The growth and decline of usenet

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22387

http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/newsserver/newsvolume.html

I found this chart quite interesting, mainly that current text postings are roughly equal to 1995 levels, and the decline in posting didn't really start until 2003. I thought it would have started a lot earlier than that, and it certainly doesn't feel as busy as it was in the late nineties.

Note that this graph is purely text posting (apart from 2 blips where they didn't filter them out)

zaphod79 · **Joined:** 16th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14513

There would be some interesting data looking at the signal/noise ratio on here - I wonder how much of what they have is just spam ?

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

I miss Usenet.

Dimrill · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 15:56

All the metal groups I used to frequent 95-03 are now just complete spampits. Even the filth binaries are dead now.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22387

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

I miss Usenet.

I used to have about a dozen groups I checked regularly, these days it is UGVM only, and a cursory look at the WoW group and the UK Mac group.

Even UGVM is dropping off over the past year or so...

TheVision · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 16:01

If I’m honest, I don’t know what Usenet is.

Dimrill · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 16:03

TheVision wrote:

If I’m honest, I don’t know what Usenet is.

It was ye olde YouTube commenter hell with a higher technological knowledge entry requirement breeding a very special kind of raving maniac.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22387

zaphod79 wrote:

There would be some interesting data looking at the signal/noise ratio on here - I wonder how much of what they have is just spam ?

A very good question, that might make sense as to why the current numbers look like the 1995 numbers, but groups show much less actual content, all the spam (99.9% anyway) gets filtered by providers these days, but I bet they are included in these figures.
1995 must have had very low amounts of spam compared to current levels.

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 16:04

Dimrill wrote:

spampits

And that, I suspect, is what's keeping the posting numbers up.

GazChap · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 16:06

Would spammers really spam Usenet, though?

I mean, in today's world, surely the only people still actively using Usenet are the tech-savvy types that would slit their own grandmother's throat if a single piece of spam managed to get through their carefully-orchestrated filtering set up?

Grim... · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 16:07

GazChap wrote:

Would spammers really spam Usenet, though?

Pick one and go and see.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22387

TheVision wrote:

If I’m honest, I don’t know what Usenet is.

It's where we all came from, young fella me lad. A time of lawlessness and cruelty, where men were men, women were men, and trolls were trolls.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22387

GazChap wrote:

Would spammers really spam Usenet, though?

They certainly do! I suspect that is because cycles and data are cheap in computing these days. It effectively costs them nothing to setup a service to continually run and spam away.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

The decline is very understandable. Nobody top-posts, so normal people turn up and go "WTF is this confusing nonsense?" and never go back again.

metalangel · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 16:35

I echo DocG and Dimrill's thoughts. Posting communities on there were excellent, and the sheer amount of filth (though I'd like to kill the bastards who'd break stuff into thousands of parts, 500kb each) was excellent.

Hell, the whole reason I bought my first CD burner was so I could make the most of Cardiff University's fast connection in residences and the Supernews account I bought for just that purpose. Lovely filth.

zaphod79 · **Joined:** 16th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14513

Dimrill wrote:

TheVision wrote:

If I’m honest, I don’t know what Usenet is.

It was ye olde YouTube commenter hell with a higher technological knowledge entry requirement breeding a very special kind of raving maniac.

Its a BBS

What do you mean you dont know what a BBS is - where do you get your 9k JPG porn files from !!!

zaphod79 · **Joined:** 16th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14513

Some interesting ideas of decline stuff on Wikipedia of all places

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet

Quote:

Usenet traffic changes

Over time, the amount of Usenet traffic has steadily increased. As of 2010 the number of all text posts made in all Big-8 newsgroups averaged 1,800 new messages every hour, with an average of 25,000 messages per day.[46] However, these averages are minuscule in comparison to the traffic in the binary groups.[47] Much of this traffic increase reflects not an increase in discrete users or newsgroup discussions, but instead the combination of massive automated spamming and an increase in the use of .binaries newsgroups[46] in which large files are often posted publicly.

Hero of Excellence · **Joined:** 23rd Nov, 2008 **Posts:** 674

Checking over the Usenet groups I read from 1995 to 2003 is like visiting the rusting hulks of a deceased once-mighty civilisation.

GovernmentYard · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5318

I miss the old MUDs I'd telnet into in the mid nineties. Underworld? You could get laid through those places, they were awesome.

Dimrill · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 19:30

Fucking hell you were an Underworld spod?! I met Fisher on Amnesia House back in the mid-late nineties.

metalangel · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 19:38

Hero of Excellence wrote:

Checking over the Usenet groups I read from 1995 to 2003 is like visiting the rusting hulks of a deceased once-mighty civilisation.

Before internet culture was all rage comics and motivational posters?

Plissken · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 19:59

http://www.mono.org is where it was at.

Usenet was brilliant when I first got on the Net. uk.media.radio.radcliffe was fun. As was some of the discussions on the running of the uk.* groups - I seem to recall one guy called Andy Mabbett, whose knowledge of arcane procedure was legendary. And the fact that Ambridge was considered a real place.

Dimrill · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 20:02

The internet? Luxury! When I were a lad it was diskmags and YS2. And we had to pay for the privilege of conversing on them. In blood.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22387

Plissken wrote:

http://www.mono.org is where it was at.

Usenet was brilliant when I first got on the Net. uk.media.radio.radcliffe was fun. As was some of the discussions on the running of the uk.* groups - I seem to recall one guy called Andy Mabbett, whose knowledge of arcane procedure was legendary. And the fact that Ambridge was considered a real place.

Heh, I remember Andy mabbett, there was also the paranoid kook, mike something was it?

