2013, the year of Usenet • Hacker News Board

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#11

Post by vezzy-fnord » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 9:41 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #9

Usenet, or something very much like it, with a markup language (to allow for rich content), a paired messaging protocol (to allow for directly contacting individuals in chat / private message mode), and associated content distribution (images, video) could, I've felt for years, displace virtually all of existing social media. The primary missing elements are filtering (as noted) and a distributed search capability.

Reddit is more-or-less the Usenet of the masses, but without private messaging (and the fact that it's hosted on the World Wide Web).

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#12

Post by moreentropy » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 9:42 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #9

Usenet, or something very much like it, with a markup language (to allow for rich content), a paired messaging protocol (to allow for directly contacting individuals in chat / private message mode), and associated content distribution (images, video) could, I've felt for years, displace virtually all of existing social media. The primary missing elements are filtering (as noted) and a distributed search capability.

That paired messaging protocol we used was called email. Filtering was pretty sophisticated using scorefiles and killfiles. You didn't have rich media because the Usenet was about exchange of thoughts and knowledge, but people were pretty opinionated about formatting to make reading your posts pleasant for everyone.

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#13

Post by Finster » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 9:50 PM UTC

na85 wrote: post #7

moreentropy wrote: post #2

That bit about total anonymity is just not true. Usually you would use your organization's news server (because every ISP/university had one), so you could be easily located. Plus, it was part of the netiquette to post using your real name / well known identity. Thinking of the 90s internet makes me all sentimental.

Things were better, then. Yeah we had to contend with flash sites and low bandwidth, and didn't have slick css3 and backnode.js but the web was more fun in those days.

Flash sites? If the content didn't load in lynx it wasn't worth viewing.

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#14

Post by jere » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 9:51 PM UTC

na85 wrote: post #7

moreentropy wrote: post #2

That bit about total anonymity is just not true. Usually you would use your organization's news server (because every ISP/university had one), so you could be easily located. Plus, it was part of the netiquette to post using your real name / well known identity. Thinking of the 90s internet makes me all sentimental.

Things were better, then. Yeah we had to contend with flash sites and low bandwidth, and didn't have slick css3 and backnode.js but the web was more fun in those days.

That's funny because "Eternal September" was coined in 1994 (i.e. people were exclaiming "things were better then" in reference to the time before September 1993).

It reminds me of "I Used to Love H.E.R." a song released in 1994 about how great rap used to be. http://rapgenius.com/Common-i-used-to-love-her-lyrics

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#15

Post by jonesetc » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 9:53 PM UTC

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #11

dredmorbius wrote: post #9

Usenet, or something very much like it, with a markup language (to allow for rich content), a paired messaging protocol (to allow for directly contacting individuals in chat / private message mode), and associated content distribution (images, video) could, I've felt for years, displace virtually all of existing social media. The primary missing elements are filtering (as noted) and a distributed search capability.

Reddit is more-or-less the Usenet of the masses, but without private messaging (and the fact that it's hosted on the World Wide Web).

reddit has private messaging.

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#16

Post by throwaway0094 » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 9:53 PM UTC

Havoc wrote: post #4

>brief resurgence distributing binaries - images, video, warez - but even that era faded The author is clearly not sufficiently connected. Binaries are going stronger than ever.

The TV networks, MPAA, RIAA started issuing automated DMCA notices in early 2013, making it more or less useless for content. Have things changed?

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#17

Post by vezzy-fnord » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 10:00 PM UTC

jonesetc wrote: post #15

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is more-or-less the Usenet of the masses, but without private messaging (and the fact that it's hosted on the World Wide Web).

reddit has private messaging.

Ah. Then my first statement stands, I guess.

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#18

Post by zandorg » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 10:00 PM UTC

This is my search engine for Usenet, currently only for the 1980s but I hope to have 2003 onwards searchable soon. I have about 2TB of news from 2003 which just needs indexing and uploading.

http://www.dejadejadeja.com/10years/

My goal is to give people an alternative to 'Google Groups'.

It's built on PHP and MySQL.

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#19

Post by hengheng » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 10:01 PM UTC

moreentropy wrote: post #12

dredmorbius wrote: post #9

Usenet, or something very much like it, with a markup language (to allow for rich content), a paired messaging protocol (to allow for directly contacting individuals in chat / private message mode), and associated content distribution (images, video) could, I've felt for years, displace virtually all of existing social media. The primary missing elements are filtering (as noted) and a distributed search capability.

That paired messaging protocol we used was called email. Filtering was pretty sophisticated using scorefiles and killfiles. You didn't have rich media because the Usenet was about exchange of thoughts and knowledge, but people were pretty opinionated about formatting to make reading your posts pleasant for everyone.

Also the only alternative for formatting content was HTML, which invited people to use weird fonts in funny sizes. I think something like markdown would have benefited the ecosystem.

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#20

Post by Tomdarkness » Wed, Dec 04, 2013, 10:11 PM UTC

throwaway0094 wrote: post #16

Havoc wrote: post #4

>brief resurgence distributing binaries - images, video, warez - but even that era faded The author is clearly not sufficiently connected. Binaries are going stronger than ever.

The TV networks, MPAA, RIAA started issuing automated DMCA notices in early 2013, making it more or less useless for content. Have things changed?

Some uploads just use a random file name now making it impossible for MPAA, RIAA, etc. to just simply search usenet posts for their content. If you don't have the NZB then it's unlikely you'll find it. Also if you use the european usenet providers they typically don't comply with DMCA notices and have more complex take down procedures.