Title: End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support
Author: Rob Pegoraro
Date: December 16, 2023

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
In early 2000, I wrote a column for the Washington Post about the
growing uselessness of many newsgroups in which I quoted one of Usenet’s
developers, computer-science professor Steve Bellovin, shrugging off its
possible demise: “Times and technologies change--20 years is a great run
for anything.”

Almost 24 years later, that quote has held up better than Usenet.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Source:
https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-support

Julieta Shem wrote:
>
> Title: End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support
> Author: Rob Pegoraro
> Date: December 16, 2023
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> In early 2000, I wrote a column for the Washington Post about the
> growing uselessness of many newsgroups in which I quoted one of Usenet’s
> developers, computer-science professor Steve Bellovin, shrugging off its
> possible demise: “Times and technologies change--20 years is a great run
> for anything.”
>
> Almost 24 years later, that quote has held up better than Usenet.
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> Source:
> https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-support
>

That article totally misses the point, absolutely clueless.

Julieta Shem wrote:

> Title: End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support
> Author: Rob Pegoraro
> Date: December 16, 2023
<snip>
> Source:
> https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-support

I don't think Usenet is going anywhere. google-groups was a false inflation in Usenet numbers. Most ppl there had no idea what is Usenet. I'm guessing some do not understand the notification message they're seeing.

Others are signing up at real news servers. I know I'm seeing an increase in new users on my servers, and I believe others are also.

Usenet may die when the last of us running servers that were Usenet users way back are finally gone. That might not be too long in the future, but a few decades at least.

--
Retro Guy

On Sat, 16 Dec 2023 15:14:29 +0100, Andrew wrote:

> Julieta Shem wrote:
>>
>> Title: End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support
>> Author: Rob Pegoraro
>> Date: December 16, 2023
>>
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> In early 2000, I wrote a column for the Washington Post about the
>> growing uselessness of many newsgroups in which I quoted one of
>> Usenet’s developers, computer-science professor Steve Bellovin,
>> shrugging off its possible demise: “Times and technologies change--20
>> years is a great run for anything.”
>>
>> Almost 24 years later, that quote has held up better than Usenet.
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>
>> Source:
>> https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-
support
>>
>>
> That article totally misses the point, absolutely clueless.

Yep. It reads (to me anyway) as, "Google disconnects from Usenet, no way
Usenet can survive without them."

You would think the author would have taken the time to read in some
news.* groups and find out what's going on. My guess is he has no idea
about the spam problem, no idea that people are standing up to maintain
Usenet despite the (basically) attacks from Google. I doubt he has read a
newsgroup in many years, at least not via ggroups.

Am 16.12.2023 um 14:17:58 Uhr schrieb Retro Guy:

> Others are signing up at real news servers. I know I'm seeing an
> increase in new users on my servers, and I believe others are also.

How much did that since yesterday?

How much in the past?

On Sat, 16 Dec 2023 15:14:29 +0100, Andrew <Doug@hyperspace.vogon.gov> wrote:
>Julieta Shem wrote:
>> Source:
>> https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-support
>
>That article totally misses the point, absolutely clueless.

they want to keep their bosses happy . . . temporality is continually dying,
and the infallible council may continue changing their minds without notice

On Sat, 16 Dec 2023 10:49:50 -0300, Julieta Shem <jshem@yaxenu.org> wrote:
>https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-support

