keithr said:
Face it, Usenet is slowly dying many people are leaving for forums
specialising in their subject. Forums are more flexible for things
like pictures and they, in general, are moderated with a lot less
noise and flames. This gives ISPs a lot less reasons to maintain
their news servers and I expect a lot less to do so in the future..
Forums are not the answer, they are a solution looking for a problem.
In many forums, whilst the level of politness is higher (funny how
giving someone a badge and making them the sheriff can do that), there
are still just as many inane and pointless posts.
Worst of all you cannot kill file a forum so that you don't see the
crap from the loonies (take a bow Jonz).
I'm involved in a BMW motorcycle forum and wanted to know if I could
get away with replacing the cam whilst leaving the cylinders in place.
Two days of drivel telling me stuff i already knew until someone
offered to Pm me and confirmed that I could and told me the things to
watch out for in the process.
I think the signal to noise ratio in forums is worse because Usenet,
whilst a complete anarchy requires a particularly robust form of
stupidity to hang around if you are not wanted (eg David Z, Ozliar and
of course the pie smasher). But, at least in Usenet they can be kill
filed.
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