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       Thread[.post]: 36.1
       SUBJECT: .. How you were using the Internet in the 90's?
       DATE:    23-Jan-22 21:04:31
       HOST:    sdf
       
       Hey, glad to reply.  I don't use gopher currently so don't usually have 
       much to say here, but glad to provide some history.  My early "online" era 
       started in late 1989 with a 1200 baud modem on my C64, mostly to local 
       BBSs.  One of these was linked to FIDONET, where I ended up spending a lot 
       of time, and one linked to the internet, but that cost money I didn't have 
       at the time, so I didn't do much.  Went through a "dry spell" in 92-93, and 
       around 93-94, began using Usenet, ftp, gopher, and some www from college.  
       If you were doing real research from the library, it seemed like ftp and 
       gopher were more information rich, and there were lots of gopher sites with 
       "tunnels" to other sites.  For me as young and kind of immature, the www 
       seemed mainly for entertainment, though more and more useful things started 
       creeping in, and then it exploded.  In short order, the www was the place 
       to be, and development of gopher sites stopped.  I'd say by 1995 this was 
       true.  The gopher sites that were already there hung around for some time 
       after, but with no improvements.  They were allowed to wither.  
       
       As far as what specifically I used gopher for during its brief heyday, it 
       was mainly for research from a terminal in the library, for some course or 
       another I was taking.  The gopher sites seemed to all be run by 
       universities.  At the same time, there were some you'd access by telnet or 
       ftp.  And some early www sites using Lynx.  In my memory, this was all one 
       big text-based experience in front of a green-screen terminal, late in the 
       library, stressing out about some project that was due.  
       
       [ SCROLL (F)ORWARD, (B)ACKWARD - (Q)UIT ] FORWARD
       "tunnels" to other sites.  For me as young and kind of immature, the www 
       seemed mainly for entertainment, though more and more useful things started 
       creeping in, and then it exploded.  In short order, the www was the place 
       to be, and development of gopher sites stopped.  I'd say by 1995 this was 
       true.  The gopher sites that were already there hung around for some time 
       after, but with no improvements.  They were allowed to wither.  
       
       As far as what specifically I used gopher for during its brief heyday, it 
       was mainly for research from a terminal in the library, for some course or 
       another I was taking.  The gopher sites seemed to all be run by 
       universities.  At the same time, there were some you'd access by telnet or 
       ftp.  And some early www sites using Lynx.  In my memory, this was all one 
       big text-based experience in front of a green-screen terminal, late in the 
       library, stressing out about some project that was due.  
       
       I do have one use that was different, kind of funny in a juvenile way, to 
       me at least.  At some point at my university, the admins blocked all the 
       ".binaries" newsgroups from the "news" (Usenet) server.  This was 
       supposedly to save storage space, but it also had the effect of blocking 
       all pr0n on Usenet (for us students).  But then my friends and I found a 
       gopher site at a university down in Australia (something something 
       Canberra), that had a mirror of their Usenet newsgroups, but on gopher.  
       And they did not bloc ".binaries".  This gopher site stayed active into 
       the period of www dominance, a few years at least.  At that time, web 
       browsers would display gopher sites just fine.  I remember I had it linked 
       from my first www "homepage", for anyone who was in a "Usenet poor" 
       situation like me.  :-)
       
       
       
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