CompuServe Forums

CompuServe, a subordinary of AOL, was the first major commercial online service provider in the United States . Their long-lived forums closed on 2017-12-15.
== Announcement ==
Dear Forum friends and family,
We regret to inform you that the Forums will be removed from the CompuServe service effective December 15, 2017. For more than two decades, the CompuServe Forums paved the way for online discussions on a wide variety of topics and we appreciate all of the participation and comments you have provided over the years.
All of your email, news, weather, sports, and entertainment information will remain available to you after this change. We are constantly evaluating the content and services that are available through the service, and look forward to bringing you new content and services in the future.
Sincerely,
The CompuServe Team
Notice shows up on top of every individual forum.
== Archival ==
In progress.
ArchiveBot was started on 2017-11-14. The pipeline crashed on 2017-12-10, and the job was manually continued by User:JustAnotherArchivist but did not complete in time.
== Investigation ==
=== Hosting backend ===
Prospero Technologies
Error page
http://forums.compuserve.com/discussions/1/_/_/ws-travel/33471.1?nav=
=== URL Format ===
Full: 
xttp://forums.compuserve.com/discussions/Books_and_Writers_Community/Diana_Gabaldon/_Compuserve_forums_shutting_down_December_15_/{forum}/{message ID}?nav=messages
Abridged: 
xttp://forums.compuserve.com/discussions////{forum}/{message ID}
==== Forums ====
ws-books
ws-crforum
ws-money
ws-naic
ws-sflit
ws-tv
ws-help
ws-practice2
ws-bizcomputing
ws-gadgetsgear
ws-linuxforum
ws-pchardware
ws-viruscentral
ws-winsupport
ws-cchat
ws-cooks
ws-family
ws-gardening
ws-genealogy
ws-sciencemath
ws-fellowship
ws-civilwar
ws-jewish2
ws-pets
ws-photography
ws-religion
ws-seniors
ws-travel
ws-democrat
ws-newsforum
ws-politics
ws-republicans
ws-japan
==== Message ID format ====
{thread ID}.{post ID}
 
Message IDs (from ws-books):
sample from 1996: 39999.1,
sample from 2017: 84180.1465
Complete sample URLs:
http://forums.compuserve.com/discussions////ws-books/39999.1
http://forums.compuserve.com/discussions////ws-books/89781.1
http://forums.compuserve.com/discussions////ws-books/89779.202
Thread IDs are not unique. For example, thread 4999 exists on both ws-japan and ws-bizcomputing (with different contents).
==== Content format ====
===== New=====
http://forums.compuserve.com/discussions////ws-books/89781.1
Appear like regular forum posts, rich formatting allowed: http://forums.compuserve.com/discussions////ws-democrat/163766.1
=====Old=====
http://forums.compuserve.com/discussions////ws-books/39781.1
Full content as attachment
=====Redirects=====
Below post
http://forums.compuserve.com/discussions////ws-books/89781.1
"Messages 89781.2 through 89781.3 were moved to 89779.202"
In place of post
http://forums.compuserve.com/discussions/Books_and_Writers_Community///ws-books/89781.2
"Messages 89781.2 through 89781.3 were moved to 89779.202"
http://forums.compuserve.com/discussions/Books_and_Writers_Community///ws-books/89781.3
"Message 89781.3 was moved to89779.203"
===Index===
There is a search function on each forum. It goes farther back than 2007, but does not include everything: searching for posts in the Writer's group from 1996 only returns one post while http://forums.compuserve.com/discussions////ws-books/39781.1 is missing.
=== Profiles ===
Index: http://forums.compuserve.com/profiles?webtag=csprofile&action=FIRST&nav=index&browseAllProfiles=true&skipBozos=True
(is this complete?)
Sample: http://forums.compuserve.com/profiles/crtimmcgowan?userId=533320074&webtag=csprofile