Re: A clever away to get video viewers by giving away games!

On Mon, 17 Feb 2025 20:20:04 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07
<candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:

H1M3M <wipnoah@gmail.com> wrote at 09:11 this Wednesday (GMT):

Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>

I wonder if that would work here on Usenet. Do you think if we just
started giving away keys we'd get more activity in this newsgroup? We
should pick a month at random (I dunno, let's say December) and see
if there's any change in posting habits. ;-)
 

>
I know getting new blood is imperative to keep the service alive, but
I'm always scared about what could happen if Usenet became Mainstream
again. Quoting a dead douchebag talking about a historic internet forum:

There was more civil discourse because you had to basically have a
certain level of intelligence to be on [the web]. People respected
people more, and it just seems like the easier it is for people to
get on, the less rational and civil discourse there is.

I was never there to see how September was before the "Eternal
September" event, but thinking about the people in the worst cesspools
of internet discovering there's a free access to usenet now and using it
to raid the groups scares me badly. it's been bad enough since the
annoying orange came to power again to the point I had to flee a
community with very low moderation due to how bad things had gotten.

>
>
Fair enough, but I still think USENET is too "difficult" for most of the
trolls to get on here. I mean, you need to set up a seperate app, and
the only "mainstream" app I can think of that supports NNTP
(thunderbird) doesn't really advertise newsgroups and also kinda sucks.
I think (hope) we're fine.

Aside from that, most people don't even know it exists. You can't join
a thing if you've no awareness it's even there! Not to mention, Usenet
has a reputation as being a cesspool: filled with spam, porn, warez
and unfriendly grognards. Then when you finally do get there... no
pictures, no emojis, not even colored text! And when you post a
one-line reply, people sneer at you!

Why would anyone want to join Usenet? ;-)

The thing is: they aren't wrong. Usenet is a very niche community and
it doesn't go out of its way to cater to the desires of the general
public. A lot of people just want the equivalent of a chat-board,
where they can just drop the latest meme-pix or let you know what they
ate for dinner. But Usenet, by virtue of its text-only interface,
resists this sort of communication. It is far more literary. It
demands you actually WRITE OUT your opinions. It's a relic of when it
was primarily used by people in universtity and the STEM industry;
clarity and preciseness were a requirement there, and it translated
into their chosen forum. But the Internet has a much broader base, and
it's no wonder that Usenet has fallen out of disfavor.

I'm not making judgement against these folks; different people want
different things. Just because you prefer meme-pix over long-form text
communications doesn't make you stupid. It just means you prioritize
different forms of communication.

And Usenet doesn't support that.

(also i'd probably be considered newblood considering I joined 2023)

Don't beat yourself up. Many would consider you newblood even if you
joined after 200_3_ ;-)

But newblood is good. It invites different opinions and challenges old
ideas.