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Interesting post, but consider its header... From: "Tony Ingenoso" <aingenosoNOS...@prodigy.net> Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: IB

Interesting post, but consider its header... From: "Tony Ingenoso" <aingenosoNOS...@prodigy.net> Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: IBM MIcrochannel?? X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4807.1700 Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 14:43:13 GMT I sadly wonder if anyone will be linking to any Hacker News comments 10 or 20 or even 30 years from now. For all its strengths and flaws, there is a historical archival quality about Usenet that is quite compelling.

robryan 16y ago
There are things like search.yc, the thing with hacker news is I'm sure if interest is maintained and quality doesn't go down over the long term many people will roll their own archive formats for it. If people saved most of the random junk on geocities I'd think that many people would be interested in preserving what's here.
rbranson 16y ago
Perhaps millions of great ideas and billions of pieces of knowledge have been lost to the almost entirely ethereal IRC as well. The somewhat permanent nature of Usenet and, to a lesser degree, mailing lists, subliminally changes the nature of the conversation. I feel like we lose some of the ultimate benefits of "real" protocols by using the web as a means for two-way communications, but we also gain a platform for experimentation and rapid prototyping that leads to things like Hacker News.
Groxx 16y ago
Will they need to? We have search engines and other QA sites like Stack Overflow. The information is more likely to be found if it's valuable, and more likely to be spread beyond only HN than Usenet posts.
deleted 16y ago
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HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
there is a historical archival quality about Usenet that is quite compelling. And sometimes it strikes in odd ways. About 3-4 years ago I saw someone posting on an electronics forum and for the name was vaguely familiar. I asked him if he had ever posted to comp.robotics.misc or sci.electronics around 1997 or so and mentioned a hilarious post about his cat's reaction to an automated cat door he had built. I had saved the post and it ended up being copied from computer to computer as I upgraded (and then was lost to a reinstall with no backup just a few weeks ago!) so I still had a copy. Sent him the post and he agreed that he had written it, but barely remembered doing so. That, more than anything serves to remind me that the net is forever. I wonder how many things I've said in various usenet groups over the last 20 years have been saved to people's personal archives.

robryan 16y ago

There are things like search.yc, the thing with hacker news is I'm sure if interest is maintained and quality doesn't go down over the long term many people will roll their own archive formats for it. If people saved most of the random junk on geocities I'd think that many people would be interested in preserving what's here.

rbranson 16y ago

Perhaps millions of great ideas and billions of pieces of knowledge have been lost to the almost entirely ethereal IRC as well. The somewhat permanent nature of Usenet and, to a lesser degree, mailing lists, subliminally changes the nature of the conversation. I feel like we lose some of the ultimate benefits of "real" protocols by using the web as a means for two-way communications, but we also gain a platform for experimentation and rapid prototyping that leads to things like Hacker News.

Groxx 16y ago

Will they need to? We have search engines and other QA sites like Stack Overflow. The information is more likely to be found if it's valuable, and more likely to be spread beyond only HN than Usenet posts.

deleted 16y ago

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HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago

there is a historical archival quality about Usenet that is quite compelling. And sometimes it strikes in odd ways. About 3-4 years ago I saw someone posting on an electronics forum and for the name was vaguely familiar. I asked him if he had ever posted to comp.robotics.misc or sci.electronics around 1997 or so and mentioned a hilarious post about his cat's reaction to an automated cat door he had built. I had saved the post and it ended up being copied from computer to computer as I upgraded (and then was lost to a reinstall with no backup just a few weeks ago!) so I still had a copy. Sent him the post and he agreed that he had written it, but barely remembered doing so. That, more than anything serves to remind me that the net is forever. I wonder how many things I've said in various usenet groups over the last 20 years have been saved to people's personal archives.