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By
Hiawatha Bray
Boston Globe
Like
everyone else, I sometimes have trouble getting through
to a favorite online destination. Usually that's cause for
annoyance, weary resignation, or even anger. When it happened
to me the other night, I felt rather sad.
I hadn't
logged onto the venerable CompuServe online service since
May. During my absence, the credit card that paid for my
subscription had expired, and so I had to phone in and get
my account reinstated. But as I recited the digits on my
new card, a sour, sorry thought came to me: What's the point?
Fifteen
years ago, a younger, poorer edition of me would sometimes
be cut off from CompuServe for being late about the bill.
In those days it was nearly as bad as having the electricity
switched off. Back then, CompuServe was as close as ordinary
people could get to the Internet. With its teeming, bawdy
chatrooms and sophisticated, orderly discussion forums,
a night on CompuServe was like a walking tour of an unusually
exciting city.
These
days there are many such towns online, and no longer is
CompuServe anywhere near the best of them. CompuServe's
parent company, America Online Inc., is its toughest competitor.
Back when CompuServe was still an independent company, its
officials and customers would mock the housewives and tow-truck
drivers that AOL signed up by the tens of thousands. They
all knew that CompuServe users were the smart ones - doctors,
lawyers, airline pilots, and, of course, computer people.
These brainy, stable people weren't the sort who'd drop
out after using up their hundred free hours. Instead, they'd
kept coming back year after year, establishing CompuServe's
network of congenial communities.
Sure
enough, the CompuServe loyalists remain. Unfortunately,
few newcomers are joining them. In 1998, when it was acquired
by AOL, Compuserve boasted 2 million members. Over three
years later, Compuserve now boasts a staggering . . . 2.8
million members. The flagship AOL service grew from 11 million
to 24 million in the same period.
CompuServe
general manager Audrey Weil prefers to look at the sunny
side, calling her service's growth "a huge turnaround."
Weil credits a $400 rebate to computer buyers who sign up
for three years of CompuServe for roping in 1.3 million
new subscribers in the past fiscal year, though she won't
say much about the half-million subscribers who must have
fallen away in that period. And she notes that CompuServe
turns a profit for AOL.
Still,
there's no getting around the fact that CompuServe just
doesn't matter any more. If you want chat rooms, the Internet's
awash in them. Free e-mail service is almost as commonplace
as spam. As for the superb forums where CompuServers go
for expert information on hundreds of topics, there are
plenty more like them at every Web portal, not to mention
50,000 or so on the Usenet.
CompuServe
has tried to enliven its forums by opening them up to nonmembers.
Anyone can now go to forums.compuserve.com, get a free screen
name, and sign on. It's a welcome feature, but it won't
give the newbies much of an incentive to become paying customers.
CompuServe
has even abandoned the elite swagger of old. Weil now says
that the company is targeting "the new consumer." She admits
that new subscribers will spend little time debating the
best hard drive; they'll be too busy reading the latest
celebrity gossip. "We're taking a tack where we see the
most growth," Weil said. "The customer that we're getting
through rebates is a little bit different than the traditional,
serious CompuServe customer." As a matter of fact, they're
targeting AOL customers.
Well,
I've already got an AOL account. Far from despising that
plebeian service, I think it's earned a place in history
as the company that democratized the Internet. Besides,
it provides a basic set of online services that are accessible
from pretty much any city on earth. I wouldn't dream of
letting my AOL account lapse. But as for CompuServe, I've
pretty much abandoned the old neighborhood, and only 15
years of loyalty keeps me paying the rent.
Hiawatha
Bray is a member of the Boston Globe staff. He can be reached
by e-mail at [email protected].
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