(using Tor Browser 13.0.6 to open this suspicious link)
https://uk.pcmag.com/social-media/150146/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-support
>End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support
>One of the oldest forms of social media fades away a little more.
>by Rob Pegoraro Dec 16, 2023
>A social-networking fossil looks even more embedded in sedimentary rock now
>that Google plans to retire the Usenet gateway it's maintained at its Google
>Groups site since 2001.
>The news surfaced Thursday in a "Google Groups ending support for Usenet" post
>on the Groups help forum. "Starting on February 22, 2024, you can no longer use
>Google Groups (at groups.google.com) to post content to Usenet groups, subscribe
>to Usenet groups, or view new Usenet content," the post advises. "You can
>continue to view and search for historical Usenet content posted before February
>22, 2024 on Google Groups."
>Anybody who wants to stay current on Usenet will need to find a new client and
>network news transfer protocol server-the post advises Googling for help with
>those things-while the non-Usenet parts of Google Groups will remain as they are
>today.
>For those of you thinking "Use-what?", Usenet offered decentralized social
>networking starting in 1980, decades before "fediverse" became a 2023 buzzword.
>It consisted of a vast hierarchy of threaded forums called newsgroups,
>distributed via a store-and-forward architecture that had individual online
>services host their own copies of these forums.
>This made Usenet open to people without full-fledged internet connectivity; AOL
>carried newsgroups before it added web browsing.
>Back in the day, Usenet offered a range of user-generated content as vast and as
>weird as Reddit ever has, organized in a naming system that began with short
>top-level prefixes (for instance, "sci." for science discussions) and then got
>more specific (as in, sci.space.history).
>Usenet's strangest subdivision was its "alt." hierarchy, which let anybody
>create a newsgroup and therefore contained such oddities as alt.pave.the.earth
>(people hypothesizing about covering the planet in blacktop) as well as alt.
>binaries.* file-sharing groups (in which people uploaded and downloaded MP3s
>years before Napster arrived).
>Many of the social-media problems that remain unsolved today, like trolling
>and spam, surfaced decades earlier on Usenet. But Usenet's ability to connect
>widely separated people with shared interests also sparked long-lived
>collaborative projects: The Internet Movie Database began on the rec.arts.
>movies newsgroup.
>Google got into the Usenet business in 2001 when it bought the newsgroups side
>of DejaNews, which had developed a usable web front-end to Usenet that let
>people read and post in a browser instead of dedicated "newsreader" apps.
>But by then, Usenet was already sinking under the weight of abusive or
>irrelevant posts that individual users struggled to control with filters in
>their own apps-an early case of content moderation tools proving inadequate to
>the task.
>In early 2000, I wrote a column for the Washington Post about the growing
>uselessness of many newsgroups in which I quoted one of Usenet's developers,
>computer-science professor Steve Bellovin, shrugging off its possible demise:
>"Times and technologies change--20 years is a great run for anything."
>Almost 24 years later, that quote has held up better than Usenet.
[end quote]

On Sat, 16 Dec 2023 15:45:16 +0100, Marco Moock wrote:

> Am 16.12.2023 um 14:17:58 Uhr schrieb Retro Guy:
>
>> Others are signing up at real news servers. I know I'm seeing an
>> increase in new users on my servers, and I believe others are also.
>
> How much did that since yesterday?
>
> How much in the past?

My servers are not well known and small, so the numbers are small, but I
see a 650% increase in daily sign-ups yesterday.

In article <87fs029s01.fsf@yaxenu.org>, Julieta Shem <jshem@yaxenu.org> wrote:
>
> Title: End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support
>Author: Rob Pegoraro
> Date: December 16, 2023
>
>--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>In early 2000, I wrote a column for the Washington Post about the
>growing uselessness of many newsgroups in which I quoted one of Usenet’s
>developers, computer-science professor Steve Bellovin, shrugging off its
>possible demise: “Times and technologies change--20 years is a great run
>for anything.”
>
>Almost 24 years later, that quote has held up better than Usenet.
>--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
>Source:
>https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-support

Google drops, nothing ended.
--
Member - Liberal International This is doctor@nk.ca Ici doctor@nk.ca
Yahweh, King & country!Never Satan President Republic!Beware AntiChrist rising!
Look at Psalms 14 and 53 on Atheism ; unsubscribe from Google Groups to be seen
Merry Christmas 2023 and Happy New year 2024 Beware https://mindspring.com

In article <ulkbc5$6gcm$1@paganini.bofh.team>,
Andrew <Doug@hyperspace.vogon.gov> wrote:
>Julieta Shem wrote:
>>
>> Title: End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support
>> Author: Rob Pegoraro
>> Date: December 16, 2023
>>
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> In early 2000, I wrote a column for the Washington Post about the
>> growing uselessness of many newsgroups in which I quoted one of Usenet’s
>> developers, computer-science professor Steve Bellovin, shrugging off its
>> possible demise: “Times and technologies change--20 years is a great run
>> for anything.”
>>
>> Almost 24 years later, that quote has held up better than Usenet.
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>
>> Source:
>> https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-support
>>
>
>That article totally misses the point, absolutely clueless.

