CompuServe Sport Rocketry Forum closing 9/30/03

Doug Pratt · 2003-09-04T18:35:47+00:00

CompuServe is rearranging its Forums to structure them as part of AOLWeb Services. As part of this reorganization, the Sport Rocketry Forumwill close on September 30th.It's been a long run since we started out as the Rocketry section ofModelNet, in August 1984. There was no World Wide Web, and theInternet was still called ARPANet. We had a lot of folks draggingtheir kids' Commodore 64s out and logging on. There's no doubt we werein the forefront of "online community," long before anyone ever coinedthe term. But that's history. It's also history that the Web waseasier to use, and that's where everyone went to establish their owncommunities. We were first, but we won't be last.It's been great. I would love to personally thank all of you whoparticipated, if that were possible. Darn near 20 years of Sysoppinghas been an experience that has greatly enriched my life. I think I'mone of the first people who can claim that most of my friends arepeople I've never physically met!I'll still be on CompuServe, running two of my Forums that survivedthe purge: Astronomy and Comics/Animation. Feel free to drop in thereif either of those topics interests you. You can always reach me at as well. I have all the files in the Forumlibraries burned onto CD, so if you don't download something that youneed later, drop me a line. And thanks again for being part of thatstrange and wonderful thing.

Sep 04, 2003 27 Replies

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Jerry Irvine 22 years ago

That makes you a geek and a dweeb :)

I got one to puvblish a rocketry magazine and much later to download software from a remote server. Much later email, ftp, usenet, then the internet.

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the notorious t-e-d 22 years ago

Yuppers, model III.

Ted 'learned to program on the Timex/Sinclair circa 1979' Novak TRA#5512

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David Wilkins 22 years ago

Doug,

Sorry to hear that this forum is being lost in the shuffle that seems to have become compuserve since the switch to the Internet.

Being a long serving Sysop on FidoNet (fight-O-net :-) and having like other here watched his daily budget eaten up by Fujitsu and Compuserve charges (I recall it ran to about $38/Hour.. Forums such as yours and the FSForum were places I enjoyed.. (although the BAR didnt kick-in until later)

My fondest memory was of one of the FS Flyins I had my Macintosh in the forum, with my PC performing a real-time flight from Melbourne to Washington DC, landing on RWY 18 a National..

Long before the Internet, Online Games Sysops such as yourself created magic places where we explored our dreams and made a few of them come true. Thanks for your efforts I am sure you have influenced many in a positive way.

Regards

David Wilkins

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Oliver Missbach 22 years ago

Doug,

sorry to hear! The ModelNet (later Sport Rocketry Forum) had a large influence on my life at this time. It was the reason to to buy my first modem around ´92/93, go online, joined CompuServe...

Later, in 1994, I got a job at CompuServe Germany and was working for almost 4 years at this company. It even took me to strange places like Columbus, Ohio ;-)

Its a long time ago. CompuServe Germany is no longer (OK, there is still a website...), even AOL (who bought the company) has its troubles.

But it was a great time and thanks for serving the rocketry community for such a long time, Doug!

Oliver

(To answer, pls. remove "nospam")

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oliver Missbach, NAR 35813, IMR 01001 e-mail: snipped-for-privacy@nospam.modellraketen.de

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Javier Henderson 22 years ago

OK, it was a Level 1 box, so no trig functions indeed.

-jav

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Rick Dickinson 22 years ago

On Thu, 4 Sep 2003 21:00:16 -0400, "Steve Decker" is alleged to have written:

Yep... I remember having to dial up through Tymnet at 300 baud (back when baud rate was the same, for all intents and purposes, as bits-per-second).

- Rick "Old fart" Dickinson

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Alan Rognlie 22 years ago

Radio Electronics and Popular Electronics merged into Poptronics and I *think* it's still going. I know I read an issue within the past year.

-- AL

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David Erbas-White 22 years ago

I'm aware of the merge, but I read an announcement a couple of months ago that it was going under... I'll try to find a cite... Starting google...

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Looks as though the last issue was January, 2003. The poptronics site doesn't look very 'active', so we'll see how long IT lasts.

David Erbas-White

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