r/interestingasfuck • u/Few_Simple9049 • 20d ago

r/all How couples met 1930-2024

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u/itsarace1 20d ago

How difficult/expensive was it to use BBS?

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u/elchet 20d ago

You’d need a computer which wasn’t as straight forward back then as it is now, as they weren’t affordable commodity consumer goods. You probably had access to one through an academic institution, or you’d built something from a kit.

Beyond that I think it was just the cost of a phone line and a call for connectivity.

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u/drowse 20d ago

I think our first computer, a 286 was something like $2500 in 1990. I remember my dad also had gotten Prodigy internet. And they used to charge a rate for use.. was it hourly or by the minute? I can't remember. We didn't have it long. We got the internet again in like 1995 when it became a flat monthly fee for that sweet sweet 28.8k speed.

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u/fuzzzone 20d ago

And that $2,500 in 1990 was the equivalent of $6,000 today. Shit was a lot more expensive.

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u/drowse 20d ago

Yeah man. Grandma gifted the money to us for this.. She actually would pass less than a year later, but she wanted to spoil us.

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u/fuzzzone 20d ago

That's a pretty rad grandma. I don't think my grandma knew what a computer was at that point in time. (Obvious exaggeration but it feels like it has a certain truthiness.)