Usenet's home shuts down today

[The Straight Story]

Usenet's home shuts down today


Duke University in North Carolina is where Usenet began, and today the institution is shutting down its Usenet server. The college cites "low usage and rising costs" for the decision.

The first messages began flowing in 1980, after two Duke students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, developed the protocol, using UUCP as a transport and modems (two 300 baud auto-diallers) and telephone lines as the backbone.

The system was unveiled at a Usenix meeting in January 1980, in which the two students distributed a five page handout called "Invitation to a General Access UNIX Network" to attendees. Their goal, they said, was "a poor man's Arpanet". By the time Arpanet evolved into today's internet, Usenet was already hugely popular, and evolved its own sophisticated nntp protocol.

And what a legacy.

"Many social aspects of online communication – from emoticons and slang acronyms such as LOL to flame wars – originated or were popularized on Usenet," notes the college.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/20/usenet_duke_server/

[tridim]

1. That's pretty sad, considering my first exposure to the Internet was Usenet.

Not to mention that I still check out newsgroups on occasion today.

I hope the other servers don't shut down.

[rocktivity]

2. I can remember when USENET was actually a seemly place

Someone replied to my very first Internet post there and mentioned he lived in Ireland. I was so blown away by the idea that communicating with someone on the other side of the world was a simple as turning on a computer, I sent him a private e-mail: "Are you REALLY from Ireland?" But I guess it was long overdue--long before it became outdated by blogging and social networking, it had been spammed to death.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[bluestateguy]

3. Remember the term "information superhighway"?

I noticed it fell out of the lexicon about 10 years ago.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. RIP

Twas fun getting there and searching stuff out.

[X_Digger]

5. Can someone please repost rar part 1684-1687? (Sorry, flashback.) n/t

[TheManInTheMac]

8. LOL!

READ THE FAQ!

[eleny]

19. I'm getting the shakes!

Talk about a blast from the past.

[TheManInTheMac]

6. Wow

I often miss Usenet. I know it is still out there, but ISP's pretty much only offer their own groups. Almost everything I learned about setting up Linux I learned from Usenet. (In the '90's setting up Linux was WAY more difficult than Windows. The tables have turned.)

[Speck Tater]

10. Google Groups started out mirroring most of the useful groups.

I think you can still post and read via the Google Groups interface, although in my experience groups in general seem to be fading away. Some of my favorite specialist technical groups, especially in the sci.math hierarchy used to have hundreds of posters. Now those same groups are ghost towns with nothing but sporadic spam posts.

[zipplewrath]

16. It was interesting to follow the evolution

I got into Usenet in about 1993. It was just a few years before it all started to fall apart. The structure really only worked with a certain size of users. Once the spam started in earnest, it all began to fall apart. It was too bad too. The travel groups were invaluable to me. I could get "local knowledge" on relatively small places.

With the advent of other, web based, forums and information sources, it lost much of its utility. And the nature of communication changed towards "social networking" and "instant messaging". But places like Democratic Underground can find the roots of much of its traditions and structure was worked out in the days of Usenet.

[Speck Tater]

7. How will we ever survive without "alt.plastic.utensils.spork" nt

[lpbk2713]

9. I think I still have a 14.4 modem somewhere.

I'm an old BBSer. I'll light a candle out of respect.

[X_Digger]

11. FidoNET ftw! ;)

And 'doors'.. man, those were the days.

[eleny]

20. oh muh gawd, the doors!

[charlesg]

12. Usenet FAQs were the best

[smoogatz]

13. Ah, usenet.

You were pretty creepy. Not that sad to see you go.

[eleny]

14. The first friend I made on the net was at Usenet and we're still friends today

We were both posters at the Baltic countries group since that's our shared heritage. We started posting to each other maybe around 1990.

What's next, mIRC? That's also a blast from the past that I never use anymore.

[The Straight Story]

15. mIRC still out there, but dalnet and others suck. (nt)

[tridim]

17. I was addicted to IRC for about 4 years in the early 90's

#ACRO was my favorite channel. I made lots of friends there.

<AcroBot> The current acronym for this round is: CIC
-> *AcroBot* Chiron is Cool!
*AcroBot* Your answer of "Chiron is Cool!" has been registered.
<AcroBot> Ten seconds left.
<AcroBot> Voting Round: Choose one of the following. (Use /msg AcroBot <Number>)
<AcroBot> 1. Crazies induce Chaos
<AcroBot> 2. Coronary imminent, Candice!
<AcroBot> 3. Chiron is Cool!
-> *AcroBot* 2
*AcroBot* Your vote has been registered.
<AcroBot> Eingang's answer of "Coronary imminent, Candice!" received 1 vote.
<AcroBot> Eingang gets 2 speed points.
<AcroBot> Mach's answer of "Chiron is Cool!" received 2 votes.
<AcroBot> Loser's answer of "Crazies induce Chaos" receive 0 votes.
<AcroBot> Mach receives 3 bonus points.

I was even in the ACRO hall of fame for my acronym for EFHWS -> "Elmer Fudd has wascally sex" :)

[eleny]

18. Lol!

Several of us American Lithuanian women would get together and chat just about every evening for years on irc. We remain friends today both online and "irl" even though we all live in different states. :D

[X_Digger]

21. I met my wife on IRC. Still married today :)

Efnet, #annerice

[Posteritatis]

23. IRC's surprisingly healthy these days

EFNet's still around, Undernet still sucks, there's a bajillion smaller networks or single servers for this that and the other thing, etc.

[Posteritatis]

22. I still love how an image on Wikipedia portrays the Usenet hierarchy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Usenet_Big_Nine.svg

Anyone who was there in the nineties will, of course, immediately understand.

[Berry Cool]

24. This is a sad, sentimental day for me.

Of course, I suppose thanks to Google, every damn thing we said on Usenet is archived somewhere for all our potential future employers to see.