The BSC Prodigy?

[Deleted]

I saw this in back of one of the books. It had the BSC (computer) Prodigy, and said "all new stories" about the girls? Does anyone know of a website with these stories? Or has anyone seen them on Ebay?

[Kylie90210]

Never heard of it, sorry.

[rainbowgirl28]

I've never seen them online. It's mentioned briefly in this article: community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950828&slug=2138545

"In addition to a stable of ghostwriters (and translators, since the books appear in 19 languages), the Baby-Sitters biz includes people who handle Martin's mail - 17,000 letters annually. And people who monitor the Baby-Sitters Club conference on Prodigy, selecting several letters a week for Martin to respond to online. And a child psychologist, a consultant to Scholastic, who replies (over Martin's signature, of course) to communications from troubled kids.

There are merchandise specialists busily licensing BSC trading cards, dolls, board games. "I didn't want a lot of makeup stuff," says the author, who rides herd on everything related to her creation. "A makeup kit for 9-year-olds? We settled on bath soaps.""

[rainbowgirl28]

The expert of this topic would of course be Jon Merrill: www.hingepepper.com/bsctitle.htm

On this page: www.hingepepper.com/bscchap18.htm

He says:

" Prodigy (1992)
Prodigy Sitter Central Wipe-Off Board

Note: This was sent to subscribers of the Prodigy BSC Bulletin Board, which started in July 1992. A couple of years later the monthly fee was eliminated, but by spring 1996 the whole thing was gone. Ann answered four questions a week from e-mail sent in by subscribers, which was one of the most interesting features. In the be ginning I corresponded with BSC fans on Prodigy by e-mail (I could not participate in the Bulletin Board itself because it was only for kids, but I could write personally to kids and adult collectors who had posted their own e-mail addresses). I believe the demise of the BSC Bulletin Board on Prodigy was because in later years it be came less and less about the BSC itself and more like a general kids’ bulletin board. Also, don’t forget, sales of the books peaked way back around 1992."

[starlett2010]

Nov 24, 2009 3:54:40 GMT -5 rainbowgirl28 said:

The expert of this topic would of course be Jon Merrill: www.hingepepper.com/bsctitle.htm

On this page: www.hingepepper.com/bscchap18.htm

He says:

" Prodigy (1992)
Prodigy Sitter Central Wipe-Off Board

Note: In the be ginning I corresponded with BSC fans on Prodigy by e-mail (I could not participate in the Bulletin Board itself because it was only for kids, but I could write personally to kids and adult collectors who had posted their own e-mail addresses). "

I find this so creepy. A grown man reading BSC? Weird, yeah, but to each his own. But the fact that he wanted to "chat" with children via email? CREEPY!!!!! I know this is the guy who wrote his own companion to the BSC and all, but I still find it disturbing.

[Penny Lane]

I saw the Prodigy thing when it was up. It was so awesome. I had to wait, like, 5 minutes for each page to load and it took forever. But Prodigy was SO FLIPPING COOL back in the 90s. Way better than my friends who had CompuServe. They didn't get BSC message boards.

[Deleted]

Thanks everyone! Sorry it took me a while to answer, I totally forgot about it.

[alula]

Nov 24, 2009 16:05:38 GMT -5 starlett2010 said:

Nov 24, 2009 3:54:40 GMT -5 rainbowgirl28 said:

The expert of this topic would of course be Jon Merrill: www.hingepepper.com/bsctitle.htm

On this page: www.hingepepper.com/bscchap18.htm

He says:

" Prodigy (1992)
Prodigy Sitter Central Wipe-Off Board

Note: In the be ginning I corresponded with BSC fans on Prodigy by e-mail (I could not participate in the Bulletin Board itself because it was only for kids, but I could write personally to kids and adult collectors who had posted their own e-mail addresses). "

I find this so creepy. A grown man reading BSC? Weird, yeah, but to each his own. But the fact that he wanted to "chat" with children via email? CREEPY!!!!! I know this is the guy who wrote his own companion to the BSC and all, but I still find it disturbing.

I agree! I used to read message boards for Dawson's Creek back in the day (I was in my late teens, but there were definitely middle-school-aged girls there), and there were some WEIRD middle-aged men who were WAY too serious about whether Dawson and Joey got back together. One of them e-mailed me a few times and it was. . .odd. And I was basically an adult, who could just say "ew" and trash it.

I wanted Prodigy SO BAD because of the ads in the books, though.

[Deleted]

I remember this, I used to go on all the time since they had all these cool stoires with alternate endings. I even got a response from Ann once, lol. Ah, to be 9 again.