CompuServe Requiem
The original CompuServe service, first offered in 1979, was shut down this past week by its current owner, AOL. The service, which provided its users with addresses such as 73402,3633 and was the first major online service, had seen the number of users dwindle in recent years. At its height, the service boasted about having over half a million users simultaneously on line. Many innovations we now take for granted, from online travel (Eaasy Sabre), online shopping, online stock quotations, and global weather forecasts, just to name a few, were standard fare on CompuServe in the 1980s.
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, along with all the features supported by that software, from forums for virtually every topic and profession known to man to members’ Ourworld Web pages, has been shut down. Indeed, the current version of the service’s client software, CompuServe for Windows NT 4.0.2, dates back to 1999.
CompuServe members can convert their existing addresses to the new e-mail system at the CompuServe Mail Center.
David M. Goldes is president and senior analyst at Basex.
July 3rd, 2009 09:11
Your address example (73402,3893) would never have been a Compuserve address. The CIS addresses were octal – digits ranged only from 0 to 7. Mine was 70014,2316
July 3rd, 2009 10:38
I think those numbers were originally PDP-10 (TOPS-10) user numbers (Base 8).
July 3rd, 2009 11:24
they were properly “programmer/project numbers” (PPNs), intended to identify who was working on what software project.
the idea of having ever assigned such an arcane nomenclature to ordinary, frequently non-technical users was an absurdity from the beginning. and it caused no end of difficulty when the time came (1987) to gateway CServe email to The Greater Out Here — that damnable embedded comma was a huge source of confusion for users.
(once upon a time known as 76701,110)
July 3rd, 2009 12:52
Long live CompuServe! JZ, former SYSOP Forum SYSOP, 76703,3022
July 3rd, 2009 16:55
[...] Basex | David M. Goldes | July 3, 2009: [...]
July 3rd, 2009 17:54
Gosh — does this bring back memories!
I think I was 71535,275 in those days.
Compuserve taught me the value of money when I managed to run up a $400 bill in 1980 using the CB Radio function over winter break. I was Compuwhiz! That was a lot of money for a kid in high school — but they let me pay it off over 6 months. Ever since then, I’ve always paid off my credit card bill in full each month (I’m sure to the chagrin of the credit card company.)
There was this sexy gal on CB Radio named Cupcake who flirted with me all the time and a fellow named Blue Knight over in California (I’m in New York) who became one of my very good friends still to this date. I was even in his wedding in 1990! Rest In Peace, Compuserve! It was real!
July 3rd, 2009 18:30
Yes, the origin of CompuServe user IDs were TOPS-10* PPNs. A pair of octal half-word (18 bit) unsigned integers. The CompuServe Information Service started as a way to sell excess computer time on the timesharing systems that were used by businesses during the day. The Information Service eventually took over the company. The PC software was originally developed by a user to make interfacing to the DECsystem-10* command line a little easier. While they (and their partners) developed some great ideas, they failed to sufficiently invest in both marketing and user interface development which allowed AOL to come from nowhere, flood the marketplace with free floppies, and dominate the market in very short order. Being owned by H&R Block at that crucial juncture didn’t help, either.
What CompuServe was great at was leveraging their infrastructure into other markets. Their leased network and dialup pools were eventually used for point-of-sale transactions, for example.
I worked for the software vendor that supplied the database engine they used. They bought us, failed to market our products well, and eventually sold us off. I had a free account for several years with direct network access from my office (the one with the couch and stereo &emdash; both CServe and Block had a difficult time with our “corporate” culture).
*TOPS-10 was the operating system, DECsystem-10 was the hardware (36-bit word with a settable byte-size).
July 3rd, 2009 19:22
Tim, you are right about the example I used but I changed several digits from a real address having forgotten it was octal. I’m adjusting that thanks to your input.
July 3rd, 2009 21:40
[...] 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, along with all the features supported by that software, from forums for virtually every topic and profession known to man to members’ Ourworld Web pages, has been shut down. Indeed, the current version of the service’s client software, CompuServe for Windows NT 4.0.2, dates back to 1999. CompuServe Requiem [...]
