They're still around, Susan. I, too, hadn't heard that name in eons but found them...and when I have more time I intend to roam around the forums to see if they've stayed the same.

Enjoy!

Anne

Here is a link that might be useful: Compuserve

Yes, I have friends whose email address is still cs.com. Hadn't thought about them in quite awhile. I mean Compuserve, not the friends!

Compuserve was also my first board.

I wonder if we knew each other, Monica. I don't remember my CompuServe screen name.

Thanks, Anne! The look is much improved. Of course it is--they made the leap from DOS to Windows. The list of boards is shorter, but they seem quite active. I'll definitely go back for another look.

I vaguely remember that.

I'll check out the link and see if it sparks any recollections.

I believe those were Moderators.

Sue

Yes, that's it--Moderators. Thanks!

Anyone here remember Prodigy? I started using "bulletin boards" on there back in the day when Sears owned them. That goes back to the 80s!

May be the same thing, but back when I first used ebay, they had a Doll Collectors message board that was so FUN as well as so educational and pushed me to revive my doll collection and realize how collectable they were (now not so much). Those ladies were so great (as well as a bit compulsive!)

I remember them too. We used to run a Bulletin Board system ourselves years ago. It was lots of fun.

And those Bulletin Boards that had the replys spread out (down) like a staircase. What was that called? Starts with a B, maybe?

Sue

Gads, now I won't feel so stupid when mentioning a "bulletin board. Most people ignore me about this. I remember them when they looked like a typewriter wrote the posts and there wasn't a break between the poster. This was when computers were the size of a refrigerator.

I didn't feel really old until having a conversation with my son. Told him there will be an age group of users who will go away that remember paper punch cards for programming. He replied that he also learned this way in college. And I still think of this as yesterday.

Instructions for the computers were originally entered into wired boards that were on the machine, and the input data was entered into cards. The big move was to replace the wired boards with written programs, that were punched into those heavyweight paper cards. My first programs involved reading the wires from a board and writing the instructions into Assembler language, that was then punched into cards and read into the computer. That was 1965 or 66.

Later that year, the company bought an IBM 360 computer that had a large hard disk drive that was able to store information instead of reading programs and data from cards into memory each time. THAT was a big jump in technology.

I took a computer course in college in 1974. I vaguely remember Compuserve. So much has changed. I got my first PC in 2000. Gave both daughters Apple laptop computers as High School graduation gifts.

I still have a couple of those punch cards some where. 1944-45 I worked for the AGO at the Pentagon, when they put in the first IBM Installation, and was in the first class to be trained on them. I remember the "Tabulator" was about the size of a truck.

During that time my DH was overseas, and I was getting censored letters from him. I could run the cards and find out where he (and others I knew) were stationed. Interesting note: even the trash in that office was so secret that it was taken out and burned by armed GIs.

Interesting, and scary times.

Sue

Oh gosh yes I do remember, and was very active on many. I ended up on the msn chat rooms back when they were all so popular.
I was a "Mod", moderator on one of the big ones. We had some great fun people, I am still in contact with several, we had big yearly get together. I hated when some jerk would come in to cause havoc and I would have to use the gavel and ban them.
I did learn a lot from those days and met some of my mentors there as well as my Linux guru. I really am thankful for those days and those boards and chat rooms. We did have fun!

A while back on one of our big moves I decided to trash all that ancient stuff! I was surprised at the stuff we still had, giant floppies, early modems that you sat the old phone on, and cables, I gave some to a young friend that had never seen those things before!

Redcurls, I remember Prodigy very well. In fact, I still have very good friends (in real life) whom I got to know in our POT (Pursuit of Trivia) chat room. When Prodigy started folding, most of us moved over to aol to start a trivia room there, but our "family" was never the same. I also liked the P* bulletin boards and feel bad for aol people who are losing their meeting place.

Yes, I rememeber Compuserve. One of the computers it was marketed for was the Comodore 64 - Remember that one? The data rate must have been 300 bits per second over the phone line. Text only was king. No fancy truefonts either; Just ASCII characters.

coral_ok, some of us old P* folk still play in the Zone Trivia Games room on AOL. You can find it through zonetrivia.com.

You might remember MastrOfPong/Joebtflssk; sadly he passed away about two weeks ago. You can email me at this username on AOL and I can forward you some of the information.

Thru a joint deal with CS in 1991 my company allowed it's pilots and flight attendants to access their schedules and other various things online...I am forever grateful and had the pleasure of seeing this project to fruition...it was way over my head but I muddled thru and we got it up and running!

My sister worked with some of those punch cards when she was in the Army. My first Computer ws a Commodore 64 . I got it at a time when it was very popular but not connected with any internet etc We didn't even know what that was at the time. PC's or desktops were first coming into office use. I remember one or two secretaries in our bank got he first ones. That must have been around 1989. We had things on computer but they were the huge installations usually run by a distant division. We could input and get reports etc but nothing like we are used to today.
I really learned a lot using the Commodore but it wasn't compatible with anything else. Later in 1992 I got one of the other kind. I remember the names CompuServe and Prodigy but no experience with them. Poor AOL people we have gone to so many different systems looking for something resembling the great AOL Boards but no luck really. I find this discussion very intereting.

When I said I got one of the other kind I really meant the Windows system What a difference thqt made YES "Text only was king. No fancy truefonts either; Just ASCII characters."
I still have a collection of Ascii characters

When I said I got one of the other kind I really meant the Windows system What a difference thqt made YES "Text only was king. No fancy truefonts either; Just ASCII characters."
I still have a collection of Ascii characters

I sure remember DOS and CompuServe. Years ago my DH and I ran a 2 line popular Bulletin Board System. We had about 20 shareware CD's on it and games set up along with chat lines. Lots of fun back then keeping little hackers out.

CWR, I remember you!!! Just emailed you...

There was a phishing scam recently targeting Prodigy email addresses. Some scam artist probably thought anyone that old would be easy prey.

My DH's company 'discounted' the early PC's for employees. I think ours was about $2K! (Mid-1980's.) Remember how SLOW it all was? I don't think there was an option other than dial-up.

Omy, I remember my dh to be, getting me on compuserve in mid 1986. He tried to teach me DOS. The computer keys would type to many letters when I typed. I had to rewrite so many things. I tried to do some online shopping but it wasn't very easy for me back then.
I enjoyed finding info for a couple college classes about that time too. Thank goodness the pc has gotten user friendly!!