Through the 80s, CompuServe was the epi-centre of my online world. Back then, the Internet barely existed and there was no World Wide Web. You could dial into local Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) but they were like small villages and got boring fast.
By comparison, CompuServe was huge, worldwide and full of interesting stuff. It opened my eyes to the pleasures of online social networking - 25 years before Facebook. So when I heard that CompuServe officially shut its doors on July 1, 2009, I felt like an old friend died. A friend who I had not seen in years but for whom I still held great affection.