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The way I remember "Eternal September" was giving UNIX shell accounts to incoming university students. The problem is when students graduate; no more shell acc

The way I remember "Eternal September" was giving UNIX shell accounts to incoming university students. The problem is when students graduate; no more shell account. Then what?

kruhft 11y ago
The "Eternal September" was when AOL got access to Usenet; a regular September was when the students got their shell accounts. The point of the "Eternal" was that the inrush of noobs never went away once AOL was attached.
- loginusername 11y ago
  Ah. I always thought it was a reference to "ISP's" and the general public getting access to Usenet. Thanks for the clarification.
  - lmm 11y ago
    It was; AOL in particular, but other ISPs as well. September was always a rough time on Usenet as all the noobs arrived; some old folks took the month off (or at least claimed to), coming back in October when they'd calmed down a bit. Once the public ISPs arrived it became like September the whole year round.
bitwize 11y ago
That's the September bit. Frosh would come in, get shell accounts, discover USENET and drive the regulars nuts. Then after a few months they'd acclimate themselves or get bored and USENET would settle into normal, only to repeat the cycle next September. When AOL flipped the switch enabling USENET newsgroups in the fall of 1993 it was an "eternal September" because AOL had an endless continual stream of chuckleheads getting online foe the first time and not acclimating to existing net culture because they think the network is there to serve THEM.
- angrow 11y ago
  > because they think the network is there to serve THEM. I can't tell if you mean to imply that it's there to be served by them, or that it is there to serve "regulars".
  - bitwize 11y ago
    I'd say it's there to facilitate communication, but as in all forms of communication, there are norms of etiquette to be observed.
  - Goronmon 11y ago
    I can't tell if you mean to imply that it's there to be served by them, or that it is there to serve "regulars". I think he meant that USENET works best as a collaboration between users, whereas the users being complained about see it closer to visiting a restaurant where the other users are the waiters and they are the customer.

The way I remember "Eternal September" was giving UNIX shell accounts to incoming university students. The problem is when students graduate; no more shell account. Then what?

kruhft 11y ago

The "Eternal September" was when AOL got access to Usenet; a regular September was when the students got their shell accounts. The point of the "Eternal" was that the inrush of noobs never went away once AOL was attached.

loginusername 11y ago
Ah. I always thought it was a reference to "ISP's" and the general public getting access to Usenet. Thanks for the clarification.
- lmm 11y ago
  It was; AOL in particular, but other ISPs as well. September was always a rough time on Usenet as all the noobs arrived; some old folks took the month off (or at least claimed to), coming back in October when they'd calmed down a bit. Once the public ISPs arrived it became like September the whole year round.

bitwize 11y ago

That's the September bit. Frosh would come in, get shell accounts, discover USENET and drive the regulars nuts. Then after a few months they'd acclimate themselves or get bored and USENET would settle into normal, only to repeat the cycle next September. When AOL flipped the switch enabling USENET newsgroups in the fall of 1993 it was an "eternal September" because AOL had an endless continual stream of chuckleheads getting online foe the first time and not acclimating to existing net culture because they think the network is there to serve THEM.

angrow 11y ago
> because they think the network is there to serve THEM. I can't tell if you mean to imply that it's there to be served by them, or that it is there to serve "regulars".
- bitwize 11y ago
  I'd say it's there to facilitate communication, but as in all forms of communication, there are norms of etiquette to be observed.
- Goronmon 11y ago
  I can't tell if you mean to imply that it's there to be served by them, or that it is there to serve "regulars". I think he meant that USENET works best as a collaboration between users, whereas the users being complained about see it closer to visiting a restaurant where the other users are the waiters and they are the customer.