Exactly!
--
Member - Liberal International This is doctor@nk.ca Ici doctor@nk.ca
Yahweh, King & country!Never Satan President Republic!Beware AntiChrist rising!
Look at Psalms 14 and 53 on Atheism ; unsubscribe from Google Groups to be seen
Merry Christmas 2023 and Happy New year 2024 Beware https://mindspring.com

In article <95a3824930f0e7c413e1c02fb7db97fb@news.novabbs.org>,
Retro Guy <retro.guy@rocksolidbbs.com> wrote:
>Julieta Shem wrote:
>
>> Title: End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support
>> Author: Rob Pegoraro
>> Date: December 16, 2023
><snip>
>> Source:
>> https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-support
>
>I don't think Usenet is going anywhere. google-groups was a false
>inflation in Usenet numbers. Most ppl there had no idea what is Usenet.
>I'm guessing some do not understand the notification message they're
>seeing.
>
>Others are signing up at real news servers. I know I'm seeing an
>increase in new users on my servers, and I believe others are also.
>
>Usenet may die when the last of us running servers that were Usenet
>users way back are finally gone. That might not be too long in the
>future, but a few decades at least.
>

Spot on correct!

>--
>Retro Guy

--
Member - Liberal International This is doctor@nk.ca Ici doctor@nk.ca
Yahweh, King & country!Never Satan President Republic!Beware AntiChrist rising!
Look at Psalms 14 and 53 on Atheism ; unsubscribe from Google Groups to be seen
Merry Christmas 2023 and Happy New year 2024 Beware https://mindspring.com

In article <cdcc00e0023090240e0af63d0429ee8d$1@news.novabbs.org>,
Retro Guy <retroguy@novabbs.org> wrote:
>On Sat, 16 Dec 2023 15:14:29 +0100, Andrew wrote:
>
>> Julieta Shem wrote:
>>>
>>> Title: End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support
>>> Author: Rob Pegoraro
>>> Date: December 16, 2023
>>>
>>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>>> In early 2000, I wrote a column for the Washington Post about the
>>> growing uselessness of many newsgroups in which I quoted one of
>>> Usenet’s developers, computer-science professor Steve Bellovin,
>>> shrugging off its possible demise: “Times and technologies change--20
>>> years is a great run for anything.”
>>>
>>> Almost 24 years later, that quote has held up better than Usenet.
>>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>>
>>> Source:
>>> https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-
>support
>>>
>>>
>> That article totally misses the point, absolutely clueless.
>
>Yep. It reads (to me anyway) as, "Google disconnects from Usenet, no way
>Usenet can survive without them."
>

Bull!!

>You would think the author would have taken the time to read in some
>news.* groups and find out what's going on. My guess is he has no idea
>about the spam problem, no idea that people are standing up to maintain
>Usenet despite the (basically) attacks from Google. I doubt he has read a
>newsgroup in many years, at least not via ggroups.
>

The ill informed needs an education!
--
Member - Liberal International This is doctor@nk.ca Ici doctor@nk.ca
Yahweh, King & country!Never Satan President Republic!Beware AntiChrist rising!
Look at Psalms 14 and 53 on Atheism ; unsubscribe from Google Groups to be seen
Merry Christmas 2023 and Happy New year 2024 Beware https://mindspring.com

Retro Guy wrote:

> I'm seeing an increase in new users on my servers

Where I've noticed any posters saying the end of G2 might mean they
leave usenet altogether, I've been pointing them to a relevant group on
your servers ...

On Sat, 16 Dec 2023 15:48:40 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

> Retro Guy wrote:
>
>> I'm seeing an increase in new users on my servers
>
> Where I've noticed any posters saying the end of G2 might mean they
> leave usenet altogether, I've been pointing them to a relevant group on
> your servers ...

