 
baineschile
Premium
join:2008-05-10
Sterling Heights, MI | Why.... Why newsgroup, when one can blog for free | |
|  | Da Man
join:2008-05-08
Hanover, PA |  Re: Why....
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Re: Why.... said by Da Man  :Blogs have pr0n now? The world wide web has porn, and I don't think that I've ever seen a blog that wasn't on the world wide web... | |
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ib50MbSoon
Formerly TwoKDialup
Premium
join:2002-06-07
Coloma, MI
| Re: Why.... said by cdru :said by Da Man :Blogs have pr0n now? The world wide web has porn, and I don't think that I've ever seen a blog that wasn't on the world wide web... Gas station restroom walls have had blogs for ages. 
--
Comcast has spoiled me rotten! | |
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Ramses444
@plus.pl | why these paid nntp providers require cc ? And you cannot pay with paypal ? Is this so to better control posters ? Or easier to prosecute them ? | |
| | | | | | | Altopia
join:2008-10-03
Seattle, WA | Re: Why.... Altopia doesn't accept PayPal, but we are pretty inexpensive at $6/month. »https://www.altopia.com/
Happy to answer any questions. | |
| |
colen351
@comcast.net
| Newsgroups offer much more than what is available on blogs. With the use of a newsgroup search engine such as binsearch and ngindex, in conjunction with a newsreader that handles nzb files, it's possible to locate and download tons of material quickly and efficiently. Try finding freely downloadable mp3s or movies on a blog search engine. | |
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PGHammer
join:2003-06-09
Accokeek, MD
clubs:
 ·Comcast
| Re: They were already down to 2GB/mo It's not the children (and it's not pr0n, either), but, as the OP said, declining interest. Comcast *never* ran the servers themselves (before switching to Giganews, Excite, then AtHome, ran the newsgroup servers, then, in the interim between Excite and Giganews, Comcast leased access from UUNet). Between declining interest in USENET (almost everything available via USENET is available other ways, most of which are far more bandwidth-friendly), and the cost of service, why should Comcast continue eating $8/customer for a service likely used by less than ten percent of their customers? (As much as I used to use the Comcast/Giganews USENET servers, even I haven't used them in more than six months.) Surprisingly, my interest in USENET has declined with the increase in available/usable bandwidth. | |
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Usenetter
@datafoundry.com
| Re: They were already down to 2GB/mo Usenet is growing like crazy. Here's a graph showing the news feed over time.
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Usen···(en).svg
If interest is "declining", then how come more content is posted to it every day?
The "declining" argument is BS. | |
| | | | Aimhere
join:2001-04-02
Green Bay, WI
| Re: They were already down to 2GB/mo said by Usenetter :
Usenet is growing like crazy. Here's a graph showing the news feed over time.
If interest is "declining", then how come more content is posted to it every day?
The "declining" argument is BS.
That graph shows that the the amount of posts per day (in GB) has grown over the years. But I have to point out that there isn't necessarily any correspondence between the amount of posting and the number of people posting.
The amount of posting has increased for two reasons. First, the binary files being posted have grown, both in size and in quantity. Computer executables (apps, games, etc.) have steadily expanded from single-floppy disks (or even smaller) into multi-DVD-ROM monsters, while data files (music and video) have gone from tiny MIDI sequences to multi-megabyte MP3s to multi-gigabyte full-DVD videos. Second, more and more spammers "discovered" Usenet, posting their drivel in every group under the sun, and while their posts are text-only, the sheer number of them adds up.
Posting to Usenet has grown because it's still one of the easiest and cheapest (for the poster) ways to distribute [binary] stuff... no need to buy/rent a permanent server, no need to build a web GUI, nothing to maintain, no DNS registration, etc.; just subscribe to a Usenet service for a few bucks a month. But the number of people actually using Usenet for discussions seems to be steadily dwindling.
Aimhere | |
| | | Akelvin
join:2008-10-25
Vancouver, WA
| Declining interest you say? Not so, and you know it. Besides, it's clear that you aren't the target audience for Usenet which has always stood for the free exchange of information in a non-monitored environment.
Don't get me wrong, blogs are fine and communication tools are being created every day to cater to just about every personal need. However, what they all lack is the true feeling of privacy and protection in support of "Free Speech."
