Major ISPs dropping Usenet

On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:27:40 GMT, (GMAN) wrote:

In article , lkboop wrote:
nospam wrote:
Time-Warner is dropping all newsgroups. Verizon is keeping most of
the Big-8 but is dropping the entire alt.* hierarchy, which includes this
group.

Keep this in mind for future posts, and you may wish to migrate any
existing discussions to a non-alt.* group.


WELL HERE WE ARE ANOTHER STUPID RUMOR STARTED -- I CHECKED TIME WARNER
IN SOCAL THEY ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THEY HAD BEEN ASKED ABOUT THIS AND THAT
THIS IS TOTALLY FALSE-THEY ARE GOING TO LIMIT AND BLOCK SITES THAT HAVE
APPARENT PORN BOTH ADULT AND CHILD -- THEY HAVE NO INTENSION OF
BLOCKING OR REMOVING ANY NEWS GROUPS WITH INFORMATIONAL VALUE--YOU WOULD
THINK PEOPLE HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN START THIS NONSENSE
Adult porn is not illegal.

It soon will be if they can help it.

Phil Weldon wrote:

'*TimDaniels' wrote, in part:

I've many times been surprised to see myself
quoted in random forums that I hadn't known existed.

_____

My take is that in the USA there is growing tension between 'how to make
money off the Internet' and 'how to lower costs'. The conditions are in
flux... who knows WHAT the 'next big thing' is? Metering and charging by
bandwidth usage may very well set back future Internet advances by years
(including new ways to make money on the Internet.) Just think, those
Web-based groups that have all the sponsored ads are depending on
Usenet,mainly alt.*, content to draw visitors! ISP's with short enough
attention spans to risk killing ANY important part of the World Wide Web
certainly are, having replaced Usenet access with their own web-based
groups, capable soon thereafter killing those too. The decision of any ISP
to stop carrying alt.* Usenet groups while continuing big 8 Usenet
groups is
not really about either pornography or bandwidth usage when cutting access
to binary groups would meet either purpose. If there IS a revenue
stream to
be developed from Usenet, then these knee-jerk responses from the ISPs will
have resulted in losing markets.

And yet Verizon is building the widest paths to the customer. The DSL
providers are less affected by bandwidth usage than the cable
providers. If
the user is going to be charged by bandwidth usage, isn't that a great
incentive to use ad blockers? An annoying pop-up is one thing, PAYING for
an annoying pop-up is worse. I overclock my CPU while my ISP underclocks
my broadband? Maybe it's all a plot by the newspapers B^)

Phil Weldon


snipped

The newspapers? Too late. How many literate, young adults do you know?

My take is that in the USA there is growing tension between 'how to make
money off the Internet' and 'how to lower costs'. The conditions are in
flux... who knows WHAT the 'next big thing' is? Metering and charging by
bandwidth usage may very well set back future Internet advances by years
(including new ways to make money on the Internet.) Just think, those
Web-based groups that have all the sponsored ads are depending on
Usenet,mainly alt.*, content to draw visitors! ISP's with short enough
attention spans to risk killing ANY important part of the World Wide Web
certainly are, having replaced Usenet access with their own web-based
groups, capable soon thereafter killing those too. The decision of any
ISP
to stop carrying alt.* Usenet groups while continuing big 8 Usenet groups
is
not really about either pornography or bandwidth usage when cutting
access
to binary groups would meet either purpose. If there IS a revenue stream
to
be developed from Usenet, then these knee-jerk responses from the ISPs
will
have resulted in losing markets.

And yet Verizon is building the widest paths to the customer. The DSL
providers are less affected by bandwidth usage than the cable providers.
If
the user is going to be charged by bandwidth usage, isn't that a great
incentive to use ad blockers? An annoying pop-up is one thing, PAYING
for
an annoying pop-up is worse. I overclock my CPU while my ISP
underclocks
my broadband? Maybe it's all a plot by the newspapers B^)

Phil Weldon


snipped

The newspapers? Too late. How many literate, young adults do you know?

Very good.......:-). Actually, physical newspapers are on their way out. I
can get online subscription to our local newspaper for less than the actual
"paper" copy. Less mess, and better for the trees. I am NOT a greenie, but
if something helps to keep em quiet, I will go for it........:-) It is
cheaper for the newspaper and keeps them in business too. I am in a mostly
rural area and we don't suffer from a lot of the metro-area problems with
schools and most of our graduating seniors can actually read fairly
well........:-).

Ed

"EM" == Ed Medlin ed@ edmedlin.com writes:
The newspapers? Too late. How many literate, young adults do
you know?

EM I am
EM in a mostly rural area and we don't suffer from a lot of the
EM metro-area problems with schools and most of our graduating
EM seniors can actually read fairly well........:-).

Went to a high school graduation a couple of weeks ago. If those kids
graduating were typical of kids across the nation....

....we will be in very good shape. Articulate, full of life and
energy. How the hell did my generation--the boomers--a generation of
greed--deserve to get such great young people? And they were
city-suburb, barely middle-class. Made me realize, again, that the
real world and the perceived world have little in common.

--
Today I accidentally stepped on a snail on the sidewalk in front
of our house. And I thought, I too am like that snail. I build a
defensive wall around myself, a "shell" if you will. But my shell
isn't made out of a hard, protective substance. Mine is made out
of tinfoil and paper bags.
- Jack Handey

'Bob Fry' wrote:
Went to a high school graduation a couple of weeks ago. If those kids
graduating were typical of kids across the nation....

...we will be in very good shape. Articulate, full of life and
energy. How the hell did my generation--the boomers--a generation of
greed--deserve to get such great young people? And they were
city-suburb, barely middle-class. Made me realize, again, that the
real world and the perceived world have little in common.

