![]() ![]() StarText benefitted from a loyal group of columnists who acted as unpaid content producers who were also subscribers. At its height the service attracted about 2,000 subscribers. Some of the early subscribers accessed the service using the Timex 1000 with its 16k RAM and 300 baud modem. Six months following start-up, the service only had 50 customers because many computers then on the market could not connect to StarText. The original service finally closed down on March 3, 1997, and in June 1998, StarText Net changed into Star-Telegram Online Services, which eventually became a conventional online Internet service of the Knight-Ridder group. In May 1996 an additional Internet service, StarText Net, was introduced, and the earlier service was rebranded as StarText Classic. At one point billing for this service was based on the number of words sent to the user. Users could define their screen size to the system which would then deliver only as much text as would fit on the screen giving the user the opportunity to read the content before 'paging' on to the next screen of text. This version provided a menu of content including the Star-Telegram's news and classified advertising, and provided messaging between subscribers (early email), Grolier's encyclopedia, American Airlines Sabre flight schedules and home banking to a group of over four thousand dedicated computer users. The subsequent multi-user version of StarText, developed by Serge Stein, was written in DIBOL and ran on Digital Equipment VAX 11/750s connected to banks of 1200 & 2400 baud modems. The first StarText system was provided by a Tandy Model II. To receive more information the subscriber had to repeat the same process. StarText then delivered the information without further interactivity. At first subscribers had to call StarText using a 300 baud modem and enter four requests out of a choice of 50. Initially, the service charged $5.00 a month to subscribers who received updated news each day from 5am until midnight daily. The content within StarText was written by subscribers of the service as well as employees of the newspaper. There were no graphics, pictures or colors. On May 3, 1982, StarText officially started providing its news and all-text content online, updated from 5am to midnight. StarText was an "information on demand" online computer service created by Joe Donth, offered for the first time in 1982 by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to subscribers in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Its name was derived from Star (representing the newspaper which would provide the content) and Text (representing the computer company which would provide the technology). StarText was an online ASCII-based computer service run by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Tandy Corporation and marketed in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex newspaper circulation area from until March 3, 1997. ![]()
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