We need more Forums

watty

I lost usenet access when I moved from eircom to digiweb, but boards is so much better I didn't shed a tear. I never used alt.binaries only chat/text groups.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/09/att_kills_usenet/

The future is Boards.

So maybe we should just have Ross/Conor run a script and copy the tree structure of all the decent usenet (newsgroups/NTTP) instead of the these begging threads that go on for weeks or months for new forums?

Our Satellite & Hobby Foreign Satellite forums are better than alt.satellite.europe ever was/is ...

Ron DMC

watty wrote: »

Our Satellite & Hobby Foreign Satellite forums are better than alt.satellite.europe ever was/is ...

You would say that.

Nerin

Boardean Times please.

orestes

As boards grows faster and faster new forums will need to be developed to deal with the various communities and sub-communities that becoe busier and need their own space. Dev said recently in the next few years he wants to see several times the number of forums we have here now, and I can see it happening as this place is growing at a scary rate. There will forums for pretty uch everything eventually.

Apart from Classic Rock, nobody is interested in a forum for that.

Nevyn

The end of usenet, Fuuuuuuuck.

No wonder boards has started to feel like it's suffering from Eternal September of late.

watty

Can we blame AOL this time?


It's been coming a long time. I've only had sporadic Usenet access for nearly 4 years. Many newer ISPs don't even do non-binary newsgroups. I tried to persuade Digiweb to setup an NTTP server with just text groups but the tradition of spam and porn and big traffic on binaries means that startup ISP in lat 5 or 6 years are unlikely to carry newsgroups.

On February 9, 2005, AOL discontinued newsgroup access through its service.

On September 16, 2008 Comcast discontinued newsgroup access, previously provided to all its high speed customers. This led some commentators to claim that perhaps September is finally over. Others though look at the removal of service from almost all ISPs as a whole to be the end of Usenet altogether; considered by some to be a result of influence by politicians attempting to crack down on Usenet being used to disseminate child pornography.

Some ISPs have eliminated binary groups (Telus in Canada) and others have dropped Usenet altogether (Rogers in Canada)

I set up an experimental NTTP on 300bps packet radio linked to a friend's news server in Gibraltar (via dialup), carrying about 8 groups 5 years ago, but we had problems propagating posts past his server so I shut it down after a few months. The 300bps IP over AX.25 packet radio part worked well from Limerick to Galway via a Tipperary "Store & forward" repeater (Packet Radio Node).


Anyway...
I hope we get the new forums procedure streamlined and forums launching faster.

DeVore

I think Seamus has been doing sterling work for us in that area already but one fire at a time

I'm a huge fan of usenet the idea, but it was flawed in execution. Lack of moderation (ironically) allowed an unsustainable free-for-all including the spammers and porn and kiddie pics.

Now, usually I bristle at the use of kiddie-porn as an excuse to attack general freedoms but Usenet was a step too far down the anarchy route for my tastes too. I suspect NNTP will become the "dark protocol" of the internet in the future, the protocol that dares not speak its name?

I dont know if I would see binaries being a part of Boards but certainly my decade of using usenet before Boards was created gave me a push in the direction of creating something in its image. Just with moderators.

Its sad to see Usenet going, but it was unowned and uncontrollable and while that was allowed at the start, it would never stand in the mainstream modern world.

DeV.

watty

DeVore wrote: »

I I suspect NNTP will become the "dark protocol" of the internet in the future, the protocol that dares not speak its name?

DeV.

No, that's bitorrent

No need for Binaries. That's not discussion. Besides torrents (p2p rather than "actual" bittorrent) is even adopted by Sky, C4, BBC etc. There are newer technologies / sw that use transparent proxies at ISPs and exchanges to reduce backbone traffic (of interest even to ISPs etc for reducing iPlayer traffic etc) and distributed encrypted systems that remove the need for trackers.

The Moderators is what makes Boards a success. I was online 1st with prestel in 1980 and then via X.25 access to various networks from 1987 then dialup BBS and IOL in early 90s.

