Mr. Lance E Sloan (IRL) 👤1d ago
Neil Brown
Have you ever...
Used a telephone book
19.3%
Spoken to a (human) telephone operator
11.6%
Reversed charges on a call
7.4%
Made a call from pay phone / phone box
18.4%
Received a call on a pay phone / phone box
7.2%
Used a phone card
15.2%
Dialled from one exchange to another to route a call
2.6%
Used a rotary dial phone
18.2%
Poll ended at .
Apr 4 at 4:12pmWeb
Show threadTroed Sångberg1d ago

@neil hah

/actual way back when #PhonePhreak checking in

Dialing from one floor to another routing the call via Japan gave a nice two second delay.

Show threadLarge Format Projectionist1d ago

@troed @neil

We removed the single-button-press bar on our radio station’s five line phones. We could patch calls together. Legend has it a DJ got 2 on air talk DJs talking to each other.

Show threadJ4ck1d ago

@troed @neil Hey, I understand this message!

Exactly. Had to route across the ocean and it was just terrible.

Show threadRichard1d ago
@neil
all yes, does this make me old?
Show threadNeil Brown1d ago
@Yorkshiregeek No older than I am :)
Show threadDeborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦4h ago
@Yorkshiregeek @neil perhaps: wise.
Show threadRichard4h ago
@deborahh @neil
my wife might say older chronology , but definitely a kid at heart especially when me and kiddo (8yr old) are having a dance session in the middle of ASDA
Show threadDeborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦4h ago
@Yorkshiregeek @neil lovely!
Show threadGreem (Graeme. Not Graham!)1d ago
@neil Yep. Every one of them.
Show threadSnaprails1d ago
@neil I've done all of those though there's an obvious reason for that 🙂
Show threadPaul Richards1d ago
@neil I grew up in a house with a rotary phone long after most people already had button phones. It confused the heck out of my friends when they tried to use it. :D
Show threadʙᴇɴ ᴄᴏᴛᴛᴇяɪʟʟ22h ago
@pauldoo @neil Still got a rotary phone in the house. Going to carry on using it until the analog PTSN is switched off.
Show threadzarel9h ago
@BenCotterill @pauldoo @neil there are voip boxes that support pulses so you can keep using it later
Show threadAndrew Deacon1d ago
@neil yes to 1,4,5 and 7 but i am 75 (nearly 76 ) so i grew up with these things.
Show threadNeil Brown1d ago
@aadeacon I am not 75, and have done all of those things!
Show threadחנן כהן • Hanan Cohen1d ago
@neil my mother was a (human) telephone operator. so, although I didn't speak to her as a telephone operator, we talked.
Show threadARGVMI~1.PIF1d ago

@neil

New Mastodon Poll Reveals 87% of Mastodonians Are Old AF

Show threadGalactic Stone1d ago
@argv_minus_one @neil Mastodon is a just a seperate interwebs for elder Millennials, Gen-X'ers, and Boomers. Sometimes we let the kids hang out with us because we're cool like that. And oh yeah, rumor has it that John Mastodon is like 68 or something.
Show threadSusan Calvin5h ago
@galacticstone @argv_minus_one @neil he's always been 69 dude
Show threadTuchowski1d ago
@argv_minus_one Sure! We also need a place to be. 😁
@neil
Show threadMiakoda 1d ago
@argv_minus_one @neil What is with this never ending trend of calling everybody old? Okay, so I used a phone book. Oooh no, call AARP! HA, so fucking funny I forgot to laugh.
Show threadThe Turtle23h ago

@hellomiakoda @argv_minus_one @neil

AARP sucks ass, it's mostly a marketing scam and while you can SIGN UP online, just fuckin' try to CANCEL online! It might as well be a big dispenser of Val-Pak coupons.

Show threadARGVMI~1.PIF22h ago

@the_turtle is old AF confirmed.

@hellomiakoda @neil

Show threadWilliam Hamilton5h ago
@the_turtle @hellomiakoda @argv_minus_one @neil I’ll leave generation of the acronym for the Canadian Association of Retired Persons as an exercise. ;)
Show threadThe Turtle23h ago

@hellomiakoda @argv_minus_one @neil

AARP sucks ass, it's mostly a marketing scam and while you can SIGN UP online, just fuckin' try to CANCEL online! It might as well be a big dispenser of Val-Pak coupons.

Show threadRantingCanuck23h ago

@argv_minus_one @neil

I'm not old... the kids (and their children too) these days are just too young

Show threadMcRocker 🇨🇦🍁23h ago

@argv_minus_one @neil

What does AF mean????? HAHAHAHAHA

Show threadGil Freund16h ago
@argv_minus_one @neil you forgot to check how the phone books were used. People kept them as monitor stands long after their original use was forgotten.
On the other hand, those were EGA CRT monitors, so nevermind.
Show threadrk: it’s hyphen-minus actually1d ago

@neil

What I’m learning is that I am likely to crumble to dust soon.