July 3rd, 2009 21:51
It was actually my first tech support job in 1995. I still remember the day the system turned out the password “terminal:cancer”. Ahhh, good times.
I do not miss accessing tickets through Procomm, however.
July 3rd, 2009 21:59
[...] CompuServe Requiem [...]
July 4th, 2009 00:16
[...] CompuServe shuts down: Tras una larga agonía, el CompuServe que conocimos está ya casi totalmente cerrado, aunque su sistema de correo –tan primitivo que las direcciones estaban formadas por dos grupos de números– todavía funcionan y seguirán siendo gratuitas para sus clientes. [...]
July 4th, 2009 00:21
[...] CompuServe shuts down: Tras una larga agonía, el CompuServe que conocimos está ya casi totalmente cerrado, aunque su sistema de correo –tan primitivo que las direcciones estaban formadas por dos grupos de números– todavía funcionan y seguirán siendo gratuitas para sus clientes. [...]
July 4th, 2009 01:10
Adios CompuServe, adios……
Ya ha sucedido, el cierre de CompuServe es definitivo, solo conservarán las viejas direcciones de correos (si, aquellas que eran dos grupos de números separados por una coma, en octal). Los más viejos seguro que alguna vez nos hemos pasado por Compu…
July 4th, 2009 01:18
[...] CompuServe shuts down: Tras una larga agonía, el CompuServe que conocimos está ya casi totalmente cerrado, aunque su sistema de correo –tan primitivo que las direcciones estaban formadas por dos grupos de números– todavía funcionan y seguirán siendo gratuitas para sus clientes. [...]
July 4th, 2009 01:26
[...] CompuServe shuts down: Tras una larga agonía, el CompuServe que conocimos está ya casi totalmente cerrado, aunque su sistema de correo –tan primitivo que las direcciones estaban formadas por dos grupos de números– todavía funcionan y seguirán siendo gratuitas para sus clientes. [...]
July 4th, 2009 05:18
[...] CompuServe Requiem » Basex Blog ». leave a comment [...]
July 4th, 2009 08:46
I saw cupcake on facebook the other day on a cb group page/thread/something.
Topcat, miles oteg, cinderally, learned foot, eristone and other were there too.
Those were the days.
July 4th, 2009 09:13
[...] RIP 1979-2009 – AOL shuts down Compuserve http://www.basexblog.com/2009/07/03/compuserve-requiem/ [...]
July 4th, 2009 09:19
[...] from there. Many of us met there, conversed, debated, laughed, cried, and a few even passed away. CompuServe Requiem Basex Blog The system CIS had was immense and it worked because it had dedicated people who wanted it to [...]
July 4th, 2009 09:56
Are there stories from CompuServe’s early history online?
I remember that the Bell System used a few PDP10/Decsystem 20s for billing, and was curious about any Columbus connections between staff at CompuServe and AT&T Bell Labs (which had operations in Columbus at the time)
July 4th, 2009 10:24
Up until they did this, I was still paying a legacy $2.50/mth fee for Compuserve and my old account could still log in to the service at gateway.compuserve.com via telnet.
You could not do much in there of course anymore, but I was also once a sysop, and I still knew how to get into the PRO area, do directory listings of their hard drives (and see files with dates dating back to the 70’s), and with that knowledge run some of the old apps from the command line (like biorythms, and some adventure games), and even things like TE2TRN.EXE (the program that allowed the TI-99/4A TE2 cartridge to transfer files from Compuserve.
And of course who could forget the Filge editor?
I used to log in every few months for a little nostalgia, as well as amazement that the old systems were still up this long.
July 4th, 2009 10:25
Almost forgot to say hello to JZ up there, a former SysOp of the once mighty TIFORUM.
July 4th, 2009 10:41
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=134870180436&ref=ts
TopCat made a CB group on Facebook
July 4th, 2009 10:50
[...] happened to.. Click pic to embiggen The original CompuServe service, first offered in 1979, was shut down this past week by its current owner, AOL. The service, which provided its users with addresses such as 73402,3633 [...]
July 4th, 2009 10:53
I was just a kid when I started using it with my modem on my Atari 800. There was a text based space adventure that I played all the time. Does anyone remember the name of it? I was 72257,2500.
