• grue@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    No, not “always has been!” Some of us remember the '90s, before the corporations found it and ruined everything.

    • Zen_Shinobi@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      Take the rose tinted glasses off. Dial up companies were charging long distance when you were on BBS/sited outside your local zipcode by the minute. Some companies were walled gardens and you couldn’t access the entire internet (compuserve)

      Trolls, catfish, and cyber crime existed even before the '90’s.

      • 4am@lemmy.zip
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        12 days ago

        I don’t remember anyone charging long distance for internet packets.

        In fact, I don’t even know how you’d meter that? Did they just charge you for open TCP sockets outside their own CO? Wtf who did that fucking bullshit? I’ve had a dozen different ISPs since about 1996 and no one ever charged long distance for packets

        • thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe
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          12 days ago

          Re-read what they said. They’re talking about modem dialup to a long distance number, so the phone call the modem made was long distance and hence charged at the higher rate.

          It’s ok to not get it, this is pre internet and a very long time ago