See, my nickname back then was "Granny" (play on my last name) and so I naturally used it as my handle in the chat room. I forget which room I joined but I hadn't been in there but a few seconds when I started getting a lot of people saying "hi" and asking where I was located and the like. Then somebody asked how old I was and I mentioned that I was 16.
Well, right after I wrote that, I started getting a stream of Private Chat requests. We're talking a couple dozen requests in about 10 seconds. "Everybody is so friendly," I thought.
But their questions were odd and very personal. "What do you look like?" "What color are your eyes?" "What are you wearing?" Eh? What am I wearing? What kind of weird question is that to ask.
And then: "How big are your boobs?" "Do you have a boyfriend?" It went off the deep end after that.
They thought I was a 16 year old girl! I thought that was so funny and told them so. And just like that, all of the Private Chats closed and all I was left with were a scattering of "Well why would you call yourself Granny if you weren't a girl?" messages.
I signed on a few more times as Granny after that but found that I really couldn't go anywhere without a stream of sexual comments following me. I eventually had to change my nick just to be able to chat with people without them staring at my virtual chest.
That was an eye-opener. Let me tell you, though, when the Internet happened years later and I heard women complaining about being effectively harassed online by a bunch of horny nerds... well, I knew exactly what they were talking about.
Heh.
Re:Wow this is a day... (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh well, 100531,3420 here. Yup, we Europeans had different numbers, and back in the old days before Eternal September you could even tell the geographical area of someone just by his CIS ID.
For all those who tagged this story "andnothingofvaluewaslost": Back in the day, you could only join CompuServe providing ID and using your real name. It's amazing how much nicer people behaved and how much more substance there was in the discussions. Because, you know, you didn't want your name associated with talking out of your ass. Much less flaming also, leave alone trolling. The trolls couldn't hold onto their accounts for long, because without ID they wouldn't get new ones. Oh, and for the same reasons there was no spam whatsoever.
It was a great time. It went down the drain when German laws dictated that everybody had to be allowed in, using nicknames, and without proof of identity. Then came the trolls, the idiots, and Eternal September followed.
I was a sysop, and even a wizop (Wizard Sysop, basically "root" of the forum), and have seen much of the shit which started when AOL took over. That basically killed the spirit. It's a real pity that I signed a pretty badass NDA, otherwise all that would make for a great book on how *not* to run an online service.
*sigh*
I feel old now. Being online used to be fun and fascinating and educational. Nowadays it's, well, shit.
AOL picked the wrong thing to shut down (Score:2, Interesting)
Compuserve, I think,, would have survived much better in the Internet age than AOL, if AOL hadn't have bought them. AOL was more a forerunner of the advertising laden shlock that we have today, but Compuserve was a much more serious minded product and tended to have good information products and good forums. IF AOL would have kept up with Compuserve, investing millions into a computerserve web site, rather than -cough-, Time Warner, they could have been way out in front with the social stuff that was in Compuservers forums, the software stores could have been expanded to sell other stuff... the news was always good. It was just that AOL ruined them.
RIP Compuserve, 1979 - 2009 (Score:5, Interesting)
So I guess you were better than AOL, who funny enough just put you out of your misery even though you were around longer. And I was never really into you, even more so once I found local BBS'. Especially ones with pirate software and Trade Wars [wikipedia.org]. To be honest I was only fascinated by what was possible with you, not what you actually offered. I should have been more open with you and told you.
But you were great fun while you lasted, which in the eyes of most people who knew about you probably ended somewhere around 1985. I hope you weren't lonely in the end, because I had no idea you were on that respirator and life support. I TOTALLY would have come to see you if I knew...I mean, me and the free shell accounts at Arbornet have been getting it on all kindsa nasty style for years now, so I hope you don't curse me from intarwebs hell. I just found a part of teh 'tubes that, you know, I clicked with. It was never you, Compuserve. It was totally me.
Rest In Peace, old friend.
Re:New email system? (Score:3, Interesting)
I think thats the point.