July 4th, 2009 11:17
[...] crazyskills on Jul.04, 2009, under news, tech AOL has finally pulled the plug [basexblog.com] on CompuServe, one of the main predecessors to the internet back in the 80’s. [...]
July 4th, 2009 12:00
popurls.com // popular today…
story has entered the popular today section on popurls.com…
July 4th, 2009 12:25
I started as a customer in 1981 (71205.101) plowing my weekly allowance into Colossal Cave adventure and CB Simulator using “CompuServe Service on QUBE” (a cartridge for an Atari 800 hooked to an experimental 300 baud cable modem developed by Warner/AMEX)
I became a 21yr veteran of the company, met lots of great people and got to do a lot of really cool stuff.
July 4th, 2009 12:35
RIP CompuServe hosted my first hobby site RIP
July 4th, 2009 12:38
[...] speaking of things that lasted over 200 years (at least in internet time), CompuServ has been shut down of this [...]
July 4th, 2009 12:41
Ken: MegaWars!!
July 4th, 2009 12:51
[...] OnLine ha staccato la spina di CompuServe, la prima vera rete telematica globale ad accesso [...]
July 4th, 2009 13:01
75565,1703
July 4th, 2009 13:21
[...] evidently it was. At least until this week when AOL shut it down. The original CompuServe service, first offered in 1979, was shut down this past week by its [...]
July 4th, 2009 13:35
I remember getting a data terminal from Bank of NY in 1986 that used CompuServe as the network provider. The coolest thing was a live chat with some other geek in Washington State. Things have gotten better but worse. It’s to bad we still don’t have a KISS system for individual technologies so that we don’t need to consider the five thousand default options pre-selected.
July 4th, 2009 13:35
A friend passed away recently – Compuserve outlived him by one year:
71662,352
July 4th, 2009 13:37
Seems like a lot of history that’s being threatened here. Can’t this move to the Computer History Museum and be run forever more?
July 4th, 2009 13:38
Haha! Take that Terminators!
July 4th, 2009 13:45
I was 71535,1773 back in the day.
July 4th, 2009 14:39
From an old Boardwatch article: “When all the online service providers gather together for Thanksgiving dinner, CompuServe sits at the head of the table.”
RIP, CompuServe!
Wandering Dave Rhee
SYSOP Forum Sysop
New England Senior Network Technical Specialist
70003,5000
(And “Hi!” to JZ, John, and others here whose names I recognize!)
July 4th, 2009 14:40
[...] Classic–the most direct descendant of the online service that debuted in 1979–discontinued service at the end of last month. (As far as I know, Robert Anthony was the first blogger to pick up on this, and he has written an [...]
July 4th, 2009 17:14
I think there was an earlier competitor for Compuserve called “the Source” I logged into the Source in 1982. it was located in Ohio if I remember correctly.
I spent alot of time on compuserve in the late 80 90 time frame. in between there was a long period of BBS activities.
July 4th, 2009 17:25
Such is life. I learnt the news by Loic Lemeur on Twitter.
On Compuserve I began my numeric life… in 1985. The place was the place to be to get information from people all around the world.
After I joint Calvacom, the French copycat. I became sysop for a couple of forums about the Mac and Hypercard, I have been Apple’s Evangelist for in Switzerland and US.
I am looking back as it was only yesterday…
But it was a long life for a digital service, would it be the same for Twitter, Facebook…. See you in 20 years to see if we remember of them.
July 4th, 2009 18:02
[...] CompuServe Requiem » Basex Blog » (tags: internet history compuserve) [...]
July 4th, 2009 19:30
I think this article is a bit misleading. It is true that you can no longer use the PPNs to access the forums on Compuserve, but there are still quite a few of them there. A few even have rather large numbers of messages per day still, though most are pretty small now. But anyone can access the forums, using any browser, and can participate in the forums as much as he/she wishes. You are required to have a ’screen name’ which can be an AIM name, an AOL name, or a Netscape name. There are no longer any dialup numbers.
