20 May
2005
20 May
'05
9:32 a.m.
Now that those of us in the UK are forced to use the new google groups
interface to their archive...
1) How do I see how active a group is or what groups exist in a
particular hierarchy? (e.g. I used to be able to stick "comp.sys.sun"
into the search field and it'd show me both that hierarchy and group
activity, which was handy when deciding where to post)
2) Are full email addresses available to view by registered users? It
used to handy being able to try and contact someone from x years ago who
had knowledge of something I wanted details on. Now Google seem to be
masking them all though...
I'll send these two to Google themselves of course, but as you US guys
have been stuck with the new interface for months maybe you already have
answers...
3) Is anyone else archiving usenet or do Google have sole control?
cheers
Jules
20 May
20 May
10:01 a.m.
New subject: Couple of google groups questions
From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 11:32 AM
Now that those of us in the UK are forced to use the
new google groups
interface to their archive...
1) How do I see how active a group is or what groups exist in a
particular hierarchy? (e.g. I used to be able to stick "comp.sys.sun"
into the search field and it'd show me both that hierarchy and group
activity, which was handy when deciding where to post)
2) Are full email addresses available to view by registered users? It
used to handy being able to try and contact someone from x years ago who
had knowledge of something I wanted details on. Now Google seem to be
masking them all though...
I'll send these two to Google themselves of course, but as you US guys
have been stuck with the new interface for months maybe you already have
answers...
3) Is anyone else archiving usenet or do Google have sole control?
cheers
Jules
Most free systems are now trying to protect against data mining. Google
does allow you to send a message to the original poster but keeps the email
address hidden until you get a response.
Randy
www.s100-manuals.com
21 May
21 May
8:40 a.m.
On 5/20/05, Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Now that those of us in the UK are forced to use the new google groups
interface to their archive...
1) How do I see how active a group is or what groups exist in a
particular hierarchy? (e.g. I used to be able to stick "comp.sys.sun"
into the search field and it'd show me both that hierarchy and group
activity, which was handy when deciding where to post)
You can type comp.sys.sun* to see the lot.
2) Are full email addresses available to view by
registered users? It
used to handy being able to try and contact someone from x years ago who
had knowledge of something I wanted details on. Now Google seem to be
masking them all though...
You can click on reply to author and it will send a message for you.
I'll send these two to Google themselves of
course, but as you US guys
have been stuck with the new interface for months maybe you already have
answers...
3) Is anyone else archiving usenet or do Google have sole control?
Don't know
cheers
Jules
Dan
27 May
27 May
11:05 a.m.
Jules Richardson wrote:
3) Is anyone else archiving usenet or do Google have
sole control?
There's no "control" involved, just the problem of cost. Google doesn't
have a
monopoly on archiving usenet; they're just the only ones with infrastructure
and cash to do it.
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
12:08 p.m.
On Fri, 2005-05-27 at 13:05 -0500, Jim Leonard wrote:
Jules Richardson wrote:
Yep, but as I understand it deja spent a lot of effort collecting
together a complete usenet archive, which was then sold to google.
So whilst the data's not copyrighted, far as I know google are the only
people out there with a (reasonably?) complete usenet archive.
Now google seem to be doing everything they can to turn it into just
another web forum, which is a little alarming to me as it seems too
important a resource for that to happen to it. Hence I'm just curious as
to whether anyone else has managed to collect an archive together with
the emphasis being on the historical value of it, rather than it
apparently just being another way of scoring points against the
competition (and having a cruddy web interface bolted on top of it)
cheers
Jules
3) Is anyone else archiving usenet or do Google
have sole control?
There's no "control" involved, just the problem of cost. Google
doesn't have a
monopoly on archiving usenet; they're just the only ones with infrastructure
and cash to do it. 
12:53 p.m.
On Fri, 27 May 2005, Jules Richardson wrote:
Now google seem to be doing everything they can to
turn it into just
another web forum, which is a little alarming to me as it seems too
important a resource for that to happen to it. Hence I'm just curious as
Nobody uses Usenet any more (much to my own personal chagrin as I found it
very useful for many things, as I'm sure others did/do).
The web has basically supplanted the usefulness of Usenet, but gone is
the quick and simple interface.
Long live Usenet!
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
1 p.m.
Nobody uses Usenet any more (much to my own personal
chagrin as I found it
very useful for many things, as I'm sure others did/do).
Eh? I'm yakking all the time on comp.sys.cbm.
--
---------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA * ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- FORTUNE: Make your own advancement opportunity. Blackmail your boss. -------
1:04 p.m.
On 5/27/05, Cameron Kaiser <spectre at floodgap.com> wrote:
> Nobody uses Usenet any more (much to my own
personal chagrin as I found it
> very useful for many things, as I'm sure others did/do).
Eh? I'm yakking all the time on comp.sys.cbm.
I also still get some stuff on my freeshell.org account. Not as much
as I'd like, though.
-dhbarr.
1:23 p.m.
From: "Cameron Kaiser" <spectre at floodgap.com>
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 3:00 PM
I am constantly on several Usenet groups. Usenet is far from dead.
Randy
www.s100-manuals.com
Nobody uses
Usenet any more (much to my own personal chagrin as I found
it
very useful for many things, as I'm sure others did/do).
