So I went onto Usenet in 2021, hoping to find some conversation.
Nothing. Just spam and some dodgy groups I stayed *far* away from...
The groups are there, but no activity, it's still dead! Your best shot
are echomail networks like FidoNet (which is still up but also pretty
quiet) that have been setup by hobbyists in the 21st Century, similar,
but much better conversation.
- Joe. H
El 27-03-2021 a las 13:55, Joe (~rebello) Harley escribi├│:
So I went onto Usenet in 2021, hoping to find some conversation.
Nothing. Just spam and some dodgy groups I stayed *far* away from...
The groups are there, but no activity, it's still dead! Your best shot
are echomail networks like FidoNet (which is still up but also pretty
quiet) that have been setup by hobbyists in the 21st Century, similar,
but much better conversation.
- Joe. H
I've had the same experience to be fair. The only places with some legit activity are certain development projects.
ffuentes:
El 27-03-2021 a las 13:55, Joe (~rebello) Harley escribió:
So I went onto Usenet in 2021, hoping to find some conversation.
Nothing. Just spam and some dodgy groups I stayed *far* away from...
The groups are there, but no activity, it's still dead! Your best shot
are echomail networks like FidoNet (which is still up but also pretty
quiet) that have been setup by hobbyists in the 21st Century, similar,
but much better conversation.
- Joe. H
I've had the same experience to be fair. The only places with some legit
activity are certain development projects.
There are still some active newsgroups, namely: alt.anonymous,
alt.os.linux, comp.misc and misc.news.internet.discuss. Also adding
Google Groups to your killfile will hide most of the spam[1].
Those newsgroups I listed are not the only active ones, they are just
the ones I subscribe to.
[1] http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/
There are still some active newsgroups, namely: alt.anonymous,
alt.os.linux, comp.misc and misc.news.internet.discuss.
So I went onto Usenet in 2021, hoping to find some conversation.
Nothing. Just spam and some dodgy groups I stayed *far* away from...
The groups are there, but no activity, it's still dead! Your best shot
I'm not even 100% clear if it's still possible to create new newsgroups. I know there was a proposal last year to make a COVID-19 newsgroup, and the Usenet cabal were adamantly against it. It seems to me there's an
opportunity to capitalize on big fanbases by making, like, alt.games.genshin-impact, and offering that as an alternative to the hell that is, e.g. Reddit, but if that's not possible it's mostly a moot point.
alt.bitcoins is an example of a seeminging good modern topic, but
couldn't draw in the crowds.
In theory you're supposed to be able to point to significant
existing discussion in order to justify creating a new group
(except in free.*), which basically assumes that everyone who'se
interested in discussing that topic is already on Usenet. Of
course that theory is only really in practice in the big-8, but
Adam H. Kerman will post a grumpy response to you if you ignore
it in alt.config (then someone running a news server might create
For a video game, the "right" way to do it would probably be to
find a general gaming group and start discussing your particular
game of interest there, and if that game dominated the discussion
for a long time, you'd have grounds to propose a dedicated group.
The Free Thinker <freet@aussies.space> wrote:
alt.bitcoins is an example of a seeminging good modern topic, but
couldn't draw in the crowds.
That kind of surprises me. I don't have the time right now but I wonder if any other crypto-related newsgroups were ever proposed?
For a video game, the "right" way to do it would probably be to
find a general gaming group and start discussing your particular
game of interest there, and if that game dominated the discussion
for a long time, you'd have grounds to propose a dedicated group.
I don't really game much but my roommate does, so I'm sort of vaguely aware of popular games (like Genshin Impact) and trends and everything. I'm slightly saddened but not surprised that the gaming newsgroups haven't
really kept up with the times. I can't find a mobile-gaming group, or seemingly anything genre-specific for stuff that's become popular in the
last 20-ish years. (MOBAs, CCGs, gacha games...) If I wanted to discuss this stuff, I wouldn't even know where to go.
