First post: A history of online public messaging

xnx · 2024-04-29T14:55:43

Similar to the "mother of all demos" it's amazing how many contemporary online systems had their roots in PLATO (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system))

nucleative · 2024-04-29T16:27:22

Seems like there are a lot of BBS nostalgia pieces recently. Times were definitely simpler.

I fondly remember my first few experiences after the family PC got it first modem and computing has never been the same since.

Surprisingly the author skipped over CompuSERVE, Prodigy, and AOL, all of which had very active messaging forums and early chat systems.

JeremyReimer · 2024-04-29T17:57:38

I did mention AOL, as part of the "Eternal September" of Usenet (so tangentially, but still acknowledging it was there) but yeah, I did skip over some of the others. CompuSERVE was something I thought was really cool at the time, but there was no way my parents would pay those hourly charges for me...

Gormo · 2024-04-29T18:11:37

Not to mention The Source, GEnie, BIX, The Well, and especially Delphi.

JeremyReimer · 2024-04-29T18:53:00

These could each be an article in themselves. :)

p1mrx · 2024-04-29T14:47:01

> First post

JeremyReimer · 2024-04-29T17:57:49

Nice.