http://www.cix.co.uk/

One of the biggest virtual communities around, CIX boasts some 15,000 members, the vast majority of them from the United Kingdom. It started as a bulletin board in February 1986 for the PC industry and computer journalists. While these are still popular subjects on CIX, these days the system is being promoted as the ideal way for businesses and clubs of all kinds to run virtual special interest groups. The software allows users to set up and run their own groups with any rules they like. There are more than 7,200 conferences across CIX on subjects ranging from British Actors to "Zummerset" (where the zider apples grow). More than half of them are invitation only and most of those don't show up in the master conference list, but there are a few hundred completely open conferences with a significant population where serious matters are thrashed out, technical troubles are sorted out or frivolous things are mocked in an oddball British way. -(derb)

subject matter: general conversation

regional affiliation: United Kingdom, global

format: conferencing

language: English

cost: A variety of pricing plans are available. If all you are interested in is the conferencing, it costs $4.75 to $7.15 per hour with a $12 per month minimum charge. If you want 1Mb of web space and dialup internet access in the UK it costs $29 per month for up to 16 hours online and $1.15 per hour after that.