OT: Usenet newsgroups dying?

[Terry Pinnell]

I went to Tools > Newsgroup Directory and did a few searches related to
3D Printing (such as '3D Printing', OpenSCAD, Cura, etc) and got no
hits.

Updating the directory and choosing 'Show only new newsgroups (found on
last update)' gave me none. Must be at least a year or so since I last
updated.

So is it simply that I'm probably a few years slow in realising that
Usenet is now a thing of the past?

Terry

[gfre...@aol.com]

Alas that does seem to be true. The text groups I subscribe to are
either pretty much dead or they have degraded to political arguing.
The binary groups are dying too.

[Shinji Ikari]

Hello.

Terry Pinnell <m...@somewhere.invalid> schrieb

>So is it simply that I'm probably a few years slow in realising that
>Usenet is now a thing of the past?

Yes.
Lots of people who wanted to exchange information went to Websites
(Forums) and/or so called social media Apps to communicate.

Usenet is old and the normalen messaging part dies.
But the bianry part is up and alive. And since lots of sites use
encrypted binary postings even lots of the binary groups are swamped
with gibberish postings.
If this goes on, usenet will change just to a big pile of encrypted
postings and when the posting website dies (they get very often shut
down becauce of copyritght problems) almost no one can use the
encrypted postings, because the key is lost.
I guess then will the usenetproviders loose their way to make money
and no longer support this strukture and the long retention times.
When almost no one can use the Postings, then there will be no new
blood/money to keep it alive for long.
Sad, but I guess that will be the future for UN.

[Thomas Hochstein]

Terry Pinnell schrieb:

> So is it simply that I'm probably a few years slow in realising that
> Usenet is now a thing of the past?

About 8-15 years, depending on which hierarchy you look it. ;)

There are nearly no new users and (nearly) no new groups; some (or
many) users have left over time [1], some (or many) groups have
withered. On the other hand, there are still some people left, and
some groups still have a bit or even quite a lot of message traffic,
and in others you'll at least get good answers for your questions.

-thh

[1] As they alwasy did, but now there are no newcomers.

[Terry Pinnell]

Thanks all. I miss trams and steam trains too ;-)

Much of my computer usage stems from hobbies.

Practical electronics is still quite well covered in the sci.electronics
groups, despite the heavy volume of OT political and other stuff that I
assume pervades twitter etc. I hope that when I get back into that it
won't have been buried completely.

And for video/DVD making I've been a heavy user of a specialist forum
for my particular editing app.

However a newer hobby, 3D printing, is not served at all well by groups.
But I'm warming to several forums, including reddit, warts an' all.

Terry

[s|b]

On Thu, 08 Jul 2021 11:42:54 +0100, Terry Pinnell wrote:

> So is it simply that I'm probably a few years slow in realising that
> Usenet is now a thing of the past?

I'm subscribed to more than 100 newsgroups. Used to take me all evening
to get through them. Nowadays it takes me about 15 minutes.

Google Groups ruined Usenet and then there was Facebook, Reddit, ...

--
s|b

[Mack A. Damia]

Trolls ruined it and endless arguments and flaming over nothing.

It is not as if Usenet has a news feed like Facebook, so how much can
you say about specific subjects without going around in circles?

People got bored with it.

[gfre...@aol.com]

I think it was more that it costs money for a lot of groups,
particularly the binaries and people can get ad supported web content
for "free".
I never used a free usenet server but I assume they find a way to sell
your eyeballs to advertisers.
I suppose the problem is if the kids can rip their music from You Tube
for free, on demand, why fool around with ABSM groups that they have
to pay for and wait for someone to post?

[s|b]

On Sun, 11 Jul 2021 10:39:32 -0700, Mack A. Damia wrote:

> Trolls ruined it and endless arguments and flaming over nothing.

That sounds like Twitter. You give trolls too much credit.

> It is not as if Usenet has a news feed like Facebook, so how much can
> you say about specific subjects without going around in circles?
>
> People got bored with it.

I disagree. I'd say binaries had a lot to do with the downfall of
Usenet.

--
s|b

[Arthur Conan Doyle]

"s|b" <m...@privacy.invalid> wrote:

>I disagree. I'd say binaries had a lot to do with the downfall of Usenet.

Each Usenet server admin decides what groups their server will carry. Those that
didn't want the liability or disk space didn't need to take binary groups. More
years ago than I care to recall, I used to be a Usenet admin and was even
responsible for taking several groups through the approval process for the top
seven mainstream hierarchy.

Usenet's primary cause of death was also it's greatest strength - general
anonymity. It didn't take very many people to create what were legendary
flamefests and kill message wars. Some those can still be found in groups like
alt.home.repair, but really just a shadow of what they used to be like.

Certain Usenet groups were created with moderation/moderators, but it wasn't
overly difficult to get around that. Eventually those that had the most to offer
moved away to web based forums that could be much easier to manage.

Admins and ISPs that hosted Usenet servers either outsourced them, or just
turned them off.

I have to go now. The nice nurse has just brought my medication.

--
Usenet: The world's first (and best) social network.

[wib...@bibble.com.invalid]

On Mon, 12 Jul 2021 21:48:17 -0500, Arthur Conan Doyle
<do...@bother.com> wrote:

<snip>

>
>Admins and ISPs that hosted Usenet servers either outsourced them, or just
>turned them off.
>

Virginmedia in the UK turned off their usenet service on June 30th
this year. I'm surprised it lasted that long as part of their
standard deal as an ISP.

