[ih] Chat room and forum archives

[Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond]

Before AoL mass market, most people were on Compuserve with fewer 
numbers on other BBS like Prodigy or GEnie ( 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEnie ) or Netcom ( 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netcom_(United_States) and The World ( 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_(Internet_service_provider) and 
other more "geeky" BBSes like the Well ( 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WELL ) and of course FidoNet, which I 
wouldn't imagine your character using.

If your character's using an Apple II then AoL wouldn't work and he'd 
probably be on GEnie or Compuserve. You could make him more savvy at 
some point, jumping to KA9Q software that would be his move to a real 
TCP-IP stack, although versions of KA9Q for Apple II were developed much 
later than the PC version. (TCP-IP stack on Apple II is challenging) - 
and by then he would have probably jumped to PC or MAC.

As a worldwide chat system I'd recommend IRC, which was really "huge" 
(in its own world) back then. Again, historically interesting how, just 
like USENET, at some point it suffered greatly from endless flame wars 
and with nobody in charge, was very difficult to police. Spaf would know 
a lot about Usenet too. Back in '92 his description of Usenet was: 
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive, 
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of 
mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it."

Some might say that of today's Internet too, when it comes to 
"influencer" content.

Kindest regards,

Olivier

On 01/09/2022 07:49, Bob Purvy via Internet-history wrote:
> thanks, all. My character, Len, will have just retired from Chrysler
> recently, as a financial analyst. He was fascinated by VisiCalc & the Apple
> II; in fact, he's the one who told his daughter Janet about it, and she was
> working on the Xerox Star! But I don't think he'd be very Internet-savvy,
> at first.
>
> I kinda think it'd be fun to have him be a clueless AOL user at first, and
> then slowly grow in sophistication. I recall that the "walled garden" idea
> was pretty attractive to AOL & others at first -- "the Internet is a scary
> place! We bring you the best of it in a safe way!" as silly as that sounds
> now.
>
> On Wed, Aug 31, 2022 at 6:14 PM Jack Haverty via Internet-history <
> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
>> IIRC, I had a Compuserve account, although I can't remember exactly
>> when.  But I think I remember that Compuserve's charges were based on
>> hours of connect time.   So there was financial pressure on Users to
>> dial up, do what you wanted to do, and hang up as quickly as possible.
>> That's very different from today's always-connected world.   I thought
>> that might matter for your novel.  Good writing!
>> Jack
>>
>>
>> On 8/31/22 16:42, Bob Purvy via Internet-history wrote:
>>> I should have mentioned that Usenet and mailing lists were kinda techie
>>> back then. I'm thinking my guy would have started with CompuServe,
>> Prodigy,
>>> AOL... something less intimidating for a noobie guy.
>>>
>>> On Wed, Aug 31, 2022 at 4:30 PM Jorge Amodio<jmamodio at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>>
>>>> Usenet news was extremely active during those days, you may find some
>>>> archives.
>>>>
>>>> IRC was very popular and cucme, I met my wife on IRC during 1995 ;-), we
>>>> had some interesting opers wars to take control of channels.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>> -Jorge
>>>>
>>>>> On Aug 31, 2022, at 5:53 PM, Bob Purvy via Internet-history <
>>>> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>>>>> Something you wouldn't think would be a problem:
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm planning out my next novel, and I want to have a character haunting
>>>> the
>>>>> chat rooms and forums on investing, around 1995 and on. I don't want to
>>>>> quote anything or dox anyone -- I just want to get the tone and format
>>>> back
>>>>> then, as well as the topics they were talking about.
>>>>>
>>>>> The Wayback Machine seems to have started at the end of 1996. Does
>> anyone
>>>>> have links to earlier archives?
>>>>> --
>>>>> Internet-history mailing list
>>>>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
>>>>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>> --
>> Internet-history mailing list
>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>>

-- 
Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD
http://www.gih.com/ocl.html