_____

Well, I haven't been to a high school graduation for a long time, but... as
a not quite boomer... missed by a year on the wrong side B^( ... I am
continually amazed at how much secondary school students from the last 10
years learn compared to what we students did in the late fifties/early
sixties. It is even more amazing because, in general, I think we had better
teachers back then.

My daughter had a computer from the age of four, and used a laptop in school
from the 8th grade (until she went over to the dark side in college with a
Mac Mini.) Not satisfied with being literate in Spanish and English, she's
now in Beijing for a year finishing her third year of Chinese. I'd say she
and her classmates were at least two years ahead of me by the time of high
school graduation. The same goes for my son, though he's more a social user
of personal computers. He's now working for the division of Nielsen that
develops Website ratings analogous to the TV Nielsen's. I'll have to ask
him about Web based discussion groups and whether ANY are significant
revenue sources. And if there are any market reactions to Usenet
restrictions.

By the way, my daughter has broadband in her dorm room for $10 US per month!
I asked her if she'd gotten used to living without a cell phone... but no
problem, she has a Beijing only cell phone for about the same fee.

Phil Weldon


"Bob Fry" wrote in message
...
"EM" == Ed Medlin ed@ edmedlin.com writes:
The newspapers? Too late. How many literate, young adults do
you know?

EM I am
EM in a mostly rural area and we don't suffer from a lot of the
EM metro-area problems with schools and most of our graduating
EM seniors can actually read fairly well........:-).

Went to a high school graduation a couple of weeks ago. If those kids
graduating were typical of kids across the nation....

...we will be in very good shape. Articulate, full of life and
energy. How the hell did my generation--the boomers--a generation of
greed--deserve to get such great young people? And they were
city-suburb, barely middle-class. Made me realize, again, that the
real world and the perceived world have little in common.

--
Today I accidentally stepped on a snail on the sidewalk in front
of our house. And I thought, I too am like that snail. I build a
defensive wall around myself, a "shell" if you will. But my shell
isn't made out of a hard, protective substance. Mine is made out
of tinfoil and paper bags.
- Jack Handey

Use this newserver: nntp.aioe.org

It is free and works as well as the one Bellsouth provides.

Ed Cregger

-------------

"nospam" wrote in message
. ..
Time-Warner is dropping all newsgroups. Verizon is keeping most of
the Big-8 but is dropping the entire alt.* hierarchy, which includes this
group.

Keep this in mind for future posts, and you may wish to migrate any
existing discussions to a non-alt.* group.

'Bob Fry' wrote:
Went to a high school graduation a couple of weeks ago. If those kids
graduating were typical of kids across the nation....

...we will be in very good shape. Articulate, full of life and
energy. How the hell did my generation--the boomers--a generation of
greed--deserve to get such great young people? And they were
city-suburb, barely middle-class. Made me realize, again, that the
real world and the perceived world have little in common.

_____

Well, I haven't been to a high school graduation for a long time, but...
as a not quite boomer... missed by a year on the wrong side B^( ... I am
continually amazed at how much secondary school students from the last 10
years learn compared to what we students did in the late fifties/early
sixties. It is even more amazing because, in general, I think we had
better teachers back then.

My daughter had a computer from the age of four, and used a laptop in
school from the 8th grade (until she went over to the dark side in college
with a Mac Mini.) Not satisfied with being literate in Spanish and
English, she's now in Beijing for a year finishing her third year of
Chinese. I'd say she and her classmates were at least two years ahead of
me by the time of high school graduation. The same goes for my son,
though he's more a social user of personal computers. He's now working
for the division of Nielsen that develops Website ratings analogous to the
TV Nielsen's. I'll have to ask him about Web based discussion groups and
whether ANY are significant revenue sources. And if there are any market
reactions to Usenet restrictions.

By the way, my daughter has broadband in her dorm room for $10 US per
month! I asked her if she'd gotten used to living without a cell phone...
but no problem, she has a Beijing only cell phone for about the same fee.

Phil Weldon


I didn't know about the cutoff date for "boomers".......:-). I guess I am
one anyway. The amount of "stuff" that today's high schoolers have to
process is unbelievable to me. My son was a student athlete, with a lot of
emphasis on the student because in his sport, baseball, he had to excel in
academics as well as baseball to get a decent offer to a good college. He
was drafted by the MN Twins, but still went the college route. That is all
over now and he is a golf pro in S. Texas.....married and a new dad himself
with no regrets and a good education. A PGA pro is the guy who runs the golf
course.......He doesn't just give lessons. He does give his old pop a break
or two when I come down to play in the winter..........:-).
Chinese is tough, at least to me. All tonal languages are very hard for me
to comprehend. I get by in Spanish if I keep at it, but "get by" is about as
far as I ever got.

Ed

My isp Suddenlink dropped the alt.'s, and I've found an alternative:
astraweb.com sells 25 gigs of news for $10, no time limit, no charge for
headers. I got onto it right away and it's faultless *so far*. Had a
good recommendation.
---
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Bring the Troops Home:
http://bringthemhomenow.org
http://antiwar.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War:
http://ivaw.org
http://couragetoresist.org

Send spam to the FTC at

Thanks, robots.

Ed Light wrote:
My isp Suddenlink dropped the alt.'s, and I've found an alternative:
astraweb.com sells 25 gigs of news for $10, no time limit, no charge for
headers. I got onto it right away and it's faultless *so far*. Had a
good recommendation.

It had a 1/2 hour glitch where it nearly hung. Now it's fast again.
--
---
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Bring the Troops Home:
http://bringthemhomenow.org
http://antiwar.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War:
http://ivaw.org
http://couragetoresist.org

Send spam to the FTC at

Thanks, robots.