Quothe James B. DiGriz, from writings of Wed, Apr 30, 2003 at 01:55:35PM -0400:
> Great to see more vintage and classic forums being listed. The only
> thing I hate to see is the fragmentation.
Yes, I know what you mean. If these new discussion groups each had
some particular specialty, then I could see a reason why various
classic computer collectors would use them. However, since they
don't, I can't see the point in going through the extra work that it
would take to access them.
> Usenet, FTN-style and Qwk networks on BBS'es, etc. used to be able to
> bring together scattered groups of people and individuals all over the
> world in a non-centralized, non-single-point-of-failure way. Web-based
> forums have really not tried to go there yet, in part because some are
For one thing, web-based forums are a blasted nuisance to use.
Browsers crash, and then an entire message is gone. If I can't use
emacs, or some other text editor that's reasonably useful, such as vi,
or even ed, then there's not much point to using a computer for
writing. The multi-line text-area fields in forms on the 'web are
nowhere near being a reasonable substitute for a good text editor.
> commercial and sometimes proprietary, with excessive numbers of PHB's
What's a PHB? Sounds like a nasty type of chemical to avoid.
> and lawyers making policy decisions instead of the moderators and/or
A good reason to avoid them. Is it just me, or does it give others
the creeps when they see user agreements telling them that they can't
have their first-ammendment guaranteed right to free speech on the
'net, whenever corporate droids, politically correct university
bureaucrats and ambulance chasers (lawyers), etc. get involved with
the 'net?
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
rdd_at_rddavis.org 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
http://www.rddavis.org beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
Received on Wed Apr 30 2003 - 18:00:00 BST