"Usenet is dead" - No It Isn't . . . But There Are Many Who Want To Murder It
MrSpook
On Wed, 12 Jan 2011 06:34:44 +0000 (UTC), Sam Trenholme
<sam-reads...@samiam.org> wrote:
>You know the truth is this. Usenet is dead. It's like a corpse in its
>death thores. Many newsgroups I used to be an active member of have
>become ghost towns, without even a single post. More and more people
>are moving on elsewhere.
>
This was not the case until a few years back, when a
substantial number of ISPs announced that they were no longer going to
provide Usenet access to their customers, and then followed through
with their devious plan.
Google: "Major ISPs drop usenet"
Here is a quote from one of those search results:
"In June of 2008, Andrew Cuomo decided he would strong arm major ISPs
into dropping their Usenet access, under the guise of 'protecting the
children'. Cuomo claimed that child pornography was being randomly
distributed in various Usenet groups and, obviously, the answer to the
problem was simply to try and destroy Usenet entirely . . . including
the some 55,000+ NON-binary, TEXT ONLY Usenet groups in which pictures
can't even be posted at all.
Of course, many ISPs actually seized advantage of Cuomo's political
soap boxing 'for the children' and several major ISPs like Verizon and
Time Warner Cable openly announced plans to discontinue Usenet access
for their customers. However, these ISPs really didn't give one lousy
little turd about 'protecting the children' so much as they saw an
opportunity to save themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars by
taking away one of their packaged services. Binary Usenet groups eat
up TERABYTES worth of data, continuously and equate to huge levels of
bandwidth leeching, even with only a small portion of their customer
base actually taking advantage of the packaged extra. So of course,
many major ISPs saw this as a golden opportunity.
In true overly dramatic Internets form this campaign stirred up a
whole hornets nest of drama snits who went screaming all over the grid
about how Usenet was totally going to be destroyed and wiped out
forever, many posting blog and articles entitled, 'RIP Usenet',
leading the vast majority of Webtards to believe that Usenet was gone
for good.
In actuality most oldbie Netters started celebrating, as having all
the major ISPs dropping Usenet access would mean a potential end to
the 'never-ending September' and would bring Usenet back to its
original, non-n00b infested roots as well as obscure the binary froups
from the general Joe Public, which would mean less attention from the
RIAA and the MPAA. As such, most oldbie Netters have continued this
line into a kind of meme in which 'Usenet is dead!' is often declared
whenever anyone on the web even idly mentions Usenet.
In a rather interesting twist of irony the *VAST* majority of those
who initially bitched and whined about the 'death of Usenet' were not
Netters themselves, most didn't even really know what Usenet was and
for many their only experience with Usenet was via the WebTV interface
of Usenet run by Google . . . which, unfortunately, didn't cave into
Cuomo's demands to drop Usenet altogether.
The other truly ironic thing about the situation is that the Usenet
services that most of these ISPs carried was just absolute crap to say
the very least, often with piss poor retention times and shit rate
article completion. As such, it was really only n00bs who used their
ISP's packaged Usenet provider, where as oldbie Netters almost always
went with third party subscription services such as GigaNews,
SuperNews, Altopia and the like. Companies that dealt specifically in
Usenet access and were certainly not going to take Mr. Cuomo and his
'save the children' idiocy even the least bit seriously."
>I came back here to remember the Usenet of old with my rose colored
>tined glasses. But, in reality, Usenet was never that great.
Usenet has always been great. One of the greatest things
about it is the fact that it has always been an avenue for anonymous
and unfettered free speech.
>There's a reason most people have moved on to web discussion boards.
>
Yes. The primary reason is that many are being pressured to
move elsewhere by the refusal of their ISPs to provide Usenet access,
and the reason younger people are not here is because most of them
don't even know it exists, owing to the aforesaid actions of the big
ISPs.
As stated above, that may be a good thing, in a way, however,
in other ways, as in a diminished audience for the sharing of ideas
and alternative views, it is not so good.
>Quite frankly, you will probably be much more happier elsewhere. I
>don't know what flame war you had but the fact is this: There is nothing
>you can say or do to get these people to respect me. And, quite
>frankly, their respect is not worth having. They're just a bunch of old
>farts on Usenet trying to pretend it's 1995 again. Ignore them, move
>on. startrek.com has a Facebook page which is far more worth visiting:
>
>http://facebook.com/StarTrek
>
>- Sam
Facebook, along with many other web-based social networks, is
a data mining operation of the first order. Anyone who uses that crap
to post their personal information sadly deserves the surviellance,
personal profiling, and custom made spam they're asking for.
