From: tom@0.0.0.0   
      
   On Wed, 22 Aug 2018 13:45:18 +0000   
   Ivan Shmakov  wrote:   
      
   > >>>>> Dennis Lee Bieber  writes:   
   > >>>>> On Sat, 18 Aug 2018, Tylercuddletail declaimed the following:   
   >   
   >  >> Hi everyone, my name is Tyler Cuddletail.  I am a 24 year old   
   >  >> Furry. I love being a furry.  My fursona is a big blue dragon.   
   >  >> I've been a furry since I was 14.  I've been to two conventions   
   >  >> in my lifetime within the Pacific Northwest.   
   >   
   >  >> I can't wait to make new friends.   
   >   
   >  > Good luck...   
   >   
   >  > I'm afraid you'll find that AFF (and ALF) are both pretty dead   
   >  > newsgroups, only a few old-timers still monitoring the empty halls.   
   >  > They were beginning to die off a decade ago, when "social media"   
   >  > fragmented the culture   
   >   
   > 	These days, I tend to think that the biggest issue with   
   > 	attracting new users to Usenet is the impossibility of   
   > 	emergence of a decent "mobile" user agent.   
   >   
   > 	And not for purely technical reasons, either.  Back in the   
   > 	day, you'd write a 300+ words article and wait for days for   
   > 	responses.  Now, it's possible to get responses mere minutes   
   > 	after posting, which is rather conductive to more or less   
   > 	single-sentence exchanges.   
   >   
   >     While one of course can implement this manner of communication   
   >     on top of Usenet protocols and conventions, why bother?  Why,   
   >     for instance, would one deal with proper quoting of the message   
   >     being responded to if the original fits just well along with the   
   >     response on the screen?  Moreover, user abuse (say: forged From:   
   >     header) is much easier to deal with on a centralized system.   
   >   
   > 	Somehow, my gut feeling is that this state of things has much   
   > 	more profound effect on society than the general decline of   
   > Usenet.   
   >   
   > 	As an old song goes,   
   >   
   >     We watch the shows, we watch the stars,   
   >     On videos, for hours and hours;   
   >     We hardly need to use our ears,   
   >     How music changes through the years?   
   >   
   >  > (I don't use Twitter, Facebook, or even LinkedIn [not even when   
   >  > laid off and job hunting]).   
   >   
   > 	Neither do I.  For me, the biggest issue with these "major"   
   > 	platforms is the lack of freedom: the lack of freedom to   
   > choose a different "host," with conditions I like better; the lack   
   > 	of freedom to start my own host, while retaining my contacts;   
   > 	the lack of freedom to choose a different user agent (some of   
   > 	the above may provide public APIs I can try to interface with   
   > my Emacs, but most of the time, your only choice is the one between   
   > 	Firefox and Chromium -- or any of their, to put it bluntly,   
   > 	rebranded copies.)   
   >   
   > 	But as OP uses Google Groups, I don't think the above matters   
   > 	much to him, so I suppose he can indeed try his luck   
   > elsewhere.   
   >   
   > 	He's still welcome here, though.   
   >   
      
   Tyler, I'd still like to meet you if your receiving this, Also From the   
   NorthWest, specifically Oregon.   
      
   --   
    _________________________________________   
   / Of course power tools and alcohol don't \   
   | mix. Everyone knows power tools aren't  |   
   | soluble in alcohol...                   |   
   |                                         |   
   \ -- Crazy Nigel                          /   
    -----------------------------------------   
   \   
    \   
      /\   /\   
     //\\_//\\     ____   
     \_     _/    /   /   
      / * * \    /^^^]   
      \_\O/_/    [   ]   
       /   \_    [   /   
       \     \_  /  /   
        [ [ /  \/ _/   
       _[ [ \  /_/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)