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> Apparently normal people couldn't use usenet. There are many posts here of people who used usenet and IRC years ago who didn't necessarily have technical bac

by u801e 8y ago

> Apparently normal people couldn't use usenet. There are many posts here of people who used usenet and IRC years ago who didn't necessarily have technical backgrounds, yet now people state that services like usenet and IRC are too technical and most people aren't capable of making use of them. What happened?

dragonwriter 8y ago
People use “couldn’t” where “would prefer not to if a less-technical option is available, even if some peripheral features are lost with that option” is more accurate is what is happening. Non-technical people can and will use IRC or usenet when that's all there is, but they aren't willing to pay the cognitive price for the extra power those offer over simpler web tools when the latter is available.
- kazinator 8y ago
  > even if some peripheral features , including (or perhaps especially) privacy, freedom, and control over one's personal information, ...
kazinator 8y ago
What happened is that people are in fact getting less technically able. The predominant tech-related skill now consists of dabbing at a screen in order to consume goods and entertainment or seek validation, as dictated by Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook ... Nobody has figured out a way to monetize IRC (to use it to steal personal information or serve ads), so no effort has gone into wrapping it up into this kind of easy-to-consume product.
tomjen3 8y ago
>What happened? In this specific case? Only the nerds used it, and most people didn't even know it existed. We could have educated them about it, but making a forum and sending out an email was easier.
- kazinator 8y ago
  No understanding of what happened with Usenet is complete without the important aspect of how it came to be used for sharing massive amounts of binaries, most of them copyright infringing.
  - u801e 8y ago
    Even so, it wasn't until a lot of major ISPs got rid of their usenet servers that it was more of an effort to access. Verizon had theirs up to about 2008 or so, yet binaries were commonplace well before that.
- u801e 8y ago
  > Only the nerds used it That's not true. Many people who didn't have a technical background were posting on usenet and were in and out of various IRC channels.

by u801e 8y ago

dragonwriter 8y ago

People use “couldn’t” where “would prefer not to if a less-technical option is available, even if some peripheral features are lost with that option” is more accurate is what is happening. Non-technical people can and will use IRC or usenet when that's all there is, but they aren't willing to pay the cognitive price for the extra power those offer over simpler web tools when the latter is available.

kazinator 8y ago
> even if some peripheral features , including (or perhaps especially) privacy, freedom, and control over one's personal information, ...

kazinator 8y ago

What happened is that people are in fact getting less technically able. The predominant tech-related skill now consists of dabbing at a screen in order to consume goods and entertainment or seek validation, as dictated by Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook ... Nobody has figured out a way to monetize IRC (to use it to steal personal information or serve ads), so no effort has gone into wrapping it up into this kind of easy-to-consume product.

tomjen3 8y ago

>What happened? In this specific case? Only the nerds used it, and most people didn't even know it existed. We could have educated them about it, but making a forum and sending out an email was easier.

kazinator 8y ago
No understanding of what happened with Usenet is complete without the important aspect of how it came to be used for sharing massive amounts of binaries, most of them copyright infringing.
- u801e 8y ago
  Even so, it wasn't until a lot of major ISPs got rid of their usenet servers that it was more of an effort to access. Verizon had theirs up to about 2008 or so, yet binaries were commonplace well before that.
u801e 8y ago
> Only the nerds used it That's not true. Many people who didn't have a technical background were posting on usenet and were in and out of various IRC channels.