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Comp.lang.c is now full of spam

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Re: Comp.lang.c is now full of spam

#51

Post by elijahciali »

n0zmer wrote: post #47
Kwpolska wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read somewhere that Google extensively uses mailing lists internally. They’re probably using the same codebase for their internal mailing lists, and the storage costs effectively nothing to them.

Googler here. You are correct. Internally google groups are the easiest way to create adhoc project groups and support / announce lists. We have everything from music related lists, to stuff like vim/emacs user groups

Not a Googler but I've personally been in a few groups for testing new features. I believe communication to testers has been revamped but pre-2020 I was in a few like gdd-profile-preview

Re: Comp.lang.c is now full of spam

#52

Post by hutzlibu »

b112 wrote: post #21
15457345234 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The costs would depend entirely on the userbase; usenet was in heavy use during the 1990-2000 era so the software must be incredibly lightweight by today's standards. I don't know what ongoing development has taken place wrt usenet server software. The clients will all be hopelessly outdated, I imagine WinVN will still run but you probably wouldn't enjoy the experience much. The big issue would be preventing the serv…

Sadly, I think AI will force a complete de-anonymization of the internet. No accounts without government ID, no connectivity without it either, open access points illegal, and so on. Governments and police would love this, and with AI, spam (as you elude to) is going to rise to a new level. And there are already issues, with most of the net's citizens, unable to detect fraudulent posts. Countries have already had civ…

"Sadly, I think AI will force a complete de-anonymization of the internet.

No accounts without government ID, no connectivity without it either, open access points illegal, and so on."

Or we see the rise of social networks that require a personal invite. In the extreme variant, with a personal meetup requirement. Probably both, with government ID accounts being the standard for the mainstream, while all the interesting stuff will be invite only.

Re: Comp.lang.c is now full of spam

#53

Post by kmeisthax »

fmajid wrote: post #48
praptak wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. I mean technically yes but this wouldn't solve the actual problem: mass human communication at scale. Usenet was a decent shot at this problem but it lost to other solutions. Yes, all the current solutions are pretty bad but they aren't worse than Usenet. In particular Usenet had zero spam protection, Google stewardship or not.

I’m old enough to remember the original Canter and Siegel spam, and yes, it was on Usenet. What amazes me is that in 2023 people still launch social networks where spam prevention is not at the center.

But don't worry, guys, we'll have someone from the Air Force yell at you if you send out PDP-11 ads over the Internet backbone

Re: Comp.lang.c is now full of spam

#54

Post by placesalt »

Kwpolska wrote: post #43
NelsonMinar wrote: post #36

Every year Google Groups still exists as a product I'm a little more astonished. It's been years and years since the company cared enough about it to put any effort into it. The data degrades every year, it gets spammed, the Usenet portion of it makes no sense vs. the mailing list portion. And yet it persists.

I've read somewhere that Google extensively uses mailing lists internally. They’re probably using the same codebase for their internal mailing lists, and the storage costs effectively nothing to them.

A piece of software I use has google groups as the main interaction point among users & between users and the dev. It works quite well.

Re: Comp.lang.c is now full of spam

#56

Post by nunodonato »

magicalhippo wrote: post #44

I really, really miss newsgroups. HN has some of the flavor of discussing technical stuff with experts and amateurs chiming in. But everything here is geared towards news, so the longer, deeper discussions are missing. Perhaps I'm just getting old though.

I think newsgroups would struggle to survive and be useful if they would get a massive wide adoption like social networks do. It would just be impossible to filter out useful stuff and avoid spam. They worked ages ago because the internet was a smaller place, and they still work today because the number of people who use them has not increased by much (sorry, no source to back that up)

Re: Comp.lang.c is now full of spam

#57

Post by Izkata »

jmclnx wrote: post #37

If using tin, just add this to file "~/.tin/filter". That turns off all posts from google-groups. No blank lines, I added blank lines to avoid HN line wrap. group=* case=0 score=kill msgid_last=* *

Blank lines separate paragraphs, they don't create blank lines. But also, indent with 2 spaces for code formatting: https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc

Re: Comp.lang.c is now full of spam

#58

Post by AtlasBarfed »

n0zmer wrote: post #47
Kwpolska wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read somewhere that Google extensively uses mailing lists internally. They’re probably using the same codebase for their internal mailing lists, and the storage costs effectively nothing to them.

Googler here. You are correct. Internally google groups are the easiest way to create adhoc project groups and support / announce lists. We have everything from music related lists, to stuff like vim/emacs user groups

How about doing customer service with it?

Google: nah.

Honestly I shouldn't even suggest that, it will probably get google groups closed in a whim.

Re: Comp.lang.c is now full of spam

#59

Post by fmajid »

kmeisthax wrote: post #53
fmajid wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m old enough to remember the original Canter and Siegel spam, and yes, it was on Usenet. What amazes me is that in 2023 people still launch social networks where spam prevention is not at the center.

But don't worry, guys, we'll have someone from the Air Force yell at you if you send out PDP-11 ads over the Internet backbone

Not that old...

Re: Comp.lang.c is now full of spam

#60

Post by mostlylurks »

b112 wrote: post #21
15457345234 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The costs would depend entirely on the userbase; usenet was in heavy use during the 1990-2000 era so the software must be incredibly lightweight by today's standards. I don't know what ongoing development has taken place wrt usenet server software. The clients will all be hopelessly outdated, I imagine WinVN will still run but you probably wouldn't enjoy the experience much. The big issue would be preventing the serv…

Sadly, I think AI will force a complete de-anonymization of the internet. No accounts without government ID, no connectivity without it either, open access points illegal, and so on. Governments and police would love this, and with AI, spam (as you elude to) is going to rise to a new level. And there are already issues, with most of the net's citizens, unable to detect fraudulent posts. Countries have already had civ…

AI by no means necessitates de-anonymization, though I have no doubt that that will be the narrative that politicians and corporations will run with as an unquestionable truth.

All you need is something that implements a mix of a reputation system and a web of trust and you're good to go. Technically pseudonymous, not anonymous, but it would give you basically all of the benefits of tying online activity to real identities without any of the downsides. It would also be completely decentralized, which would prevent large players from manipulating the political landscape on a mass level.

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