From: kfl@KeithLynch.net   
      
   Renee McNeely  wrote:   
   > Not that Google should have had to clarify this, but I can imagine a   
   > lot of people got the impression that Google created and controlled   
   > Usenet, and therefore, that Google discontinuing a service they had   
   > already abandoned meant game over for Usenet.   
      
   Right.  The history of the net isn't taught in school.  At least it   
   wasn't when I went to school.  Which isn't surprising since that was   
   before the net existed.   
      
   > For a lot of people my age (born in the 2000s) who are more familiar   
   > with sites like Reddit or Discord, the idea of Usenet being a   
   > decentralized service provided by a myriad of sources probably never   
   > even crossed their mind.   
      
   The net, or rather the online world, started as a bunch of walled gardens.   
   A user of CompuServe (founded in 1969) couldn't communicate with a user   
   of Genie, AOL, Delphi, The Source, the ARPAnet, or any BBS.   
      
   Later the ARPAnet evolved into the Internet, and at about the same   
   time (early 1980s) Fidonet (a network of BBSs) and Usenet (a network   
   of Unix machines at universities) were founded.  Within about a decade   
   Fidonet, Usenet, Tymenet, and AOL were absorbed into the Internet.  It   
   was a wonderful time.  Anyone could talk to anyone, and there was no   
   censorship.  The Web (which is not just another name for the Internet)   
   was created in 1991, and any public web page could be viewed by   
   anyone.  There was a problem with spam, but there were techniques   
   to deal with it.   
      
   I'm baffled that people have retreated from this, and joined a new set   
   of walled gardens, called "social networks."  For instance MySpace,   
   AOL (again), LiveJournal (until it was taken over by Russians), Google   
   Groups, Reddit, SDMB, Twitter (now "X"), YouTube, and Facebook.  And   
   nobody on on one social network can talk to anyone in another.  And   
   everyone is subjected to constant ads.  And likely to be permanently   
   banned for wrongthink at any time.   
      
   Usenet isn't perfect, but it's a great improvement over its successors.   
      
   And it's even older than The Simpsons.   
      
   And it's still here, and is not going away.  Nobody has the power to   
   shut it down.  New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo tried, 16 years   
   ago.  He failed.  He later resigned in disgrace, in response to   
   accusations of sex crimes.   
   --   
   Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/   
   Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)