
Pay by the Minute: The CompuServe Era - empressplay
https://paleotronic.com/2019/09/24/pay-by-the-minute-the-compuserve-era/
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HocusLocus
Not just charge by the minute on the service, how about the long distance
charges to call the nearest access number?

In my case, San Juan (70 miles, mostly busy) and Miami (1000 miles) or New
Jersey (1600 miles, same price but better connections because undersea cables
land there). It introduced a pattern of irresponsible spending habits that
continues to this day.

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steverb
I remember the scripts we passed around so that you could hop on CServe and
download all the things you cared about, read it offline, respond offline and
then dial back in to sync.

This was at a time when my 486-33 with its 400MB hard drive and 16MB of ram
was bleeding edge (for the first month I owned it at least).

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lakkal
I still have my CIS userid (76344, 2701) number burned into my brain, 25 years
since my last login.

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loraa
Oh man. I remember paying for CompuServe. I tell you, nothing beats a 1200
baud modem on a commodore 64

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Yetanfou
I see your 1200 and raise a self-built 300 baud modem with loads of
blinkenlights and switches, housed in a wooden enclosure only slightly smaller
than the C64. Hey, it worked, I was a poor student. Initially I had to dial
the BBS using a rotary phone, later I added a pulse relay to automate dialling
- 19th century here I come!

