Re: Emigration from Usenet

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Rich <rich@example.invalid> writes:

Stefan Ram <ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de> wrote:

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote or quoted:

ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) writes:

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote or quoted:

My point is that the “manage your own filters” model is a good
candidate for why almost everybody (expert or not) left Usenet.

That's a trip, 'cause I'm totally the "roll your own filters" kind of
guy.

Do you get that for most people it looks like a waste of time?

 
  But for me, the whole point is just to save time! I used to get
  tangled up in reading news about vanity or trivial stuff that had
  zero relevance to me. There was this one news source where I'd
  skim through about 40 headlines with article descriptions daily,
  and end up reading stories about some bartender's teenage years.
  Now, my system only shows me about two or three headlines from the
  same source. I only need a fraction of the time. Sure, I had to put
  in some time upfront to write my Python script, but it was worth it.

>
Except...  The typical computer user thinks Python is a particular
kind of snake with scales and fangs.

 
The original context was the contemporary absence of ‘experts’ from
Usenet; the examples cited are perfectly well able to distinguish
programming languages from reptiles.

While true, at least you shifted the context to include non-experts
(note your own quote above):

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote or quoted:

My point is that the “manage your own filters” model is a good
candidate for why almost everybody (expert or not) left Usenet.

(expert or not) -- the 'not' shifting the context to include
non-experts.

And then your reply to ram@... shifted it some more to "most people":

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote or quoted:

ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) writes:

...

That's a trip, 'cause I'm totally the "roll your own filters" kind of
guy.

Do you get that for most people it looks like a waste of time?

And in any group of "most people" there will be a few 'experts' and a
large majority of non-experts, and some, likely sizable, chunk of those
non-experts will not think "programming language" when they see the
word "Python".