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I really, really miss newsgroups. HN has some of the flavor of discussing technical stuff with experts and amateurs chiming in. But everything here is geared t

I really, really miss newsgroups. HN has some of the flavor of discussing technical stuff with experts and amateurs chiming in. But everything here is geared towards news, so the longer, deeper discussions are missing. Perhaps I'm just getting old though.

nunodonato 3y ago
I think newsgroups would struggle to survive and be useful if they would get a massive wide adoption like social networks do. It would just be impossible to filter out useful stuff and avoid spam. They worked ages ago because the internet was a smaller place, and they still work today because the number of people who use them has not increased by much (sorry, no source to back that up)
demondemidi 3y ago
It’s not that much different. I was on Usenet from the late 80s till the web ate it. It was more like stack exchange and Reddit. But with far far fewer people involved. abpe was the best place for porn. Slash fiction was coming of age. Memes didn’t quite exist yet because posting images was not a thing. It the egos and attitudes were the same.
- magicalhippo 3y ago
  A big difference was that everyone got everything on a group, and it was much more async than current alternatives. You could spend a day working on a reply, and people would get it next time they downloaded messages. Everything now seems to focus on "the now", incentivizing fast replies and new content. Though, as the other responder mentions, it certainly would struggle with "web scale" amount of participants.
  - ksaj 3y ago
    I used to feed newsgroups and email to BBS systems using UUCP. You could easily expect a 3 day turnaround when posting something, and seeing the initial responses. I distinctly remember thinking that this was really efficient. At the very least, it made lists a lot more entertaining to read than they would be today.
  - demondemidi 3y ago
    I forgot all about having to download replies. Yep. Daily syncs.

nunodonato 3y ago

I think newsgroups would struggle to survive and be useful if they would get a massive wide adoption like social networks do. It would just be impossible to filter out useful stuff and avoid spam. They worked ages ago because the internet was a smaller place, and they still work today because the number of people who use them has not increased by much (sorry, no source to back that up)

demondemidi 3y ago

It’s not that much different. I was on Usenet from the late 80s till the web ate it. It was more like stack exchange and Reddit. But with far far fewer people involved. abpe was the best place for porn. Slash fiction was coming of age. Memes didn’t quite exist yet because posting images was not a thing. It the egos and attitudes were the same.

magicalhippo 3y ago
A big difference was that everyone got everything on a group, and it was much more async than current alternatives. You could spend a day working on a reply, and people would get it next time they downloaded messages. Everything now seems to focus on "the now", incentivizing fast replies and new content. Though, as the other responder mentions, it certainly would struggle with "web scale" amount of participants.
- ksaj 3y ago
  I used to feed newsgroups and email to BBS systems using UUCP. You could easily expect a 3 day turnaround when posting something, and seeing the initial responses. I distinctly remember thinking that this was really efficient. At the very least, it made lists a lot more entertaining to read than they would be today.
- demondemidi 3y ago
  I forgot all about having to download replies. Yep. Daily syncs.