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I wanted to ask why use this instead of the still existing Usenet. But the IPFS based hosting is a neat idea. This solves the problem that Usenet has with ISP'

I wanted to ask why use this instead of the still existing Usenet. But the IPFS based hosting is a neat idea. This solves the problem that Usenet has with ISP's dropping the alt hierarchy for example. Using IPFS also deals with the hurdle of actually hosting the News servers. I wonder how it will deal with the inevitable spam and csam. Still, I'm following this with interest. Aether was interesting, but it's many tcp connections chocked my consumer grade modem to death, which made it impossible to keep my node online. It was a legit cool project. I wonder if the #radio group I started still exists on it...

nope96 5y ago
> I wonder how it will deal with the inevitable spam and csam. I'm thinking a modern Usenet would need something like ad blocker lists - volunteer run filter(s) that you choose to subscribe to.
- Natsu 5y ago
  Maybe people could just make and sign posts in an appropriate group that you can subscribe to/diff/edit as you please.
  - Karrot_Kream 5y ago
    That is exactly how Usenet works right now sans the restriction to sign posts. But several folks do indeed sign their posts.
- zrm 5y ago
  > I'm thinking a modern Usenet would need something like ad blocker lists - volunteer run filter(s) that you choose to subscribe to. This would be most useful if they're maintained per-category, by the people who frequent those categories. So then each filter list has "moderators" who can add stuff to it, the people who frequent a category usually subscribe to its most popular filter list, but nobody is required to. Then because it's community-moderated and non-centralized you don't get the same problems with you do with email spam filtering where people will try to get their competitors' non-spam senders added to the global spam filter list.
  - commandlinefan 5y ago
    > community-moderated So’s Reddit, though. I’ve become skeptical of the sort of people who volunteer to moderate.
    - robbedpeter 5y ago
      Incentive is tough. You end up with a percentage of toxic moderators in people who are looking to fill a social need in their lives, burning themselves out "volunteering", or people looking for power or status and internet points. It's one of the cases where a steem like cryptocurrency could work to correct for the toxic incentives, but nobody's figured out how to make it work yet.
      - rapind 5y ago
        I’m of the (unpopular?) opinion that users ruined the internet, and not megacorps. For example is google crappy now because they just don’t care or is it really all the “content marketing” that did it? I suspect any forum that gains significant enough traction to attract the bad actors will turn to shit.
        jimkleiber 5y ago
        I think even in the cases where users hurt the experience, we tend to blame the higher org for not resolving the conflict. "There are people bullying on the platform" -> "Why doesn't Google get rid of the bullying behaviors?!" instead of "Why don't people stop bullying?" I think we also have a tendency to take it to the next level, which is often government. If people are scamming me through Gmail, we can tend to not think it's the fault of the people scamming or of Gmail but of the government for not forcing Gmail to stop the scamming or the person from doing scamming directly. So I appreciate you bringing the attention back down to the ground level. While I disagree in that it would be only the users, I believe they (we) contribute to the problems as well as Google and the government and many other entities.
        5y ago
- hulitu 5y ago
  Something like a killfile. I'm old.
tiahura 5y ago
Green Card Lottery 1994 May Be The Last One! THE DEADLINE HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED. The Green Card Lottery is a completely legal program giving away a certain annual allotment of Green Cards to persons born in certain countries. The lottery program was scheduled to continue on a permanent basis. However, recently, Senator Alan J Simpson introduced a bill into the U. S. Congress which could end any future lotteries. THE 1994 LOTTERY IS SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE SOON, BUT IT MAY BE THE VERY LAST ONE.
- guerrilla 5y ago
  And to think, now the spammers run the Internet. How things have changed...
  - BTCOG 5y ago
    Spammers always ran the internet. Where were you in 1998?
    - guerrilla 5y ago
      I was on the Internet that was not literally run by Google and Facebook.
- unixhero 5y ago
  At the time I was very young and the whole thing was a scam. I couldn't believe that there actually is a green card lottery. /Tangent
JasonFruit 5y ago
A bit off topic, but with regards to CSAM: I don't understand the motives of people who share it online for free¹. Distributing child pornography risks serious consequences, and I don't see what the compensation is that makes people willing to take that risk for no monetary profit. Maybe if we understood that motivation, we could make it less attractive to do; preventing the motivation for the activity might be easier than preventing the activity. ¹ Which is among, of course, the many other things I don't understand about them.
- genewitch 5y ago
  Offhand I'd say there's at least 3 reasons. Notoriety - either pseudonymous or otherwise, bait - like a state actor, and as an attack or exploit against a site operator. This is assuming some definition of public where a casual user not searching for or desiring it can discover it. So basically the same reasons as any other undesirable or "illegal" content being found publicly.
- webmobdev 5y ago
  > I don't understand the motives of people who share it online for free From what I have read, it's to share and / or (worse) collaborate. A distant example that I recall was a couple in US that sold their 12 year old child in marriage to an adult (the legal marriageable age, with parental consent, in MA and NH is 12 years old).

nope96 5y ago

> I wonder how it will deal with the inevitable spam and csam. I'm thinking a modern Usenet would need something like ad blocker lists - volunteer run filter(s) that you choose to subscribe to.