Personally, I feel that with each nook and corner being exploited for profit, the once enjoyed anonymity that the Internet use to provide no longer exists. To me, Usenet is the last vestige of a true form of "Free" information exchange, while everyone is simply waiting for this too to become property of "The Man." Enjoy it while it lasts. 
***Always keep your pockets free of margarine... | |
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djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA | quote:
We had good newservers with ATTBi
AT&T Broadband, in an anti-piracy effort, removed a huge number of binary groups shortly before the Comcast took over. | |
| 
jjoshua
Premium
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ | So my bill will go down? My monthly internet service should cost less because they are no longer providing usenet, right? | |
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See 31 replies to this post | |
| | Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA | Re: thanks! This must be the cost saves from competition they keep speaking of. | |
| | 
jeffhambone
Peace, through superior firepower
join:2002-02-02
Manassas, VA
·Comcast
·Cox HSI
| said by swhitney2003 :Thank you Comcast for caring. I knew it wouldn't be long before you finally realized none of us wanted newsgroups anymore. All we needed was your help hand in telling us that we actually don't use them. /sarcasm. (snip) They really do care. This is their way of helping you stay within the 250GB/month cap.
As if cutting access to a service providing less than 1% of the cap (2GB/month news limit) would make a difference... 
--
Son, there's only one thing you need to know: HEMI | |
| 
hep cat
do da dirdy bird
join:2001-02-17
Decatur, GA
| dieing anyway Usenet has been dieing a slow death for a long time. Fewer and fewer people post anything on newsgroups anymore. The downfall started because of web forums and all the velveeta (usenet spam). It is a sad day but not unexpected at all. Even I rarely check out usenet. For what it's worth never even did the binary groups. Only read the text based groups. IMHO if they had kept HTML and the Binary groups away it would still be around but on life support.
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Bowling: It's cleaner than baseball. | |
| |
See 7 replies to this post | |
superakcraig
join:2005-03-15
Louisville, KY
| Newsgroups aren't dead...yet. Hopefully Insightbb won't follow. I use that service often. They outsource using Giganews like Comcast. Although the speeds are limited to 1.5mbp it still works and I can get a.........700mb file err...I mean post in about an hour.
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Here I Come to Save the Day!! | |
| AstroBoy
join:2008-08-08
Parkville, MD
| When will Comcast tell their customers? When will Comcast tell their customers?
Should I go read my Comcast.net email?
I tend to check it 3-4 times per year. I just checked it Monday, so way too soon! 
It is true that FIOS does not include news access? | |
| | EPS
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA | Re: When will Comcast tell their customers? Verizon has newsgroup access, but it's very limited- I believe it doesn't include the alt.* categories, for example. (This was part of the "landmark settlement to reduce child abuse" the New York AG was so proud of) | |
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dnoyeB
Ferrous Phallus
join:2000-10-09
Southfield, MI |  Collusion
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moon1234
@tds.net
| Re: Collusion collusion = A non-competitive agreement between rivals that attempts to disrupt the market's equilibrium. By collaborating with each other, rival firms look to alter the price of a good to their advantage. The parties may collectively choose to restrict the supply of a good, and/or agree to increase its price, in order to maximize profits. Groups may also collude by sharing private information, allowing them to benefit from insider knowledge.
I think this qualifies as rival firms colluding to eliminate a service and increase the price of a good to their advantage. The same applies to the new download CAPS. Verizon is the only one not in collusion with the other ISPs for now.
Verizon used to provide a VERY nice news service. It was fast, reliable and had good retention. Verizon even had their own newsgroups for supporting their customers. I remember you could leave a request for Jeremy to add a new newsgroup and if Verizon could get it, it would be added within a few days. You could also watch for service outages, etc. When I moved to a different area I could not get Verizon internet service. I had to take Charter. Charter does still provide uncapped newsgraoup service, but it is throttled to 300Kbps which is not fast enough for any of the binary newsgroups like the old ozzie and harriet (spelling?) radio shows. | |
| | | EPS
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA | Re: Collusion It's not collusion when the government requests that companies in a certain industries do something and companies in that industry do it. It's like saying that the phone companies are colluding to charge you taxes on phone service. | |
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moon1234
@tds.net | Re: Collusion Your kidding right? Collusion is when companies conspire knowingly or unknowlingly to fix a price, control bidding, etc.