I wouldn't doubt that a majority will no longer post to groups that are
part of Usenet. They may or may not be aware of Usenet, but they'll just
move on to other web based forums which will most likely be a walled
garden that disappears when the site disappears.

The chatter in groups over the last couple of months with g-g users trying
to drag ppl to facebook or reddit instead of a real Usenet server shows
how some think.

Btw, when I mention "my servers" I'm really meaning news.i2pn2.org. I
consider the websites that sync with Usenet to be websites (yes, I know
they run on servers :)

At least with my forums, I could turn into a huge a-hole and start banning
ppl, but they could just find all the groups elsewhere, with all the
messages intact, unlike f-book, reddit, etc.

Julieta Shem wrote:

>
> Title: End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support
> Author: Rob Pegoraro
> Date: December 16, 2023
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> In early 2000, I wrote a column for the Washington Post about the
> growing uselessness of many newsgroups in which I quoted one of
> Usenet’s developers, computer-science professor Steve Bellovin,
> shrugging off its possible demise: “Times and technologies
> change--20 years is a great run for anything.”
>
> Almost 24 years later, that quote has held up better than Usenet.
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> Source:
>
https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-support

What an ignorant article... clearly written by somebody who never
understood what Usenet actually was and wasn't. Google Groups was
never Usenet. Anybody believing otherwise is just plain ignorant.

>
> What an ignorant article... clearly written by somebody who never
> understood what Usenet actually was and wasn't. Google Groups was
> never Usenet. Anybody believing otherwise is just plain ignorant.

I agree 100% also Usenet is having a comeback people is tired of bloated web
pages with trackers and cookies and shit.

--
- {gemini,https}://{,rek2.}hispagatos.org - mastodon: @rek2@hispagatos.space
- [https|gemini]://2600.Madrid - https://hispagatos.space/@rek2
- https://keyoxide.org/A31C7CE19D9C58084EA42BA26C0B0D11E9303EC5

In article <ku5v6pFfmgmU1@mid.individual.net>,
Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
>Retro Guy wrote:
>
>> I'm seeing an increase in new users on my servers
>
>Where I've noticed any posters saying the end of G2 might mean they
>leave usenet altogether, I've been pointing them to a relevant group on
>your servers ...
>

Those are the cheap spamtrollers!
--
Member - Liberal International This is doctor@nk.ca Ici doctor@nk.ca
Yahweh, King & country!Never Satan President Republic!Beware AntiChrist rising!
Look at Psalms 14 and 53 on Atheism ; unsubscribe from Google Groups to be seen
Merry Christmas 2023 and Happy New year 2024 Beware https://mindspring.com

In article <nnd$38ca27c8$3af7290f@32d74c3a4656ea04>,
Blueshirt <blueshirt@indigo.news> wrote:
>Julieta Shem wrote:
>
>>
>> Title: End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support
>> Author: Rob Pegoraro
>> Date: December 16, 2023
>>
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> In early 2000, I wrote a column for the Washington Post about the
>> growing uselessness of many newsgroups in which I quoted one of
>> Usenet’s developers, computer-science professor Steve Bellovin,
>> shrugging off its possible demise: “Times and technologies
>> change--20 years is a great run for anything.”
>>
>> Almost 24 years later, that quote has held up better than Usenet.
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>
>> Source:
>>
>https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-support
>
>What an ignorant article... clearly written by somebody who never
>understood what Usenet actually was and wasn't. Google Groups was
>never Usenet. Anybody believing otherwise is just plain ignorant.

Any comment areas?

Nope! time for a SM rant!
--
Member - Liberal International This is doctor@nk.ca Ici doctor@nk.ca
Yahweh, King & country!Never Satan President Republic!Beware AntiChrist rising!
Look at Psalms 14 and 53 on Atheism ; unsubscribe from Google Groups to be seen
Merry Christmas 2023 and Happy New year 2024 Beware https://mindspring.com

In article <ulkjop$1p42e$1@matrix.hispagatos.org>,
rek2 hispagatos <rek2@hispagatos.org> wrote:
>>
>> What an ignorant article... clearly written by somebody who never
>> understood what Usenet actually was and wasn't. Google Groups was
>> never Usenet. Anybody believing otherwise is just plain ignorant.
>
>I agree 100% also Usenet is having a comeback people is tired of bloated web
>pages with trackers and cookies and stuff.
>

pcmag is out to lunch!