Usenet was doomed once the Internet became public and Usenet II was an epic fail from the start. Yahoo groups has replaced usenet for many, and many people use google to acces the original usenet. There are 4 or 5 specialist groups I use on Yahoo and frankly I hate the interface. The groups I use on Yahoo are themselves well moderated.

So the other "secret sauce" of Boards apart from the Mods/Admin Ethos is the customised VB software.

Bruce Schneier warned us nearly 4 years ago:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/12/computer_crime_1.html

December 16, 2005
Computer Crime Hype

I guess this is the season for sensationalist hype of computer crime: first CNN, and then USA Today (drug users and Internet crime, for a double-scary story).

Beware the Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse: terrorists, drug dealers, kidnappers, and child pornographers. Seems like you can scare any public into allowing the government to do anything with those four.

Posted on December 16, 2005 at 3:15 PM

(Ain't google great?)

DeVore

I frakkin' hate when they use those to completely blow people's rights out of the water. I hate even more that the general populace buy it wholesale.

"The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either", Benjamin Franklin

DeV.

Boston

didn't boards have an interface to some Usenet group way back when? I recall usenet posts being on the front page.

Dav

yep, that was wayyyyy back in the day and was something Cloud did I believe.

DeVore

We fronted an NNTP interface but we didnt host the data, its simply too much per day to handle even for us. Usenet is dead imho. Its distributed and unregulated making it both unweildy, boalted (many copies of the same message exist in many places and updates to a thread have to be washed back and forth to all nodes), and unmoderatable making it the lowest common denominator-driven.

Its a real pity but the world is not yet the sort of place where self-regulation works. It probably never will be.

DeV.

Boston

Usenet is seeing a massive resurgence in the last few years, but only within certain groups and almost exclusively for binaries. It's not dead, but it's orginal purpose has long since been twisted.

johnnyskeleton

DeVore wrote: »

I frakkin' hate when they use those to completely blow people's rights out of the water. I hate even more that the general populace buy it wholesale.

"The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either", Benjamin Franklin

DeV.

But while you don't like it when they say those things, you'll also defend to the death their right to say it, no?

watty

yep but you don't have to agree or like it. It damages fillings as you grind your teeth.

The Black Oil

orestes wrote: »

As boards grows faster and faster new forums will need to be developed to deal with the various communities and sub-communities that becoe busier and need their own space. Dev said recently in the next few years he wants to see several times the number of forums we have here now, and I can see it happening as this place is growing at a scary rate. There will forums for pretty uch everything eventually.

Apart from Classic Rock, nobody is interested in a forum for that.

Don't worry, firstly, 2 independent servers will be built. Soon it will be realised that they are not tall enough to handle all sizes of posters, that 6 should have been built and that they should have been connected. Next, extra RAM will be required prompting a down tools 'story, we weren't consulted about this new roster' protest at which point the boards.ie trade union, BANDATE, will get involved. The government will send in Willie O'Dea and Bono to mediate. Both of whom will fail in their attempt to ask 'why so serious?' George Lee will slam the government's naked over reliance on the posting sector and we still won't have integrated posting. Finally, certain mods will leave top secret USB keys on trains, in cinemas, at bus stops, whilst The Daily Telegraph will expose certain mods as having 'flipped' their forums..

dr.bollocko

orestes wrote: »

Apart from Classic Rock, nobody is interested in a forum for that.

/Pulls out hair. Long lustrous hair.
/smashes bottle of Jager on bassist.
Wait. What are the first two chords of stairway to heaven again?

watty

Am G# + C (intro)

repeats for start of Vocals


Banned from shop for life...

Besides it's totally unrepresentative of their work.

What about "Don't Fear The Reaper" Blue Oyster Cult?

orestes

dr.bollocko wrote: »

Wait. What are the first two chords of stairway to heaven again?

watty wrote: »

Banned from shop for life...

Denied