StarText

:"This article is about the Fort Worth electronic magazine"." For other meanings, see: Startext (disambiguation)".

StarText was an online ASCII-based computer service that was officially launched on May 3, 1982 by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Tandy Corporation. 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 marketed in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex newspaper circulation area of North Texas, USA. It quickly evolved into an electronic magazine written by unpaid journalists who had paid to be subscribers of the service. Its eventual demise came with the growth of the Internet. In May of 1996 an additional Internet service was offered and called StarText. Net with the original service being rebranded as "StarText Classic". The original service finally closed down on March 3, 1997 and in June of 1998, "StarText. Net" morphed into Star-Telegram Online Services which in turn eventually became a conventional online Internet service of the Knight-Ridder group.

Brief history

StarText was a "information on demand" online computer service created by Joe Donth, offered for the first time in 1981 by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper to subscribers in the Dallas and Fort Worth - Metroplex of North Texas, USA. On May 3, 1982, StarText officially started providing its news and all text content online. It was updated from 5 a.m. to midnight. There were no graphics, pictures or colors and its subscribers were called "StarTexans".

Original service

Originally the service began by charging $5.00 a month to subscribers who received updated news each day from 5 a.m. until midnight daily. At first subscribers had to call StarText using 300 baud and entered four requests out of a choice of 50. StarText then delivered the information without further interactivity. To receive more information the subscriber had to repeat the same process. The first StarText system was provided by a Tandy Model II.

Electronic magazine

"StarText" began as a means of simply delivering electronic newspaper content to subscribers, but it quickly evolved into a unique electronic magazine. Although the service only managed to attract about 3,000 subscribers, it created a loyal group of ASCII columnists from this base who acted as unpaid journalists who had paid to be subscribers. Their columns were only in text and originally without color, but the content of the columns were original, varied and of a sufficiently reasonable standard to maintain their own readership. These columns operated with almost total press freedom and providing they met minimum standards of presentation, they were initially uncensored because there was no editor of content, only quality management of technical presentation. Because these columns were under the control of their creators the originality, scope and depth of the information presented was both unique and extensive.

tarText Ink

The "StarText" service also produced a tabloid called "StarText Ink" which was published for subscribers. The tabloid carried logs of the subscriber columns and it also featured its own articles written by the unpaid online columnists. In the 1990s these columnists enjoyed meeting with each other at functions arranged by the StarText service of the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram".

Virtual Texans

A website named "The Virtual Texan" was created by StarText enthusiast and Manager of Interactive Content at the Star-Telegram, Gerry Barker. Readers of that website were called "Virtual Texans". The Virtual Texan publication won the 1998 Digital Edge Award for Outstanding Achievement - Best Feature Presentation.

ubscription history

Six months following start-up the service only had 50 customers because many computers then on the market could not connect to StarText. Some of the early subscribers accessed the service using the Timex 1000 with its 16k RAM and 300 baud modem. Following improvements in software the initial problems were overcome and the business began to grow.

tarText. Net and GEnie

Three years after the start of the original "StarText" service, General Electric's Information Services division launched its own ASCII-based service called GEnie in October 1985. The main difference between the original "StarText" and "GEnie" was that "StarText" offered online news from the newspaper that owned the service, plus the electronic magazine whose content was created by the subscriber-writers. "GEnie" was a collection of "Round Table" message discussion boards which are still popular today, but it did not offer news or individual features written by subscriber-writers. However, the one advantage that "GEnie" had was its nationwide scope via the General Electric servers upon which the system operated, in contrast to the Dallas and Fort Worth Metroplex coverage offered by the Tandy system.

Ten years after its own start-up the nationwide appeal of the "GEnie" service had become attractive to many of the "StarText" subscribers and by word of mouth a migration in membership began to take place. In response to this competition and in an attempt to retain its own membership base, a decision was made by the owners of the "StarText" service to rebrand the original "StarText" as StarText Classic and to create a new service called StarText. Net which offered access to the early Internet.

In late 1995 StarText. Net began its beta version. The service was offered to the public in May, 1996.

Death of StarText Classic

The demise of the original "StarText" service came with the growth of the Internet. StarText Classic service closed down on March 3, 1997 at 5:12 p.m. CST with only three users still logged on.

tar-Telegram Online Services

In June 1998 the name "StarText. Net" was changed to Star-Telegram Online Services. Because of competition from other Internet service providers, the original theme of original featured content that once made "StarText" into a unique home for "Virtual Texans", gradually withered away.

When the newspaper was bought by the Knight-Ridder group, the online service was then transformed to mirror the more conventional services offered by other newspapers over the Internet and all but a few scant references to "StarText" disappeared.

External links

* [http://www.web-connection.org/archive/crusback/1997/class0314.htm "Farewell To A Good Friend"]
* [http://www.digitaledge.org/connections98/edgieout.html 1998 Digital Edge Award for Outstanding Achievement - Best Feature Presentation for "The Virtual Texan"]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20010331105238/http://www.virtualtexan.com/ an archived page from "The Virtual Texan"]
* [http://www.geocities.com/n5csu/interact.htm StarText editor interview with a StarText volunteer columnist - 1984]
* [http://brisbee.cccranch.net/chapman.html "A Reporter Visits Brisbee, Texas " by Art Chapman]
* [http://brisbee.cccranch.net/index.html "Welcome to Brisbee!"]
* [http://www.historyofstartext.com/ Gerry Barker's StarText memorabilia webpage]