From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox


certainly for more than three decades, unmoderated usenet newsgroups
have been the untamed wild west of internet-accessible public forums,
as anyone could post plain text articles averting content moderation,
making unmoderated usenet the only public repository on planet earth
that has not been routinely subjected to moderation, i.e. censorship

newsreader filters are typically used to improve the signal-to-noise
ratio inherent in these uncensored message boards, by manually white-
listing helpful content while automatically ignoring everything else,
most all newsreaders have filtering options, allow multiservers, etc.

(using Tor Browser 15.0.11) >http://usenet-fr.yakakwatik.org/newsreaders.html

Last update: 05/06/2025
Introduction
Newsreaders
40Tude Dialog (Windows)
Betterbird (Linux / Windows / macOS)
Claws-Mail (Linux / Windows / macOS)
Evolution (Linux)
flnews (Linux, UNIX systems)
Gnus (Linux / Windows / macOS)
Gravity (Windows)
MacCafe (macOS)
MacSOUP (macOS = 10.14)
MesNews (Windows)
ModNewsreader (Android and its forks)
Pan (Linux / macOS)
SeaMonkey (Linux / Windows / macOS)
slrn (Linux / Windows / macOS)
Sylpheed (Linux / Windows / macOS)
Thunderbird (Linux / Windows / macOS)
tin (Linux / Windows / macOS)
Xananews (Windows)
Xnews (Windows)
References and useful links

[end quote]

client-side newsreader filtering is essential to usenet's usefulness, listing helpful content while automatically ignoring everything else

web-based usenet servers certainly have their usefulness too, telnet
is also very helpful, but for those who recall using "deja news" for
newsgroup browsing, searching, posting, replying, it worked reliably
up to until about twenty-five years ago, then "google groups" worked
for a couple of years, but after 2004 (twenty-two years ago), it was clear to everyone that gg had become unreliable, no longer useful as
a usenet archive search engine, but did apparently work famously for flooding usenet beyond all other servers combined, reigning champion

and yet, after forty-five long years, tiny usenet just won't go away,
hence has been the forum of choice for nonconformists, free thinkers, outsiders, specifically because unmoderated newsgroups are available,
and apart from server-side spam filters, expirations, removals, etc., uncensored content is posted intact . . . social media can't compete,
and some nntp newsservers carry binary groups, for those so inclined

usenet probably serves other purposes lesser known or even unheardof,
but in general terms, it's a means of communication unique to itself,
its audience many contributors but mostly lurkers, a silent majority,
so though it may seem as if no one is reading, be sure that they are


--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 5/5/2026 10:12 PM, D wrote:

and yet, after forty-five long years, tiny usenet just won't go away,
hence has been the forum of choice for nonconformists, free thinkers, outsiders, specifically because unmoderated newsgroups are available,
and apart from server-side spam filters, expirations, removals, etc., uncensored content is posted intact . . . social media can't compete,
and some nntp newsservers carry binary groups, for those so inclined

As I said before, Reddit and Threads could connect with Usenet! Google
did it before. :)
--

@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 5/5/2026 10:21 AM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

On 5/5/2026 10:12 PM, D wrote:

and yet, after forty-five long years, tiny usenet just won't go away,
hence has been the forum of choice for nonconformists, free thinkers,
outsiders, specifically because unmoderated newsgroups are available,
and apart from server-side spam filters, expirations, removals, etc.,
uncensored content is posted intact . . . social media can't compete,
and some nntp newsservers carry binary groups, for those so inclined

As I said before, Reddit and Threads could connect with Usenet! Google
did it before. :)

Reddit has over 100 times the users on usenet. Why would they dilute
their brand like that ?

Lynn

--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 5/5/2026 7:12 AM, D wrote:

certainly for more than three decades, unmoderated usenet newsgroups have been the untamed wild west of internet-accessible public forums,
as anyone could post plain text articles averting content moderation,
making unmoderated usenet the only public repository on planet earth that has not been routinely subjected to moderation, i.e. censorship [snipped]

