From: usenet@only.tnx
On Sun, 18 Jul 2021 20:43:13 -0400, Boron Elgar
wrote:
>On Sun, 18 Jul 2021 23:05:28 -0000 (UTC), Howard
>wrote:
>>Boron Elgar wrote
>>> Never tried anything on the iPhone, though. I tend to use Reddit for
>>> entertaining me when I am bored and stuck with the phone.
>>
>>How much bleedover is there from the kookier side of Reddit to the more
>>sane groups?
>>
>>I've only occasionally looked in when a search result shows a thread from
>>Reddit, and haven't seen it, but I don't look there very often.
>>
>>I know there's a strong contigent of self-pitying Incel types who are stuck
>>in 2014 in some places there, but I don't have a good sense of how hard
>>they troll outside of their groups.
>
>Reddit is as varied as Usenet used to be, but most of the groups I
>have hung around in are moderated. I am sure there are sub-reddits
>that are made up wholly of the insane, just as there are with most
>other online forums.
>
>I have limited my Reddit habits to the sciences or a few TV series
>that I really like, but I just unsubscribe really fast if a place
>seems too wonky.
>
>Most Usenet groups, of course, have melted away or degenerated into
>full blown insanity and my aversion to Facebook has kept me protected
>from those groups.
>
>I do miss the old Usenet groups, though, especially this one.
I echo your sentiments.
I recognized Facebook's evil tendencies very early in their existence when they
kept playing hide-and-seek with their privacy settings, often resetting users'
preferences to the most permissive in the process. And there's Zuckerberg's
stated philosophy that everybody should have a single identity on the Internet,
which flies in the face of how most people conduct their lives. I very much
doubt, for example, that he acts and talks the same way in the boardroom as he
does in the bedroom, and vice versa. So it is with the commoners -- we act
differently in different settings and groups.
It's a shame about newsgroups. Some of television groups I used to read have
dengenerated as you say. Others, like this one, have avoided the garbage flood
but have dwindled to a trickle of posts. I know of a couple of groups that
still have largely healthy communities, but they are targeted at specific
topics
that mostly interest dinosaurs. The computer folklore newsgroup would be one
example.
Part of blame can be laid on that Facepage thing, and some on the move to smart
phones. As others have opined, reading newsgroups on a smart phone is okay,
but
posting, particularly at length, is awkward. But in my opinion there is
another
reason, which has been exacerbated by Myface -- many people simply don't want
to
or can't write. Instead of expressing their thoughts in writing, which does
take at least a minimal ability and some effort, it's easier to "ping" someone
by forwarding the latest captioned jpeg to them. It's a tendency that
manifested itself in one of the earliest mass adoptions of the Internet, i.e.,
AOL. Indeed, it spawned something of text meme: "Me too."
Rather than the slow decline of newsgroups, the recent event that has most
disrupted my connection to online community has been the demise of Yahoo
Groups.
I belonged to more than a dozen lists addressing different interests, where
events, other announcements, and some modest discussions took place. Most have
yet to be replaced, and I suspect that people are simply turning to Facepalm to
pick up the slack.
--
God sends his spaceships to America -- the beautiful
They land at six o'clock and there we are -- the dutiful
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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