4 ms·

> Arguably, Reddit fills some of this niche, but Usenet was tech-focused, generally quite professional and frankly didn't have the same clientele as Reddit does

> Arguably, Reddit fills some of this niche, but Usenet was tech-focused, generally quite professional and frankly didn't have the same clientele as Reddit does I see you didn't hang out in alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die much

lambic 4y ago
Or anything in the alt or rec hierarchies really.
- revscat 4y ago
  alt.religion.scientology is where many of the secrets around Xenu, etc., were originally leaked. Not all of the alt.* hierarchy was vapid.
  - lambic 4y ago
    Yep, alt.religion.scientology, alt.tv.northern-exp, and news.admin.net-abuse.email were my main hangouts.
- kwoff 4y ago
  My first thought when seeing "tech-focused" was "let's see, I hung out in alt.atheism... wait, that's like /r/atheism?" (I see there's also an /r/nonsequitur/, kinda like alt.non.sequitur though the reddit version seems a more....attached to reality.)
AtlasBarfed 4y ago
Didn't alt.barney.die.die.die.die have more dies? I don't remember exactly Usenet was a cost to ISPs unfortunately. But, it wasn't centrally controlled or moderated either. It also was minimally technical to use, which served as a good filter. But I guess reddit's subreddits may be the best alternative with viewership and specific groups/areas. You know... it should be possible with tagging to take something like twitter reddit, and generate "views" that are groups. Maybe make some spec with three letters, maybe R and an S, and heck another S for the hell of it. Balkanization and content gardens/API walls block integration of like minded content.
- deltarholamda 4y ago
  The cost to ISPs was mostly in the binaries groups, and some usenet servers were set up as a paid service for this purpose when ISPs started dropping the binaries groups. I don't blame the ISPs for this. At the time, you could be an ISP with what is essentially a low-end home Internet connection now, but it cost thousands per month. What started the downfall of Usenet was Eternal September when AOL let their hoi polloi access the Big Boy Internet. The "Me-tooer" phenomenon was particularly irritating.
  - jrnichols 4y ago
    > What started the downfall of Usenet was Eternal September that, and the unfortunate but probably not unexpected flood of actual child abuse photos. this became a huge problem real fast. an ISP I worked for back in that day dropped NNTP like a hot potato when the company lawyers caught wind of the potential legal issues.
- armitron 4y ago
  Reddit is not an alternative as it is heavily censored (same as HN really) and centralized. Usenet still exists and discussions still take place there. Being a decentralized protocol, censoring (or scoring, killfiling) someone is left up to you. And this is the major advantage of Usenet. You can’t be silenced by a mob, which leads to freedom of expression and disparate views. Sure there is spam and flames, but one gets all the tools one needs to deal with that. There is no committee deciding what posts should be kept or deleted. We are a lot worse off today than we used to be, largely because of the centralization of discourse.
  - Supermancho 4y ago
    > Sure there is spam and flames, but one gets all the tools one needs to deal with that. Asking the user to implement measures and keep them up-to-date is detrimental to adoption from users that are aware of curated sources. Pretending this is net-neutral is misleading. > We are a lot worse off today than we used to be, largely because of the centralization of discourse. Usenet was centralized in practice, so I think you mean something else. It's not clear how much the curation of content stifles discourse when creating new forums is essentially free. Either way, I would tend to disagree that curated is worse. Everyone curates to some degree, even when they are free and open discussions.
beezle 4y ago
rec.music.gdead was one of the most active usenet groups. IIRC rec.arts.books.sf-lovers was also a very popular group. I'm a bit nebulous on whether it originated from the mailing list or the other way around There were also quite a few "for sale" type groups, I remember when the group for computer equipment was split into about five subgroups after it got too big. Just editing to add - there were also a lot of regional groups, one of the earliest and probably biggest was ba.* There were also state/country level top levels and a few colleges had their own too

lambic 4y ago

Or anything in the alt or rec hierarchies really.

revscat 4y ago
alt.religion.scientology is where many of the secrets around Xenu, etc., were originally leaked. Not all of the alt.* hierarchy was vapid.
- lambic 4y ago
  Yep, alt.religion.scientology, alt.tv.northern-exp, and news.admin.net-abuse.email were my main hangouts.
kwoff 4y ago
My first thought when seeing "tech-focused" was "let's see, I hung out in alt.atheism... wait, that's like /r/atheism?" (I see there's also an /r/nonsequitur/, kinda like alt.non.sequitur though the reddit version seems a more....attached to reality.)

AtlasBarfed 4y ago

Didn't alt.barney.die.die.die.die have more dies? I don't remember exactly Usenet was a cost to ISPs unfortunately. But, it wasn't centrally controlled or moderated either. It also was minimally technical to use, which served as a good filter. But I guess reddit's subreddits may be the best alternative with viewership and specific groups/areas. You know... it should be possible with tagging to take something like twitter reddit, and generate "views" that are groups. Maybe make some spec with three letters, maybe R and an S, and heck another S for the hell of it. Balkanization and content gardens/API walls block integration of like minded content.

deltarholamda 4y ago
The cost to ISPs was mostly in the binaries groups, and some usenet servers were set up as a paid service for this purpose when ISPs started dropping the binaries groups. I don't blame the ISPs for this. At the time, you could be an ISP with what is essentially a low-end home Internet connection now, but it cost thousands per month. What started the downfall of Usenet was Eternal September when AOL let their hoi polloi access the Big Boy Internet. The "Me-tooer" phenomenon was particularly irritating.
- jrnichols 4y ago
  > What started the downfall of Usenet was Eternal September that, and the unfortunate but probably not unexpected flood of actual child abuse photos. this became a huge problem real fast. an ISP I worked for back in that day dropped NNTP like a hot potato when the company lawyers caught wind of the potential legal issues.
armitron 4y ago
Reddit is not an alternative as it is heavily censored (same as HN really) and centralized. Usenet still exists and discussions still take place there. Being a decentralized protocol, censoring (or scoring, killfiling) someone is left up to you. And this is the major advantage of Usenet. You can’t be silenced by a mob, which leads to freedom of expression and disparate views. Sure there is spam and flames, but one gets all the tools one needs to deal with that. There is no committee deciding what posts should be kept or deleted. We are a lot worse off today than we used to be, largely because of the centralization of discourse.
- Supermancho 4y ago
  > Sure there is spam and flames, but one gets all the tools one needs to deal with that. Asking the user to implement measures and keep them up-to-date is detrimental to adoption from users that are aware of curated sources. Pretending this is net-neutral is misleading. > We are a lot worse off today than we used to be, largely because of the centralization of discourse. Usenet was centralized in practice, so I think you mean something else. It's not clear how much the curation of content stifles discourse when creating new forums is essentially free. Either way, I would tend to disagree that curated is worse. Everyone curates to some degree, even when they are free and open discussions.

beezle 4y ago

rec.music.gdead was one of the most active usenet groups. IIRC rec.arts.books.sf-lovers was also a very popular group. I'm a bit nebulous on whether it originated from the mailing list or the other way around There were also quite a few "for sale" type groups, I remember when the group for computer equipment was split into about five subgroups after it got too big. Just editing to add - there were also a lot of regional groups, one of the earliest and probably biggest was ba.* There were also state/country level top levels and a few colleges had their own too