BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

wrote:

Back in this ng's heyday (showing my age here, that was something like
1998...) I used to be one of the regular posters here. For the reasons
already discussed above, the signal-to-noise ratio got unacceptably low
for many folk, and most of us disappeared to other forums. This
happened at about the same time as website design was improving and
more people were getting faster connections, so that web-based forums
became pretty standard fare across the internet.

Pity they're still crap interfaces with a fraction of the utility of
Usenet with a decent reader, though.

The ukrgb forum has essentially replaced this newsgroup as the de facto
discussion forum for touring paddlers in the UK.

But I have no interest in labouring against a web based interface
because it takes too much time and effort, so I'd rather have no
discussion than work too hard for some. I'll just 'phone up my pal with
more touring experience than anyone else I know if I want some Important
Questions answered.

I've met and paddled
with the originator, and know that he is passionately in favour of a
not-for-profit *resource* for paddlers - the forum complements the
river guides. The site "owner" (in so much as a resource of that
nature can be "owned" by one person) does not charge for the ads placed
on "his" site, although I believe he occasionally receives discounted
paddling gear from several of them. He has for several years funded
all the server costs from his own pocket.

Well Good For Him, but it doesn't alter the fact that compared to
newsfeeds, web forums suck so much you could box them up with a brush
and crevice tool and market them as vacuum cleaners.

As for the format, it comes down to personal choice - modern web forums
are undeniably prettier and for most people are easier to use (e.g.
inserting links, pictures is more straightforward). On the other hand,
USENET ngs have a nice solid ASCII feel to them and of course are far
easier on that old 28kbps modem you refuse to throw away.

I'm reading through a direct feed to SuperJANET at several orders of
magnitude quicker than that, have been for a long time, and I still find
web forums suck. Inserting links is hard? I just type the link and
it's done.

As for content, the ukrgb forum has over 3000 registered users and
attracts seemingly dozens of new posts per day. I have seen very
little evidence of moderation - and in the rare cases when the
moderator's brush has been swished around, it has usually been welcomed
by other posters. This ng has a handful of regular posters who are
still apparently trotting out the tired old stuff about the BCU / child
abuse / David Train / blah blah blah that they have been for the past
five years.

But at least it doesn't feel like hard work to use the reading
mechanisms, and I don't have to visit several different locations with
different interfaces to follow discussions of my cycling, gaming,
mountaineering and professional interests.

Pete (not a fan of ****e user interfaces, and that's no reflection on
the site owner or the people posting there).
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/