{"id":2572,"date":"2016-02-22T23:52:25","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T23:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/igotoffer.com\/blog\/?p=2572"},"modified":"2017-10-17T13:13:32","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T13:13:32","slug":"online-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/igotoffer.com\/blog\/online-community","title":{"rendered":"Joining the Online Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joining the Online Community<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

Joining the online community\u00a0can be like moving into a city about six times the size of Manhattan. With an estimated 25 million people now working, talking, and traveling in cyberspace, how do you care carve out a niche for yourself , meet the people you want to meet, and get the information that you need? Like and neighborhood, each online service has its own distinct favor, population, services, and price range.<\/span><\/p>\n

After deciding on the features you want \u2013 and what you can afford \u2013 you can start browsing. For business use, PC Magazine gives CompuServe Information Services its \u201cEditors\u2019s Choice,\u201d praising the service for its \u201cbreadth and depth of forums, databases, files, and services.\u201d Compuserve now offers connections to Internet news groups, which can be useful. But if you are after a family-oriented online service, you might want to consider Prodigy Information Service, which the editors of PC World recommend for its \u201cgood financial conferences, as well as a host of domestic conferences on subjects such as cooking, child care, and shopping.\u201d Its other virtues include an interactive ESPN link and services for kids.<\/p>\n

America Online generally gets rave reviews from the popular press, but trade publications don\u2019t rate it as highly. It is the online choice if fun is what you\u2019re after: chat forums with people from around the country and transcontinental computer games.<\/p>\n

Delphi Internet Service, a comparatively small service, provides inexpensive Internet access and lets its members create their own forums on any subject they choose, though it\u2019s not as user-friendly as some of the other services. Delphi also offers \u201cR-rated celebrity\u201d images that you can download. Genie is also relatively small, but PC Week reports that it \u201coffers access to a solid package of business services: (with access to Dow Jones News\/Retrieval Service), as well as an array of family and hobby forums. And new services are popping up all the time. Apple\u2019s new e-World (the Macintosh connect to the online world) has a friendly interface based on the metaphor of a town \u2013 for example, click on the mail truck to get your e-mail, or click on the mail to go shipping. The new 800-pound gorilla is Microsoft\u2019s new online service, which is planned for launch in the summer of 1995 at the same time that the new version of Windows \u2013 Windows 96 \u2013 is introduced. And for the body adventurous (and technologically inclined) there\u2019s always the Internet.<\/p>\n

So, peruse the market: All the companies listed below will send you free information packets on request. Then, after looking over the material, set up an account with one of the online services, buy and install a modem, and start exploring you\u2019re your new digs and meeting your neighbors.<\/p>\n

Getting there:<\/p>\n

Online Services use different terms to indicate how to search content. AOL\u2019s is KEYWORD. Prodigy`s is JUMP. CompuServe\u2019s is GO. Other terms of address used throughout:<\/p>\n

E-mail is how you send people messages online.<\/p>\n

FTP means File Transfer Protocol. It is the Internet address of a site that has files you can download to your computer.<\/p>\n

Modem followed by a phone number indicates a bulletin board service (BBS) that you can have your modem dial directly.<\/p>\n

TELNET allows you to log onto another computer and use the software there is if it were on your own computer.<\/p>\n

World Wide Web is the multimedia component of the Internet. The addressing system always begins with http:\/\/<\/p>\n

The Big Five Online Services<\/p>\n

What you get online depends on what you want. Here\u2019s a comparison guide of the big five online services by pricing, hardware, and software requirements, and what each has to offer: America Online (pricing, monthly basic plan 8.95; hardware\/software, max. access speed \u2013 bits per second \u2013 28.8; searchable full \u2013text magazine databases \u2013 1; searchable full-text newspaper databases \u2013 4; health information databases \u2013 3; financial services -1; Official Airline Guide \u2013 OAG \u2013 1; Entertainment information databases \u2013 37. Topical Forums \u2013 Approximate total 280; health \u2013 5; Hobbies \u2013 20; Social and Political \u2013 16; Professional \u2013 13; Education – 16), CompuServe (9.95; 28.8 , Delphi, Genie, Prodigy, etc.<\/p>\n

(Joining the Online Community<\/em>, text first published in 1994).<\/p>\n

\u00adSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n