Fuck Facebook, and all other venues where privacy must be
surrendered in order to network, communicate with others, or speak
your mind, and a big "Fuck You" to anyone who tries to promote them as
the "new norm".
=-=
"The real question should not be how to elaborate on CO2 footprint
taxes that will rob everyone blind.
Rather we should be asking, how many taxpayers does it take to support
the lifestyle of one(1) elite. There lies the very hardpan answer of
what is sustainable!
My guestimate would be, it takes over 10,000 middle class
workers(slaves) working and paying taxes to support one(1) royal ass
SOB, using the peeing up the rain pipe formula they force us to live
by.
Does anyone have a take on this? How much does one individual elite
cost us, compared say to an illegal immigrant working at Wallyworld?
Realizing that the Rothschilds for example attained all of their
wealth robbing the masses and entire nations, I would say they are too
expensive and therefore they are unsustainable. If the human race is
to survive they and others like them should be made illegal.
How do we go about putting a footprint tax on them, capping and
trading them, codexing them and and collecting their data and
socializing their wealth so they can’t do it again?
That should be the BIG question!!! Realizing how serious things have
gotten lately, should we build internment camps for the elite to live
in, until things straighten out?"
Unspun
Sam Trenholme
>>Usenet is dead.
> This was not the case until a few years back, when a
>substantial number of ISPs announced that they were no longer going to
>provide Usenet access to their customers,
[...]
>"In June of 2008, Andrew Cuomo decided he would strong arm major ISPs
>into dropping their Usenet access, under the guise of 'protecting the
>children'.
Classic denial. The whole thing with Cuomo was more like the straw that
broke the camel's back. Usenet back in 2003 had a lot less text-only
traffic than, say, the Usenet of 1995. It has not been a sudden process
when you could look around one day and say "goodness, Usenet died
today". It has been a very slow attrition process, as more and more
people go from Usenet to web discussion boards, Facebook, or what not.
By 2008, the attrition process advanced to the point where, when Cuomo
made a stink, ISPs looked at the percentage of their users using Usenet,
the cost of running Usenet, and said to themselves "It's not worth it to
keep Usenet going".
Just last year, one of the two original Usenet nodes (Duke) looked at
the number of users using Usenet (not that many), realized it wasn't
worth the cost, and removed their Usenet node. Many other universities
are doing the same thing.
Usenet is transforming in to a much smaller network. Yeah, there are
the commercial nodes running all of the binary groups. Yeah, there are
the people with a passion for Usenet like aioe.org keeping it going.
And, yeah, I really don't think individual.net is hauling in the bucks
running their (slightly) commercial Usenet node.
But it's not the Usenet of 1996, when I would go to Usenet to discuss
some movie I just saw with dozens of anonymous people. Today, I would
do that on Facebook, or some web forum.
Sure, Usenet will continue to exist for many years to come; there are
many groups with a core group of regulars who will be posting to Usenet
on their deathbed.
But Usenet is dead in the sense that, for over a decade, it has not been
the place the average internet user goes to having a discussion about
something. Every week, its traffic is declining and its userbase is
falling, and this is a process which will continue for quite a while.
I look at Usenet the way many music lovers look at vinyl: A memento to a
lost youth I can never relive. And, like vinyl, there will always be a
small core to keep it alive and running, as well as a small core who
think it's better than Facebook or whatever, just as there are people
who swear vinyl sounds better than CD.
I think one good thing out of the contraction of Usenet is that it will
become possible to keep the trolls and flamers in line again, just like
the Usenet before eternal September. Once Usenet is 200 active users
and 20 active newsgroups (and, yes, I think it can very well become that
small by 2020), anyone who comes in to Usenet with a flame-thrower will
have their posting privileges suspended or revoked.
- Sam
--
#Sam Trenholme http://samiam.org -- Usenet user since September 1993#
######## My email address is at http://samiam.org/mailme.php ########
# The following script works around an annoyance in the Nano Editor #
cat | awk '{a=a $0 "\n";if($0 ~ /[a-zA-Z0-9]/){printf("%s",a);a=""}}'
MrSpook
<sam-reads...@samiam.org> wrote:
>In article <q2rqi616fegigatcg...@4ax.com>,
>>>Usenet is dead.
