While text based messages on usenet may be dieing, the file sharing is still quite popular. My radar and sonar still pick up plenty of signals.
You should also check IRC. Many 1st releases sprout from there and filter into Usenet and torrents and is far more active than NNTP. Rizon is a good start point.
usenet and irc were ‘the fediverse’ before it became trendy.
So much this! I am old, I guess, but I was on Usenet for years before the web was even invented. When I became aware of the fediverse, I got serious Usenet vibes. A decentralized model, several servers, you access one and get what it sends you, but it syncs with all other servers. You‘re getting everything in the entire Usenet and what you post gets everywhere too… we’ve come full circle, I think, even if we now use ActivePub instead of NNTP… a shame people nowadays know of it as “that piracy thing” instead of what it once was (and was designed to be).
Preach! My first experience with Usenet was rexx scripts on a mainframe using tn3270. Same with all of the ftp sites. Remember fingering id software?
Also, you can post to nntp via email.
Back in the day I’d use UUCP over dial up to the local university to get email and my chosen usenet groups. Ah, the nostalgia of coming home to find my Amiga’s floppy had run out of room…
All of the protocols that have been ratified are federated. That was kind of the big thing of the internet. HTTP, SMTP (email), FTP, etc. All federated.
When people talk about defederating threads, I’m always curious why they think Net Neutrality is a bad idea, or if they’d appreciate if their email providers didn’t allow emails to Gmail because they don’t like big corporations…
Neutrality is a bad idea, or if they’d appreciate if >their email providers didn’t allow emails to Gmail >because they don’t like big corporations…
email servers and domains are blocked constantly and have been since the 90’s when they are pushing spam, malware,etc.
Spam filters isn’t the same as defederating. As far as I know outside of cert issues (like DKIM to prevent spoofing) nobody would prevent you from sending an email to any domain that uses SMTP. And if you allowlist emails from that domain you’ll receive it.
This is not the same as Gmail saying “we won’t allow emails to and from proton” or vice versa.
But MANY email services block entire domains. Not “to” I’ll give you but from.
Well the issue with Usenet is the following:
- Usenet is quite old
- Usenet is not very well known.
- Usenet has many barriers to entry.
- Usenet groups have garnered an exclusionary reputation.
- Other easier options have existed for a long time for basic social media interaction.
Usenet also largely became a venue for bootlegging and porn – and due to the nature of the protocol, companies hosting Usenet services didn’t want to have to store all of that shit. After about 1995, you didn’t go there for discussion anymore. Eternal September messed it up. Lemmy is fortunate that you can’t really use it for file sharing, a few images notwithstanding, or the same thing would happen.
and due to the nature of the protocol, companies hosting Usenet services didn’t want to have to store all of that shit.
You can opt not to carry certain newsgroups, eg skipping alt.binaries.* would reduce your storage requirements drastically.
The fact of the matter is that people wanted something more “instant and accessible” than newsgroups that were synced overnight, and modern social media sprang from that desire.
It should be emphasized, the above list is accurate for Social Interaction as the discussions and text have indeed waned. It does mention that at the end, but still.
For media sharing specifically, many of those above items are either trivial OR are actually what helps it thrive. Somehow, 30 years later, we’re still under the radar and maxing out connection speeds without having to VPN, seed, share or dodge ISP rules and DMCA requests.
I don’t think irc and usenet is dead. It’s still used a lot for piracy.
They’re dead as social media; all anyone uses them for is piracy these days and not to, you know… Talk to people.
I think IRC could be made more appealing pretty easily though. Just make a client for it with a slick UI and features like Discord has (like voice and video chat, not simply text), and then allow any Nitro-like shit for free.
I think it comes to down to the definition of “dead”. Both are certainly dead for the reasons they were created.
I’m old, but does anyone remember alt.pave.the.earth? And the spinoff alt.chrome.the.moon?
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