From Newsgroup: microsoft.public.excel.mi
steve g <
Sgonedes1977@gmail.com> writes:
Julieta Shem <jshem@yaxenu.org> writes:
Hey, good to see some activity here. It seems there's us here? This
group used to be mirrored to the mailing list, right? I think it's not
anymore, so it's totally dead. Why would people prefer a mailing list
over NNTP? Because of SPAM? I think the USENET is pretty much free of
SPAM now that Google Groups left.
most internet service providers stopped providing usenet to their
customers. Now most people use Google Groups; which is a web browser interface to usenet.
No, they don't. Google Groups *was* an interface to Usenet, but
hasn't been for a while.
Google acquired the Deja News Usenet archive in 2001 and created the
Google Groups interface, which had a *lot* of disadvantages relative
to the usual NNTP interface we're using here. Ironically, the search facilities didn't work well. (It could have been nice if Google had
provided an NNTP interface to their archives, but they never did.)
On February 22, 2024, Google Groups dropped its support for posting
or viewing new Usenet content. Articles prior to that are still
available.
It's true that most ISPs no longer provide Usenet servers, but
there are a number of free ones. I use eternal-september.org.
You appear to be using GigaNews, which is a paid service.
SPAM was a serious issue. now most people blog on a website. Mailing
lists are more deidcated and ``private'', less spam and fewer comments
that have no relation to the topic.
usenet is like the wild west - where everybody is equal; mailing lists
are more controlled. USEnet used to have moderators, these days they are
few and far.
*Some* Usenet groups are moderated. Most are not, and that's
always been the case. Posts to moderated groups are sent to the
moderator(s) for approval. A number of moderated groups have become
inactive as the moderators have lost interest and there were no
volunteers to pick up the duties.
--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith)
Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com
void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */
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