2005/08/05 Grumpy old newsgroup folks

At Barbarians at the Gates, I had suggested that Microsoft would destroy Usenet. As it turns out, Google seems to be the one doing the most damage.

The problem is that the newbies who use Google to read and post news assume that what they see is what everyone else sees. They see a threaded list of all related articles and can easily navigate the entire thread. Therefor, they see no point in including context when they post. This annoys the bewillikers out of the old folks.

Within a very few years, the vast majority of newsgroup posts will be made through interfaces like Google's. Maybe we're even closer than that or may be there already. The barbarians have already climbed over the city walls; we'll be hopelessly outnumbered soon .

It's not their fault: the dummification of Google and Microsoft has created a big mess and in reality, it is us old fogies who are going to have to adjust. However, we aren't going to change easily: we'll be kicking and screaming the entire way.

We (the old folk) need to accept that the technology is changing. With gigantic hard drives and broadband access, it is no longer painful to retain old threads and have newsreaders that will easily show us previous context. There is no reason for a news server to have short retention any more. Disk space is cheap, cheap, cheap.

Some of the old guard even use non-threading newreaders, which means they have little hope of understanding articles devoid of previous context. But clinging to those out-dated programs really is their problem, and that's just how the newbies look at it. It's like when I try to convince my wife not to send HTML mail: she says "EVERYBODY I correspond with uses html in mail. You are the ONLY one who complains about it. Get over it." And she is absolutely right.

We are just going to have to accept that Usenet is changing. But do not expect us to be graceful about it. We deeply resent the invasion of the semi-literate into our domain and can be viciously ugly in expressing our disapproval. That's understandable: we're old, set in our ways, and frankly, a lot of us just don't care much any more: it's our way or the highway. Grumpy old Usenet farts, you know?

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Sun Aug 7 15:17:04 2005: Subject:   drag


Well when all those grumpy old farts start complaining to much, just say:

Welcome to the post-AOL Intarweb, they've finally found you.



Sun Aug 7 15:26:17 2005: Subject:   TonyLawrence


But I AM one of the grumpy old farts :-)

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