[continued from previous message]   
      
   him.  (Also TOTMA in the thread title = Turning Off The Moderator   
   Again.)   
      
   "Dave Sill"  wrote in message news:8p8vntF9j1U12@mid.individual.net...   
      
   > It could well be that a new Usenet would fail to catch on. It's even more   
   > likely that a new Usenet will fail to be designed and implemented. I'd   
   > rather see it designed well, implemented, and fail, than to have it just   
   > die as another half-baked idea that not enough people cared enough   
   > about...   
      
   > Usenet is technologically stale, and if it's not dead now, it's clear   
   > that its best days are behind it.   
   >   
   > The best way to improve discussions is increase the user base. We   
   > need something dramatically better than current Usenet to attract   
   > users. It should also have obvious advantages over web forums and   
   > Google Groups, too.   
      
   I've been reading the threads and agree with all that, but I think the   
   8 million pound gorilla is the "user-owned groups" concept.  I think   
   it's entirely implementable now and has huge ramifications.  It's a   
   10/10 on the Usenet Richter scale, if implemented as part of a wider   
   rebuilding and marketing plan, which I think are also doable.   
      
   Initially, I was thinking exclusively along the lines of rec.humor.funny   
   being owned by Brad, or someone starting alt.star-trek.women or   
   maybe mygroup.fan.star-trek342 -- all "topical" groups.  But that   
   ignores the natural tendency people have to want it to be self-   
   defining and used for anything they want it to be used for.  That   
   includes commercial or home business or hobby business use.   
      
   Groups of people could form one group for discussions that would   
   be highly subscribed to.  Trigger growth and it feeds on itself, as the   
   corporate players get in on the owned hierarchy with their groups.   
   There'd be speculation in prime name space, hence more publicity   
   for Usenet and again it snowballs.  These things can happen very,   
   very quickly.   
      
   Context is everything though.  Scattered across Usenet or in the   
   parts of it (all right now) that have the cesspool barrier and signal   
   to noise problem, and it doesn't sink it just never starts.  The   
   first control message may not stick.   
      
   But do it right, and pay NSPs, and programmers, and isc.org   
   contributions, and pretty much anything you can think of is   
   a win-win-win all around.  It does NOT have to step on the old   
   hierarachies, 95% of which in terms of articles and bandwidth   
   is alt.binaries that pay NSPs carry.   
      
   In fact, if this were done as a "parallel New Usenet" build and   
   migration, the Big 8 could make whatever naming changes it   
   wants, there could be an alt.* with whatever enhancements   
   and that could be where the R-rated "owned"groups and the   
   binaries groups go.  They're "alternative fare" and so having   
   a separate section for that makes sense and also protects the   
   mainstream "owned" section.   
      
   Wouldn't this be simple to do on existing servers, at least for   
   text groups to start with?  So the new hierarchies could be   
   as simple as compb.*, humanitiesb.* and so on for the Big 8,   
   altb.*, and alt-users.* for owned alternative fare groups,   
   allowing binaries.  Then users.* and optmod.*.   
      
   Inevitably facebook.* and twitter. * as they protect their   
   backsides.  :-)  Some sort of basic TOS has to be built into   
   this though.   
      
   This would not be like a giant web board.  Usenet came   
   first when it comes to discussion boards and those who   
   would like to see it flourish again can just do it.  As Brad   
   said at one point, Usenet is a do-ocracy.  There are many   
   advantages that have been cited and collectively they   
   provide a much different experience.   
      
   More freedom of speech, no company owning it, the less clunky   
   interface (than the web, same for other comparisons on this list),   
   the base of good and knowledgeable posters (and therefore   
   you can learn a lot), the sense of a worldwide forum or stage,   
   the less vapid content, not being inundated with graphics, ads,   
   Flash player videos, popups and the like, the distributed nature   
   of Usenet, the fact text access can still be had for free, and I've   
   probably missed a few.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)