I remember in the late 80s and early 90s if you were a consultant and therefore had a business incentive or just had lots of money, you had a CompuServe account.
-MilesAhead
I was a sysop on the Atari forums there for several years - my signon was 76703,4061 (and I'm amazed my fingers remembered that :P). I wrote an automated system to collect all the new Forum messages, log off, let you reply to everything offline, then connect up and post it as fast as possible. Reduced the revenue for the Forum owners, since they were paid by the minute, but it increased participation... until that Internet thing started taking off. Good times, good times. ;D