On Tue, 6 Jun 2017, Avon Kerr wrote:
> Huge <Hu...@nowhere.much.invalid> wrote:
>
>> - Have embedded graphics for the "Ooh! Shiney!" generation.
>>
>> - Find some way to monetise it so ISPs will run servers "for free".
>>
>> The latter two would actually drive me away. Hopefully, Usenet will
>> revert to being what it was originally; a haven for a few geeks to talk
>> about geeky things. I suspect that in reality it will actually fade away,
>> like the BBS scene, as its users die of old age.
>>
>>
> I'm optimistic that Usenet and BBS will continue to roll along. It's a case
> of fewer folks involved today for sure but you might already find your
> desire to find online spaces here and in BBS land that already contain
> geeks taking geeky things ;-)
>
I keep using it.
But keep in mind, it's not just that Usenet has diminished compared to all
that goes on on the internet now, but useage has diminished by itself. If
traffic had remained more or less like twenty years ago, all would be
healthy. But I check the same newsgroups I did 20 years ago, and most of
the traffic is gone. Some newsgroups are relatively healthy, but not the
ones that matter most to me. SO it's no longer that people aren't coming
here, but a whole lot have left.
Even 20 years ago, Usenet was at least known by a large percentage of
users. They may not have come here, but it was still out there. Then ISPs
stopped running newsservers, and people started coming to the internet in
a different way, so they didn't funnel through old time books or their
local system administrator. ANd they came for other reasons. Now they
even have a "usenet like" experience with that reddit stuff.
Michael