From: boron_elgar@hotmail.com   
      
   On Wed, 22 Sep 2021 23:47:33 -0400, Michael Trew   
    wrote:   
      
   >On 9/20/2021 3:01 PM, Boron Elgar wrote:   
      
   >>   
   >> There is FB, Reddit, Insta,Twitter,Tik-Tok and myriad other online   
   >> outlets for opinion, commentary, or dudgeon these days, not even   
   >> mentioning the group capabilities of certain messaging apps. The   
   >> Usenet version of AFCA, which really requires a decent news reader,   
   >> just falls by the wayside.   
   >>   
      
   >I'm well aware it's far past its heyday, as is the rest of text-based   
   >Usenet.  By "alive and well", I meant that the group still has quite an   
   >active discussion going on, and it's not all spam/garbage (think:   
   >alt.politics).  Yes, much of it is off topic, and yes, I veer off topic   
   >enough, but they keep me amused.  50+ multiple times daily?  I think   
   >not.. maybe per day, total.   
      
   I use Agent. Real easy to see time stamps and count up posts.   
   >   
   >If you can't beat them, join them.  Does this group exclusively talk   
   >about the Straight Dope and/or Cecil Adams?  No.. didn't think so.   
      
   Um...you might want to find out the basis of this group before you get   
   Cecil pissed off like that.   
      
   >RFC   
   >would have died a very LONG time ago had there not have been so much   
   >discussion outside of food.  The few mental patients over there are   
   >quite cringe-worthy, but what can you do.   
      
   There was ALWAYS discussion outside of food, the level of discourse   
   was quite different, however.   
      
      
   >That all being said, I wish I could have seen the group 20+ years ago.   
   >(Well, I would have been 6 years old then..) Even in the past 5 years,   
   >some great newsgroups that I have been on and off have dried up and   
   >died.  Time marches on.   
      
   My posting experience with rfc, as with AFCA, as with most of my   
   connections with Usenet, only goes back to the late 90s, more or less,   
   but there was IRC and even BBs and similar before that. I have no   
   sense of loss or of changes that have happened to any of those formats   
   per se, but do miss many previous posters and their interactions on a   
   rather personal level, too.  The Vicious Circle of our own making,   
   though without lunch.  Many Usenet groups developed such clusters   
   within them. Many of us knew each other IRL and actually got together   
   with some frequency.   
      
   Too many really smart and witty participants have not just floated off   
   into other formats or left online posting behind for intellectual or   
   time reasons, but are ex-parrots.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)