Post #175147 by stuff-o-rama on Wed, Jul 27, 2005 2:05 PM

We had one in San Luis Obispo, ironically called SLONet.org It was the same as others, 30 minutes per user, hard as heck to ever jump in and get a line. They eventually expanded, upgraded and got the local public radio station involved. It then merged with them to become KCBX.net, which has since sold it to some place in Washington, but kept the name. To be honest, I liked them better when they were run by the community. Once the suits got involved, it became a money making site and the customer service went down the tube. One of the originators of SLONet took the time to teach me basic html and showed me how put my store online in 1997. I was doing mail order at the time and was terrified by the internet sales idea, but they convinced me it was the way to go. If it weren't for them and the community of people helping me out, I would be out of biz. Everyone worked together as volunteers and created workshops to show each other how we figured out different programs, some taught classes in Photoshop and other softwares all for free. After the big buy out, the internet division was "transferred" to Washington, they "laid off" the volunteers (if that is possible) and the spirit of the community died. Too bad those days are gone...