BUT – many of the old forums continue to exist and to serve the small number of people who come. I’m still in the Genealogy Forum and the Vintage Computers Forum. Many of the sysops you all knew are still there. And we ALL remember JZ and Wandering Dave!
July 4th, 2009 19:45
I still remember my 70003 account and my 111111 account I had when I worked there. Those were the days.
July 4th, 2009 21:36
[...] Compuserve is no more. [...]
July 4th, 2009 23:10
Another era closes. Nice to see the contributions here–some names I haven’t seen for a while!
Mike King
INET* Forums, et. al.
SYSOP Forum SYSOP
74431,2003
July 5th, 2009 00:10
[...] We’re watching the end of an era. CompuServe, America’s first major online service, was shut down this week. This is the company that actually trademarked the word email — a ridiculous claim [...]
July 5th, 2009 03:35
I remember using CompuServe thanks to a TTY device at my company. It had no display, it used something called “paper.” Nevertheless, I was the only person I knew with an email address at the time!
David Fell
Once 70040,674
July 5th, 2009 05:01
Back in the day it was the best, I loved the old CS site. Cool features and nice forums. Blazed a path for the next generation of internet software.
Sparked a long term interest in the internet and anything online.
Lots of thanks to the guys and gals that keep it up and running and worked hard to keep the email service running.
Good luck down the road to Jim, Rich, Missy, Pete and the rest of the crew at the CTC.
Joe
July 5th, 2009 05:54
[...] link: CompuServe Requiem » Basex Blog » [...]
July 5th, 2009 06:33
[...] CIS, Ave Atque Vale. Last night I held a bit of an email wake with the subscribers to Jacey Services over the death of CompuServe. [...]
July 5th, 2009 08:33
This is really, really sad. Another priceless slice of internet and personal history disappears. I have very fond memories of my time on Compuserve, and I made a lot of good friends there, some of whom I’m still in contact with today.
I was user name 100647,753 (still burned into my brain after all these years). When I first came online back in late 1995, Compuserve was my first (and by far my favourite, even now) online home, and I still miss it to this day. I participated regularly in over a dozen forums/fora, and was extremely active in about a half dozen, particularly SFLIT, SFMEDIA, GERROLD, and COMICS & ANIMATION.
I had exactly the same experience as GT (except worse) when I got my phone bill after my first month on Compuserve – £350 British pounds sterling, which converts to (at today’s currency exchange rate) $572.46 US dollars. I almost had a heart attack! I immediately bought an offline reader, NavCis, later moving to OzWin when NavCis ceased development. This worked wonders, cutting my time online by 95%, and cutting my phone bill by more than 75%.
Those were the days! Now look at me, going all sentimental and nostalgic…
Phil
July 5th, 2009 08:35
CompuServe Rocked! In high school, that was what separated the real geeks from the DnD geeks!!!
Ray (formerly 70051,2120)
July 5th, 2009 08:37
Many good memories.
75775,1344
(I haven’t used it in decades. I’m so proud to remember my number!)
July 5th, 2009 10:09
Does this mean I should throw away my Tapcis disks?
Oh how I long for the text only days, logging in to check club racing on RIS and going to the Yost Group’s area for 3DStudio miscellany.
Let’s drink to that..
July 5th, 2009 12:29
It sounds a bit too dead in this discussion–the forums (at least those that survived the earlier kills) still exist.
Me, 21 years as SL and sysop on what used to be the Literary Forum. Now we’re Books and Writers, but same people, mostly same staff!
Oh, and I was 76710,1375.
July 5th, 2009 12:32
Oh, and Adam? I still have remants of Tap on my computer, transferred over and over through various boxes. I remember swearing I’d leave the forum if/when Tap no longer worked. Like most of my oaths, it didn’t last….
July 5th, 2009 13:36
70006,411 and 7003,5471. My two employee accounts for 16 years. Those were the best years, EVER! Daren
July 5th, 2009 15:34
CompuServe may be dead, but MegaWars III is Reborn at
http://www.megawarsiii.com
July 5th, 2009 16:17
CompuServe was my first on-line community. The folks held my hand and laughed at me as I learned my way using a computer then the Internet. The ADD Forum was home to wonderful people who helped, shared and had lots in common besides interest in ADHD. I am fortunate to count MANY of them among my friends, in real life now, and constant email buddies.
