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Key part: Usenet was effectively a public space. Nobody had their hand on the OFF switch. Much less important part: Usenet was full of horrible behavior for ma
by tom-thistime 7y ago
Key part: Usenet was effectively a public space. Nobody had their hand on the OFF switch.
Much less important part: Usenet was full of horrible behavior for many years before people started complaining about "Endless September." If there was a golden age it was before my time (1985).
- webmaven 7y agoPrior to "Eternal September", maintaining a personal killfile[0]/scorefile was only a minor chore (indeed, adding someone to your killfile could be accompanied by a sense of glee), but in the next few years the addition of spam to the mix made it overwhelming, giving an edge to moderated mailing lists and discussion boards. YMMV, of course, depending on which groups you frequented and their community norms. pg's "A Plan for Spam"[1] provided a lower-effort solution eventually, but by then it was too late as the onboarding experience for new users had become hopelessly polluted and toxic (new email users at least had a grace period before their address was discovered). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_file https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_file [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html
- PaulDavisThe1st 7y agoBitnet! the hot tub channel! 1985! the golden age!