Viewtron | Hacker News Reader

Viewtron

en.wikipedia.org

27 pointsjs210 comments

>Viewtron did not initially allow users to send private messages to each other, a conscious decision by Knight Ridder to exert editorial control.[9] Knight Ridder's vision for the service was offering products and services for users to consume, not in providing a medium for communication.[10] When interactive features were later added, Knight Ridder discouraged their use, fearing that users interacting directly with each other would lead to a "dystopia without newspapers."[11]

Prophetic.

Every time I come across a mention of videotext I'm reminded that marketing-friendly industry buzzwords are nothing new. "Video" was the era's token tech buzzword. Videotape, videotext, Video Hits 1, "video dialtone" (a form of internet-like, cable operator-provided services that never took off), an entire pop song called "Living on Video" and another one called "Video Killed the Radio Star."

Another note: videotext was the product of an era that figured out the future was easily-accessible information, but couldn't quite nail down that it wouldn't be provided in walled gardens at high expense.

To be fair, it was kind of revolutionary to a lot of people that a CRT could be used for something other than watching broadcast programs.

Ask anyone who was a kid back in the 1970s about the first time they saw themselves on TV using a camera. It was nothing short of a miracle. Even Disney World had it as part of an attraction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZrLgoZunYA&t=1m41s

Video at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14127607

Wow. That video is something. I would not suspect people were complaining about information overload in 1983!

That goes back to the telegraph in the mid 19th century, if not earlier. There's a famous quote from Thoreau questioning whether the new quantity of information has any quality.

Reminds me of the French Minitel which started in 1978 and was retired only in 2012: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel

Videotext had vector graphics.

I was one of the 125 homes in Coral Gables that was an early tester of Viewtron. I was only 10 or so at the time so I only vaguely remember the Viewtron, but my memory was that it seemed like magic compared to the BBSs I was able to dial in to from an Apple II we also owned.

At some people point we got a Source account (which was acquired by CompuServe) and there wasn’t much need for the Viewtron anymore. I think we may have canceled our Viewtron subscription even before the service was shutdown.

Perhaps HN readers can help confirm a related memory of mine. I recall their being a graphical BBS called I think gbbs for the Apple II that existed maybe around 1985 or so. I can’t find any confirmation of this via Google though. The client was written in assembly (it was one of the first programs I recall printing out the assembly for and trying to understand) and used hires graphics to emulate 70 col text as well as could draw graphics. Does that ring any bells for anyone?

> Ahoy! praised Viewtron in its November 1985 issue, citing e-commerce, chat, news, and games as strengths and adding that the service had "the best customer service department it has ever been my pleasure to call"

Page 83 here:

https://www.commodore.ca/gallery/magazines/ahoy/Ahoy-issue-2...

Note that this is part 2 of the scan of that issue, starting at page 81.

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