Of all the things Comcast has done, dropping Usenet is probably one of the least bad. I don't particularly think the legions of Comcast subscribers should be footing the bill for a service a very tiny fraction use. Sure, Comcast could make it an additional-fee service, but let's face it, if you have to pay extra for Usenet, would you rather pay Comcast, or a decent company?
Of course, I highly doubt Comcast subscribers are going to see any of the cost savings.... On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 10:47 PM, TARogue <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It's nice to be able to ask a question and get an answer without just > getting fed a "RTFM" answer. Oh, right, and that *never* happens on Usenet. ;-) > I won't use google news (no filters), > and don't konw what I would do if MV dropped usenet. I suspect Usenet is going to become the domain (no pun intended) of a smaller number of boutique providers, as it falls out of the mainstream. MV might well fall into that category, but even if MV were to drop Usenet, I'm sure you'll be able to find a good Usenet provider willing to serve NNTP over the 'net. For a fee, of course. Special services usually don't come free, and Usenet is heading in that direction. I'm expecting to eventually see some kind of generalized message sharing protocol emerge in the world of individually hosted systems. Whether it's an email/web-forum/NNTP gateway or something else, I dunno. But the concept of message systems is too useful for it to just die off. The Internet is in transition, here. I'm not so sure about widely distributed systems lacking central authority, a la Usenet. It's hard to defend against abuse in such systems. Such systems also tend towards open-ended costs with no ability to tap them for revenue to cover costs. I could see some kind of mixed-mode system, with a generally distributed architecture, but with some central controls, succeeding. Then again, if Usenet does become a paid, boutique service, that's pretty much what it would become. Of course, this is all rampant speculation on my part, but it's fun. :) -- Ben _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
