“I accidentally found Usenet, the discussion system, by mistyping rm as rn, the Usenet reader.” (Lars Wirzenius @ https://lwn.net/Articles/928581/). #Linux #Usenet

@ecliptik @w4v3 #UUCP was used primarily at universities and corporations; #FidoNet by #BBSs. Both #Usenet and #Email ran atop UUCP. You could also send commands to be run on a remote system, and you'd get an email with the result. #FidoNet also had its version of email and Usenet (discussion groups), called netmail and echomail. Technically, #UUCP was the protocol; the network of systems using it went by various names, such as UUCPnet or UUnet. 2/

Beyond the now outmoded #contentwarning debate, the design of the #fediverse is actually *too good* at keeping the Argument Clinic (and other things deemed "toxic") at bay.

However, people make the mistake of thinking that #Twitter was the *cause* of those things, rather than simply having supplanted #USENET and the #blogosphere in providing the space for them.

@andresmh @bwaber @drewww @driscoll To put a more fine point on it, the problem isn't the #algorithm, but who it serves. The #Facebook, #Twitter, #YouTube, etc. algorithms serve a corporation with the goal of keeping your #attention (and ultimately maximizing #profit).

Older algorithms like #Usenet scorefiles serve the user. These are good!

I wrote a bit about this at https://changelog.complete.org/archives/10119-how-the-attention-economy-hurts-you-via-social-media-sites-like-facebook

@eludom Agreed; algorithms as the big corporate sites have implemented them are pretty bad. But really, 20 years ago #slrn and other #Usenet readers had scorefiles that let you adjust the score of a post by various pattern matching. It was reasonably effective. Current Mastodon filtering is primitive in comparison. Something that's user-controlled would be nice.

@arpcomics I'll be honest; I worried that sudden popularity might make #Mastodon die of an Eternal September as #Usenet once did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

But the opposite has happened! The people joining Mastodon recently have come with openness and curiosity, and the people that have been here longer have welcomed them. Most of the time, I can't tell the difference between a post from someone that's been here for years vs. days. Those just joining are making this place even better! 9/

@axbom I should use CWs more probably. It's considerate to start a talk with an introduction, add alt tags, and add a descriptive subject line to emails and #Usenet posts. Do they get in the way of witty repartee among friends!

@evan Maybe someone can rewrite the chapter on #Usenet from "Zen and the Art of the Internet" for the #Fediverse ....

https://legacy.cs.indiana.edu/docproject/zen/zen-1.0_6.html

Do you still use Usenet Newsgroups?

Please share your recommended #computer related newsgroups. Boost is very appreciated.

#Usenet #Newsgroup #Email

#Mastodon's federation reminds me of #Usenet & NNTP or APC conferences, global system of (mostly) strangers organised by topic.

If you share my nostalgia, what made Usenet work better than modern social media?

Are any other Mastodon newbies having slight #Usenet flashbacks? alt.feminism, we hardly knew ye.

2/

How to tunnel NNCP over: #S3 #Nextcloud #Owncloud #WebDAV #ssh #tor #LoRA #Xbee #SFTP and #UUCP - https://floss.social/@jgoerzen/106786433628981477

My 12-yr-old decides to write an operating system and learn C. https://floss.social/@jgoerzen/106871449955753762

I offer #Usenet feeds over #NNCP. https://floss.social/@jgoerzen/106891544884588818

#Yggdrasil, the end-to-end encrypted #Mesh network that needs zero infra. https://floss.social/@jgoerzen/107584885919420001

Tools that work #Offline with #NoInternet. https://floss.social/@jgoerzen/107884945439834995

14/ So I think what Mastodon does right is two-fold: 1) it is easy to leave your instance, and 2) you get to choose your curator.

Item 2 is an idea taken a lot further than it was in the past. On #FidoNet or #Usenet, sure, the admin could put in a few rules... but these were usually very limited. On Mastodon, at least at its present size, it is possible for admins to be aware of trends and block instances or topics that are not in alignment with what a good experience looks like locally.

4/ One of the things people that grew up with a curated Internet may not understand -- and the author of the thread I linked to says this of Elon -- is what uncurated Internet looks like. We see bits of this with the *chans, but those of us old enough to remember #Usenet remember that it was somewhat doomed by the trifecta of newbies, trolls, and spam. The signal-to-noise ratio was so low that even people that had been using it for years, such as myself, drifted away.

@szczezuja What I can say is that Gopher was part of the text Internet, and was one of the 6 or so core services: #Gopher, #FTP, #Telnet, #Usenet, #Email, and #IRC. The other services, such as finger or archie, were either less prominent or were in service to those 6. 2/

@kensanata @szczezuja And, of course, I do still run a #Gopher server. Gopher was my first experience with "live" Internet, after earlier gateways via #CompuServe (hello @eludom ) and #FidoNet, and getting email and #Usenet via #UUCP when I was 15.

@downey Yes indeed! It used uqwk to pack up #QWK packets. uqwk is longer in #Debian, but multimail, a QWK reader, is.

Random fact: both of those tools support SOUP, the Simple Offline #Usenet Packet! Now there's something I had completely forgotten.

I long for communities that span interests again. That was a feature of a #BBS, and of #Usenet in a looser fashion. Maybe you could say #reddit and #Mastodon, but Reddit is too time-sentive for me to ever contribute meaningfully (and is closed), and Mastodon is a "community" around who you know. (OK, maybe some local timelines on some instances? But those still seem to be around particular interests.)

There are a few Facebook groups, but those exclude by platform... Any others? 2/

@nytpu The #unison file synchronization tool is written in #OCaml. git-annex by @joeyh is written in #Haskell. Parts of #Firefox are written in what was once that relatively niche language, #Rust. Not so niche anymore though. There's a ton of software written in #elisp, including mail and #Usenet readers, clients for web, #gopher, and #gemini; chat programs, and my favorite: the #exwm window manager.

@elb @ajroach42 Thanks for making the intro. I read this thread, Andrew, and it's very good. I also have been talking about #Usenet lately, and thinking in some similar areas, such as at https://changelog.complete.org/archives/10231-recovering-our-lost-free-will-online-tools-and-techniques-that-are-available-now . I think we are thinking in similar areas; perhaps I am focusing a layer down in the stack from where Andrew is, but very similar thoughts indeed.