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2013, the year of Usenet

therandymon.com

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Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#51

Post by na85 »

jere wrote: post #14
na85 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I've known about the Eternal September for quite some time, but I'm not sure why it's funny.

Eternal September is/was a usenet meme, not really having much relation to the world wide web.

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#53

Post by throwaway0094 »

Tomdarkness wrote: post #20
throwaway0094 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They were already doing random names in early 2013 too ... but it seemed like the enforcement groups were grabbing NZBs and issuing DMCAs rather quickly, even for those. shrug

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#54

Post by buckbova »

greyone wrote: post #45
buckbova wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been on easynews on and off for quite some time. It's got some good web tools. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easynews

Yep, check out my full review here: http://www.greycoder.com/the-best-usenet-providers-of-2012/

greyone, they also have an android app. You can browse and download directly to your tablet or phone.

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#55

Post by Havoc »

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?

Sickbeard is faster than the takedowns by a solid 20+ hours if your computer runs 24/7. As I said its very much dependent on how connected you are - access to high grade nzb aggregator sites in particular.

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#57

Post by jere »

na85 wrote: post #51
jere wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I've known about the Eternal September for quite some time, but I'm not sure why it's funny. Eternal September is/was a usenet meme, not really having much relation to the world wide web.

Sure, you're probably more knowledgeable about it than me. I was only observing that "things used to be better" is a constant theme and when one has nostalgia for a certain time, it's worth noting that people active then were reminiscing about an even earlier time.

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#58

Post by tomphoolery »

zandorg wrote: post #18

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.

> It's built on PHP and MySQL.

And Comic Sans... :P

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#59

Post by tomphoolery »

LandoCalrissian wrote: post #10
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.

This is all I thought Usenet was used for at this point.

People still discuss stuff... :)

Most people these days know of Usenet as a source for pirated content, but people still do talk there...

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/alt.callahans

I always felt like Usenet was slow, and the idea that you'd have to ask the server for new changes (like email) rather than getting them pushed down to you is what I believe "killed" the platform. Plus, Usenet was distributed so you had to wait until a message propagated to the server you connected on. Discussion platforms built on the Web are (were?) far less difficult to keep together than Usenet, because a company can pay a staff of people to keep the content up and there's only one place to get the content.

Say what you will about anonymity and secure communication, but Usenet died because it was hard to use...not because it was a bad idea.

Re: 2013, the year of Usenet

#60

Post by tomphoolery »

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.

> You didn't have rich media because the Usenet was about exchange of thoughts and knowledge

Also most (American, anyway...) clients couldn't support such large messages, since the choice of speed for most of us was 16.6, 28.8 and 56k modems at the time.

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