Usenet is Still Useful

Ah, THOSE were the days! Well, most of Usenet is still relatively thriving, proving that communities tend to coalesce spontaneusly. I actually found some of my best friends there. It seems a life ago: when you needed a software you had to search for it by telnetting some Archie server, jottle down the file location and then FTP it.

As for internet porn, it was there as far as I recall, in the magnificence of 8-bit, 0,1 megapixel, heavily dithered nude gifs!

And multimedia: the first MP3 files meant that you could actually take *a whole song*, albeit not a long one, with you on a 1.44MB floppy (!)

It’s funny that to 2007 teenagers such recollections don’t make any sense.

(and about fingering Coke machines: I have a feeling they actually used to like it)

The first 2 rules of Fight Club apply to Usenet.

Goat porn, Monty Python skit becoming forever associated with junk email, Swedish Chef & Muppet spawning the “borked” meme, more goat porn, Operation Sundevil, the sum of all human opinion both righteous and depraved, endless arguments about everything and nothing; these are the things I think of when I think of UseNet.

News Readers are to the mid and early ’90s as RSS is to today.

Makes me want to fire up a MUD.

–Sidebar–

One of my Macs is pretty much just a dedicated TV and networked hard drive in my home office. I’m watching CSI (the good one) and I just saw Jerry Stahl credited as one of the writers. Permanent Midnight.

yah, i use usenet (SOMETIMES (i ONLY get 2gb/month of use from comcast) to download binaries as well (i’ve NEVER used it for ANYTHING else)! however, it can be hard to find those pesky “nzbs” (it’s IMPOSSIBLE to find ALL the files needed to compile a binary without ‘em)!!

VIVA LA USENET!!! :P

The Green(card) Slime from Canter and Siegel wasn’t the first USENET spam, but it was the first spam that was posted on every single newsgroup. Regrettably, neither Canter nor Siegel have yet been beaten to death. The ******* who wrote the perl script that they did the posting with has never dared to identify himself.

[IMG] Chris PirilloUsenet is Still UsefulPayPal Fraud Protection Dual Monitor Software? Sucks Time Machine: Present and Future Deconstructing the Gnomedex Conversation Award-Winning Software Usually Isn?t Is it Time to Abolish the Federal Reserve?

One also has to remember that the alt.* groups are not Usenet! They may very well be using the same technology, but the alt.* (and others, I’m sure) never dealt with the bureaucracy of Usenet. If you could get somebody else to carry your alt.* group, you started a group. Otherwise to get a group started, you had to petition for it, people would have to vote and other esoterica IIRC.

Bryan Price

alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.goats is too Usenet!

bryan is pretty much right about alt.* groups–they’re sorta the ******* GROUP of usenet (but alt.binaries.* are for ALL i (and others) use usenet)!

perhaps THIS (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet#Organization) will help others understand. :)

I agree with CJ (AKA Bahumatneo); an informative video, but you did miss out what Usenet is used for by a lot of people right now (binary downloading).

What CJ didn’t mention was the invention of *.nzb files, and newsreaders with the capability to process them. An nzb file is an xml file that points to a collection of files (usually rar files) on Usenet. There’s lots of sites which index Usenet allowing people to download nzbs of files they want to download. As far as usage is concerned, Nzb files are to Usenet what torrent files are to BT - you search for something, you get its nzb, you open the nzb in a client, which then connects to Usenet and downloads the files.

Right after I saw your video, I noticed this video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HM9qJ-QWTfk in the Related Videos section. The video is of a newsreader of sorts called NZBPlayer, that can “stream” Divx avi files from Usenet within moments. I used it, and so far I love it! It goes to show that although Usenet has somewhat changed over time, and one can reminisce about its past, it’s still totally great to use.

Finally, I’d like to address a silly notion that I’ve noticed spreading around Usenet like an illness. It’s been mentioned here and I’ve heard it elsewhere on numerous occasions. It’s the whole “The first rule about Usenet, is there is no Usenet” attitude.

This is just pure elitism. It’s a notion that was propagated by people who perceive themselves as special, and more “deserving” of Usenet than others. It’s overprotetive and unnecessary, and it’s worrying that so many people believe in censorship for “security reasons”.

Usenet will not go down, there is no need for secrecy. There are hundreds of Usenet providers all over the world, all of them synchronising their data amongst each other. It’s a public system, where anyone can post anything. Only the poster is responsible for what he posts. This is why providers do not get shut down, even though their servers contain terabytes of illegal files.

To worry that Usenet will be shut down if it gets too popular, is as ridiculous as thinking that the World Wide Web will be shut down because FOSI made a warez site. A public platform can’t and won’t be targetted. Only the people who *distribute* on that platform can face prosecution.

Basically, we’re not special, Usenet isn’t a secret downloading club, and I hope this post is useful to someone!

Basically, we’re not special, Usenet isn’t a secret downloading club, and I hope this post is useful to someone!

You are not a unique and beautiful snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else.

If this is your first night on UseNet, you have to fight.

I used to use Usnet all the time before my ISP dropped it in 2005.