Noremac:
Winseer:
I’ve been posting online for over 36 years by this point.Congratulations on posting online before Tim Berners-Lee invented the www, quite an achievement.
Pre-1991, it was possible to use the internet, but it wasn’t particularly user-friendly and all you would have had to talk to would have been other IT geeks.
“Before the internet” there were seperate networks, often available on dial-up to those users that would have work accounts to begin with:
“JANET” (Joint Academic Network) for Universities and Colleges Accessible on Campus Terminals i.e. Not available to Non-Academics.
“BT Gold” for Cable/BT telecom workers (I worked installing VDUs and laying cables in 1986 during the “Big Bang”) Not available to non-telecom employees, and was quite expensive per minute if I recall… I had an account, but I rarely used it, because of the per-minute cost…
“Prestel” the network for Travel Agents Available on Dial-Up - Local call charges apply, and no per-minute charge after 6pm.
“Simpatico” a kind of Message Board for lonely hearts, that had a big following among the Gay community - part of Prestel
Prestel was in “Viewdata” format - very similar to Ceefax/Oracle on the telly for those old enough to remember that.
“Micronet 800” a Computer Enthusiast’s network - Part of Prestel
Multi-user text games like MUD, Mirrorworld, and Shades which were available on dial-up (National Phone Call charges per minute apply)
You had to hang up your phone, and dial another network if you wanted to leave messages on multiple boards.
I also ran my own “Bulletin Board” called the Chopping Block around 1986 which drove my parents crazy as it ■■■■■■■ the phone line with people dialling in and leaving messages all day long…
Most of the messages I posted though - were on the Micronet 800 network boards, and the game “Shades” when it transferred from an East Grinstead dial-up to being part of Micronet 800 - also around 1986.
I used the family BBC Micro to access these networks from home in my 20’s.
Oh what bliss - no IQs under 100 online back then! 
All the invention of the Internet did - was to link such networks in a way you could “Cross from one to another” without having to hang up, and dial a different number.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol acted as the Sinews and Nerve Endings between what we now think of as “Domains”.
My Email address back then was 919995272 and just known as “Prestel Mailbox” - accessible free, but I remember there being a limit of around 255 characters per message (just under one ceefax-size page worth…)
I was on there from around 1986 to 1991, and then I disappeared offline for a few years like Doctor Who, by this point having got my HGV licence, with no time for fooling around on home computers due to “doing docket all the time” at Royal Mail.
Booked a Holiday with a complete stranger in 1988, saw my Brother get married to someone he met online in 1989, got to date a Maths Teacher around about the same time, and spent a lot of time pub-crawling in London on the various “meets” that were set up between enthusiasts from the different networks…
Micronet brought people with different kinds of Home Micro together, such as “Spectrum”, “Commodore”, and Amstrad computers - where “Online” all text from any computer is created equal…
Before these networks existed, you had to physically connect two computers together with a long DIN cable - and even then - they’d only transmit “Text” between themselves, not “game metadata” so you couldn’t play “online games” like we think of these days.
I did a computer course in 1985 which is also where I learned how to type fast.
Never needed an “Iphone” as if I can’t do it on my desktop PC at home - it ain’t work looking at on my phone…
I have also uninstalled the Modem from my “Burner Phone” - so I can never run up a “per data” bill on a device I only need for actually making phone calls, - nothing else.
