How many years have you been online?

[Tingkai]

Used BBS around 85, but not very often.

Tried e-mail in 91, but decided that since hardly anyone had an e-mail account, it would never catch on.

Started using the Internet in 95/96

[SpencerH]

I believe I accessed the www from Lund University in 93 or 94 but really started using it in 95 or so from Birmingham.

[b etor]

about 6 years. 5th grade was when AIM and online games were the most addictive things ever.

[Gramphos]

Since 97. Which gives about 10 years. The size of my ICQ# proves it (almost, I didn't start using ICQ until 98).

A more interesting question would of cource be "How long time have you been online?" Onl conting time actually using the internet interactively. To that I don't even have an estimate. I might be able to do some approximation but it requires me to think back on how my surfing habits have evolved since 97. (Even before that actually, since I probably had been online for about a day before getting online.)

[Pekka]

Also the real answer is too long.

Today, I've spent my day on the internet checking out hours worth of:

bad women drivers
face plants
skateboarding accidents

[Asmodean]

Originally posted by Gramphos
Since 97. Which gives about 10 years. The size of my ICQ# proves it (almost, I didn't start using ICQ until 98).

A more interesting question would of cource be "How long time have you been online?" Onl conting time actually using the internet interactively. To that I don't even have an estimate. I might be able to do some approximation but it requires me to think back on how my surfing habits have evolved since 97. (Even before that actually, since I probably had been online for about a day before getting online.)

I prefer not to spend too much time thinking about how much time I have spent on-line

Asmodean

[DanQ]

Since late April 1996 for me, at home -- a loaned Windows 3.1 system for a couple of months before the move to a new machine, purchased and powered ( burdened? ) by Windows95. Ah, Netscape 3.1 for browsing and Eudora Pro 3.x for email...

Had Internet access for the first time at school later that year when I started Grade 10. Though, when I was in Grade 9 my class got the icon lab... and when we were in Grade 10 we got the icon lab again. Our Grade 9 and 10 counterparts each year got one of the computer labs. Oy.

[Adrian Hon]

Over 15 years. I used to go on BBSes in primary school, when I was about 8 or 9, which would make it about 1990. I remember my dad taking me to his university, playing around on gopher and lynx and surfing the newsgroups.

I also remember being one of the first 20 or so bloggers in the UK - back then, we could all - and did - fit in a single pub.

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Adrian Hon
I remember my dad taking me to his university, playing around on gopher and lynx and surfing the newsgroups.

Gopher! I recall a mini-assignment in my Grade 11 computer class on it: essentially we had to navigate to a couple locations and retrieve some basic info on something-or-other. Besides that and generally looking at it, part of a period for a couple a days. That was the extent of my use of that service.

On a related point, I never used a BB system (to those smart asses out there , I mean the "dial-in" kind). I was 9 myself in 1990, but no Internet or predecessor access available. Then again I didn't (and still don't) live in a metropolitan area.

[SpencerH]

I remember using gopher to get something or other. Civ maybe

[snoopy369]

gopher
lynx
I rarely used BBSs myself, but mostly because i wasn't a social type back then.

Not that I am now either

[Adrian Hon]

I recall that there was precious little that was interesting on gopher back then (at least to a kid), nor was there much on the web, but there was plenty of fun stuff about Star Trek on the newsgroups

[Provost Harrison]

Email back in 1995...