[Opinicus]

On Tue, 13 Jul 2021 06:47:19 +0100, Charlie+ <cha...@xxx.net> wrote:

> how these encrypted binaries systems work?
> I tried to find out if they would be useful when I saw some of those
> index files posted but I searched and couldnt find out, probably because
> I did'nt know any key words and really what to look for!
You need to find an nzb ndexing service. I use:
www.nzbplanet.net
A lifetime subscription is cheap and well worth it to me for programs
that aren't broadcast where I live. I just checked and while they have
audiobooks they don't seem to make them a specific indexing category.

I used to use:
https://nzbgeek.info
But I gave up on them when they stopped even trying to corral Anime
and keep it from drowing out everything else. They do index on Books
and Audiobooks however.

There are many other nzb indexers of course. A Google search should
turn them up.

HTH

--
Bob
Sidera errantia quibus procella tenebrarum in aeternum servata est

[Arthur Conan Doyle]

Charlie+ <cha...@xxx.net> wrote:

>You might know then, how these encrypted binaries systems work?

>I tried to find out if they would be useful when I saw some of those
>index files posted but I searched and couldnt find out, probably because
>I did'nt know any key words and really what to look for!

>Sometimes we look for audiobooks by NZB, most of the audiobook files
>were posted over 10 years ago and are still available, but modern posts
>seem to be encryped hence my query! C+

Not sure I can help. I stopped downloading binaries from Usenet some time ago. I
did try one of the NZB index services recently and was able to download a few
files, but it isn't something I do regularly.

You may find this article helpful:
https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/what-are-the-best-free-nzb-search-engines-for-usenet/

NB: Most binary files I've seen aren't encrypted. They just look that way as
they are converted from binary to ascii, then split into multipart messages. And
just to be more confusing, the files are usually PAR encoded. This means you
don't have to have 100% of the file parts as missing parts can be reconstructed
with a program like QuickPAR.

[Puffer Belly]

I use many free NZB index services: Binsearch, Usenet Crawler,
NZBFinder, NZBIndex, and nzbHunter. Many have just 3 years of retention
history, except Usenet Crawler and NZBFinder have 8+ years of retention
history. You can search all of your favorite NZB index services
simultaneously with NZBHydra 2, which takes some time to configure but
it's worth it.

[no...@given.com]

On Tue, 13 Jul 2021 06:44:16 -0500, Me...@invalid.com wrote:

>Usenet is not dying - it 's already dead.

It's a communication and distribution method.

Communication and distriburion methods... change.

The reason new people don't adopt this one nowadays is because

(a) most people have never heard of it. Like they've also never heard
of Telex and in future/already will never have heard of modems.

(b) there's now easier ways of communication and distribution that are
good enough for what they want/need

People now don't generally adopt horse and cart transport either for
their daily needs.

[pyotr filipivich]

no...@given.com on Wed, 14 Jul 2021 12:39:34 +0200 typed in
alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent the following:

People think of Facebook as "the interweb" and it has become their
sole mode of "communication".
--
pyotr filipivich
This Week's Panel: Us & Them - Eliminating Them.
Next Month's Panel: Having eliminated the old Them(tm)
Selecting who insufficiently Woke(tm) as to serve as the new Them(tm)

[Arthur Conan Doyle]

pyotr filipivich <ph...@mindspring.com> wrote:

> People think of Facebook as "the interweb" and it has become their
>sole mode of "communication".

As they used to consider AOL and CompuServ and on and on....

[no...@given.com]

On Wed, 14 Jul 2021 06:53:38 -0700, pyotr filipivich
<ph...@mindspring.com> wrote:

> People think of Facebook as "the interweb" and it has become their
>sole mode of "communication".

Most people are stupid.

But then, most people have always been stupid. Many of the economies
of the world depend on that factor.

[s|b]

On Tue, 13 Jul 2021 06:44:16 -0500, Me...@invalid.com wrote:

> Usenet is not dying - it 's already dead.

And what are we, zombies?

--
s|b

[Borke...@13of9.com]

Perhaps not but if you look at the floods of garbage that are being posted it
seems we are surrounded by them. :)

[no...@given.com]

On Wed, 21 Jul 2021 17:28:35 -0500, r...@gpost.com wrote:

>Usenet groups - the ones still active, are filled with "regulars" like
>yourself and their buddies who post the same drivel day after day,
>whether pertinent or not to the group. In each surviving group it is
>the same small group of denizens and their buddies day after day.
>
>Usenet IS dead, inhabited by the same few zombies like yourself day
>after day.

Usenet was adopted as a mode of communication at the time because back
then, it was the only thing around for doing that job.

And like is always the case when people are pioneering something new,
it was relatively difficult, needing both unusual hardware,
communications and expertise.

Since then -- half a century ago, remember -- other ways of doing the
same thing have come along.

In many cases, a lot easier, and needing no uncommon hardware,
communications, or indeed expertise.

People and life naturally gravitate towards easier ways of doing hard
things. It's often called "progress".

So, the question isn't really about why new people aren't deliberately
choosing older and harder ways of doing the same things that they can
do more easily with more modern methods. It's really, why should
they? Who learns today how to start a hand-crank automobile? Who
needs to?

All technology is only a temporary solution until something better is
invented.

Of course, what is "better" is another argument entirely.

[s|b]

On Wed, 21 Jul 2021 17:28:35 -0500, r...@gpost.com wrote:

> Usenet IS dead, inhabited by the same few zombies like yourself day
> after day.

Well, not daily. Not anymore...

--
s|b

[Anonymous Remailer (austria)]

In article <l8ldeglmha4cm7unv...@4ax.com>

With great sadness I must say that this is the case. I will not be
surprised to see the USENET providers shut down in the next few
years, and that will pretty much end it. Almost all of us will no
longer have access to USENET then.

Even now there are very few people new to USENET showing up. It
will be but a memory, and we will all be but a memory, in the near
future.