Editing StarText (section)

{{Short description|Defunct ASCII-based computer service}}
{{about|the Fort Worth electronic magazine||Startext (disambiguation)}}
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[[File:Startext.jpg|thumb|right|250px|StarText logo]]
'''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 May 3, 1982 until March 3, 1997. 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 "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. On May 3, 1982, StarText officially started providing its news and all-text content online, updated from 5am to midnight. There were no graphics, pictures or colors. Subscribers were called ''StarTexans''. The content within StarText was written by subscribers of the service as well as employees of the newspaper.

Initially, the service charged $5.00 a month to subscribers who received updated news each day from 5am until midnight daily. At first subscribers had to call StarText using a 300 baud modem and enter 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.

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. 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. 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. At one point billing for this service was based on the number of words sent to the user.

In May 1996 an additional Internet service, '''StarText Net''', was introduced, and the earlier service was rebranded as '''StarText Classic'''. 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.