Testimonials

JH, ex RAF and qualified chemical engineer, enthusiasms aviation and rallying
I think CIX is brilliant! It has been a life saver for me, certainly in maintaining a active mind as well as being given practical advice.

I have been on cix for 11 years since leaving work with failure of health. I have been guided and advised by willing experts through
everything from computers, domestic goods and international politics to health, financial and legal matters.

There is been a wonderful community spirit overall, despite dissident yet strangely inclusive beings. I have been praised and savaged, put
right when wrong and overall have benefited immensely from the whole scene. I feel I have made friends with people I have never met. I know
their characters. It has kept me in touch with the world and become part of my life in my perhaps slightly more specific situation to many - but yet there are many others with peculiar situations too.

I use Ameol for e-mail, but that is secondary to Forums.
John

Musician, producer, lecturer, composer
I have used CIX for over 11 years - and am constantly referring to it for support and advice on the widest possible range of issues. It is far superior to online forums because the OLR allows me to browse along and across threads without having to wait. I also like the community aspect - the speed of communication goes a long way towards making up for the loss of voice and /or visual contact.

I have made many friends on CIX, have solved many problems for me and for others, have learnt a great deal and have found myself pursuing
completely new and unexpected enquiries.

It has broadened my mind - it is an excellent educational tool. And the ease of communication has also facilitated great clashes of ideas and personalities. From time to time, the cix community has put me on my mettle, and I've had to go away and study hard and fast to stay up with it. Recommended.

AG software programmer, musician, lover of pizza and committed Christian
My main source of interest, discussion, information, and friendship is a BBS called CiX. It's a Forums system with several thousand active
members, based here in the UK but with some users in many countries. It's hard to describe unless you've used it: it's something like Usenet news, and a little like a weblog, but far better than either. There are hundreds of Forums ranging from the technical to the whimsical, the supportive the political, the humorous, the fascinating, the commercial, and the instructive, each with its own membership and style - and anyone can set up new ones.

Although there's powerful moderation (Forum owners can withdraw messages and even eject members), it's rarely used: because usernames are fixed and messages traceable, people are generally very responsible, and there's no spam and very little flamage. Discussions are neither rushed (none of the `post quickly while people are still reading this story' common to certain weblogs...) nor lethargic (no waiting for your message to be passed along chains of news servers). As a result, the signal-to-noise ratio is higher than anywhere else I've seen.

But the best thing about CiX is its users: interesting, intelligent, friendly people. There's a wide range of ages and backgrounds, a huge amount of technical knowledge (and not just on computers: everything from hi-fi to linguistics), loads of camaraderie, a lot of culture of all kinds, some emotional and spiritual support, and just the right amount of wibble - and that's just in the Forums I'm in!

Only a few Cixen are famous , but all have something to contribute and there's a real community spirit - so much so that there are man get-togethers in Real Life(TM), and the annual barbecue has become something of an institution.Although there is now a .. web interface, most people use an Off-Line Reader (OLR); it takes only a few seconds (via telnet or direct-dial) to connect, upload any replies and download new messages, which can then be read and replied to at leisure.

The Windows OLR is called Ameol, and is a great email and news client, but there are many other OLRs for many platforms. I do all my Cixing on my Psion, for example - I can collect hundreds of new messages over my mobile phone and then sit reading them on the train! (Try that with a web site :)

New members are always made very welcome, so why not join in!

TB
Invaluable for meeting people with different and useful ideas to mine. I personally find CIX invaluable for meeting people with different - and useful (sometimes not - but always worth listening to) - ideas to mine.

CIX has been educational for me - and has allowed me to offer my skills and ideas to others. CIX has broadened my outlook on life in many ways. Changed my attitudes and my outlook on life. CIX has been part of my life for (I could give a figure - I've been on CIX longer than whom ever - nadi yadi ya) - but a long time :-)

MG IT consultant, software developer and keen gardener
I joined CIX in the late eighties in order to keep in contact with ex-colleagues.

CIX has provided my first experience of the on-line world, my first email address, the ability to "chat" with the likes of John Diamond and
Terry Pratchett, an invaluable source of technical information, access to knowledgeable and responsive suppliers, the means of contacting old
friends and colleagues, recommendations for what have become some of my favourite books and records ("buy it - it's what your ears are for") and as a self employed person working from home the means of stopping myself going crazy.

Mike

JS, describes himself as a hobo/philosopher/eccentric writes
At the time I wanted to learn more about my Atari ST and CIX seemed the natural place to be since most of the journalists who wrote knowledgeably about my machine seemed to hang out on CIX.

When the inevitable happened and it was time to get to grips with PCs and the way that worked I was glad that there was good technical support for any problem somewhere on CIX.

I began to expand the number of Forums I was joined to and the list is now well over 300. I found interesting people to talk to about music, films and society, communications and politics as well as a thousand other disparate topics. Huge discussions can spring up from one small question and I find now that CIX provides me with more high quality discussion than I am actually able to read.

Many of the people who use CIX have been using it for far longer than I, yet they choose to stick with it even though all the delights of the world wide web are widely available. Why do they stay? Well the slick offline reader offers a chance of reading and replying in a way that makes web communications seem slow and ponderous. And it's UK based so there's no irrelevant messages about things of interest to Americans. You can open and run your own Forums And you can buy / sell / auction things in a secure environment. One thing that could improve it even more would be if new people were joining and CIX Forums were to increase its profile to that deserving of the UK's premiere Forums system.

John

AW, software contractor with leisure interests wildlife conservation, walking, skiing, nature, birdwatching, science, history, current affairs, photography, stockmarket, music, single malt, wine, women, song
I joined CIX in July 1991 (I think). Verdict: brilliant! One of the better decisions of my life. I am not as active as I used to be, but I still find CIX the best place on the Web to get answers to difficult questions, whether technical or general.

I find it convenient to have emails and Forums visible in one system: Ameol. Favourite Forums at the moment:

- own.business
- birds
- visual.basic
- enquire_within

NM Scottish Nationalist ex University lecturer and now Maths and Science tutor living in Edinburgh
I use cix as a source of information, on computers in the appropriate Forums and politics mainly in areas of interest to me. I've been involved for some ten years.