I still believe NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) and newsgroups are superior to social networking platforms, forums, and other proprietary
systems. From my <http://www.rossde.com/internet/surf.html#news>:
* Newsgroup messages can be posted anonymously. Participants in a
newsgroup do not have to surrender any privacy. Newsgroup applications
do not set cookies in your computer.
* Each forum is dependent on a sponsor's Web server. That means
cookies might be set in your computer, and your participation might
result in your subsequent Web browsing being tracked. This means that participating in a forum results in some loss of privacy.
* If the server or its host dies, the forum also dies. On the other
hand, newsgroups are distributed across a number of servers and hosts. I
can post a message to the rec.gardens newsgroup on the news.eternal-september.org server, and someone else can read that
message on the news.giganews.com server. If a newsgroup server or host
dies, a user can quickly obtain an account at another newsgroup server
and continue participating in the same newsgroups.
* Forum messages do not persist; they might be deleted in less than a
year. Newsgroup messages are often archived for many years.
* Forums are generally proprietary. That is, a forum is often created
to serve the organization that sponsors and thus owns it. In other
situations, a forum is created as a hobby of a sponsoring individual and
dies when that individual loses interest. No one really owns newsgroups.
* Most forums require the user to provide a login ID and password to
submit a message. While individual newsgroups do not require any login, newsgroup servers do require logins; however, logging-in to a newsgroup
server is usually handled automatically by the user's news reader
application.
* THIS IS KEY: Social networks are NOT a substitute for newsgroups.
The owner of a social network rCo whether a person or a corporation rCo can
and often does block messages critical of the network or of the owner's
pet cause. This is a frequent problem with X, where Elon Musk even
cancels the accounts of users who criticize him or his products.
Moderation of a newsgroup rCo as described above rCo extends only to
ensuring that a message is on-topic.
--
David E. Ross
<http://www.rossde.com/>
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 5/5/26 12:25, Lynn McGuire wrote:

On 5/5/2026 10:21 AM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

On 5/5/2026 10:12 PM, D wrote:

and yet, after forty-five long years, tiny usenet just won't go away,
hence has been the forum of choice for nonconformists, free thinkers,
outsiders, specifically because unmoderated newsgroups are available,
and apart from server-side spam filters, expirations, removals, etc.,
uncensored content is posted intact . . . social media can't compete,
and some nntp newsservers carry binary groups, for those so inclined

As I said before, Reddit and Threads could connect with Usenet! Google
did it before. :)

Reddit has over 100 times the users on usenet. Why would they dilute
their brand like that ?

OK, I bit. I've seen individual reddit posts over the years, and
actually joined once, but that's it. Took me 15 minutes of 6-digit codes
etc. and finally fixed the account. GOD what a hateful place. It's IN
NO WAY a substitute for usenet. It's probably worse than Facebook
(which I now use regularly, faute de mieux), but I've lost interest.
Waste of time and effort.

Most of my usenet 'friends' (some of whom I've met IRL) switched to FB
long ago. I asked if any of them used reddit regularly. No response
yet. I'm willing to bet the answer is 'no'.
--
Cheers, Bev
"I can't stand this proliferation of paperwork. It's useless to
fight the forms. You've got to kill the people producing them."
-- Vladimir Kabaidze
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Tue, 5 May 2026 23:21:46 +0800, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

As I said before, Reddit and Threads could connect with Usenet!
Google did it before. :)

And it filled Usenet with spam ...
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Tue, 5 May 2026 15:41:56 -0700, David E. Ross wrote:

I still believe NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) and newsgroups are superior to social networking platforms, forums, and other proprietary systems.

If there is a tool to translate and proxify web forums to usenet newsgroups, I'd use the usenet one since it's pure content and it's way much more
resource efficient. I'd be even better if NNTP is extended to support better data compression algorithms.
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Tue, 5 May 2026 16:08:53 -0700, The Real Bev wrote:

OK, I bit. I've seen individual reddit posts over the years, and
actually joined once, but that's it. Took me 15 minutes of 6-digit codes etc. and finally fixed the account. GOD what a hateful place. It's IN
NO WAY a substitute for usenet. It's probably worse than Facebook
(which I now use regularly, faute de mieux), but I've lost interest.
Waste of time and effort.

Most of my usenet 'friends' (some of whom I've met IRL) switched to FB
long ago. I asked if any of them used reddit regularly. No response
yet. I'm willing to bet the answer is 'no'.

Reddit itself have become worse platform even since they introduced their
first "modern" layout. But some information/features which actually matter,
are removed/crippled. e.g. number of subscribers of a sub, number of saved posts is still unlimited but how many we can list them has been limited,
etc.
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 2026-05-06 00:41, David E. Ross wrote:

* Newsgroup messages can be posted anonymously. Participants in a newsgroup do not have to surrender any privacy. Newsgroup applications
do not set cookies in your computer.

