"AugustA" <
nospam@thankyou.invalid> wrote
| I've read both. There is no explanation WHY the sudden cut-off though.
| It seems like a bad judgment imho.
As Ralph's last post indicates, the man doesn't like MS
and it's his server. That server is named Eternal
September, so it seems likely that Ray is an oldtimer
who only does this because he feels a kind of
religious fealty to some idea of "the real Internet".
Founders' neurosis. It happens in all areas of life.
Judging from his "Good riddance" and deliberate
lack of common courtesy, I'd further guess that he feels
carrying MS groups in the past has been a dirty
business; presumably because MS groups are an
abomination in the pure religion of usenet. And he's
not goiing to just say that, so he's muttering something
about terrible spam.
The bottom line is that the groups were available
for years, at no cost, and Ray is not required to
carry them. I would guess that usenet altogether
will be gone before long. Maybe Facebook will bring
back a facsimile. :) I was surprised, when I decided
to look into it, that the very idea of text-based usenet
has virtually disappeared. Anyone talking about
newsgroups is talking about how much they pay to
trade files. Young people only know the shopping
mall model -- computing as entertainment service.
Times are changing faster than ever. I have trouble
these days just using my phone. People on cellphones
want to text me, video call, reach me at any minute
of the day.... A growing number of people simply
doesn't conceive of a world where there are people who
are not strapped to cellphones. Last week I was at a
doctor's office. They wanted me to fill out forms. In
typical fashion, they'd copied my "home" number into
the cellphone field. I crossed it out, in the remote
chance that a person might actually update records.
Their software assumes a single phone number *must*
be a cellphone, even thoughwidespread cellphone use
is probably less than 15 years old. Then they told
me the doctor would want to do a "tele-health" call
later. "Make sure you turn on your camera." The
Millennial receptionist had to check whether it's legal
to tele-health via landline. (Presumably they really
just had to check whether they can bill "tele-health"
for what's clearly a phone call and not a "virtual visit".)
So I guess it's not surprising if some people like Ray
want to keep their rotary phone and call Information, for
old times' sake. Then they fire up their computer and go
to newsgroups to talk about punch card programming,
just like the old men at the hardware store who think
carpentry was ruined by the advent of power tools.
("Back then you had to know what you were doing.")
Getting old is a humbling thing. And the worst of it
is that young people simply can't grok that they'll get
old, so they assume age is just a personal failing. These
days, who can blame them? Jane Fonda and Madonna
are not aging, after all.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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