It is ironical that we talk about usenet everywhere but on usenet. Events like the blackout on reddit and the scramble to move to alternate platforms would hardly be necessary if usenet worked clearly as a discussion platform.

While everyone blames spam for the slow death of discussions on usenet, I think there are a couple of other reasons:

  • access over http
  • searchability

These two reasons are why Google Groups continues to work while discussions on usenet barely do.

Usenet has to evolve to provide solutions to these problems:

  • spam: moderated groups are an insufficient solution when compared to moderation tools provided by modern discussion platforms.
  • usenet over http: people should be able to carry on discussions using browsers as well as apps. They should be able to share links to these discussions as well.
  • search: people should be able to conduct a search across all discussions by using native as well as third-party search engines (Google, Bing, Brave etc).
  • ksr_ut@lemmy.sdf.orgOPM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    accessibility to “normal” people … we need to have a big-name provider offer free access with no strings attached; no walled garden, no caveats.

    This is the point I have been arguing over on the subreddit with a user who is looking at it merely from a technical angle instead of from a regular end-user angle. I have been suggested options like browser extensions.

    My answer:

    The problem is access + bandwidth. What is easier?