From: huey.dll@tampabay.rr.com   
      
   anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) wrote in   
   news:2026Jan24.165821@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at:   
      
   > George Neuner  writes:   
   >>It seems all it would have taken was one decent web site providing a   
   >>good user experience for Usenet.   
   >   
   > Given the popularity of groups.google.com, it seems that those who   
   > wanted web access to Usenet preferred that web interface (including   
   > some of the regulars of this group).  It did not stop the decline of   
   > Usenet, and eventually they stopped gatewaying between their system   
   > and Usenet (after being the vehicle of a particularly nasty attack on   
   > Usenet).  There are also other web-based Usenet services   
   > ( mentions some), so I   
   > think that your claim above is falsified (if you suggest that the web   
   > interfaces did not provide a "good user experience", is your claim   
   > above actually falsifyable?).   
   >   
   > Some other theories about the Usenet decline have been:   
   >   
   > * Usenet's plain text interface could not compete against the more   
   >   featureful facilities of various social media.  IIRC Andy Glew tried   
   >   to convert us to MIME or somesuch before he dropped out.   
   >   
   > * The presence of spam, trolls and kooks in unmoderated Usenet groups,   
   >   and the fact that everybody has to killfile them on their own (apart   
   >   from spam, which is mostly eliminated by cancelbots) does not look   
   >   inviting to newbies, whereas modern social media with their   
   >   moderation are more inviting.  From what I have read, many people   
   >   have left Twitter after it became more Usenet-like in this respect   
   >   (but AFAIK still social-media-like by default in presenting some   
   >   "interesting" selection of postings, and not all (except killfiled   
   >   ones and spam) in the subscribed groups).   
   >   
   >>Yeah, I know ... why didn't I do it?   
   >   
   > Others did: Google, the makers of Rocksolid, and others.   
   >   
   > - anton   
      
   Don't forget about the attacks on USENET because it was unregulated by   
   design and allowed mostly alleged abuses that the governments used to shut   
   down or threaten server owners fpr carrying regional abuses.  That caused a   
   great number of users to flee to web services rather than simply find other   
   servers they could still reach.   
      
   I still prefer USENET to any web service because of the speed of finding   
   relevant content.  Yes there are still users who abuse various groups but   
   most moved elsewhere.  The current spam abuse is still relatively easy to   
   spot and control individually.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)