Eh? I'm yakking all the time on comp.sys.cbm.
--
---------------------------------- personal:
http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA *
ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- FORTUNE: Make your own advancement opportunity. Blackmail your
boss. -------
1:48 p.m.
On Fri, 27 May 2005, Cameron Kaiser wrote:
Sorry, I meant "relatively". I've witnessed a lot of the newsgroups that
used to thrive slowly wither away over the years. The local Bay Area
newsgroups used to be great places to find or get rid of crap, for
example. Now, craigslist is the place to be.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
Nobody uses
Usenet any more (much to my own personal chagrin as I found it
very useful for many things, as I'm sure others did/do).
Eh? I'm yakking all the time on comp.sys.cbm. 
31 May
31 May
6:24 a.m.
At 03:00 PM 5/27/2005, Cameron Kaiser wrote:
And I routinely find better answers for contemporary computer
problems in Google Groups rather than web sites... but I agree
that usage has diminished, apart from the pic and movie groups.
A larger similar question looms in my mind - places like Yahoo
Groups. There's no mechanism for archiving those messages, is there,
apart from someone keeping all the messages they receive?
- John
Nobody uses
Usenet any more (much to my own personal chagrin as I found it
very useful for many things, as I'm sure others did/do).
Eh? I'm yakking all the time on comp.sys.cbm.
27 May
27 May
1:13 p.m.
On Fri, 2005-05-27 at 12:53 -0700, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
On Fri, 27 May 2005, Jules Richardson wrote:
Not in my experience - I still find it really useful and a really quick
way to get answers for things. Plus of course it means I don't have to
be a member of six million different web forums, which is useful :)
It's mainly the archive I'm interested in though as it's a useful tool
for finding answers to questions that others have asked in the past.
It'd seem a shame to lose that because Google are totally inept when it
comes to writing a web interface :-(
I just get pissed off when useful archives of information get lost or
rendered difficult to use in the name of progress, resulting in people
having to reinvent the wheel. All seems rather pointless :-(
usenet is very much alive and well though, I assure you!
cheers
Jules
Now google seem to be doing everything they can
to turn it into just
another web forum, which is a little alarming to me as it seems too
important a resource for that to happen to it. Hence I'm just curious as
Nobody uses Usenet any more (much to my own personal chagrin as I found it
very useful for many things, as I'm sure others did/do). 
1:16 p.m.
On Fri, 27 May 2005, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
Nobody uses Usenet any more (much to my own personal chagrin as I found it
very useful for many things, as I'm sure others did/do).
The web has basically supplanted the usefulness of Usenet, but gone is
the quick and simple interface.
Ummm, nope! I still subscribe to 10 or 15 newsgroups - antique radio,
ham stuff, vintage tube stuff, etc. And I read it using Tin under a Unix
shell account.
Long live Usenet!
Ain't quite dead, yet....
Cheers
John
2:23 p.m.
On Fri, May 27, 2005 at 12:53:33PM -0700, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
On Fri, 27 May 2005, Jules Richardson wrote:
Then there must be plenty of nobodies out there. I'm on usenet all the
time and I find there are still a lot of people out there reading and
writing on usenet. Mostly people who aren't big fans of "web boards" and
who prefer a writing culture over one where Ogg grunts and points at
funny little pictures ...
Regards,
Alex.
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison
Now google seem to be doing everything they can
to turn it into just
another web forum, which is a little alarming to me as it seems too
important a resource for that to happen to it. Hence I'm just curious as
Nobody uses Usenet any more (much to my own personal chagrin as I found it
very useful for many things, as I'm sure others did/do). 
2:01 p.m.
Jules wrote about Google's Usenet archive:
So whilst the data's not copyrighted, far as I
know google are the only
people out there with a (reasonably?) complete usenet archive.
Google probably claims a compilation copyright on it, which is much
different than claiming a copyright on individual messages.
Eric
3:02 p.m.
Hence I'm just curious as to whether anyone else
has managed
to collect an archive together with the emphasis being on the
historical value of it
Pre-Google, Pre-Deja, we have:
1. Many private/university archives of parts of Usenet. These are
most of Google's earliest Usenet archives. And they are acknowledged
by Google.
2. In the mid-90's there was some controversy because there were a
couple of companies selling CD's with Usenet archives on them. These
were not old (at the time) archives, they were mostly content from the
early 90's on up.
3. Mailing lists that were gatewayed to/from Usenet. Some of these
have pretty solid archives going back to the late 70's. Arguably
these are mostly mailing-list items and not Usenet items so they shouldn't
count.
4. At one time Altavista had a pretty good archive of Usenet. (Back
when Altavista was King of the Search Engines!) Did Deja buy this
archive as part of its initial offering, or what?
Tim.
6927
days inactive
6938
days old
15 comments
12 participants
participants (12)
-
als＠thangorodrim.de -
cctalk＠randy482.com -
dhbarr＠gmail.com -
eric＠brouhaha.com -
jfoust＠threedee.com -
jpl15＠panix.com -
julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk -
shoppa_classiccmp＠trailing-edge.com -
spectre＠floodgap.com -
trixter＠oldskool.org -
vcf＠siconic.com -
williams.dan＠gmail.com