Natsu 5y ago
Maybe people could just make and sign posts in an appropriate group that you can subscribe to/diff/edit as you please.
- Karrot_Kream 5y ago
  That is exactly how Usenet works right now sans the restriction to sign posts. But several folks do indeed sign their posts.
zrm 5y ago
> I'm thinking a modern Usenet would need something like ad blocker lists - volunteer run filter(s) that you choose to subscribe to. This would be most useful if they're maintained per-category, by the people who frequent those categories. So then each filter list has "moderators" who can add stuff to it, the people who frequent a category usually subscribe to its most popular filter list, but nobody is required to. Then because it's community-moderated and non-centralized you don't get the same problems with you do with email spam filtering where people will try to get their competitors' non-spam senders added to the global spam filter list.
- commandlinefan 5y ago
  > community-moderated So’s Reddit, though. I’ve become skeptical of the sort of people who volunteer to moderate.
  - robbedpeter 5y ago
    Incentive is tough. You end up with a percentage of toxic moderators in people who are looking to fill a social need in their lives, burning themselves out "volunteering", or people looking for power or status and internet points. It's one of the cases where a steem like cryptocurrency could work to correct for the toxic incentives, but nobody's figured out how to make it work yet.
    - rapind 5y ago
      I’m of the (unpopular?) opinion that users ruined the internet, and not megacorps. For example is google crappy now because they just don’t care or is it really all the “content marketing” that did it? I suspect any forum that gains significant enough traction to attract the bad actors will turn to shit.
      - jimkleiber 5y ago
        I think even in the cases where users hurt the experience, we tend to blame the higher org for not resolving the conflict. "There are people bullying on the platform" -> "Why doesn't Google get rid of the bullying behaviors?!" instead of "Why don't people stop bullying?" I think we also have a tendency to take it to the next level, which is often government. If people are scamming me through Gmail, we can tend to not think it's the fault of the people scamming or of Gmail but of the government for not forcing Gmail to stop the scamming or the person from doing scamming directly. So I appreciate you bringing the attention back down to the ground level. While I disagree in that it would be only the users, I believe they (we) contribute to the problems as well as Google and the government and many other entities.
        5y ago
hulitu 5y ago
Something like a killfile. I'm old.

tiahura 5y ago

Green Card Lottery 1994 May Be The Last One! THE DEADLINE HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED. The Green Card Lottery is a completely legal program giving away a certain annual allotment of Green Cards to persons born in certain countries. The lottery program was scheduled to continue on a permanent basis. However, recently, Senator Alan J Simpson introduced a bill into the U. S. Congress which could end any future lotteries. THE 1994 LOTTERY IS SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE SOON, BUT IT MAY BE THE VERY LAST ONE.

guerrilla 5y ago
And to think, now the spammers run the Internet. How things have changed...
- BTCOG 5y ago
  Spammers always ran the internet. Where were you in 1998?
  - guerrilla 5y ago
    I was on the Internet that was not literally run by Google and Facebook.
unixhero 5y ago
At the time I was very young and the whole thing was a scam. I couldn't believe that there actually is a green card lottery. /Tangent

JasonFruit 5y ago

A bit off topic, but with regards to CSAM: I don't understand the motives of people who share it online for free¹. Distributing child pornography risks serious consequences, and I don't see what the compensation is that makes people willing to take that risk for no monetary profit. Maybe if we understood that motivation, we could make it less attractive to do; preventing the motivation for the activity might be easier than preventing the activity. ¹ Which is among, of course, the many other things I don't understand about them.

genewitch 5y ago
Offhand I'd say there's at least 3 reasons. Notoriety - either pseudonymous or otherwise, bait - like a state actor, and as an attack or exploit against a site operator. This is assuming some definition of public where a casual user not searching for or desiring it can discover it. So basically the same reasons as any other undesirable or "illegal" content being found publicly.
webmobdev 5y ago
> I don't understand the motives of people who share it online for free From what I have read, it's to share and / or (worse) collaborate. A distant example that I recall was a couple in US that sold their 12 year old child in marriage to an adult (the legal marriageable age, with parental consent, in MA and NH is 12 years old).