Newsgroups
Bobby Bewl
thriving newsgroup. It was the third time in the newsgroup's 12 year history
that the monthly number of posts fell into double figures:
82 posts in the 4 day conception on 27 January 1998; and
96 posts in April this year.
The newsgroup peaked in 2004 with posts varying from 1625 in September to
4481 in November.
What the newsgroups lacks, and the social networking sites provide, are:
photos, instant chat with online people, known friends, videos and regular
face to face meeting of like minds. What the newsgroups provide is distance
between people usually in the form of anonymity leading to unbiased and true
feelings, points of views, scope to lay down sound bites. But do people want
or need this anymore? Some people have enough hassle and intellect in their
lives without the need to be baited in their leisure time. The plethora of
inane comments (and who am I to mention that) that people thrive on in
Facebook and of that ilk are stamped upon in the newsgroup by intellects
looking for debate, spoiling for power to reign as king, and roaming the
threads to exercise their prowess in political manoeuvres to outwit an
"opponent".
The absence of "report abuse" button leaves people feeling venerable whilst
others see the utopia of a free society. Establishing the identity of the
person posting brusque, unfounded, or, illegal content is equally difficult
due to the trust-based design of the network. Whereas in social networking
groups people are immediately identifiable to all users.
Newsgroups do not cater for the mentality of people who need a conversation
in the form of a list, as in Facebook, rather than follow the "complexities"
of a conversation tree as available in newsgroups. The post on the social
networking sites are ephemeral. But in the newsgroups the posts are archived
to be used and viewed to gain an advantage whilst another poster has their
guard down. In some instances, to the advantage of the entire newsgroup.
Newsgroups have had their day and need to be revamped taking into account
the needs and aspirations of social networking users.
Bobby
Eyebee
>
> Newsgroups have had their day and need to be revamped taking into
> account the needs and aspirations of social networking users.
>
> Bobby
Perhaps this is true. Everything has its 'time' and perhaps the time for
newsgroups has largely passed.
However, I personally enjoy being able to have a simple text based
conversation, without all the other crap that goes with it.
To have a conversation, or debate here, text is usually all I need. I can
always add a URL if I wish to direct the readers attention elsewhere for
media that this format cannot provide.
Although we do get the brain dead spammers in here from time to time, at
least there aren't endless requests to want me to join an app to send me
a Christmas card (WTF is wrong with a link in email for that?) or join
some cretinous 'game' to run a farm, cafe, or peruvian mountain goats
asylum.
I hope there is some life left in this yet!