In article , Geoff Schultz wrote:

It's very true. If you look at the amount of traffic (excluding the
"binaries" groups) that usenet generates, you'll see that it's on a
steady/rapid decline. Ask the average person if they know what a newsgroup
is and you'll probably get a blank stare. Even among my computer savvy
friends, very few of them still use newgroups.

In reality, why? The interface is clunky. Message threads are lost unless
you use deja news (groups.google.com) to search them. Many groups are
loaded with spam. The user interface technology has improved massively
since news was created. It's death and/or lack of relevance is purely just
a matter of time.

UI technology may have improved some software, but my newsreader is
still great, $DEITY knows how long after it was first created, there is
no need for a point an click GUI, it's not possible to make it easier to
use with a mouse.

I find usenet so much better to follow than a web forum. I hate those
things. Too many bouncy smilies, (l)users whose 'avatar' has to me an
animated GIF that is (if you're lucky) worth seeing once, but loops
endlessly and is a distracting as hell and makes you want to actually
kill the person because, of course, they are a prolific poster and you
can't browse the forum without seeing it a million times. Then there are
the flashing banner ads so many forums carry to generate revenue. The
lack of decent threading, the almost total disregard of context quoting.
The fact that "this is the interface, if you don't like it create your
own forum", whereas with usenet it's "here is a newsfeed, use it how you
like" - GUI, text, braille, text-to-speech (OK, you can do some of those
with a web-forum, but, in my experiments here with a Mac, speaking will
start at the top of the page and read all the adverts before it gets to
the post). Damn, I *hate* those things.

Justin.

--
Justin C, by the sea.