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Trying to find some life on the Usenet (2020)

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Re: Trying to find some life on the Usenet (2020)

#71

Post by throwaway847t »

darau1 wrote: post #66
jwr wrote: post #48

I don't think the OP actually used Usenet back in the day. The alt.* groups were always mostly a cesspool, there were very few usable ones past roughly 1995. The comp.* hierarchy was rather good and that's where the action was. I feel sorry that USENET is gone. The experience of using a good NNTP newsreader was way way better than the terrible phpBB forums that supplanted it. And the next generation of programmers si…

I still stubbornly hope that one of these silicone valley boys will "invent" USENET, and package it up nicely for the masses. That'd be cool.

Several boards use open source software, so in theory one could develop a "bridge" to Mastodon, Slack, Discord or something similar.

Re: Trying to find some life on the Usenet (2020)

#72

Post by brettermeier »

PathfinderBot wrote: post #61
brettermeier wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tried it. I created an account on a Lemmy instance. Now I also want to join other instances. But how to do it? I won't create an account for every instance, but I'm stuck now. So... don't know if that will ever replace Reddit. You really have to be a bit tech-savvy, and most users of the internet aren't. Edit: And the instructions how to do it are buried away somewhere around two-thirds of the way through the…

> I just tried it. I created an account on a Lemmy instance. Now I also want to join other instances. But how to do it? I won't create an account for every instance, but I'm stuck now. Just like email, you do not need to create multiple accounts to talk to people from other servers, unless they have blocked one another. I am confused, I find it likely that HackerNews readers would know this. Perhaps you're making a p…

In my opinion it would help if useful instructions how to use such services won't look like an API documentation for developers.

Your idea of having people in your family/friends that help everyone else with joining such communities is nice, but it also depends on some factors: - Do you know such people in your family? - Do you have a family/friends? - Do you want to waste their time with your needs, and how many people must be served by one person?

It may work for some to many people to ask for help with something like this, but not for the masses I think.

Re: Trying to find some life on the Usenet (2020)

#73

Post by denton-scratch »

gadders wrote: post #54
glimshe wrote: post #31

First the BBSs, then Usenet... I think that one good thing from these services was the relatively high barrier of entry. Today, online services are all about low friction signup, which makes a lot of sense in the highly competitive Internet of 2023. But when computers were somewhat niche and you really had to figure out how to get things working, users were a lot more committed and thus the quality of discussions was…

>>I think that one good thing from these services was the relatively high barrier of entry. Talking of high barrier to entry, does anyone ever remember that hackers group that said you needed to hack something in your newsreader to make it not read-only so you could post?

Would that be alt.sysadmin.recovery? Your post had to have an "Approved:" header. You could say "Approved: yes", "Approved: no" or "Approved: xyzzy" - it didn't matter.

I expect there were other groups that needed an Approved: header to post.

Re: Trying to find some life on the Usenet (2020)

#74

Post by dspillett »

tapland wrote: post #58
taotau wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coincidentally, i bought myself a Synology NAS this weekend with the honest intention of using it mainly as a backup device, but while browsing the built in apps, i noticed a lot of the media download and streaming apps mentioned BT and NZB... took me a couple of seconds to realize what NZB referred to, but Im not really surprised that NZB has become an active protocol again, given how many consumer services make you…

I get NZB but BT?

BitTorrent I assume.

Re: Trying to find some life on the Usenet (2020)

#75

Post by nick__m »

tapland wrote: post #58
taotau wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coincidentally, i bought myself a Synology NAS this weekend with the honest intention of using it mainly as a backup device, but while browsing the built in apps, i noticed a lot of the media download and streaming apps mentioned BT and NZB... took me a couple of seconds to realize what NZB referred to, but Im not really surprised that NZB has become an active protocol again, given how many consumer services make you…

I get NZB but BT?

in context it appears to mean BitTorrent

Re: Trying to find some life on the Usenet (2020)

#76

Post by amtamt »

dredmorbius wrote: post #6

"You know Usenet is almost-dead when there is not even spam in most groups." "Spammers have decided "it's not profitable to send a few bytes to these open boards anymore" and if you think about it it's kinda sad" As much as I hate spam, and I hate it a lot , yes, that's pretty damning evidence. You know a new comms platform has arrived when the spammers, scammers, griefers, and propagandists do. And you know it's dea…

That can also mean its time to start using Usenet again... and should keep it under radar this time.

Re: Trying to find some life on the Usenet (2020)

#77

Post by erremerre »

glimshe wrote: post #31

First the BBSs, then Usenet... I think that one good thing from these services was the relatively high barrier of entry. Today, online services are all about low friction signup, which makes a lot of sense in the highly competitive Internet of 2023. But when computers were somewhat niche and you really had to figure out how to get things working, users were a lot more committed and thus the quality of discussions was…

The fact that you dont get notified when someone's replies to you bothers me a lot. I have not answered some messages because of that reason...

Re: Trying to find some life on the Usenet (2020)

#78

Post by erremerre »

amtamt wrote: post #76
dredmorbius wrote: post #6

"You know Usenet is almost-dead when there is not even spam in most groups." "Spammers have decided "it's not profitable to send a few bytes to these open boards anymore" and if you think about it it's kinda sad" As much as I hate spam, and I hate it a lot , yes, that's pretty damning evidence. You know a new comms platform has arrived when the spammers, scammers, griefers, and propagandists do. And you know it's dea…

That can also mean its time to start using Usenet again... and should keep it under radar this time.

Just like emule. Shhh

Re: Trying to find some life on the Usenet (2020)

#79

Post by dsr_ »

darau1 wrote: post #66
jwr wrote: post #48

I don't think the OP actually used Usenet back in the day. The alt.* groups were always mostly a cesspool, there were very few usable ones past roughly 1995. The comp.* hierarchy was rather good and that's where the action was. I feel sorry that USENET is gone. The experience of using a good NNTP newsreader was way way better than the terrible phpBB forums that supplanted it. And the next generation of programmers si…

I still stubbornly hope that one of these silicone valley boys will "invent" USENET, and package it up nicely for the masses. That'd be cool.

https://github.com/CyberShadow/DFeed

README:

DFeed is:

    an NNTP client
    a mailing list archive
    a forum-like web interface
    an ATOM aggregator
    an IRC bot

Re: Trying to find some life on the Usenet (2020)

#80

Post by quaddo »

renegade-otter wrote: post #51
jwr wrote: post #48

I don't think the OP actually used Usenet back in the day. The alt.* groups were always mostly a cesspool, there were very few usable ones past roughly 1995. The comp.* hierarchy was rather good and that's where the action was. I feel sorry that USENET is gone. The experience of using a good NNTP newsreader was way way better than the terrible phpBB forums that supplanted it. And the next generation of programmers si…

Good times. News Rover was part of my life back then. I should note that the BINARY usenet is still on fire, if you know what that's used for, that is. My first experience with the Internet was via WebTV, and WebTV had a gated Usenet - only the users had access to it. It was just full of red hot, vicious flame wars. In retrospect, it was the harbinger of things to come with social media in general. Take away the barr…

I remember when the news came out that AOL was going to connect/gateway to the internet at large.

There was a concerned expectation that there would be a distinct drop in the quality of USENET posts. They did not disappoint.

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