But this encourages trolls, they can not be banned for ever.
--
Cheers, Carlos.
ESEfc-Efc+, EUEfc-Efc|;
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 26/05/05 07:52 PM, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 5 May 2026 23:21:46 +0800, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

As I said before, Reddit and Threads could connect with Usenet!
Google did it before. :)

And it filled Usenet with spam ...

Yep, that it did. Thank goodness it was easy to filer out everything
coming from Google though.
--
John C. I filter crossposts, various trolls & dizum.com. Doing this
makes this newsgroup easier to read & more on-topic. Take back the tech companies from India & industry from China.

--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 5/6/26 06:01, John C. wrote:

On 26/05/05 07:52 PM, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 5 May 2026 23:21:46 +0800, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

As I said before, Reddit and Threads could connect with Usenet!
Google did it before. :)

And it filled Usenet with spam ...

Yep, that it did. Thank goodness it was easy to filer out everything
coming from Google though.

I never found this to be a problem. You just KNEW which posts you
didn't need to read,
--
Cheers, Bev
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey
and car keys to teenage boys." -- P.J. O'Rourke
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Tue, 5 May 2026 16:08:53 -0700, The Real Bev wrote:

OK, I bit. I've seen individual reddit posts over the years, and
actually joined once, but that's it. Took me 15 minutes of 6-digit codes etc. and finally fixed the account. GOD what a hateful place.

Surprisingly often when I google some tech problem concerning my
phone or Windows, a Reddit thread pops up high in the results and is
useful. I'm not on any other social media, but have been thinking
about joining Reddit because of this.

Not sure how you had that experience; maybe I've just been lucky.
--
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by
those who don't have it." --George Bernard Shaw
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Tue, 5 May 2026 15:41:56 -0700, David E. Ross wrote:

* Newsgroup messages can be posted anonymously. Participants in a newsgroup do not have to surrender any privacy.

This is a bug not a feature.

* Spam has killed one newsgroup after another, and makes the few
remaining active newsgroups annoying to scroll through.

* Flamewars were much more common than they would have been if the
aggressors hadn't been able to hide behind a shield of anonymity.
Instead, anonymous posters made one once-valuable newsgroup after
another into a wasteland. The real (and helpful) people abandoned
them because the groups had become toxic.

* Trolls (even ones who post non-abusive but stupid and off-topic
stuff) are unblockable because it is so easy to shift fake names.
--
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by
those who don't have it." --George Bernard Shaw
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 5/6/2026 12:35 PM, Stan Brown wrote:

On Tue, 5 May 2026 15:41:56 -0700, David E. Ross wrote:

* Newsgroup messages can be posted anonymously. Participants in a
newsgroup do not have to surrender any privacy.

This is a bug not a feature.

* Spam has killed one newsgroup after another, and makes the few
remaining active newsgroups annoying to scroll through.

* Flamewars were much more common than they would have been if the
aggressors hadn't been able to hide behind a shield of anonymity.
Instead, anonymous posters made one once-valuable newsgroup after
another into a wasteland. The real (and helpful) people abandoned
them because the groups had become toxic.

* Trolls (even ones who post non-abusive but stupid and off-topic
stuff) are unblockable because it is so easy to shift fake names.

None of your arguments are valid, IMO. If one really does want to participate, then you really should be able to handle filters
aggressively. Even the worst of groups is usable once you give up on
not filtering and go for it. For example, I have an apple phone, misc.phone.mobile.iphone was unusable until I gave up and delete arlen
and anyone responding to him. Now I can stand to read the group again.

Also, when I began here many years ago, I did post with my real name. I
was young and dumb, and thought I could reason with some of the racist
posters that were invading a group that was one of my favorites. It was
a big mistake. They got more threatening and abusive. I was not
worried about my personal safety, but I was very worried about the
safety of my family. The thought of some racist fuck tracking me down
and harming my innocent family or damaging my property really bothered
me. I gave up trying to show them how stupid what they were doing was,
and started posting under anther alias.

