BBSes were a thing back then, and while it wasn't the interest you did have large discussion. If you could afford compuserve (which charged by the minute!) you had a nationwide audience on a platform that was bigger than the internet of the time. A few people also had access to the internet (via their university), or at least usenet (via their work or the internet) and so there was discussion that way - but compuserve was where it was at.

It'd be interesting to see the FidoNet echomail traffic about the 1200XL as that's likely the most widely available forum accessible to people with a modem since any local BBS could carry it.