Re: Delph, 1996

[Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca>]

On Fri, 24 May 2013, Steven Weyhrich wrote:

> I'm looking for information, any educated guesses as to the number of 
> Apple II users who participated in the Apple II group on Delphi, either 
> before or after Syndicomm opened its A2 and A2Pro groups in 1996. Was it 
> 50? 100? 500? 1000? It was suggested to me that "there couldn't have 
> been very many by then." Can anyone help me prove that statement wrong?
>
> As always, thanks for the collective brains in this group.
I havnen't a clue.  I sure couldn't afford those online services, the 
price was relatively high, and then often it was either long distance or 
requiring some other service to connect you.

1996 was pretty late.  I didn't get internet access till then, and I felt 
at the time like I'd gotten here late.  The first wave of local ISPs had 
come and mostly bought up by larger ISPs and Big ISPs had already 
launched.  It was still early, in the sense that there were still plenty 
of people who weren't online, but that's for the general population.

The people using Delphi (or Genie) were likely the ones to jump to 
the internet as early as possible, and since they were already paying the 
money, paying for internet access would have been less of an issue, just 
switch from the pay service to an ISP.

The expense limited how many ever used such services, and then once the 
internet became accessible (remember, some of the early internet access 
was via "freenets", internet access for all, either freeor minimal cost)
that would have been more tempting.

  Michael