>
>> This was not the case until a few years back, when a
>>substantial number of ISPs announced that they were no longer going to
>>provide Usenet access to their customers,
>
>[...]
>
>>"In June of 2008, Andrew Cuomo decided he would strong arm major ISPs
>>into dropping their Usenet access, under the guise of 'protecting the
>>children'.
>
>Classic denial.
>
[...]
>But Usenet is dead in the sense that, for over a decade, it has not been
>the place the average internet user goes to having a discussion about
>something. Every week, its traffic is declining and its userbase is
>falling, and this is a process which will continue for quite a while.
>
And you are obviously here to promote its demise.
>
>- Sam
And who are (were) you again?
=-=
Emergency: Politicians Call for End of 1st & 2nd Amendments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4T1opE_GIg
A WARNING TO ENEMIES OF THE 1st and 2nd AMENDMENTS
Your Name
"MrSpook" <ne...@home.world> wrote in message
news:q2rqi616fegigatcg...@4ax.com...
>
> On Wed, 12 Jan 2011 06:34:44 +0000 (UTC), Sam Trenholme
> <sam-reads...@samiam.org> wrote:
>
> >You know the truth is this. Usenet is dead. It's like a corpse in its
> >death thores. Many newsgroups I used to be an active member of have
> >become ghost towns, without even a single post. More and more people
> >are moving on elsewhere.
> >
>
> This was not the case until a few years back, when a
> substantial number of ISPs announced that they were no longer going to
> provide Usenet access to their customers, and then followed through
> with their devious plan.
>
> Google: "Major ISPs drop usenet"
It wasn't the first service that greedy ISPs dropped and it won't be the
last. Many had already stopped providing "free" webpage space and it won't
be long before many decide not to provide an email account either. The "ISP"
will soon become the "ICP" (Internet Connection Provider) and anything else
you want you wil have to get elsewhere. They're simply following the greedy
mantra of "big business": provide as little services as possible while
charging more and more for it. X-(
MrSpook
wrote:
>
>"MrSpook" <ne...@home.world> wrote in message
>news:q2rqi616fegigatcg...@4ax.com...
>>
>> On Wed, 12 Jan 2011 06:34:44 +0000 (UTC), Sam Trenholme
>> <sam-reads...@samiam.org> wrote:
>>
>> >You know the truth is this. Usenet is dead. It's like a corpse in its
>> >death thores. Many newsgroups I used to be an active member of have
>> >become ghost towns, without even a single post. More and more people
>> >are moving on elsewhere.
>> >
>>
>> This was not the case until a few years back, when a
>> substantial number of ISPs announced that they were no longer going to
>> provide Usenet access to their customers, and then followed through
>> with their devious plan.
>>
>> Google: "Major ISPs drop usenet"
><snip>
>
>It wasn't the first service that greedy ISPs dropped and it won't be the
>last. Many had already stopped providing "free" webpage space and it won't
>be long before many decide not to provide an email account either. The "ISP"
>will soon become the "ICP" (Internet Connection Provider) and anything else
>you want you wil have to get elsewhere.
That is also true.
>They're simply following the greedy
>mantra of "big business": provide as little services as possible while
>charging more and more for it. X-(
>
But I think it is much more than that. With the banker
bailout, they have already stolen our wealth for generations to come.
Public access to computers and the Internet was actually intended to
be a tool for intrusive surveillance and control of the general
population.
In the future, look for the push to practically require all
persons to be connected to the information grid, with eventual
legislation proposed to fine or imprison those who fail, or refuse to
comply.
=-=
"The new America, born in sin and arrogance, delusional
in Manifest Destiny, bred in overabundant gluttony,
consumerist and materialist, fathered by George W. Bush,
Dick Cheney and the Cabal of Criminality, a country flocked
by sheeple, ignorant and conditioned, indifferent to a world
growing up around it, living delusions of empire and of
omnipotence, building hatred against it and its policies
throughout the planet, slowly dumbing down its citizens,
losing its edge in the sciences and arts, producing a nation
of acquiescent automatons brainwashed to never question
authority and always faithfully follow the crimes of governance."
Unknown
Your Name
"MrSpook" <ne...@home.world> wrote in message
Even from here in New Zealand I can hear the sirens of the ambulance with
the men in white coats and straight jackets coming to get you. :-\