Getting into fandom via a borrowed computer is tough. My first forays into fandom were via the computer that my older sister used at the university (nobody had private internet then), and there I used the first search thing (that was before there was a web, it was called "gopher" and gave you lists of material on ftp servers, it was the predecessor to the WWW, that must have been 1992 or thereabout) and also browsed comic newsgroups. But I couldn't use the university computer for long, and I could only print out a moderate amount to read later and had to do so discreetly (I still have a file folder with comic fandom stuff from then).
Then when Compuserve first offered private internet in Germany my brother got that, but that was expensive, and I could not go there often to use his anyway. I tried subscribing to a Due South list I had found with his email, but that flooded his mailbox (that must have been 1994 or 1995?), so he was pissed off, so then I decided to wait for my own internet connection for further fandom forrays, which wasn't until 1997. The cost for that once I found fandom was somewhat ruinous though, what without flatrates.
I've also been in offline comic fandom earlier, ever since I was a kid and found my local comic store. My parents were very fandom friendly, so they paid the expenses for me to go to out of town comic conventions as a teenager, and wrote me notes for teachers so I could skip school and arrive there Thursdays and stay the whole weekend... Also my older sister was a Trek fan (all the novels, merchandise, and I once found drawerfic on her computer) and also collected comics, and my brother was a huge D&D geek...so I've never really been outside of fandom.
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Then when Compuserve first offered private internet in Germany my brother got that, but that was expensive, and I could not go there often to use his anyway. I tried subscribing to a Due South list I had found with his email, but that flooded his mailbox (that must have been 1994 or 1995?), so he was pissed off, so then I decided to wait for my own internet connection for further fandom forrays, which wasn't until 1997. The cost for that once I found fandom was somewhat ruinous though, what without flatrates.
I've also been in offline comic fandom earlier, ever since I was a kid and found my local comic store. My parents were very fandom friendly, so they paid the expenses for me to go to out of town comic conventions as a teenager, and wrote me notes for teachers so I could skip school and arrive there Thursdays and stay the whole weekend... Also my older sister was a Trek fan (all the novels, merchandise, and I once found drawerfic on her computer) and also collected comics, and my brother was a huge D&D geek...so I've never really been outside of fandom.