Future of ANM - And Usenet
D. Kirkpatrick
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For those who are still reading ANM (alt.nudism.moderated) this is a
brief update on the state of Usenet and the future of this group.
Usenet has become somewhat of a dinosaur as a text-only based
communications vehicle. Throughout the USA many internet service
providers (ISP) have dropped access to Usenet, forcing the die-hard
proponents to seek access elsewhere. This business decision to abandon
Usenet has resulted in millions of people simply leaving Usenet. It is
notable that there are few if any ISP services still offering Usenet in
the USA. The few remaining free (no charge) NNTP (Usenet) system
servers are all on non-USA soil for the most part where they symbolize
free speech for lands where that is an ideal yet to be fully realized.
Usenet systems are considered to be high maintenance from an
administrative point of view, and in general, it is not possible to
create a revenue stream from it. From a profitability standpoint, few
companies have any interest in retaining it.
Legal issues associated with child pornography have also factored in
that many laws make any storage device prosecutable under the law.
Since Usenet servers store messages, the potential for the storage of
child porn is increased even when those news groups that have
traditionally trafficked in that genre are shut off. It simply goes
elsewhere within Usenet. As such, eliminating Usenet as a service plugs
a legal liability as well. The legal complexities are much broader here
but this is the nutshell version.
The remainder of Usenet systems still in operation are considered
"premium" access systems that charge a fee to access Usenet through
their servers.
As such, Usenet itself may be in its dying quivers.
Two additional factors face this specific group with respect to its
status as a moderated group.
In recent history the moderation relay, the system that handles and
manages moderated posts such as those traveling to ANM, has dwindled to
one lone system on this planet. If that system goes down, no moderated
messages get through. At present a group of Usenet administrators are
working on a solution to get more systems to create and feature
additional moderator relay back ups. That remains an uncertain work on
progress.
Secondary to this is the moderator tools that allow a moderator to
accept or reject postings. There are but a handful of such programs
available. Without getting into technical details many are simply not
possible to use and few have been updated to work well with computer
operating systems as they grow and mature. The one I use was last
updated when Windows 2000 was in its infancy. It works on Windows XP.
Beyond that is anyone's best guess. Even then, it is unreliable and
buggy.
Without such tools for a moderators or a moderation committee, there is
no way to facilitate the group.
It is noteworthy here to say that the advent of end-user friendly list
server software or free services such as Yahoo Groups and Google Groups
or web-based message boards operable with free software, have greatly
reduced the demand for moderated Usenet groups. As such, few if any new
moderated groups are being approved these days and those in existence
are simply grandfathered in.
That is where we stand as of this post.
Only the future will tell where things will go in the broader picture.
One option on the table is that all moderation will cease to exist with
no new moderated groups being allowed at some point. That is already
true to some extent within the so-named "Big 8" hierarchy of newsgroups.
Without a moderator relay, no messages can go through at all, so
moderation itself could be eliminated as a process, current with
moderated newsgroups simply changing format or being discontinued.
Simce this broader future is out of my hands, I can only sit back and
wait to see what happens.
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Therefore effective with this post, my efforts here will start to be
greatly reduced.
While this group remains open, only a handfull of messages ever appear
here with as little as 1-2 a month being of a valid nature. It is a
major chore to sift through the mountains of spam that is caught by the
moderation tools as well.
Daily moderation checks will no longer be a norm and will be reduced to
1-2 or less per week until a decision to close or abandon is made.
As such, those faithful to posting here may wish to consider this group
as unreliable and essentially dead.
It has been a nice ride.
I'd like to thank "Cheef Dan" for creating this group, even though
controversial in its day, but the intention was valid, and history has
shown that to have been foresight many of us did not have at the time.
DMK
ANM Moderator
7/28/2010