Like, if I wanted to discuss Runescape (original or Old School, PC or
mobile) *in English* on Usenet I genuinely have no idea where to do so. comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg? It seems like it's that or rec.games.misc...
I think
posting in more general groups actually gives you better chances of
finding someone to talk to
lkosov <lkosov@tilde.town> wrote:
I'm not even 100% clear if it's still possible to create new newsgroups. I
Well technically yes, I just did a check for new groups (started tin
without the "-Q" option that makes to start-up time reasonable on
my slow internet connection + Pentium 1 PC) and discovered:
free.snipe Release the wading bird.
free.rocks Gordon and friends.
I'm playing with UUCP...
I currently trigger 'uupoll peername' or 'uusched' manually for not automating too much too early. That Feels like my frequent FidoNet
polls in the early 90s. \o/
From that to an own newsserver is a loooong way, but maybe someday...
"Joe (~rebello) Harley" <rebello@tilde.club> wrote:
So I went onto Usenet in 2021, hoping to find some conversation.
Nothing. Just spam and some dodgy groups I stayed *far* away from...
The groups are there, but no activity, it's still dead! Your best shot
There *are* people out there, the groups just aren't hugely active. comp.infosys.gopher, or whatever the name is, has a fair few readers;
there's just not a lot to talk about regarding Gopher these days. The same's probably true of most other topical groups.
The second (third?) time the Tildeverse's NNTP network lost all its old posts, I half-seriously suggested occupying some old, long-forgotten newsgroup or newsgroups, like alt.snert, or alt.fan.team-rocket, or something. Seems easier to, as it were, bring people to Usenet, than bring Usenet to people.
I'm not even 100% clear if it's still possible to create new newsgroups. I know there was a proposal last year to make a COVID-19 newsgroup, and the Usenet cabal were adamantly against it. It seems to me there's an
opportunity to capitalize on big fanbases by making, like, alt.games.genshin-impact, and offering that as an alternative to the hell that is, e.g. Reddit, but if that's not possible it's mostly a moot point.
Know of any free news servers that offer access to text groups?
I like downloading files just as much as anyone, but usenet wasn't
designed for that.
I'm not even 100% clear if it's still possible to create new newsgroups. I know there was a proposal last year to make a COVID-19 newsgroup, and the Usenet cabal were adamantly against it.
Maybe usenet itself is dead, and maybe that is OK.
There can be multiple news networks. They don't all have to be usenet.
lkosov <lkosov@tilde.town> wrote:
"Joe (~rebello) Harley" <rebello@tilde.club> wrote:
So I went onto Usenet in 2021, hoping to find some conversation.
Nothing. Just spam and some dodgy groups I stayed *far* away from...
The groups are there, but no activity, it's still dead! Your best shot
There *are* people out there, the groups just aren't hugely active.
comp.infosys.gopher, or whatever the name is, has a fair few readers;
there's just not a lot to talk about regarding Gopher these days. The same's >> probably true of most other topical groups.
Know of any free news servers that offer access to text groups?
I like downloading files just as much as anyone, but usenet wasn't
designed for that. The emphasis on keeping articles around for years
coupled with the emphasis on being a bloated file trading network really ruined things like leafnode. (and my news reader..)
Looking at reddit, I could see how one could actually design a news
reader (like Lucy) to poll another group that was specifically designed
to post "like/dislike" in the subject header:
alt.bozo.flags
Subject: [like <message_id>] [dislike <message_id>]
With the body being perhaps a PGP signed message verifying you really
did post it. The news reader could, potentially use those messages to
score posts. You'd have an uncensored "like/dislike" system that could
be used to score posts. Of course, newsreaders would have to be modified
to use the like/dislike system, but you'd have what reddit has with a
much nicer interface.
Usenet clients for android phones would probably help. (Last I looked,
there aren't any, and I'm not an android developer) But I can see where
doing wrap on smaller phone screens would be a major challenge for
an app developer, and if usenet is just a glorified file trading service
I'm not sure usenet proper is such a great idea on a phone.
