Usenet on life support

[Swingman]

There's a ton of woodworkers on Google+ but they mostly seem to prefer blogging to text based participation. Hardly worth the bother, IMO.

[scritch]

Yep. You guys are right. I've even been sucked into pointless posting.

this is my last post, and last read.

scritch.

[Larry Blanchard]

As I mentioned, I did some looking on Yahoo for woodworking groups. Most seem to be aimed at a limited audience, like Shopsmith owners or luthiers. The few that seem to be general are not very active.

I'm surprised. There are several Yahoo groups on model RRs and tropical fish that are quite active. Why not woodworking?

I did check out the web sites mentioned here by others. I don't like that interface any more than Mike M. does. The reason I looked on Yahoo is that their groups allow one to read and write via email, much like posting to and reading a newsgroup. No web interface involved. With the bonus that photos and files can be uploaded as well, but that does require visiting the website.

Since few people have access to Usenet anymore, at least without paying, and most new users have never heard of it, would there be any interest by the wreck in starting up a general woodworking Yahoo group?

[Bill]

You seem to be basically asking the group to move. Apparently the Yahoo woodworkers don't want to have their own woodworking forum or they would already have one. Maybe it's more important to stand up for Usenet before it is legislated out of existence.

Bill

[Drew Lawson]

I suspect that is because of the number of pretty good web forums for woodworking. With "everyone" moving to portable devices and bandwidth getting cheaper, the audience seems to prefer pictures.

For some topics, I can't blame them. (Just wish people would learn to focus their cameras.)

I have the same preference, but so far the world has failed to shape itself around my views. It's a shame really.

I suspect that will not go anywhere. There is too much competition for the amount of content being generated.

Just FYI, usenet traffic has being going through gateways to non-usenet venues since the '80s. It is an aspect of the design

-- the traffic can go to whatever tool is useful.

[Puckdropper]

Larry Blanchard wrote in news:l6lg76$ra8$ [e-mail]:

Why not create one and find out? I do prefer that the group messages be public, so I can see if the group I'm joining is full of spam or actual content.

All moderation can be done via e-mail if you're so inclined. Some groups don't moderate for content, just for spam. (I wonder if the guy who set up the old "Scratch Building" group is even still around?) That's one of the things I like about the Wreck, no moderators to please and it's easy to killfile buffoons.

I really don't mind forums, but they tend to be split into a hundred different pieces. Yes, woodworking is a giant industry/hobby, but I don't want to separate things into "Hand tools seen on The Woodwright's Shop", "Hand tools Tommy MacDonald uses", and "Norm used a hand tool?!" or some other nonsense.

Puckdropper

Puckdropper

[Lew Hodgett]

--------------------------------------------------- The only loss of access to Usenet I'm aware of is the loss of binaries.

If you sign up with Astraweb which is either $10 (25 GB) or $25 (180 GB) package, you get full access including binaries.

Several years ago, (2009), I splurged and got the $25 package. Last time I checked, I've used 0.79 GB.

Based on my present usage, whoever cleans up my estate will have lots of Astraweb time.

If I were to do it again, I'd get the $10 package.

It would appear that unless you are moving gads of data or pics, the $10 package is good for many years of wreck duty, so cost should not be a problem.

To answer your question, by establishing a Yahoo group, what have you accomplished except to duplicate the wreck?

Lew

[Larry Blanchard]

Because younger woodworkers have never heard of Usenet. Because few ISPs still carry it. Because most people won't pay for info they can find for free, even if the interface is awful.

The numbers tell the story. rec.crafts.woodturning, rec.models.railroad, rec.motorcycles.tech. all have almost no activity. I wish Usenet was still as vibrant as it was 10, even 5, years ago. But it ain't. And nothing you or I can do will revive it. It's gone to join the Fido bulletin boards.

And did I say *I* wanted to establish a Yahoo group? I was hoping someone who'd done it before was on the wreck and was willing :-). If enough people show an interest and no one else steps up, I'll look into it but it doesn't appear the interest is there.

[Swingman]

I was thinking about cranking up my old Fido Echo, but my 14.4 got hit by lighting. ;)

[Larry Blanchard]

You might get a kick out of this:

Old soldiers never die ...

[Larry W]

For anyone looking for free (well, almost free) usenet access, may I suggest getting a shell account on sdf.lonestar.org or a simiar or from a similar organization, learn how to use a unix shell prompt and enter commands (simiar to the old days of using a DOS prompt but incredibly more sophisticated and powerful) and famialirizing yourself with the text-mode program "trn" Thats's what I've been doing for the past

20 years or so, though not continuously on sdf.