Annalee Newitz 🍜Dec 10, 2022
Internet evolution:
Usenet: find your people! there are a few dozen of them on rec.arts.funny!
Listservs: find your people! there are 100 of them on this obscure list devoted to Marxist cultural criticism!
Blogs: find your people! each time one of them visits your site, your counter will increment! look! it has reached four digits!
Social media: find your people! there are several million strangers who are calling you names!
Post-social media: find your people! there are several dozen of them!
Show threadJamie ClarkDec 10, 2022

@annaleen That analogy between Usenet and Mastodon is holding up pretty well so far.

Talk.bizarre, thanks very much. Welcome back to 1996.
Cc @tlr

Show threadUncle SlackyDec 10, 2022
@jamiexml @annaleen @tlr I used to hang out in t.b in the late 80s and early 90s - fortunately my ISP still carries netnews, for everyone else there's always https://www.eternal-september.org
www.eternal-september.org

Eternal September Usenet Server

Show threadmathew

@UncleSlacky @tlr @jamiexml @annaleen We need a directory of ex-t.b people. CJ and Ben Cox are active on Mastodon, not sure who else is.

Then again, when I met MJD he denied having ever heard of t.b, I imagine there are others who would sooner forget. And Carasso is still dead.

Dec 10, 2022 at 2:20pmWeb
Show threadUncle SlackyDec 10, 2022
@mathew @tlr @jamiexml @annaleen Hey, it's mathew@mantis! Yeah, I heard about Carasso's death a while ago. XIbo is still around (http://xibo.com), as is KPD, apparently (https://www.facebook.com/kentpaul.dolan.79). I wonder whatever became of gypsy and just.janine? (Scratch that, I think this is j.j: https://twitter.com/justjenine) Ken Johnson still posts in t.b fairly often.
Xibo Excarnate

Show threadmathewDec 11, 2022
@tlr @jamiexml @annaleen @UncleSlacky Gypsy was on Facebook in the Carasso obituary threads, but I haven’t logged in to Facebook in years.