<story><title>45 years ago CompuServe connected the world before the World Wide Web</title><url>https://www.wosu.org/2024-09-24/45-years-ago-compuserve-connected-the-world-before-the-world-wide-web</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cdchn</author><text>A lot of BBSes especially those that had FidoNet or similar distributed message boards let you download all the message boards as QWK packets and software like Blue Link and others.  It was a great feature.  Reading&amp;#x2F;replying to boards offline was a much nicer experience, in addition to the cost savings.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: and as another bit of random trivia the guy who invented QWK format died of a heart attack after being swatted by an 18 year old who was after his @Tennessee twitter username.</text></item><item><author>sandymcmurray</author><text>You paid by the minute to connect to CompuServe. I eventually found free software - shared in the CompuServe forums - that would dial up, collect messages from threads you had marked offline, then hang up your modem so you could read and reply at your leisure. This was my first exposure to shareware and a huge $$ saving. I contacted the developer and offered to pay him for this and he replied with, &amp;quot;No thanks. Just pay it forward.&amp;quot; A couple of great lessons there.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>andrelaszlo</author><text>&amp;gt; the guy who invented QWK format died of a heart attack after being swatted by an 18 year old who was after his @Tennessee twitter username.&lt;p&gt;Very sad story. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;krebsonsecurity.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;serial-swatter-who-caused-death-gets-five-years-in-prison&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;krebsonsecurity.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;serial-swatter-who-cause...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>45 years ago CompuServe connected the world before the World Wide Web</title><url>https://www.wosu.org/2024-09-24/45-years-ago-compuserve-connected-the-world-before-the-world-wide-web</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cdchn</author><text>A lot of BBSes especially those that had FidoNet or similar distributed message boards let you download all the message boards as QWK packets and software like Blue Link and others.  It was a great feature.  Reading&amp;#x2F;replying to boards offline was a much nicer experience, in addition to the cost savings.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: and as another bit of random trivia the guy who invented QWK format died of a heart attack after being swatted by an 18 year old who was after his @Tennessee twitter username.</text></item><item><author>sandymcmurray</author><text>You paid by the minute to connect to CompuServe. I eventually found free software - shared in the CompuServe forums - that would dial up, collect messages from threads you had marked offline, then hang up your modem so you could read and reply at your leisure. This was my first exposure to shareware and a huge $$ saving. I contacted the developer and offered to pay him for this and he replied with, &amp;quot;No thanks. Just pay it forward.&amp;quot; A couple of great lessons there.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ghaff</author><text>Even free&amp;#x2F;subscription BBSs often involved pretty expensive per-minute phone charges. Intrastate in the US could actually cost &lt;i&gt;more&lt;/i&gt; than interstate. Phone calls were expensive historically. Maybe more than $1&amp;#x2F;minute except for &lt;i&gt;very&lt;/i&gt; local in today&amp;#x27;s currency.&lt;p&gt;Compuserve also had different rates depending on the baud rate you connected at.&lt;p&gt;Having a computer and getting online was a pretty expensive hobby in the 80s and early 90s.</text></comment>