how can we advocate for usenet more? It's dead these days

Nomen Nescio

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Jun 9, 2012, 7:44:14 PM6/9/12

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I have returned to usenet after suffering frustration with web-based
forums. In principle, usenet is generally superior to web forums.
But on the contrary, it has become a ghost town.

I'm thinking one approach to promoting usenet is to reply to web-based
posts, and reference a related thread in usenet.

Other ideas?

Anon Anon

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Mar 31, 2020, 12:58:27 AM3/31/20

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My goal is to move towards Usenet while advocating it as well.
I think there is a niche here.

Faux Dameron

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Apr 1, 2020, 12:20:51 PM4/1/20

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> My goal is to move towards Usenet while advocating it as well.
> I think there is a niche here.

I think you're right. The #1 thing to do is to use it and get the word
out. There are a surprising number of groups still alive and well.

Anon Anon

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Apr 1, 2020, 12:48:53 PM4/1/20

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Do you have a list of active Usenet groups?

Faux Dameron

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Apr 6, 2020, 4:29:15 AM4/6/20

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On Wed, 01 Apr 2020 16:48:52 +0000, Anon Anon wrote:

> Do you have a list of active Usenet groups?

Not really, just my subscription list which I would rather not share.
Some of the really surprising ones are comp.os.cpm and alt.sys.pdp11.
These are really quite niche subjects nowadays that you might think would
have dried up YEARS ago, and yet they have relatively little spam and a
fair amount of on-topic conversations.

Anon Anon

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Apr 6, 2020, 11:08:04 AM4/6/20

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I understand your hesitation in sharing your list of groups. I have
found the level of spam varies and some usenet groups are chock full of
spam with no actual discussion and others have a mix of both. I don't
understand the spam mindset since I would assume the usenet userbase
would be considered very advanced and know not to fall for 'Free Pills'
and 'hot local singles'... but I guess it must be profitable for
someone.

Grant Taylor

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May 1, 2020, 12:11:24 AM5/1/20

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On 4/1/20 10:48 AM, Anon Anon wrote:
> Do you have a list of active Usenet groups?

Set up a text only news server and watch what comes in every day.
Yesterday saw 18k messages to the tune of 55 MB.

You can collect all the statistics that you want.

--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

Anon Anon

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Aug 12, 2020, 12:51:30 PM8/12/20

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How doyou setup a text only news server? Do you have instructions?

Grant Taylor

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Aug 13, 2020, 12:24:28 AM8/13/20

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On 8/12/20 10:51 AM, Anon Anon wrote:
> How doyou setup a text only news server? Do you have instructions?

Set up any NNTP server program that you want and then configure peering
with someone.

Each NNTP server program is different and should have it's own
documentation.

Peering is usually asking in news.admin.peering or other places for
people to peer with you.

Let me know if you want to peer.

Neodome Admin

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Aug 17, 2020, 1:40:22 PM8/17/20

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Grant Taylor <gta...@tnetconsulting.net> wrote:
> On 8/12/20 10:51 AM, Anon Anon wrote:
>> How doyou setup a text only news server? Do you have instructions?
>
> Set up any NNTP server program that you want and then configure peering
> with someone.
>
> Each NNTP server program is different and should have it's own
> documentation.

I would like to add that INN is the most popular news server software.
Relatively complicated to set up, but documentation covers everything:

https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/inn/

> Peering is usually asking in news.admin.peering or other places for
> people to peer with you.
>
> Let me know if you want to peer.
>
>
>

--

Neodome

ldpshddtti

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Aug 30, 2022, 1:14:26 PM8/30/22

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I'm surprised that there is already discontent with web-based forums in
2012. Maybe I'm still naive in those days, but I'm glad that I
discovered USENET (I'm a bit young for the good 'ol days) with its
unfiltered glory.

I hope more like-minded individuals discover and re-discover USENET as
they grow ever-increasingly discontent over the state of the web.

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