Safety, financial theft, being able to post on topics your boss might
not like, and several more reasons people might choose to use an alias
all come to mind. If you want to use your real identity here, that's
fine with me. Just consider other people might have a reason not to do
so and if you look at the situation honestly, you might reconsider your
view that everyone else should too.
--
Science DoesnrCOt Support Darwin. Scientists Do

--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 5/6/26 10:24, Stan Brown wrote:

On Tue, 5 May 2026 16:08:53 -0700, The Real Bev wrote:

OK, I bit. I've seen individual reddit posts over the years, and
actually joined once, but that's it. Took me 15 minutes of 6-digit codes
etc. and finally fixed the account. GOD what a hateful place.

Surprisingly often when I google some tech problem concerning my
phone or Windows, a Reddit thread pops up high in the results and is
useful. I'm not on any other social media, but have been thinking
about joining Reddit because of this.

Not sure how you had that experience; maybe I've just been lucky.

Hateful because of the difficulty of using it, not the viciousness of
the users. It's like looking at a bulletin board -- most of the stuff
you have no interest in and it's not obvious how you eliminate that.

Facebook was bad enough until I beat it into submission (still not
happy with it, but it's all there is for me and my 100 motorcycle/skiing/family/mozilla friends. I don't want news or ads or
most of the other stuff that random people post about, but it IS good to occasionally read some new poster's comments -- but I have to weed those
out unless they're friends of friends. Anyway, I just don't want to go through all that hassle again for what is probably little benefit.
--
Cheers, Bev
"Windows Freedom Day: a holiday that moves each year, the date of which
is calculated by adding up the total amount of time a typical person
must spend restarting windows and then determining how many work weeks
that would correspond to." -- Trygve Lode
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

The Real Bev wrote:

On 5/6/26 06:01, John C. wrote:

On 26/05/05 07:52 PM, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 5 May 2026 23:21:46 +0800, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

As I said before, Reddit and Threads could connect with Usenet!
Google did it before. :)

And it filled Usenet with spam ...

Yep, that it did. Thank goodness it was easy to filer out everything
coming from Google though.

I never found this to be a problem.-a You just KNEW which posts you
didn't need to read,

Some groups were getting 3 to 5 spam posts a minute.
They were Thai-language adverts for betting sites, although I saw it as
a DOS attack rather than adverts. Thinking about it, that is only 5000 messages a day and there were far more than that.
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

Stan Brown wrote:

On Tue, 5 May 2026 15:41:56 -0700, David E. Ross wrote:

* Newsgroup messages can be posted anonymously. Participants in a
newsgroup do not have to surrender any privacy.

This is a bug not a feature.

* Spam has killed one newsgroup after another, and makes the few
remaining active newsgroups annoying to scroll through.

* Flamewars were much more common than they would have been if the
aggressors hadn't been able to hide behind a shield of anonymity.
Instead, anonymous posters made one once-valuable newsgroup after
another into a wasteland. The real (and helpful) people abandoned
them because the groups had become toxic.

* Trolls (even ones who post non-abusive but stupid and off-topic
stuff) are unblockable because it is so easy to shift fake names.

Back around 1997/1998 I was trying to get my head around Perl in order
to write a simple script, all I had to go on was the appropriate
O'Reilly book. One look at the active perl group (there must be a
hundred now) and I realised that asking for advice was going to be a
waste of time, it was a warground.
I can't remember what I did in the end, but whatever it was, it worked.
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Wed, 6 May 2026 22:16:21 +0200, R Daneel Olivaw wrote:

Back around 1997/1998 I was trying to get my head around Perl in
order to write a simple script, all I had to go on was the
appropriate O'Reilly book. One look at the active perl group (there
must be a hundred now) and I realised that asking for advice was
going to be a waste of time, it was a warground.

What did they fight about? Was it Perl-related at all?

Funny, I was learning Perl around the same time, never thought to ask
other people for help, just read the book and the man pages.

Actually, there were two OrCOReilly books, as I recall: rCYLearning PerlrCY
and rCLProgramming PerlrCY. Or maybe one of them wasnrCOt from OrCOReilly ... --- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Wed, 6 May 2026 14:35:25 -0500, sticks wrote:

Also, when I began here many years ago, I did post with my real
name. I was young and dumb, and thought I could reason with some of
the racist posters that were invading a group that was one of my
favorites. It was a big mistake. They got more threatening and
abusive. I was not worried about my personal safety, but I was very
worried about the safety of my family.

