Voting Station

GEnie

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Internet Service Provider

The Resume

    (1985-1999)
    Owned by General Electric
    Published the bimonthly newspaper 'LiveWire'
    Prices - October 1990:
    $4.95 ($5.95 Canada) per month - unlimited non prime time usage
    $18.00 per hour prime-time (Monday-Friday 8AM-6PM)
    Prices - 1994:
    $8.95 per month - four hours
    $3.00 per hour for non-prime-time
    $9.50 per hour prime-time (Monday-Friday 8AM-6PM)

Why GEnie might be annoying:

    General Electric Nie?
    Their initial price was $5 an hour during the day and $36 an hour on weekends and evenings.
    They named their 'unlimited use' $4.95 a month package Star*Services, but quickly renamed it after Prodigy Internet threatened a lawsuit over the use of the word 'Star.'
    General Electric claimed it had 400,000 users. The actual number was speculated to be around 100,000 and only 2,000 could be online at a time.
    They probably never had more than 100,000 users.
    For those who lived in remote areas there was an additional $2 per hour surcharge.
    During primetime, the cost was $18 per hour ($25 in Canada).
    It took over an hour at 2400 baud to download their graphic interface.
    The system was really just an email provider that used email to access files and directories.
    It became antiquated, offering a few 9600 baud phone numbers.
    It was almost exclusively 300/1200/2400 baud, even though 28,800 (28.8) modems were entering the market.
    Users were force to append @inet# at the end of every email sent.
    The login username was not the same as your email username.
    It could not support the popular Usenet Newsgroups until it was too late.
    Their user numbers depended on whether or not AOL - America Online or Prodigy Internet was doing things to piss off their customers.
    GE sold it to Yovelle which then changed the name to just plain GEnie.
    Eventually they closed the service for good (1999).

Why GEnie might not be annoying:

    The monthly fee covered free usage from 6 PM-8 AM and all day Saturday and Sunday.
    It had premium services such as Charles Schwab, Dow Jones and Airlines.
    They claimed 350,000 subscribers in 1994.
    It featured a discussion area called the Internet RoundTable, which also offered files to download.
    In 1990, they were offering online chatting and game playing against other members online.
    It offered three levels of service - GEnie Basic, GEnie Value and GEnie Professional.
    It was the first big competition for CompuServe Online Network.
    It was not advertised and depended on word-of-mouth to draw in customers.
    It introduced a primitive web address system. One could access a certain forum by typing in a 'page number.'
    It had a dedicated base of users until the very end.

Credit: Captain Howdy


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 6 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 17 Votes: 47.06% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 16 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 14 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 56 Votes: 64.29% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 43 Votes: 74.42% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 47 Votes: 76.60% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 91 Votes: 75.82% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 142 Votes: 73.24% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 46 Votes: 63.04% Annoying