Re: Emigration from Usenet

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> writes:

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

Johanne Fairchild <jfairchild@tudado.org> wrote or quoted:

Let's translate that to ``the experts are not here''.  The experts
who are in social networks seem to be a minority, so I conjecture
that most experts are off the radar, perhaps waiting for something
better.

>
The experts used to be here. Linux was announced in comp.os.minix.
Tim Berners Lee published a summary of the World Wide Web project to
the alt.hypertext newsgroup. Marc Andreessen announced Netscape in
comp.infosystems.www.users. The launch of AltaVista was announced in
biz.digital.announce. "Uncle Bob" wrote in comp.objects. Greg Egan
asked about the science for his SF novels in sci.physics.research.
Dennis Ritchie wrote in comp.lang.c. They just disappeared.

>
The ‘expert’ conversations are still happening, just not on Usenet.  You
can find them in mailing lists, blogs, issue trackers, papers, etc.
>
A core problem with Usenet is that you can’t exclude people whose net
contribution to a discussion is negative. If you have absolutist ideas
about free speech then, or are part of the problem, that may be what you
want. But if you actually want to get something useful done there are
better options available.

I agree.  I came to the conclusion that technical communities should be
semi-closed.  Like mailing lists, they can be open for reading, but
closed for writing.  I like NNTP.  I think that closing NNTP servers for
writing is a good thing.  I like the idea of getting an account by
invitation (from any other member).  Perhaps we could have good
communities this way again.

What about the USENET?  The USENET seems small again, so it seems to
work again.