CompuServe of course used the XXXXX,XXXX octal usernames, and you could append @compuserve.com for a valid email address, but later we could choose a vanity email (first come, first served), e.g., something@compuserve.com. Then later they offered @csi.com addresses. POP3 access to your CS mailbox was eventually an option, as well.
For a long time (maybe still?) you could access a terminal version of the CS interface over telnet. Basically all the same features as the GUI application, just in text.
There was also the original Microsoft Network (later shortened to MSN), which included a bunch of communities and boards. It was a Windows 95 application, and went through a semi-public beta then eventual release in parallel with the OS. You could connect through dial up or over the Internet, if I recall. I remember being impressed I could open two boards at the same time, unlike CS.
I long for the days of yesteryear. So much simpler, so much more fun, and the Internet actually felt somewhat exclusive.
Does no one remember The Source? I could swear it predated and competed with CompuServe, but all memory of it appears to have been wiped off the web.
I had forgotten that the remnants of AOL, Netscape, CompuServe and Yahoo are all one company.
I'm confused. The page is dated 2022, and it touts support for Windows XP???
Prodigy and CompuServe were such weird and unique walled gardens early on. Totally different visions of “the internet” and sadly all that stuff is lost forever.
Later CompuServe became a reskinned AOL (seriously) and Prodigy devolved into a generic dialup service.