This has NOTHING to do with taxes assessed by a government entity. Trying to bump your post count or something? | |
| | | | | EPS
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA
| Re: Collusion I am of course referring to the New York Attorney General's campaign to get ISPs to limit newsgroup access. For the children, of course. It's not a government MANDATE like taxes are, though the AG was threatening lawsuits IIRC.
I wasn't aware this site even kept track of post counts? | |
| 
funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
 ·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Skype
| Old News, and Consumers are Missing the Point Old News, but now we have the date: »Comcast Caves to Cuomo Legal Threat
FIRST
It might be true that a few more DSLReports users read usenet, but all of you guys who are griping that everyone should now get a discount on your bill are missing the point -- this service has largely gone by the wayside. If usenet was a wildly popular service, it would still be around. Next to go, Personal Web Pages, probably.
SECOND
This is about feathering Andy Cuomo's nest as he hopes to become governor or emperor some day, by showing how he protected children from exploitation by child pornographers. He turned up the legal heat and ISPs fled the kitchen. For doing so, he deserves to be criticized for misusing his power, and ISPs deserve to be criticized for failing to stand up for their users rights. Legal NNTP service should not be stopped because some people might misuse it any more than the Internet should be stopped because some people might misuse it.
--
Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon
More features, more fun, Join BroadbandReports.com, it's free...
| |
| | NormanS
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| Re: Old News, and Consumers are Missing the Point said by funchords :his is about feathering Andy Cuomo's nest as he hopes to become governor or emperor some day, by showing how he protected children from exploitation by child pornographers. He turned up the legal heat and ISPs fled the kitchen. For doing so, he deserves to be criticized for misusing his power... Unfortunately, criticizing his "faux fight" against child pornography draws heat upon the critics.
and ISPs deserve to be criticized for failing to stand up for their users rights.
Unfortunately, ISPs are in business for profit, not principle. And the cost of standing up for principle is lest profit. Cheaper to do as AOL did, and agree to tell the public you are going to stop doing what you already stopped doing years ago, then to pay the court costs to show some judge that you had already stopped doing it long before some sleazy, two-bit windbag politician, whose anti-child-pornography campaign has not convicted anyone of wrongdoing, came along.
Legal NNTP service should not be stopped because some people might misuse it any more than the Internet should be stopped because some people might misuse it.
But the cost of continuing to provide the service might have to come out of the pockets of the users of the service, to cover the cost of standing up to the likes of Andy Cuomo.
--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum | |
| | |
funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| Re: Old News, and Consumers are Missing the Point said by NormanS :before some sleazy, two-bit windbag politician, whose anti-child-pornography campaign has not convicted anyone of wrongdoing, came along. Now that's the spirit!!
said by NormanS :said by funchords :and ISPs deserve to be criticized for failing to stand up for their users rights. Unfortunately, ISPs are in business for profit, not principle. And the cost of standing up for principle is lest profit. ISPs ought to be in the ISP business, and that means being part of the Internet community and culture -- not bending over to some resume-padding politician for the wrong reasons.
Where is Comcast's "anti-regulatory" spirit in this case? Why aren't they filing lawsuits against Cuomo "for the principle of the thing?" Do they only support regulation that will save them money or limit the freedoms of their users?
--
Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon
More features, more fun, Join BroadbandReports.com, it's free...
| |
| 
Richard B
Fur It Up
join:2007-06-22
Portland, OR
·Comcast
1 edit | Broadband Reports Killed Usenet As well as Myspace, Wordpress, Live Journal, The Personal Web Page, PHP Nuke, PHP Boards and Bit Torrent .
Simply Put once the web was established text base USENT had become obsolete. To me Social networking and Blogs were the final nail in the coffin. There are two huge advantages the web has over Usenet, first the ability to embed media the second the ability to create and maintain an online community. In Usenet one has to go through a rigid and highly bureaucratic approval processes lasting weeks compared to 5 minutes and answering a few questions to start a social network or blog.