>--
>- {gemini,https}://{,rek2.}hispagatos.org - mastodon: @rek2@hispagatos.space
>- [https|gemini]://2600.Madrid - https://hispagatos.space/@rek2
>- https://keyoxide.org/A31C7CE19D9C58084EA42BA26C0B0D11E9303EC5

--
Member - Liberal International This is doctor@nk.ca Ici doctor@nk.ca
Yahweh, King & country!Never Satan President Republic!Beware AntiChrist rising!
Look at Psalms 14 and 53 on Atheism ; unsubscribe from Google Groups to be seen
Merry Christmas 2023 and Happy New year 2024 Beware https://mindspring.com

rek2 hispagatos wrote:

> I agree 100% also Usenet is having a comeback people is tired of bloated web
> pages with trackers and cookies and shit.

At best, some old-time users coming back, but I've seen a couple of "If
google goes, I'll probably give-up" responses.

Not many new/young users around ... and I sense the old timers don't
want to invite people who can't find it for themselves?

On 12/16/23 08:14, Andrew wrote:
> Julieta Shem wrote:
>>
>>   Title: End of an Era: Google Groups to Drop Usenet Support
>> Author: Rob Pegoraro
>>    Date: December 16, 2023
>>
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> In early 2000, I wrote a column for the Washington Post about the
>> growing uselessness of many newsgroups in which I quoted one of Usenet’s
>> developers, computer-science professor Steve Bellovin, shrugging off its
>> possible demise: “Times and technologies change--20 years is a great run
>> for anything.”
>>
>> Almost 24 years later, that quote has held up better than Usenet.
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>
>> Source:
>> https://www.pcmag.com/news/end-of-an-era-google-groups-to-drop-usenet-support
>>
>
> That article totally misses the point, absolutely clueless.

And this is what I was worried about, potential new users seeing this
and writing off Usenet as a dead service. Most people probably didn't
know what Usenet was beforehand..
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> wrote:
>>. . .

>And this is what I was worried about, potential new users seeing this
>and writing off Usenet as a dead service. Most people probably didn't
>know what Usenet was beforehand..

Surely you can find something else to worry about. How about that asteroid
collision that will trigger an apolyptic event?

Can everyone help the O.P. by suggesting things to be overly dramatic
about?

"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> writes:

> candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> wrote:

[...]

>> And this is what I was worried about, potential new users seeing this
>> and writing off Usenet as a dead service. Most people probably didn't
>> know what Usenet was beforehand..

Remember that potential users had not even heard of USENET until now
that Google gave it this amazing press (of the new dead thing). We
could discover that people love dead things or things that won't die.
Die Hard was a popular movie some time. Speaking of movies...

> Surely you can find something else to worry about. How about that asteroid
> collision that will trigger an [apocalyptic] event?
>
> Can everyone help the O.P. by suggesting things to be overly dramatic
> about?

One suggestion that follows-up on yours is to watch Melancholia from
2011. Here's the official trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IZGwvxhXvw

On Sat, 16 Dec 2023 18:18:16 -0000 (UTC), "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> wrote:
>>>. . .
>>And this is what I was worried about, potential new users seeing this
>>and writing off Usenet as a dead service. Most people probably didn't
>>know what Usenet was beforehand..
>
>Surely you can find something else to worry about. How about that asteroid
>collision that will trigger an apolyptic event?
>Can everyone help the O.P. by suggesting things to be overly dramatic
>about?

a cheerful lying in state ceremony could be held after the 22 february
deadline ... here lyeth google2news ... diis manibus ... rest in peace

D wrote:
>
> a cheerful lying in state ceremony could be held after the 22
> february deadline ... here lyeth google2news ... diis manibus ...
> rest in peace

You forgot the 'good riddance' bit...