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View Full Version : Usenet is officially dead ...



samalex
May 19th, 2010, 02:27 PM
I just read Duke University, which is where Usenet started, has shut down their Usenet servers (http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2010/05/usenet.html) after over 30 years of operation, and Microsoft is doing (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/05/ms_kills_groups/) the same (http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/default.mspx).

I've been an avid fan of Usenet for years, and I love the NNTP protocol and really wish more forums supported it so users could use a common NNTP reader to access all their forums.

What do you guys think killed Usenet? Personally I think allowing binaries was the biggest factor because there's LOTS of nasty stuff floating around Usenet. Also Spam is another factor.

I think instead of shutting down Usenet it needs to be reinvented or at least rebooted with a clean slate. Many of the Usenet groups are monitored and maintained to keep the content clean, and if more forums were moved to Usenet (or an equivalent NNTP service) and maintained it would eliminate much of the blahness on the current Usenet network. I can't help but think back to the BBS echos and how each leg of the network was responsible for those who posted to it, and if you had a turd it wasn't hard to track down which server they posted from.

Anyway, I hate seeing Usenet fade away into the history books like Gopher, WAIS, and so many other protocols of days past, but I honestly can see why many to most are dropping it given the state of Usenet today.

Sam

dragos240
May 19th, 2010, 02:31 PM
Social networking killed usenet. I hate social networking sites such as myspace and facebook. They will be the cause of the demise of the human race.

RiceMonster
May 19th, 2010, 02:32 PM
They will be the cause of the demise of the human race.

I think that's going a bit far.

dragos240
May 19th, 2010, 02:36 PM
I think that's going a bit far.

Think about it, more and more people are using social networking websites everyday. If they all shut down permanently in about 20 years, the world as we know it will struggle to stay afloat, we are too dependent on it. I believe that a shutdown of social networking sites will also cause a higher suicide rate than that of today.

John Bean
May 19th, 2010, 02:38 PM
I think that's going a bit far.

I don't.

RiceMonster
May 19th, 2010, 02:40 PM
Think about it, more and more people are using social networking websites everyday. If they all shut down permanently in about 20 years, the world as we know it will struggle to stay afloat, we are too dependent on it. I believe that a shutdown of social networking sites will also cause a higher suicide rate than that of today.

That's an overexaduration. The world isn't economically dependant upon social networking at all. People at facebook would be out of a job, but the world would go on. Anyone who would end their own life because Facebook was shut down obviously has deeper issues than being dependant on Facebook.

Grenage
May 19th, 2010, 02:42 PM
I believe that a shutdown of social networking sites will also cause a higher suicide rate than that of today.

I think that if people were on computers less, the suicide rate would show a decline! Some people might have to go outside, socialise and meet actual people. Hell, they might end up more rounded.

As for social networking sites closing down, it wouldn't have much impact, not really; people might go out more, spend more, create jobs.

dragos240
May 19th, 2010, 02:43 PM
The wold is not economically dependent on social networking sites, but the people are. In about 20 years time, social networking sites will cause more and more dependencies to itself. Some people have problems, the internet is a way out sometimes. It's scary really.

dragos240
May 19th, 2010, 02:44 PM
I think that if people were on computers less, the suicide rate would show a decline! Some people might have to go outside, socialise and meet actual people. Hell, they might end up more rounded.

As for social networking sites closing down, it wouldn't have much impact, not really; people might go out more, spend more, create jobs.

Long term, yes. Short term no. Eventually we'll get used to not having facebook and such, but not instantly.

MooPi
May 19th, 2010, 02:45 PM
Think about it, more and more people are using social networking websites everyday. If they all shut down permanently in about 20 years, the world as we know it will struggle to stay afloat, we are too dependent on it. I believe that a shutdown of social networking sites will also cause a higher suicide rate than that of today.
And yet you are participating on a social forum now.Hmm.

RiceMonster
May 19th, 2010, 02:47 PM
The wold is not economically dependent on social networking sites, but the people are. In about 20 years time, social networking sites will cause more and more dependencies to itself. Some people have problems, the internet is a way out sometimes. It's scary really.

How do you know social networking won't be replaced by something else within 20 years? For all we know, it could just be a fad.

If wars, attempted genocides and incurable diseases haven't caused the human race to fall, social networking certainly won't. People have been able to live and adapt after losing things far more meaningful.

Simian Man
May 19th, 2010, 02:51 PM
The wold is not economically dependent on social networking sites, but the people are. In about 20 years time, social networking sites will cause more and more dependencies to itself. Some people have problems, the internet is a way out sometimes. It's scary really.

People like that (escapists) will find a way to avoid reality whether or not they have social networking sites. People have been doing it for thousands of years, it's nothing new. And if the sites are so important, why would they suddenly disappear?

Grenage
May 19th, 2010, 02:52 PM
Long term, yes. Short term no. Eventually we'll get used to not having facebook and such, but not instantly.

I really think you're overstating the impact of Facebook and it's ilk. It's a website where people post pictures and add the odd status; admittedly some people change their status every 5 minutes.

If the internet exploded, we'd be inconvenienced - but not social networking.

pwnst*r
May 19th, 2010, 02:55 PM
Think about it, more and more people are using social networking websites everyday. If they all shut down permanently in about 20 years, the world as we know it will struggle to stay afloat, we are too dependent on it. I believe that a shutdown of social networking sites will also cause a higher suicide rate than that of today.

Wow.

jascayne
May 19th, 2010, 02:55 PM
I have to agree with Dragos on this one... People are far to reliant on social networking to be able to function without it anymore. Take away someone's facebook for a week and watch them try and check it on every other computer they can get near the whole time. As soon as they get it back again after that week, the first thing they will do is not check their email, rather check their facebook instead.

