Python Forum

[John Bokma]

Steven D'Aprano <steve at REMOVE-THIS-cybersource.com.au> writes:

> On Fri, 04 Jun 2010 08:56:34 -0500, Jim Byrnes wrote:
>
>> I thought his point was they are big enough to have the resources to
>> offer newsgroups but don't.  If I want fast internet I must use Comcast
>> and Comcast doesn't offer newsgroups either.  Sadly is seems getting
>> access to newsgroups is getting harder and harder.
>
> I'm sorry for all you people who don't live in a place with a genuinely 
> free market,

If such a thing exists it still doesn't mean that each and every place
where one can live has plenty of choice. Even in the Netherlands, where
I am originally from, which is quite crowded there are plenty of places
where the number of provider options are limited. But I don't think you
should feel sorry for those people, because the majority is not
interested in Usenet (well, the "text" part) and the few who do will
find a way. On top of that, not every provider has the expertise to
handle Usenet resulting in a very crappy service nobody cares about.

> and instead have to suffer with the lack of competition and 
> poor service of a monopoly or duopoly masquerading as a free market. But 
> *my* point was that your woes are not universal, and Usenet is alive and 
> well. It might be declining, but it's a long, slow decline and, like 
> Cobol, it will probably still be around a decade after the cool kids 
> declared it dead.

Well, I've noticed quite some groups I used to follow have become "dead"
in less than a year, so while I have no doubt you're correct with the
decade, I don't think there is much fun in being subscribed to 20 groups
only to find one message a month :-D. I use email to stay in contact
with some regulars of groups that indeed do have just one message /
month. I doubt it has anything to do with being a cool kid or not. Some
groups also dry up because the topic has been discussed to dead and/or
it's easier to nowadays find the information on line somewhere else. And
yet others, in my opinion, dry up because the people who are holding the
fort are IMO sitting in ivory towers and have extremely little patience
with newbies but are also somewhat tired with each other because they
don't want to end up in the same discussion again.

So, yeah, Usenet will be around for decades, I don't doubt it. I am
convinced that in a decade from now the total number of users will still
be higher than 20 years ago so it's far from dead then. But I guess that
will make it only more so that one has to pay for access.

-- 
John Bokma                                                               j3b

Hacking & Hiking in Mexico -  http://johnbokma.com/
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