There lots of them actually, though some aren't well known. A few
links:
http://vivil.free.fr/nntpeng.htm (list of servers near the bottom) https://curlie.org/Computers/Usenet/Public_News_Servers http://www.open-news-network.org/node/5
Lesser-known servers that may not be so useful to you (but I
kind-of find more interesting, so am compelled to list): https://newsgroups.ausics.net/ (Australian IP addresses only) http://www.alt119.net/alt119/
http://home.snafu.de/hweede/pulin.htm (read-only servers, maybe
binary groups on some)
Aioe is most popular of those that don't require an account: http://news.aioe.org
I get the feeling that binary users and text users are pretty much
two separate groups of people on Usenet these days. Many like me
just use text-only servers and pretty much forget that the binary
groups exist.
Looking at reddit, I could see how one could actually design a news
reader (like Lucy) to poll another group that was specifically
designed to post "like/dislike" in the subject header:
alt.bozo.flags
Subject: [like <message_id>] [dislike <message_id>]
With the body being perhaps a PGP signed message verifying you really
did post it. The news reader could, potentially use those messages to
score posts. You'd have an uncensored "like/dislike" system that
could be used to score posts. Of course, newsreaders would have to be
modified to use the like/dislike system, but you'd have what reddit
has with a much nicer interface.
That's a neat approach, though having seen the concept of adding likes brought up in discussions on Usenet before, I know that many existing
Usenet users see that as an unwanted feature. Frankly I'm one of them
- I don't read Reddit or other like-based platforms regularly myself,
and even if the feature was optional I wouldn't want it skewing the
flow of discussion.
This no-doubt puts me down as the type of grump who prevents Usenet
from moving forwards in the opinion of some, but maybe I only like
Usenet because it's the last refuge for many such grumps.
There are ample existing examples of text unwrapping/rewrapping
routines, in open-source email/usenet clients for one, so I don't see
that as a challenge.
It's curious that people don't seem to have written a usable
newsreader for smart phones, yet they have apparantly written Gopher browsers. I'm a complete outsider to the smart phone universe, only
ever having borrowed one once to test my website. I wouldn't want to
type responses on one, but that's clearly not the issue for most
users, who use them for the same purpose on other platforms.
The Free Thinker <freet@aussies.space> wrote:
One thing that just killed my news reader were the thousands and even hundreds of thousands of messages. Usenet was built with spool
directories, but these days it's like a flipping archive.
It's curious that people don't seem to have written a usable
newsreader for smart phones, yet they have apparantly written Gopher
browsers. I'm a complete outsider to the smart phone universe, only
ever having borrowed one once to test my website. I wouldn't want to
type responses on one, but that's clearly not the issue for most
users, who use them for the same purpose on other platforms.
I find that puzzling as well. I assume it's a demand issue. How many
usenet users are there who actually use smart phones? How many smart
phone users are there that use usenet?
Google Groups is apparantly usable from smarphones, but most people
seem to be unable to do proper quoting, wrapping, and threading
when posting from it. Plus it's the main injection-point for spam,
so some people just block posts from it completely. If Groups was
the only service that Google offered you'd think they'd gone broke
- even the search function stopped working well!
There are still some active newsgroups, namely: alt.anonymous,
alt.os.linux, comp.misc and misc.news.internet.discuss. Also adding
Google Groups to your killfile will hide most of the spam[1].
Their customers aren't the google users, it's more like the google
users are the product they are offering /to/ their customers.
On 2021-03-28, 04dco <O4dco@tilde.institute> wrote:
alt.folklore.computers (this is GOLD if you like retrocomputing) comp.infosystems.gopher
comp.lang.c
comp.lang.lisp
rec.audio.pro
| Sysop: | deepend |
|---|---|
| Location: | Calgary, Alberta |
| Users: | 240 |
| Nodes: | 10 (0 / 10) |
| Uptime: | 117:30:37 |
| Calls: | 1,447 |
| Calls today: | 1 |
| Files: | 3,343 |
| Messages: | 358,414 |