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

On 2025-04-12, Paul W. Schleck <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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]

Geographic similarity does help.  One thing I liked about BBS's back in
the 90s, was that you were connecting with other people *nearby*.  You
could meet the system.  This is something that wasn't obviously a
feature back then, as it was the norm, but now I kind of appreciate the
usefulness of it.

Now, I suppose the closes to a "local Usenet" is the Reddit group
specifically for my hometown in Australia, but I don't really like the
Reddit interface and I don't think the format really is conducive to
good discussion.  Modern Social media just does suck.

Altexxanet has a good template.  You have chat/forum and webspace under
the one banner.  Even some web forums form the 2000's, using the phpBB
software or what it was, also had a chat room, where you could chat to
the people you were engaging with in forums, in real time.  Discord kind
of is a bit of both, but sits awkwardly between forum and chat, doing
neither really well in my opinion.