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0 pointsbluGill2y ago0 comments

Facebook, reddit, discord. It doesn't matter, all of them are inferior to usenet in usability. Usenet fails in the easy to get started with, but once you figure out how to get on usenet (which I no longer know how to do!) it is a much better experience. Usenet has the concept of "I already read this", so you can have long discussions. All other forums when you get more than a few dozen posts it is hard to track what you have seen and so you don't go back to look for more discussion even if it would be insightful.

Facebook often doesn't even show you interesting discussions if the discussion is interesting to you but not for the average person.

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shagie2y ago· 2 in thread

> but once you figure out how to get on usenet (which I no longer know how to do!) it is a much better experience.

Get a reader and sign up on https://www.eternal-september.org

The days of open servers are gone, but fairly permissive authenticated servers exist.

throw0101b2y ago

For those that do not know the reference:

> Eternal September or the September that never ended[1] is Usenet slang for a period beginning around 1993[2] when Internet service providers[2] began offering Usenet access to many new users. The flood of new users overwhelmed the existing culture for online forums and the ability to enforce existing norms. AOL followed with their Usenet gateway service in March 1994,[3] leading to a constant stream of new users. Hence, from the early Usenet point of view, the influx of new users in September 1993 never ended.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

c222y ago

Your quote buries the lede:

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Usenet and the Internet were generally the domain of dedicated computer professionals and hobbyists; new users joined slowly, in small numbers, and observed and learned the social conventions of online interaction without having much of an impact on the experienced users. The only exception to this was September of every year, when large numbers of first-year college students gained access to the Internet and Usenet through their universities. These large groups of new users who had not yet learned online etiquette created a nuisance for the experienced users, who came to dread September every year.

the_af2y ago

Facebook is the worst of the lot. The UX of groups for niche interests is terrible: hard to find/follow conversations, some messages get randomly hidden or highlighted, you can never go back to where you were in a conversation.

Yet, for some reason, years ago most niche communities I belonged to ditched perfectly serviceable phpbb forums and moved to Facebook. Now there's a second exodus to Discord, as braindead as the one before.

And I truly don't understand Reddit to Discord. It has little or nothing to do with moderation or disagreement with Reddit policies, mind you. At least the ones I've seen, the reason is as vague as "wouldn't it be cool to have a Discord?". Why is never answered clearly.

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