Thanks, Guys, for the memories and help. And to all those brilliant folks who were Sysops and/or ran the forums for various computer software and hardware and interests…bless you guys!
Nancylynn aka NL
grovegrower@gmail.com
July 5th, 2009 16:44
If anyone who was online in the eighties gets lonely for the old CompuServe, you can always download the game CosmoServe: an Adventure for the BBS-Enslaved, and relive how it used to be (sort of)…
http://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXagt.html
July 5th, 2009 19:15
[...] the news that CompuServe, the ground-breaking online service that presaged the commercial Internet, was shutting down after 30 years. I am not sure how many people remember CompuServe, but it was a major influence in my life and [...]
July 5th, 2009 19:54
I will always remember how much the Compuserve forums aided my Windows development (in 3.0 and earlier) days.
thanks… 71461,320
July 5th, 2009 21:11
I remember starting with Compuserve while in Perth Australia on a 2400 modem. A year later I moved to Columbus Ohio, home of CServe and was connecting at 14,400. Thought I had gone to heaven. In those days it took an email days to traverse the electronic wilderness from my corporate HQ in Perth to Columbus.
July 5th, 2009 21:24
Wow. Someone recently sent me a CompuServe email address and I did a double-take. Didn’t know it was still alive. But I am sad to hear of its passing. We had some good productive times on CIS before the Internet. I think my account # was 76447,417 (based totally on memory). I abandonded it more than 10 years ago.
July 5th, 2009 22:51
Wow. Such an important piece for so many of us online users.
I was active in beta testing the DOSCIM and WINCIM releases but left them behind once I could access the forums from an Internet browser.
I still have WINCIM 2.0.1 on one of my pcs with all the old emails I saved.
RIP CompuServe
July 6th, 2009 02:30
[...] their “broadband” and “wireless,” feel free to reflect in the comments. [Basex via Beyond the [...]
July 6th, 2009 03:14
[...] their “broadband” and “wireless,” feel free to reflect in the comments. [Basex via Beyond the [...]
July 6th, 2009 03:41
[...] their “broadband” and “wireless,” feel free to reflect in the comments. [Basex via Beyond the [...]
July 6th, 2009 04:01
[...] before the era of the web. And at the end of June AOL killed off CompuServe Classic which was the last surviving bit of that service, the only thing now left is a tombstone “web portal” and a low rent ISP service. It’s a sad [...]
July 6th, 2009 04:26
[...] their “broadband” and “wireless,” feel free to reflect in the comments. [Basex via Beyond the [...]
July 6th, 2009 04:29
The Compuserve forums, Byte, Creative Computing and PC magazine were the inspiration and information i needed to transform myself into a geek. Was it Neil Rubenking and Jerry Pourniele…please forgive my mis-spelling, but they were my first mentors, and you could ’speak’ to them there!
I mourn the passing of another artifact of the age, the Columbia University School of General Studies CTA program (RDSD 1989).
Both were great communities.
July 6th, 2009 04:41
I remember back in 1993 trying to get a job there. There were some huge glass doors to the right of the lobby. A developer with long hair walked through the glass doors with brass trim. I was in awe of those glass doors. Later I worked there as a contractor. The glass doors led to the cafeteria. Somehow not as ominous.
July 6th, 2009 04:46
[...] Malik pointed out that AOL has turned out the lights on CompuServe after 30 years of service. Om told a great story of how CompuServe played a role in his career as a technology writer, and [...]
July 6th, 2009 05:05
Rest In Peace, Compuserve! It was real! (100120.2673@compuserve.com)
July 6th, 2009 06:25
I was on Compuserve at 300 baud using my Commodore 64 with a modem controller I wrote in Basic and loved it!
Adios Compuserve. You served us well.
July 6th, 2009 06:27
Oh, the late 80’s Norway night sessions with OzCIS while trying to hush my firstborn. R.I.P from 72611,476.