I was a uk.misc dweller, and obviously the uk.games.video.* groups, which is how I found this place.

GovernmentYard · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5318

Dimrill wrote:

Fucking hell you were an Underworld spod?! I met Fisher on Amnesia House back in the mid-late nineties.

I'm sure it was underworld. Something very close, if not. No-one I can check with anymore. I used to bob in for an hour after lectures and before the pub.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 23:21

Never used it.

That's probably why it died.

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 0:19

I do miss usenet.

Particulary the chaos caused by cross posting.

MaliA · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:17

Plissken wrote:

....And the fact that Ambridge was considered a real place.

It is, it's in Borchester.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22387

Usenet is actually orders of magnitude busier than it ever was, in terms of messages, but it is all TV and film binaries.

metalangel · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 10:54

Mr Dave wrote:

I do miss usenet.

Particulary the chaos caused by top posting.

Obscure feex.

MaliA · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 10:56

"Set your line length to 72, newbie"

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22387

4 line sig max, doofus.

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:34

metalangel wrote:

Mr Dave wrote:

I do miss usenet.

Particulary the chaos caused by top posting.

Obscure feex.

My group top posted.

Which was fun when cross posting with bottom posting peopke.

I seem to remember alt.config being paryicularly easy to wind up.

Sir Taxalot · **Joined:** 5th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 4809

TheVision wrote:

If I’m honest, I don’t know what Usenet is.

I'm not really sure either, but I've heard of it, and BBS.

I assume it's kind of like a forum with some odd formatting or presentation style. And possibly loads of hosted files. Am I even close?

MaliA · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:42

Download Agent newsreader, set the news server up form your isp and subscribe to uk.rec.motorcycles. and have a look.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

Sir Taxalot wrote:

I assume it's kind of like a forum with some odd formatting or presentation style. And possibly loads of hosted files. Am I even close?

Incredible scenes.

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:51

Forums are so limited in comparisson.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

Mr Dave wrote:

Forums are so limited in comparisson.

Really? The only real difference as I can see it is the ability to support fully threaded conversations, and the ability to cross-post.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22387

Craster wrote:

Mr Dave wrote:

Forums are so limited in comparisson.

Really? The only real difference as I can see it is the ability to support fully threaded conversations, and the ability to cross-post.

Proper threading, killfiles on people or conversations, or both, or neither, or whatever you want, a protocol that is client independent so you can choose a client that does exactly what you want, the way you want it.
Miniscule data requirements, completely robust and reliable.

Sure forums have their own qualities that usenet can never match, but as a pure text discussion tool, usenet has it beat hands down.

Malc · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:28

plus )ignoring 3rd party archives( if you want to look at something posted sometime ago, it's not possible.

Malc

Dr Zoidberg · **Joined:** 15th Oct, 2010 **Posts:** 5384

MaliA wrote:

Download Agent newsreader, set the news server up form your isp and subscribe to uk.rec.motorcycles. and have a look.

One of the few decent uk. groups left.

I do miss usenet, but it's not a patch on what it used to be. I used to spend a vast amount of time on there and made some really good friends. Oh, and managed to sleep with two people I met there.

MaliA · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:34

Dr Zoidberg wrote:

MaliA wrote:

Download Agent newsreader, set the news server up form your isp and subscribe to uk.rec.motorcycles. and have a look.

One of the few decent uk. groups left.

I do miss usenet, but it's not a patch on what it used to be. I used to spend a vast amount of time on there and made some really good friends. Oh, and managed to sleep with two people I met there.

I thought the name was familiar. I only ever lurked and asked a couple of stupid questions.

Plissken · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:53

MaliA wrote:

Dr Zoidberg wrote:

MaliA wrote:

Download Agent newsreader, set the news server up form your isp and subscribe to uk.rec.motorcycles. and have a look.

One of the few decent uk. groups left.

I do miss usenet, but it's not a patch on what it used to be. I used to spend a vast amount of time on there and made some really good friends. Oh, and managed to sleep with two people I met there.

I thought the name was familiar. I only ever lurked and asked a couple of stupid questions.

Presumably one of them was "You want to sleep with me? *shrugs* Why not..."

MaliA · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:55

Plissken wrote:

MaliA wrote:

Dr Zoidberg wrote:

MaliA wrote:

Download Agent newsreader, set the news server up form your isp and subscribe to uk.rec.motorcycles. and have a look.

One of the few decent uk. groups left.

I do miss usenet, but it's not a patch on what it used to be. I used to spend a vast amount of time on there and made some really good friends. Oh, and managed to sleep with two people I met there.

I thought the name was familiar. I only ever lurked and asked a couple of stupid questions.

Presumably one of them was "You want to sleep with me? *shrugs* Why not..."

Close. But I never phrase it as a question. Rookie error.

Dr Zoidberg · **Joined:** 15th Oct, 2010 **Posts:** 5384

MaliA wrote:

Dr Zoidberg wrote:

MaliA wrote:

Download Agent newsreader, set the news server up form your isp and subscribe to uk.rec.motorcycles. and have a look.

One of the few decent uk. groups left.

I do miss usenet, but it's not a patch on what it used to be. I used to spend a vast amount of time on there and made some really good friends. Oh, and managed to sleep with two people I met there.

I thought the name was familiar. I only ever lurked and asked a couple of stupid questions.

I've never been a big ukrm poster, but did use Dr Z as my normal posting name.
I've wandered in and out of most of the uk groups over the years, and the uk.....eBay one was my creation.

I also miss the old google groups archive (and deja before that). The new version is almost unusable.

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The growth and decline of usenet

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