johanna, at the cafe counter

Look, does anyone remember Usenet?

You could run your own group. You could join any groups. It was up to your local Usenet admin which groups were carried at your site (usually a university or government domain) and how widely your local groups got promoted.

It was also up to you/your admin what you DIDN'T see in your usenet feed. Lots of sites didn't carry alt.sex.*, for example.

If your're old enough, "the fediverse" is kinda familiar.

Nov 6, 2022 at 3:06amWeb
Show threadKombiz LavasanyNov 6, 2022
@Johannab one other similarity is how long it sometimes takes to download an image.
Show threadDezene Huber 🌻Nov 6, 2022
@Johannab I was thinking the same thing: https://ecoevo.social/@dezene/109293956182835232
Dezene Huber 🌻 (@[email protected])

@[email protected] Yeah, oddly it reminds me of the “old days” of Usenet and BBS. Combine those with a dash of Reddit and Discord. Notably those all had/have their issues. But much better vibes and ability to control your own experience than the big platforms.

ecoevo.social
Show threadJos Nov 6, 2022
@Johannab I do miss Usenet—a couple groups on there were my first exposure to being a sysadmin, and a first glimpse of working in computers. The odd Fediverse addresses actually remind me of bang-path addresses. :)
Show threadEyebee 🇬🇧Nov 6, 2022
@Johannab Does UseNet still exist? It was less than ten years ago that I finally dropped my account on a Usenet server.
Show threadJenNov 6, 2022
@Johannab I was just telling my sister how much this reminded me of the old BBS system we used to communicate with in college. From before the Internet was the Internet
Show threadannaravenNov 6, 2022
@Johannab Of course. Met my husband on Usenet. Yeah - the fediverse kinda reminds me of that. You've got your main hang-outs but you can connect up with others as well. I think I'm liking this.
Show threadAmber Or BustNov 6, 2022
@Johannab Yes, that was my first reaction when I saw a recommendation for and grokked the federated aspect of Matadon: seems like a great feature!
Show threadAngela Korra'tiNov 6, 2022
@Johannab Hi from a new Mastodon user, yeah, this is feeling very Usenet-y.
Show threadSteven ReedNov 6, 2022
@Johannab also similar in many ways to Fidonet, albeit with a very different UI!
Show threadHaelwenn /элвэн/ Nov 6, 2022
@Johannab I think discovered the fediverse (in 2013) before usenet, but well the whole thing is still there.
Heck, my ISP still has a Usenet server and the only way to check gmane these days is via NNTP.
Show threadmuilloomeNov 6, 2022
@Johannab im old enough to remember fidonet.
Show threadJeffNov 6, 2022

@Johannab

I only canceled my usenet service subscription a year ago. So I definitely remember. ;p

Show threadDr. "Skinny" Dave Miller, esq.Nov 6, 2022

@Johannab I totally remember! I was a regular poster on a couple of the alt.binaries.pictures groups I choose not to specify. 😛 I was not as advanced a user to have run my own server or anything, but from about FEB '95 thru ??? '96 I was on Usenet more than I was the web. There was way more (what we now call) "content". At some point the advertiser spam was too much.

Remember IRC? pIRCh and mIRC and other clients?

Show threadJeff HaluskaNov 8, 2022
@SkinnyDave @Johannab Remember? I have mIRC up on another monitor. 😆
Show threadМитя СошниковNov 6, 2022
@Johannab major difference is that groups were organized kinda hierarchically (taxonomy), while in fediverse topical discussions are driven by hashtags, which are flat (flexonomy)
Show threadIain ColemanNov 7, 2022
@Johannab I remember usenet well, and still have some nostalgia for it, but it never achieved the full, rich, chaotic glory of Twitter. I fear that Mastodon represents a step backwards into cloistered communities which, while they may be wonderful in themselves, lack the global energy of a unified social media platform.
Show thread Mike AmundsenNov 7, 2022

@Johannab

yep. lots to (re)learn from the #USNET days.