Blutkoete
May 19th, 2010, 03:12 PM
Most people I know don't rely on social networking.

It's like with mobile phones. When there were no mobile phones and someone didn't show up at the bus stop she was intended to show up, we waited for the next bus (maybe he missed the last one). Did mobile phones kill? No, they changed it. Today people say "We'll go to the pub and she'll call and ask where we are".

Things aren't dying. They are changing. Like always.

Paqman
May 19th, 2010, 03:15 PM
And yet you are participating on a social forum now.Hmm.

Quite. Different interface, same idea. In the old days it was newsgroups and BBSes, then it was forums like this, now it's social networking sites. Things change.

samalex
May 19th, 2010, 04:20 PM
Quite. Different interface, same idea. In the old days it was newsgroups and BBSes, then it was forums like this, now it's social networking sites. Things change.

I agree. People will electronically congregate using the simplest forum they can, and over time that has changed. Remember the days of AOL when they still charged by the hour and people racked up hundreds and thousands of $$$ worth of online charges? This was before there was much online, and these folks were generally using the social aspects of AOL which is why AIM and other chat clients are still pretty popular. People like that instant gratification of posting something and having people read it, and Facebook is the simplest way in today's Internet to do that.

I think the problem though is people are getting WAY too used to instant gratification. Going back to BBSes it used to be days or weeks before some messages would bounce around Fidonet to get replies, and heck even at 300-2400 bps you had a pretty long electronic commute just to get to where you wanted anyway. Anymore today everyone wants it fast and now, whether that be music, television shows, content, whatever. I for one like that anticipation of waiting for next week's episode or the year between albums for the bands I like. Also when's the last time you saw someone under 35 write a letter or postcard (me included)? And remember penpals? Do they even exist anymore?

At any rate, I would equate IRC to being more social networking than Usenet. Heck I thought IRC was dead for a while until Freenode really came back and brought it back to life for me. If some organization were to setup an NNTP server to replace Usenet with the management mentality similar to what Freenode has done to IRC, I think it would take off. I like Freenode because there is some oversight and management.

Sam

forrestcupp
May 19th, 2010, 05:47 PM
Social networking killed usenet. I hate social networking sites such as myspace and facebook. They will be the cause of the demise of the human race.

No, social networking will just weaken us. Nanorobots will be the cause of the demise of the human race. ;)

oldos2er
May 19th, 2010, 05:49 PM
What do you guys think killed Usenet?

Usenet's working fine for me.

rg4w
May 19th, 2010, 06:08 PM
I thought Usenet died in the late '90s with the one-two punch of the invention of spam and the Hipcrime bot. Those two made most of Usenet unusable within months after they premiered.

I've enjoyed Usenet for many years, but won't shed a tear over its passing. NNTP is a bandwidth-heavy and storage-heavy protocol, with too many inherent redundancies and a nearly complete lack of security to survive long in our modern world.

The sorts of exchanges we used to enjoy with Usenet have organically migrated to web-based forums like this one, where one can find a discussion group for any topic under the sun.

I sometimes miss the one-stop-shopping of Usenet, but I don't miss the spam.

RIP Usenet. You lived a good life, and now we pass the torch to your offspring on the web.

northwestuntu
May 19th, 2010, 06:08 PM
Usenet's working fine for me.

me 2
:popcorn:

chriswyatt
May 19th, 2010, 07:19 PM
I thought Usenet died when Google bought Deja News? :P

whiskeylover
May 19th, 2010, 07:36 PM
For people who say they hate social networking websites - What are you doing on Ubuntu Forums > Community Cafe?

Atleast with social networking websites you talk to people you know, instead of talking to total strangers on UFCC.

Johnsie
May 19th, 2010, 07:55 PM
Atleast with social networking websites you talk to people you know, instead of talking to total strangers on UFCC.


That's one of the problems... At least on places like this there is a sense of anonymity. On places like facebook you're revealing far to much,

I dont think the sky would fall in if social networking stopped. We did fine without it for thousands of years. Most of the information visible is useless rubbish anyway. It's just a load ofpictures of peoples cats, drunk girls holding a glass of drink trying to look the they have a social life and people posting meaningless status updates.

ericmc783
May 20th, 2010, 12:31 AM
Social networking killed usenet. I hate social networking sites such as myspace and facebook. They will be the cause of the demise of the human race.

Disagree. I think its internet forums, just like this one, that killed usenet.

Why go on old fashioned usenet and discuss things there, when just about every topic imaginable has at least one site, with a devoted forum, on the WWW?

lostinxlation
May 20th, 2010, 12:35 AM
Social networking killed usenet. I hate social networking sites such as myspace and facebook. They will be the cause of the demise of the human race.
This forum you're posting in is pretty much the same as usenet. If alt.comp.ubuntu exists, it would look like this place, so what's your point ?

I was on Usenet back in the early 90s and it was a great place to hang out. Much less flame wars and trolls.
Most of the internet boards today have exactly the same concept as usenet, so i don't think there was any conceptual reason why usenet faded away(oh yah, binary couldn't be posted without encoding to ASCII, but I'd guess in the early days of the browsers, not many people exchanged the binary through the internet board, so I'd say that's irrelevant).
I guess usenet lost the popularity when they missed a graphical interface boat sailing away. Usenet was originally on text base and people used terminals such as Xterm, Emacs, DOS screen to read/post on the usenet. Then, Mosaic came out, and then Netscape...that's the start of visualization of Internet and at the same time, primitive looks from usenet made the peolpe feel obsolete.. To some people, looks aren't important, but for many people, it is(see how often you find the thread about the desktop look on this forum).

murderslastcrow
May 20th, 2010, 01:16 AM
We can make a new Usenet that's even better. Psh.

Also, about the social networking sites shutting down suddenly debate- Diaspora.