Show threadk8quinn 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇲🇽 🇪🇺1d ago

@neil

I not only spoke to a telephone operator, I WAS one (at a car dealership). So was my wife - that's where we met.

Show threadGraham Sutherland / Polynomial1d ago
@neil all but the phone card and exchange
Show threadGraham Sutherland / Polynomial1d ago
@neil wait does the phone card one mean the type for payphones, or does it include cards used to top up PAYG mobile phones? cos I definitely used the latter.
Show threadNeil Brown1d ago
@gsuberland Ooh, good clarification. I was meaning in the context of a payphone here.
Show thread(hic/haec/hoc)1d ago
@neil @gsuberland the standard prepaid magnetic cards or the international cards with a secret number to input?
Show threadDubious Blur1d ago
@_hic_haec_hoc @neil @gsuberland I read it as the former (though I’ve used both)
Show threadChris Fox1d ago
@_hic_haec_hoc @neil @gsuberland What about those 'orrible green BT ones from the 80s, with 'invisible' index marks that were literally burnt off as you used up your credit, and which invariably stopped working prematurely, with no way of getting a refund?
Show threadEmily Vale, Gendermancer1d ago
@neil @gsuberland I used calling cards for long distance calls from home (in America) to my German girlfriend. 😁 (This wasn't pre-Internet, but I met her in person as an exchange student.)
Show threadDeborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦4h ago
@neil @gsuberland oh, I said "yes" meaning a card that gives you discounted long distance. Nothing electronic - just a code to dial.
Show threadNeil Brown4h ago
@deborahh @gsuberland That's fine too! All lovely telecoms nostalgia.
Show threadDavid Nash1d ago
@gsuberland @neil I’m not sure if there’s a UK vs elsewhere distinction here but: in the US a “phone card” often meant something kind of like a phone company-account specific access card. It was also called a “calling card”. You’d dial a number (with an extra code/digit string to enable “calling card” mode), wait for the phone to make a “ka-BONG” sound, then dial the phone card ID number, and your call would go through and be billed to the account associated with the card. My parents gave me the phone card number for their account when I was in college in the 1990s so I wouldn’t have to worry about phone charges calling them.
Show threadDavid Nash1d ago
@gsuberland @neil Being entrusted with the parents’ phone card in the 1990s naturally replaced the previous “emergency call home” system in the 1980s, which was reverse charges (“collect calls” here in the US).
Show threadAaron1d ago
@dpnash I answered "yes" to "phone card" because I remember my parents giving me a physical card with numbers on it, and teaching me how to do exactly this, before I ever saw a cell phone.

Seeing "ka-BONG" written out triggered a memory of that exact sound!

@gsuberland @neil
Show threadcontranym1d ago
@dpnash @gsuberland @neil i just used prepaid phone cards for long distance on a landline and then for a cell phone when i finally got one here in the us. this would have been in the early 00s, tho.
Show threadDerick Rethans1d ago
@neil You could just have asked how old we are 😂
Show threadpinkmarie18h ago
@derickr @neil 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Show threadI am PJ🇵🇹   1d ago
@neil I did all, Am I so old 🤔😱🤪😂😂
Show threadDr Ro Smith1d ago

@neil Most of these. Not sure about the phone card. I don't *think* so, but I'm not entirely sure.

I've talked to operators but I don't think been routed from one system to another, unless this includes dialling 9 to dial out, or being forwarded by a receptionist?

Never received a phone call in a phone booth, but used to use them regularly to call parents as a child and teenager.

Show threadSarah Jamie Lewis1d ago
@neil all of the above
Show threadNeil Brown1d ago
@sarahjamielewis Well there's a surprise :)
Show threadPaul_IPv61d ago

@sarahjamielewis @neil

i missed one (the exchange to exchange one)...

Show threadint%rmitt]nt sig^al. ...~!...)1d ago
@neil
My auntie was a switchboard operator on a joint operations air base during The War, she had to speak English AND American.
Show threadBradley1d ago
@neil ha unfortunately I still remember my ATT phone card number
Show threadColin the Mathmo1d ago
@neil I have also used a pay phone on a train.
Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK1d ago
@ColinTheMathmo @neil 100% on all of them. I also remember the loud "cuckoo" tone on inbound calls to a payphone (to prevent reverse charge calls being made via the operator), also during late 1980a if you tried some calls on level 1 such as 16 (Dial a disc) and another one (it was some number like 159) you would just hear a loud cuckoo sound from *inside* the phone box and the call would be abruptly cleared down (presumably this is because a metering pulse had come down the line but you hadn't put any money in)
Show threadDamien1d ago
@neil used a telephone book for which purpose?
Show threadPete Prodoehl 🍕10h ago
@damien @neil I used to use them to start campfires. 😝
Show threadStephen Paulger1d ago

@neil I am curious what it means to dial from one exchange to another.

I probably only called local numbers as a kid and dialing other areas when I was older was always just preceding the number with a 4 or 5 digit area code, did it work differently before?