Show threadstill me, NicoNov 7, 2022
@Johannab omg thank you, this is the first spark of understanding i've had about how all this works 😅
Show threadstirz ✅Nov 7, 2022
@Johannab I have used it a lot back a few years ago even. My student dorm ran its own local nntp server. Kind of a social network connecting all students from the local universities (yes, plural). Lively exchange of academic material, furniture, food, recipes, and party invitations. Of course, ride sharing was big, too. Very respectful conduct, mostly.
Show threadPaolo AmorosoNov 7, 2022
@Johannab I have great memories of Usenet.
Show threadJosh RenaudNov 7, 2022
@Johannab In September I wrote about the 30th anniversary of the “Spoiler Free Opinion Summary” which was born in the rec.arts.startrek.* newsgroups. Such a cool community. https://breakintochat.com/blog/2022/09/23/remembering-the-s-o-s-the-spoiler-free-opinion-summary/
Show threadBen CurtisNov 7, 2022
@Johannab Yup, and much like FidoNET before it.
Show threadJim EasterbrookNov 7, 2022
@Johannab Some of us are still using Usenet - but only for one group in my case.
Show threadZhouYiDaoNov 7, 2022
@Johannab I'm so old I remember Gopher and BBS systems. And you're right, this feels like usenet .
Show threadjoshNov 7, 2022
@Johannab I like to compare it to BBSes and Fidonet. But yes, for those who have been around for a bit, it makes sense. Just a big shift from where most of us have been for the last 10 years or so.
Show threadLilian EdwardsNov 7, 2022
@Johannab i think for oldies this comparison is much more intuitive than email - v few think about blocking email addresses let alone domains, or filtering, spam handling does it all for us - while for youngies, the whole notion that email *isnt* centralised is weird ( gmail!) so unhelpful there too. Stop talking about email.
Show threadMrs Mouse at workNov 7, 2022
@Johannab Oh, yes. I remember usenet. I forst got on usenet when AOL... NM.
Show threadMike GerdtsNov 7, 2022
@Johannab please, can I have trn for this and proper email (plain text, proper quoting, inline and trimmed replies) that is usable with mutt? Thx!
Show threadDeven PhillipsNov 7, 2022
@Johannab I keep telling people we should burn it all down and go #BackToIRC
Show threadBob LiedNov 7, 2022
Yes, there’s a very netnews in the 80s vibe. But this could be an Eternal September moment.
Show threadDerek Carter (aka goozbach)Nov 7, 2022
@Johannab This explains why mastodon felt so comfortable
Show threadb o b ™️Nov 7, 2022
@Johannab I remember reading talk.bizarre and feeling like I was listening in on the cleverest people in the world.
Show threadnoa-witheringlyNov 7, 2022
@Johannab
Definitely (Xennial here).
This is indeed kind of heartwarming, but also the reason why I'm not sure the activist momentum that for better or worse coalesced several times at crucial historical conjunctures on twitter can be replicated here - mostly because of the difference in the number of users involved at the time and nowadays, and most of all because of those users' background and general worldview (ime).
Show threadDallman RossNov 7, 2022

@Johannab I'm old enough, I did it, and I still do it! On local groups at #Panix.com¹, anyway — pretty much every single day! Been doing it there since 2000 and on Netcom before that after early 2002. And on The WELL before that.

¹https://www.panix.com, New York City's oldest and best public-access Unix site.

Show threadChristian Berger DECT 2763Nov 7, 2022
@Johannab Yeah, it's still around, though I hardly used it.
Show threadwerner58Nov 7, 2022

@Johannab

I thought that Reddit was the new Usenet ;)

(I know, I know, protocol wise this is much more like NNTP. The user experience of Reddit is more or less the modern continuation of Usenet though.)

Show threadChris GuidryNov 7, 2022
@Johannab Yes! Damn shame what happened to Usenet over time, swallowed up by Google Groups, then turned into mostly a piracy transport
Show threadDjaméNov 7, 2022
@Johannab I've been on usenet for years. Still there for some retro computing groups though. Have you forgotten the trolls, the spamming, the flamewars ?
Show threadLord KelvinNov 8, 2022
@Johannab
"I could really gopher some good ol' usenet, eh, archie?"
Show threadtechknightNov 8, 2022
@Johannab I do when I was a kid... I was very active in the sci.electronics.repair group back in the day.