July 6th, 2009 06:52
My first modem for a computer was a 2400 Baud that came with a Prodigy kit. Its access number was long distance which made it expensive for me. After trying it out and decided it wasn’t worth the cost I closed down that membership and decided to try Compuserve. At the time they wanted you to pay some money ($40???) for their software in addition to the subscription. Given my experience w/ Prodigy I didn’t want to pony up money for software only to find out that I would have to go long distance again.
I called their support line to see if they had a number closer to me. The Tech Support’s initial response was “We don’t give our phone numbers out to non-members.”. I told him I would be willing to buy the software if there was a local number for me to use, but I’m not buying it if I had to call long-distance. I convinced him to just tell me if it exists without telling me the number. After giving him my area code and prefix he pointed me to the same area as Prodigy (long distance) had. I then asked if they had an access number in a closer town which would not be long distance. He looked it up and said it did exist there. Don’t know why they tried to push me onto that other long-distance number.
After finding that there was a local number I could use I bought the software and joined up for about 4 years before the Internet became more widely available. I can’t remember my user number, but I do have some fond memories of exploring the many forums and downloads. Thanks Compuserve for starting my journey online!
July 6th, 2009 07:51
[...] their “broadband” and “wireless,” feel free to reflect in the comments. [Basex via Beyond the [...]
July 6th, 2009 07:52
Started with Compuserve at 300 baud on a TRS80 Mod 3
72727,46
met lots of fantastic people and had lots of fun.
July 6th, 2009 08:05
[...] to basex blog, “CompuServe users will be able to use their existing CompuServe Classic (as the service was [...]
July 6th, 2009 08:15
Never used CompuServe in the Internet age – last time I accessed was on a Kaypro II (C/PM!) at 1200 baud. Seawars ruled!
July 6th, 2009 09:12
Compuserve ate a fair amount of my spending cash during my early teen years! I remember being able to read the text as it scrolled by on my blindingly fast 300 baud modem. Comupuserve was my first “hack.” If you let your credit card expire, and hit the ? help prompt when asked to update, it let you in! I didn’t follow that path, but several of my friends, with huge phone bills did. The BBS and online obsession ate time and money like they were going out of style.
Like many old friends, I lost track, didn’t know what it was up to, and now it’s gone. It pointed the way…
z
July 6th, 2009 09:20
[...] [Basexblog] Via [Wired - Beyond The [...]
July 6th, 2009 10:28
[...] has confirmed the shut down of CompuServe Classic after it had been providing services for almost three decades. The service [...]
July 6th, 2009 10:29
[...] their “broadband” and “wireless,” feel free to reflect in the comments. [Basex via Beyond the [...]
July 6th, 2009 12:25
I still have saved, everything I wrote and found interesting in CIS during the days and I want to save it ‘forever’.
I can’t use Vista 64 to execute WINCIM (the DOS client). I can execute it in Windows XP 32 bit though.
Does anybody know a workaround for Vista 64? I am afraid that the data will eventually fall to an unrecoverable format.
If I knew the structure of the files I could conceivably write a Java program but I better find out what’s there first?
July 6th, 2009 13:45
[...] CompuServe Requiem – Tweeted by Chuck Urwiler [...]
July 6th, 2009 14:00
[...] which owns CompuServe, said today that it was shutting down the dial-up service in a message to subscribers over the weekend. The remaining customers have been asked to move to a newer version, CompuServe 2000. You could [...]
July 6th, 2009 14:11
[...] which owns CompuServe, said today that it was shutting down the dial-up service in a message to subscribers over the weekend. The remaining customers have been asked to move to a newer version, CompuServe 2000. You could [...]
July 6th, 2009 14:15
[...] system for no charge, but the rest of the service and software is going the way of the dodo. As pointed out by Basex analyst David Goldes, the most current version of CompuServe’s client software dates [...]
July 6th, 2009 15:38
[...] their “broadband” and “wireless,” feel free to reflect in the comments. [Basex via Beyond the Beyond] Tagged:compuservecompuserve classichistoryispsonlineretromodothe [...]
July 6th, 2009 17:09
[...] CompuServe Requiem – Tweeted by Chuck Urwiler [...]
