Re: You Can Use the Internet the Old-School Unixy Way With Shell Accounts

In <[email protected]> Borax Man <[email protected]> writes:

>["Followup-To:" header set to alt.culture.usenet.]
>On 2025-03-22, yeti <[email protected]> wrote:
>> [email protected] (Paul W. Schleck) wrote:
>>
>>> "One reason to sign up for a shell account is that shell providers
>>> often have friendly user communities.
>>
>> (*) Most neighbours I have in pubnixens are just silent, but the few
>> that are not are worth staying.
>>

>I signed up to one or two, and that was my experience.  The *idea* was
>cool, but no one was really there.  The fundamental problem, I think, is
>its not a real community.  Its people who want to use a particular
>technology, but don't share any other interest.  It's like starting a
>group for people who like to meet in community centres.  Once you're
>there, then what?  You've already achieved your goal?  The Gemini
>community had the same problem.  They just liked the idea of using
>Gemini.  That doesn't make what you have to say more interesting.

>It was basically, at least to me, people who liked to use a particular
>means to an ends, but actually had no ends.  I do understand that the
>communication format does matter (part of the appeal of Usenet to me),
>but you need more than a shared desire to use the same format.  At least
>on Usenet, you can find others with similar interests.

Panix seems to be better in this regard.  Part of it is likely their
local hierarchy of newsgroups (panix.*) that still have considerable
activity.  It probably also helps that they are based in New York City,
which has a large population and significant number of local attractions
to talk about (museums, theater, etc.).  They also seem to do more
active community-building, with notable resident experts and discussion
leaders. For a while, they even had an occasional user picnic in Central
Park near Cleopatra's Needle.  The panix.questions newsgroup also has a
large user base willing and able to answer a wide range of technical and
non-technical questions.

--
Paul W. Schleck
[email protected]