What simply going on here is Comcast bashing. | |
| | 
alanhdsl
Premium
join:1999-10-09
Phoenix, AZ
·Qwest.net
| Re: Broadband Reports Killed Usenet What killed Usenet for me was the unending spam/flamebait. At least on the web boards, moderators can kick out the trolls. I was using a killfile, but it was monsterous by the time I quit Usenet. There are too many people with too much spare time -- you have to wonder about someone that composes thousands of flamebait messages under dozens of aliases for years, but here he is (this is just a sample, he's posted a lot more).
I was never in it for the pr0n or warez. | |
| |
DewDude
@verizon.net
| No,
the real point isn't about comcast bashing..it's about all these ISP's caving because some NY DA started complaining (all of a sudden too) that usenet was too big a source of kiddie pr0n...and supposedly he threatened legal action against ISP's that didn't remove the access...the last bit is up to a huge debate depending who you read/talk to.
point is...ISP's were providing a service...and now becuase a few people stood up and seriously complained..they're removing a service. for starters, losing usenet made the $39.99/month i'm paying for my crappy old DSL line seem even MORE expensive...and no, verizon isn't willing to reduce my price to offset what i NOW have to pay for that they USED to give me.
to quiote tom petty: "As we celebrate mediocrity all the boys upstairs want to see
How much you'll pay for what you used to get for free"
is it about the content? maybe? what's it really about? money. all these telco companies are asorbing everyone else so they can raise prices and lower service. Verizon is a HUGE example..my DSL price went up 30%...but my speed and quality of service didn't. | |
| 
Scree
In the pipe 5 by 5
join:2001-04-24
Mount Laurel, NJ
1 edit | So So if other isps jumped off a bridge.......
OK, fine, then reduce the service price at least $10! | |
|
meztoa
@bellsouth.net | ISP's Hate Usenet You get simply the content that interests you and none of flashing advertisements you can't control and pop-ups that you never asked for or wanted. | |
|
g2i
@verizon.net
| Getting the message What amazes me is that Giganews hasn't yet got the message and removed child porn from their servers. In fact, apparently they have in the UK, they are part of IWF and to be part of IWF they must not provide access to such materials.
So in the UK Giganews really believes that child porn is horrible, as it is. In the USA they peddle it on their servers. Isn't position of such stuff illegal? If so, then why doesn't it apply to ISPs like Giganews who know it's there. | |
| ilyedtou
join:2002-09-02
Ambridge, PA
|  Comcast haters Unite
 It always amazes me that people will say "who cares" to a service that they pay for, that gets taken away because they "don't use it".We all need to "bitch, moan, & complain" to Comcast, because eventually they will get to a service that you use.
Just like the NRA, their members go crazy when any change in the gun laws are attempted whether it affects them or not. They complain to their Reps and Senators making them back off changes, if we all did that w/Comcast maybe we could effect change in them. God knows we all need to do this w/net neutrality!!!!!! | |
| ilyedtou
join:2002-09-02
Ambridge, PA
| Comcast haters unite It always amazes me that people will say "who cares" to a service that they pay for, that gets taken away because they "don't use it". We all need to "bitch, moan, & complain" to Comcast, because eventually they will get to a service that you use.
Just like the NRA, their members go crazy when any change in the gun laws are attempted whether it affects them or not. They complain to their Reps and Senators making them back off changes, if we all did that w/Comcast maybe we could effect change in them. God knows we all need to do this w/net neutrality!!!!!! | |
| NewsgroupRev
Premium
join:2008-06-25
| Usenet Providers Discounts Here is a list of newsgroup providers offering discounts to ISP customers who lost Usenet access this year (Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner, Verizon and Sprint)
Newsgroup Provider Discounts
Visit the newsgroup servers page for a full list of Usenet services. | |
| tokm
join:2008-10-25
| Less for More Lets look at what Comcast has done in the past few months.
1. Limited bandwidth to 250Gb a month.
2. RAISED THEIR PRICES.
3. Discontinued newsgroup service.
I so wish that cable television wasn't regulated. I would love to switch to the competition. What other companies do you know that can retain customers after raising prices and cutting service? I wonder if my employer would keep me around if I started to work less, but expected the same pay? Comcast can go to hell. | |
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Comcast Discontinues Newsgroup Service
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