I have never encountered that. Maybe because I only look at a small
number of overtly-political groups ...
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

JJ <jj4public@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, 5 May 2026 16:08:53 -0700, The Real Bev wrote:

OK, I bit. I've seen individual reddit posts over the years, and
actually joined once, but that's it. Took me 15 minutes of 6-digit codes etc. and finally fixed the account. GOD what a hateful place. It's IN
NO WAY a substitute for usenet. It's probably worse than Facebook
(which I now use regularly, faute de mieux), but I've lost interest.
Waste of time and effort.

Most of my usenet 'friends' (some of whom I've met IRL) switched to FB long ago. I asked if any of them used reddit regularly. No response
yet. I'm willing to bet the answer is 'no'.

Reddit itself have become worse platform even since they introduced their first "modern" layout. But some information/features which actually matter, are removed/crippled. e.g. number of subscribers of a sub, number of saved posts is still unlimited but how many we can list them has been limited,
etc.

Don't forget Digg with its v4. Ugh!
--
"Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." --James 5:16. Revenge of the 6th after da 5th!
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 7/05/2026 5:35 am, sticks wrote:

<Snip>

Also, when I began here many years ago, I did post with my real name.-a I was young and dumb, and thought I could reason with some of the racist posters that were invading a group that was one of my favorites.-a It was
a big mistake.-a They got more threatening and abusive.-a I was not
worried about my personal safety, but I was very worried about the
safety of my family.-a The thought of some racist fuck tracking me down
and harming my innocent family or damaging my property really bothered
me.-a I gave up trying to show them how stupid what they were doing was,
and started posting under anther alias.

WHAT?? Do you mean 'sticks; isn't your name?? REALLY?? ;-P

(Hopefully, there are a lot of 70'ish 'Daniel''s out there!! ;-P )
--
Daniel70
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 2026-05-06 19:35, Stan Brown wrote:

On Tue, 5 May 2026 15:41:56 -0700, David E. Ross wrote:

* Newsgroup messages can be posted anonymously. Participants in a
newsgroup do not have to surrender any privacy.

This is a bug not a feature.

* Spam has killed one newsgroup after another, and makes the few
remaining active newsgroups annoying to scroll through.

* Flamewars were much more common than they would have been if the
aggressors hadn't been able to hide behind a shield of anonymity.
Instead, anonymous posters made one once-valuable newsgroup after
another into a wasteland. The real (and helpful) people abandoned
them because the groups had become toxic.

* Trolls (even ones who post non-abusive but stupid and off-topic
stuff) are unblockable because it is so easy to shift fake names.

Aye.
--
Cheers, Carlos.
ESEfc-Efc+, EUEfc-Efc|;
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

Stan Brown <someone@example.com> writes:

* Trolls (even ones who post non-abusive but stupid and off-topic
stuff) are unblockable because it is so easy to shift fake names.

Isn't this thread off-topic?

I did a good job of filtering out all the flames and trolls from uk.politics.misc, but by the end of it there was nothing left.

Gnus has some good features for filterning out cross-posted groups, and
certain re-occuring themes in subjects.

It would be good if Thunderbird could apply its spam filtering to
newsgroups, or maybe it can these days?
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 2026-05-07 13:44, Richmond wrote:

It would be good if Thunderbird could apply its spam filtering to
newsgroups, or maybe it can these days?

Nope.
--
Cheers, Carlos.
ESEfc-Efc+, EUEfc-Efc|;
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

The Real Bev wrote:

John C. wrote:

Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

As I said before, Reddit and Threads could connect with Usenet!
Google did it before. :)

And it filled Usenet with spam ...

Yep, that it did. Thank goodness it was easy to filer out everything
coming from Google though.

I never found this to be a problem.-a You just KNEW which posts you
didn't need to read,

Well, I'm glad that worked for you. MMV though, because I finally
figured out that there was usally nothing posted through Google Groups
that was of any value to me.

When I needed to, I simply logged into my Google account and views GG in Firefox. This was an exceedingly rare even, however.
--
John C. I filter crossposts, various trolls & dizum.com. Doing this
makes this newsgroup easier to read & more on-topic. Take back the tech companies from India & industry from China.

--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 07.05.2026 05:59, Ant wrote:

JJ <jj4public@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, 5 May 2026 16:08:53 -0700, The Real Bev wrote:

OK, I bit. I've seen individual reddit posts over the years, and
actually joined once, but that's it. Took me 15 minutes of 6-digit codes >>> etc. and finally fixed the account. GOD what a hateful place. It's IN
NO WAY a substitute for usenet. It's probably worse than Facebook
(which I now use regularly, faute de mieux), but I've lost interest.
Waste of time and effort.