July 6th, 2009 17:59
[...] CompuServe Requiem – Tweeted by Chuck Urwiler [...]
July 6th, 2009 21:54
[...] 現在CompuServeを所有するAOLは先週、会員に向けてメッセージを送り、CompuServe Classicのサービス終了を確認した。AOLは4月にサービスの終了を発表し、この低料金のダイヤルアップサービスをまだ利用している顧客に、存続しているCompuServe 2000への移行を促した。 [...]
July 6th, 2009 22:09
i found an old disk with OZCIS on it,, to grab the content of specific forums.
these where kinda nice days, i enjoyed a lot.
July 6th, 2009 22:36
Well, 100022,662 says good bye. I stayed till the last day and am sad now to see it go. I had the account for so long I could never cancel it myself. Now they have done it for me.
July 6th, 2009 23:09
[...] while we were doing this important work, 30 years of history, in the form of Compuserve, was suddenly shut down by AOL. Just. Like. That. Anyone who has information or archives they want to help get online or saved or [...]
July 7th, 2009 03:05
[...] ber CompuServe ihre Filialen anzubinden. In den frhen 90ern als das WWW heraufdmmerte waren die Foren von CompuServe ziemlich [...]
July 7th, 2009 06:08
Ah, the memories of long lost forums. Around 1990 the Novel Netware forum members held my hand through my engineer certification. Got into Wine around ‘95 with Robin Garr (now has Wine Lovers’ Page), Rod Berglund (Swan Winery), Dave Coffaro, many others. Made at least 2 trips a year to CA from here in VA for “offline” dinners with many fantastic wine enthusiasts, many lifetime friendships. PC Hardware and Laptops taught me to build and troubleshoot PCs and all their parts. Still around are Cooks, Photography (taught me everything I know from my first Kodak DC215, then 260, through Canon DSLRs), Gadgets and Gear,
though I’m not as active as I used to be. I never had a question go unanswered, members solved problems often within minutes! I remember Mike King who posted above. The old Compuserve folks were the epitome of professionalism. OzWin ruled!
Linda Baldwin
76360,2430
July 7th, 2009 06:16
[...] http://www.basexblog.com/2009/07/03/compuserve-requiem/ [...]
July 7th, 2009 06:36
I can still remember logging in on my Tandy M100 laptop with a 300 baud modem using a script written by “Howard” (I think?) to read the forums. Later I graduated to the Xenix system. Regards, Jon Payne, 76576,2713
July 7th, 2009 09:24
“Sure I have email, it’s 100674.2070@compu….” in the age of remembering telephone numbers it didn’t seem so unreasonable at the time!
It also didn’t seem unreasonable at age 14 to find Compuserve’s secret “engineer-only” UK free phone number and avoid the telephone charges (still had my Dad’s credit card bill to explain, oh and Mum finding me STILL online at 7am in the holidays typing to American girls)
RIP Compuserve.
July 7th, 2009 14:22
Hi there. This is Jason Scott of Archive Team. I’m posting here because this seems to be the central point for discussions and mentions of Compuserve. If you have old archives of Compuserve materials, disks, printouts, or anything else, please go to the archiveteam.org site and contact us about scanning, copies, or just dumping them off on us. I’d like to assemble as much as we can of this service before the history of it disappears forever. Stories and Anecdotes count.
July 7th, 2009 16:12
[...] rumors of its demise long ago, it wasn’t until last week that the CompuServe service was shut down. Bought by AOL in 1998, CompuServe was the Internet before there was an Internet. Remember those [...]
July 7th, 2009 17:45
Ave atque vale from 76436,2304.
Margaret Campbell #56/60 – I’m so glad to hear that used-to-be Litforum is still around, if renamed. My main forum home, History Forum, still technically exists, but the group of regulars there vanished a year or so ago – a sad end to a longtime community.
But my email is *still* lyonesse[at]compuserve.com!
July 7th, 2009 18:48
Wow, what memories this brings back. Reminds me of many services I used back in the day – remember GEnie?? It was, along with Compuserve, and eventually AOL, that I used with my Commodore 64 and a 300 baud modem.
