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> pure spam I think this is what really did usenet in for me. I used to use newsgroups quite a bit in the early 2000s, then moved on to forums, and then of cou

> pure spam I think this is what really did usenet in for me. I used to use newsgroups quite a bit in the early 2000s, then moved on to forums, and then of course social media took over (and now I'm substantially over that). Given that usenet is now past its popular heyday, I thought it would also be past the peak of spam - and it probably is - but having just registered with eternal-september.org, I'm still pretty surprised by how much spam is in some of these groups. Granted a lot of it is old (because I told Thunderbird to just download all the headers), but there's loads of more recent stuff as well: e.g., crap about COVID in all kinds of groups, as if we're not hearing and reading enough about it already. This is kind of a shame. If newsgroups had a viable mechanism for combating spam I think they'd still be a great place to hang out because they were and are a one-stop shop for such a wide range of activities and interests. In addition, and ignoring the spam, the reading and writing experience is still really pleasant.

sumtechguy 6y ago
Wait?... people still spam there? Figured they had moved on long ago for better targets.... They must make some amount of money from it or they would not bother.
- bartread 6y ago
  Surprised me too. I guess they must be, although I can't believe it's that much. I imagine probably the reason it still happens is that it's incredibly low effort and so therefore worth it even for meagre gains.
  - jolmg 6y ago
    I don't really know how people do their spamming, but these may be long automated and forgotten systems. It may be that nobody has bothered to stop these systems or exclude usenet from being a target because there's no gain in doing that effort.
    - bartread 6y ago
      Possibly, although the content of the spam is fairly up to date: COVID nonsense and iPhone offers. That being said, now I look at the groups in more detail, it does seem like there's a concentration of messages in March and April on both these topics, and not a whole lot since. What makes it stand out more is that a bunch of the newsgroups I've subscribed to are very inactive, it turns out. I just yanked in anything related to retro computing and gaming and am slowing pruning the list back to include only active groups. The more active groups have spam but they also have self-promotional material that might or might not classify as spam, and I'm seeing a few mass crossposts as well. Overall it's not as bad as I remember it being the last time I looked at getting back into usenet, which was probably 8 or 10 years ago. I think I perhaps gained a slightly skewed impression as the first few groups I went through were all pretty spammy.
ddingus 6y ago
Same. I loved USENET. Threaded discussion is intoxicating. I learned and shared a lot. Came back after the spam waves to visit some retro computing groups. A few are active. Cool. Low spam.
lordgrenville 6y ago
Also lots of...cranks? I just registered and subscribed to comp.misc, and in between lots of innocuous posts there is this (under "Microsoft and Intel donate to BLM"): > ...the executives of all these corporations who made the decision to fund these n*s all deserve to die in mass-shootings.

sumtechguy 6y ago

Wait?... people still spam there? Figured they had moved on long ago for better targets.... They must make some amount of money from it or they would not bother.

bartread 6y ago
Surprised me too. I guess they must be, although I can't believe it's that much. I imagine probably the reason it still happens is that it's incredibly low effort and so therefore worth it even for meagre gains.
- jolmg 6y ago
  I don't really know how people do their spamming, but these may be long automated and forgotten systems. It may be that nobody has bothered to stop these systems or exclude usenet from being a target because there's no gain in doing that effort.
  - bartread 6y ago
    Possibly, although the content of the spam is fairly up to date: COVID nonsense and iPhone offers. That being said, now I look at the groups in more detail, it does seem like there's a concentration of messages in March and April on both these topics, and not a whole lot since. What makes it stand out more is that a bunch of the newsgroups I've subscribed to are very inactive, it turns out. I just yanked in anything related to retro computing and gaming and am slowing pruning the list back to include only active groups. The more active groups have spam but they also have self-promotional material that might or might not classify as spam, and I'm seeing a few mass crossposts as well. Overall it's not as bad as I remember it being the last time I looked at getting back into usenet, which was probably 8 or 10 years ago. I think I perhaps gained a slightly skewed impression as the first few groups I went through were all pretty spammy.

ddingus 6y ago

Same. I loved USENET. Threaded discussion is intoxicating. I learned and shared a lot. Came back after the spam waves to visit some retro computing groups. A few are active. Cool. Low spam.

lordgrenville 6y ago

Also lots of...cranks? I just registered and subscribed to comp.misc, and in between lots of innocuous posts there is this (under "Microsoft and Intel donate to BLM"): > ...the executives of all these corporations who made the decision to fund these n*s all deserve to die in mass-shootings.