Conversation

[hchi...@hotmail.com]

Now that this newsgroup has been dead for a while, where do you go for a real
nonholds barred conversation or exploration of topics where there is some
intelligence?

facebook has got to be one of the crappiest excuses for social media I can
imagine, and I'm learning how it forces people to comment to get feeds from
people they are interested in. Can you imagine that in the 1940s?
Einstein: I think that it aren't just three dimensions and time, but a
space-time continuum where time is only relvent to the observer.
Follower: But where are the pictures of kitty kats????
Shrodinger: Cats? You want CATS? I'll show you cats! (or not)
Hitler: I have you now! Here is my video of the superior cats in Germany.
Sally Rand: Why do I keep getting censored?
Quaker Oats: Here is a wonderful breakfast. Buy our fucking oats.

Twitter -
Donald Trump is on twitter. Need I say more????

Where did this universe take the side track to stupidland???

[Beaver...@live.com]

No place.

The internet was ruined once some intelligence was no longer required for participation.

[The Real Bev]

On 12/10/2016 05:34 PM, hchi...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Now that this newsgroup has been dead for a while, where do you go for a real
> nonholds barred conversation or exploration of topics where there is some
> intelligence?

I've tried to make facebook as close to usenet as I can, but with
minimal success. I see posts only from friends and friends of friends
(you never can tell, and I've "met" some good people who are friends of
friends), and the friends are pretty much usenet people and actual RL
friends/relatives. Still, it's difficult or impossible to carry on an
actual conversation because you are frequently unable to get back to
posts once you've left them.

> facebook has got to be one of the crappiest excuses for social media I can
> imagine, and I'm learning how it forces people to comment to get feeds from
> people they are interested in. Can you imagine that in the 1940s?
> Einstein: I think that it aren't just three dimensions and time, but a
> space-time continuum where time is only relvent to the observer.
> Follower: But where are the pictures of kitty kats????
> Shrodinger: Cats? You want CATS? I'll show you cats! (or not)
> Hitler: I have you now! Here is my video of the superior cats in Germany.
> Sally Rand: Why do I keep getting censored?
> Quaker Oats: Here is a wonderful breakfast. Buy our fucking oats.
>
> Twitter -
> Donald Trump is on twitter. Need I say more????

So are Obama and Hillary. I guess. I haven't sunk that low yet.

> Where did this universe take the side track to stupidland???

It's probably our fault for spawning children whose children tweet.

--
Cheers, Bev
An organizer for the "Million Agoraphobics March" expressed
disappointment in the turnout for last weekend's event.

[root]

hchi...@hotmail.com <hchi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Now that this newsgroup has been dead for a while, where do you go for a real
> nonholds barred conversation or exploration of topics where there is some
> intelligence?
>
> facebook has got to be one of the crappiest excuses for social media I can
> imagine, and I'm learning how it forces people to comment to get feeds from
> people they are interested in. Can you imagine that in the 1940s?
> Einstein: I think that it aren't just three dimensions and time, but a
> space-time continuum where time is only relvent to the observer.
> Follower: But where are the pictures of kitty kats????
> Shrodinger: Cats? You want CATS? I'll show you cats! (or not)
> Hitler: I have you now! Here is my video of the superior cats in Germany.
> Sally Rand: Why do I keep getting censored?
> Quaker Oats: Here is a wonderful breakfast. Buy our fucking oats.

Didn't Facebook define "social media"?

I have no experience with FB so your preceding paragraph confuses
me Harry. It seems to me what you describe is exactly what
usenet is/was. Someone posts something and, thereafter, anyone
can toss in a comment.

TRB uses Facebook, and from what I understand you create an account
and form a network of "friends". Your posts are sent to your
friends, and their posts are sent to you. From this description
it seems that someone like Rod Speed would be shut out of
such a network. How would you ever see Hitler if you hadn't
friended him?

sci.astro.research is an example of a usenet news group with
intelligence. The intelligence is filtered by the moderator
who is a hero in my mind.

[root]

root <NoE...@home.org> wrote:
> hchi...@hotmail.com <hchi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Now that this newsgroup has been dead for a while, where do you go for a real
>> nonholds barred conversation or exploration of topics where there is some
>> intelligence?

After posting my response, I googled for "internet discussion sites"
and found, among others, a Wikipedia description of "internet forums",
which seems exactly what you want Harry. Check out mathoverflow.net
for an example. Note the discrepancy between the number of views
and the number of responses to any given thread.

[Michael Black]

On Sun, 11 Dec 2016, root wrote:

> hchi...@hotmail.com <hchi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Now that this newsgroup has been dead for a while, where do you go for a real
>> nonholds barred conversation or exploration of topics where there is some
>> intelligence?
>>
>> facebook has got to be one of the crappiest excuses for social media I can
>> imagine, and I'm learning how it forces people to comment to get feeds from
>> people they are interested in. Can you imagine that in the 1940s?
>> Einstein: I think that it aren't just three dimensions and time, but a
>> space-time continuum where time is only relvent to the observer.
>> Follower: But where are the pictures of kitty kats????
>> Shrodinger: Cats? You want CATS? I'll show you cats! (or not)
>> Hitler: I have you now! Here is my video of the superior cats in Germany.
>> Sally Rand: Why do I keep getting censored?
>> Quaker Oats: Here is a wonderful breakfast. Buy our fucking oats.
>
>
> Didn't Facebook define "social media"?
>

Perhaps. It's possible they literaly did (and actually literally not
figurative), the term suddenly got high travel around that time, though
perhaps it was myspace. Someone suddenly started using the term, so it
might be facebook.

But, I was trying to get local groups to use the local newsgroup back in
1996 and 97, figuring a cluster was better than standing at their own
websites. And someone complained "it's too technical" and I either
thought or said "no, it's social".

So usenet was always "social media" whether it got the term or not.

Michael

[Beaver...@live.com]

MySpace was better