I remember trying to use the service mentioned, American Airlines’ Easy Saabre. It was so incredibly unreliable it was a miracle to get from logon to the end of a reservation in a single try.
And Linda, I still have a working DC260 in the drawer.
Thanks for the memories!
Brian Jeffrey
75216,2101
July 7th, 2009 19:08
[...] #AOL shut down #CompuServe! There goes another bit of net history. http://www.basexblog.com/2009/07/03/compuserve-requiem/ [...]
July 8th, 2009 03:50
Compuserve – the only online service to have a native OS/2 client!! (1993)
Time to Warp out of here. Farewell from 73370,743.
July 8th, 2009 13:22
[...] Reader salio a mi rescate. En un post que tenia señalado desde hace algunos dias venia esto: El 3 de julio de 2009 Compuserve cierra operaciones finalmente. Al leer esto no me quedo mas que levantarme de mi silla y guardar un minuto de silencio, como [...]
July 8th, 2009 18:43
[...] few days late, but I don’t recall seeing much comment on this milestone: CompuServe has been shut down by AOL, the current owner of the name and whatever was left of the [...]
July 9th, 2009 23:26
[...] original CompuServe — later renamed CompuServe Classic — was laid to rest July 1, 2009. In a message sent to its remaining subscribers, AOL urged customers sticking with cheap dial-up to move on to the company’s surviving [...]
July 11th, 2009 13:52
Nice to see those old familiar names! TAPCIS survives, Margaret–sort of. There’s a Website, http://www.tapcis.com ; drop around sometime!
July 11th, 2009 18:56
[...] Clear 80 Cities 18 Months or Bust! Time Lapse Video from iPhone spectacular! Automated Ramen Maker Compuserve RIP Immigrate us out of a Recession? SSD Hard Drives and Moore’s Law Auto Building Linux Machines [...]
July 12th, 2009 18:23
Wow! Reading this was like a walk down memory lane with a good group of friends. This happened while I was on vacation. I started out on a Commodore 128 and 300 baud modem on a Tymnet node in North Dakota back in 1987 or so. I sysopped in the Health & Fitness Forum, Diabetes, Cancer and finally, Crafts. I still poke my head in over in Diabetes, Travel and Seniors fora.
Debra Freisleben (duck)
71620,1025
76702,1776
July 12th, 2009 20:08
I was swindled on ebay by some crook using a pager account. Mofo was stunned when I got his contact info and paid a visit lol!
Phone Search
July 17th, 2009 07:29
I started using my husband’s CIS account in 1991 and found the CB Simulator. I opened up my own in 1993 and a few months later became a helper, running trivia games, answering questions about cb and monitoring behavior. Those were fun times. I am still in contact with many of the past users over on dalnet and also on the cb page on Facebook that Sky mentioned up above.
I still use my CompuServe email address as my main email. I should say, “used to”. I have been unsuccessful in getting help from CompuServe to migrate my email to their webmail system. Apparently they can’t figure out how to do it if your alphanumeric address contains underscores. I really really hate to give up that email. I guess I’ll keep calling India for help. Maybe if I harass them daily…
Soucieuse/Souci/Suesan
74170.202
July 17th, 2009 19:52
I joined while in the Army in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1991. I convinced my dad in Wisconsin to drop Prodigy in favor of Compuserve so we could chat…. CB/ email. We still talk about how amazing it was to be able to communicate in seconds around the world. Saved tons of long distance phone time.
My dad bought a new 1200 baud modem and sent me his old one…. My brother in WI knew a guy from HAM radio who just moved to Germany to be the Dell Computer Salesman; he gave me his phone number and the guy offered to drive from Rhien Mein to Wiesban to help….. talk about a small world.
July 25th, 2009 00:47
[...] CompuServe Requiem [...]
August 4th, 2009 01:47
You gifted me with many friends, CIS. Even though I left you a long time ago, that soft spot for you will always be in my heart. I’m gonna go shed a tear or two now.
R.I.P. Compuserve.
Ursula
75337,11
November 18th, 2009 11:43
[...] has finally shut down. And a tear comes to my eye. From here: The original CompuServe service, first offered in 1979, was shut down this past week by its [...]