Most of my usenet 'friends' (some of whom I've met IRL) switched to FB
long ago. I asked if any of them used reddit regularly. No response
yet. I'm willing to bet the answer is 'no'.

Reddit itself have become worse platform even since they introduced their
first "modern" layout. But some information/features which actually matter, >> are removed/crippled. e.g. number of subscribers of a sub, number of saved >> posts is still unlimited but how many we can list them has been limited,
etc.

Don't forget Digg with its v4. Ugh!

Wasn't Digg currently trying to rebuild itself?
--
-Nick

Take care, it's a desert out there
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

Nick <nick@koohii.invalid> wrote:

On 07.05.2026 05:59, Ant wrote:

JJ <jj4public@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, 5 May 2026 16:08:53 -0700, The Real Bev wrote:

OK, I bit. I've seen individual reddit posts over the years, and
actually joined once, but that's it. Took me 15 minutes of 6-digit codes >>> etc. and finally fixed the account. GOD what a hateful place. It's IN >>> NO WAY a substitute for usenet. It's probably worse than Facebook
(which I now use regularly, faute de mieux), but I've lost interest.
Waste of time and effort.

Most of my usenet 'friends' (some of whom I've met IRL) switched to FB >>> long ago. I asked if any of them used reddit regularly. No response
yet. I'm willing to bet the answer is 'no'.

Reddit itself have become worse platform even since they introduced their >> first "modern" layout. But some information/features which actually matter,
are removed/crippled. e.g. number of subscribers of a sub, number of saved >> posts is still unlimited but how many we can list them has been limited, >> etc.

Don't forget Digg with its v4. Ugh!

Wasn't Digg currently trying to rebuild itself?

Yep. It failed again.
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--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 5/7/26 05:44, John C. wrote:

The Real Bev wrote:

John C. wrote:

Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

As I said before, Reddit and Threads could connect with Usenet!
Google did it before. :)

And it filled Usenet with spam ...

Yep, that it did. Thank goodness it was easy to filer out everything
coming from Google though.

I never found this to be a problem.-a You just KNEW which posts you
didn't need to read,

Well, I'm glad that worked for you. MMV though, because I finally
figured out that there was usally nothing posted through Google Groups
that was of any value to me.

Exactly. You just KNEW...

When I needed to, I simply logged into my Google account and views GG in Firefox. This was an exceedingly rare even, however.

--
Cheers, Bev
"Don't you wish there were a knob on the TV to turn up the
intelligence? There's one marked "brightness", but it
doesn't work." -- Gallagher

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Thu, 7 May 2026 22:58:53 -0000 (UTC), Ant wrote:

Nick <nick@koohii.invalid> wrote:

On 07.05.2026 05:59, Ant wrote:

Don't forget Digg with its v4. Ugh!

Wasn't Digg currently trying to rebuild itself?

Yep. It failed again.

They don't realize that they're digging their own grave deeper.
And the first time they did was even before AI came in.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

JJ <jj4public@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, 5 May 2026 15:41:56 -0700, David E. Ross wrote:

I still believe NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) and newsgroups are
superior to social networking platforms, forums, and other proprietary
systems.

If there is a tool to translate and proxify web forums to usenet newsgroups,

I was looking into building something to do that, however now with
forums getting hit by AI scraping at a ridiculous scale, any web
scraper that gathers content to proxy over NNTP would probably get
blocked. Since it's unlikely many forum operators these days even
know about Usenet, let alone care about people who prefer it, I
doubt I'd get many to whitelist my scraper on their forum website,
so it's looking like a pretty frustrating and hopeless project
these days.

I did find a solution for reading Discourse forums in Tin, that
worked without NNTP. Tin supports reading Email mailboxes listed
in ~/.tin/active.mail. Discourse forums can have a mailing list
mode that sends all posts to your Email address (you need to join
the forum of course). Set up a dedicated address for it, have new
messages fetched from it automatically using POP, and I wrote a
script to read the Date: headers and delete any post older than 30
days. Now I can read the posts in Tin, and reply via Email. That's
only a solution for one web forum that I'm personally interested in
though.
--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

Kev wrote:

it's unlikely many forum operators these days even
know about Usenet, let alone care about people who prefer it,

Both spamcop/Haight and GRC/Gibson have both webforums and nntp groups.

I haven't actually been to each/either in a long time.
--
Mike Easter
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2