On 02 Feb 2005 20:46:33 GMT, custmclr@aol.com (CustmClr) wrote:
> The contents of the AOL notice has changed:
> "Please note: Beginning early 2005, AOL will no longer be providing direct
> access to newsgroups. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Seems to me at every turn AOL is encouraging people to leave. I
wonder why people even continue to use "the internet with training
wheels" when lower cost easy-to-us alternatives are readily available
most everywhere.
I think too many people have been blinded by AOL's over-saturation of
the market by including junk discs in every magazine and newspaper.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It may also be that Usenet newsgroups
are not the big attraction they used to be. There are now days so many
alternatives such as interactive web sites, the Yahoo groups, Google
groups, etc. And so many of the Usenet newsgroups are populated by
long, oldtime users who (frankly) act at times like the newsgroups
are their personal property. You seem to be saying that internet =
Usenet and when the new users get done with their training wheels they
should graduate to begin direct Usenet useage. Some may choose to do
so, but the vast majority do not. Maybe a lot of the 'new users with
their training wheels' have gotten tired of the insults and 'I know
it all, but you are too ignorant to be allowed to be here' attitude
of many of the old-timers. I know from my experience I have gotten
very turned off at one time or another by 'Usenet attitudes' and
rarely use it any longer; many of the newer guys simply do not bother
at all. There are just too many valid, good alternatives to Usenet
these days.
Or, consider the Usenet equivilent of TELECOM Digest: at one time in
internet history, 'comp.dcom.telecom' as we are called was the *only*
user discussion forum on telecom which was available. Then in the
early/middle 1990's there were *three* of these groups on Usenet.
When the web got started, more and more groups came along. Now there
are at least two dozen telecom discussion groups -- mostly web based
-- available. Maybe AOL is not 'encouraging people to leave' as you
phrased it; maybe, to the contrary, regards Usenet they simply decided
'who needs it any longer'. And truely, Usenet has begun to wear out
its welcome with a lot of netizens, some of whom were not yet born
when Usenet first got started, just as many readers of this Digest
were not yet born -- or quite young -- when this forum was known as
'arpa.telecom' (prior to being comp.dcom.telecom). Times change as do
people and their attitudes. PAT]
Joseph (JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com)