Is an amazing wealth of knowledge!
Just thought I would say that. :-)
Usenet is dying, so when it dies, I want to know where you guys end up. I've learned so much from this group.
Skunks, trees, stumps, patios, hot tubs, dishwashers. Amazing.
We'll be here like those survivors in the tv series telling everyone how to get one more day out of something.
Steve
You're right. Groups I used to read are empty. We should publicize it. It's a much better format than any other net discussion format.
I know my skunk was amazed when we got him a hot tub.
. . . that we made out of tree stumps and a pump from an old dishwasher. We put it on the patio.
There you go :-)
Yes, a great group. Long time lurker.
gene
YES!!
Lou
There's gotta be another perfect Country Western song in there. . . . where's David Allen Coe when you need him?
Jim
I feel all warm and fuzzy.
I am surprised Usenet made it this far. Websites, blogs, and ebooks provide information too. Before asking a question it is a good idea to Google first. I used to use the local library weekly, now it is more like once a year. "Information at your fingertips."
I doubt if Usenet is dying, just not as many free ones anymore.
Cheri
I suspect that Usenet is in a death spiral.
Regardless of the numbers of people online the vast majority has no inkling about it. Today's user is all about the web and email. Most I know have never even set up a news account.
Now the ISPs are really not stupid. What they recognize that relatively few of their paying customers are using news accounts but the ISPs are paying to provide a service that costs them and has no tangible financial benefit.
So you get a simple business case. What are we spending to provide news? What is our cost? How many current customers will leave us? Is the loss of income more or less than the expense of providing a news service?
That is why you see so many ISPs dropping the news services. And the death spiral comes into play because as an ISP drops the news service, what you get is a lot of occasional users who simply say "oh well" and so the available user base gets smaller. And so other ISPs follow suit.
So the choices we are left with is to find a free service (that is typically limited) or suck it in and go to a paid service.
And so it goes.
Charlie
Some days I have a problem, I'll put it on the newsgroup, and go do some work, and check the posts every couple of hours. More time than not, by the end of the day, I have a solution.
My wife thinks I am the smartest person on the planet!
Steve
What is a non-free Usenet? or a non-free newsgroup?
Some of Usenet is moderated but it is all free, so if something isn't free, it's not Usenet.
Yes indeed, it is free. It is good free access that is disappearing.
Charlie
Access was never free, it was just part of something else you paid for (ad money gets bundled into the price of what you buy from that ad), I agree when an ISP drops "free" usenet it is a price increase but who cuts prices? Personally I would rather have top notch service I pay for than mediocre service, loaded with ads for free. If you disagree, check out google groups or the stucco company.
Or, maybe as it becomes a little harder to get access, Usenet will shrink down back to the days when it was a more serious and useful place. The cheap seats in the peanut gallery will be eliminated.
Usenet may come back. I know Windows is moving to web based forums for Windows 7. I think they suck. It's difficult to find anything and sucks compared to a news reader and it's tree format. Some of the Linux groups have moved to web based forums too. They suck compared to the ease of Usenet. Some are moving to Freenet or Freenode on IRC which is live real time newsgroups. Perhaps because of better control from spam flooders and the ill behaved.
I am just curious.... Other than Google Groups, are there any other "Gooey GUI front ends" out there?
I have long thought that the two biggest problems with Usenet newsgroups are:
1) Most people don't know how to set up and use them, and, 2) The spam and off topic messages that kill the usefulness of many groups and that drive die-hards like us away from using those newsgroups.For #1, I would love to see someone create a truly easy and intuitive free shareware software program that any everyday, non-computer-savvy, person could use to set up, access, and use newsgroups.
For #2, I think a good moderator software program that automatically passed
99% of messages through, but which could also automatically block individual spammers after the fact (to prevent multiple spams from the same person) would work. Then, moderated newsgroups would function mostly like unmoderated groups with instant posting, but the real repeat spammers would be blocked. The moderating software would need to be able to block messages by user I.D. names, and also be able to block incoming messages from specific computer MAC I.D. numbers.F.Y.V.M.
Bill in Plano
Windows Internet Explorer was one, and AOL was the other. Having to learn enough UNIX or dos to drive a text-based newsreader was a good front-door filter.
-- aem sends...
I recall using a text-based Internet browser under Unix, back some 15 years or so. It was simple, free, and lightning fast.
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