Why you use Eternal September? (besides being free)

As I recall... The feature I need from Eternal September is the
ability to reconstruct threads. That's important, but I could
survive without it. So, besides being free, why do you need
Eternal September?

On 11/18/2013 7:34 PM, DK wrote:
In article om, John Doe wrote:
As I recall... The feature I need from Eternal September is the
ability to reconstruct threads. That's important, but I could
survive without it. So, besides being free, why do you need
Eternal September?

My provider dropped NNTP completely.

Mine too.

I'm not sure why USENET is still so important to me. Seems like only
old-timers use it anymore.

"John Doe" wrote in message
eb.com...

As I recall... The feature I need from Eternal September is the
ability to reconstruct threads. That's important, but I could
survive without it. So, besides being free, why do you need
Eternal September?

My ISP (Charter) told us they were dropping usenet and it did disappear for
about three weeks and then one day I was using my laptop (I had deleted
Charter off my desktop, but not my laptop) and I noticed that the newsgroups
were once again working on Charter, so I added them back to my desktop. I
now use Eternal September because it is better about posting my messages--it
doesn't always happen on Charter. However, Eternal September doesn't have
binary groups and Charter does and I am still able to download from the
Charter groups--so I keep both around.

"Annie Woughman" wrote in message
...


"John Doe" wrote in message
eb.com...

As I recall... The feature I need from Eternal September is the
ability to reconstruct threads. That's important, but I could
survive without it. So, besides being free, why do you need
Eternal September?

My ISP (Charter) told us they were dropping usenet and it did disappear
for about three weeks and then one day I was using my laptop (I had
deleted Charter off my desktop, but not my laptop) and I noticed that the
newsgroups were once again working on Charter, so I added them back to my
desktop. I now use Eternal September because it is better about posting
my messages--it doesn't always happen on Charter. However, Eternal
September doesn't have binary groups and Charter does and I am still able
to download from the Charter groups--so I keep both around.

I had Charter for years until they sold out to Hargray. When I contacted
Hargray about usenet, no one I talked to had any idea to what I was
referring. Try as I might to explain it, they just didn't get it. The last
rep I talked to said she would have her supervisor call me within 24 hours
(which he did), and he kind of knew what I meant, but had to ask one of the
"old guys" if HE knew what it was :-) I felt like I was talking to a bunch
of high school kids; if I mentioned "news groups", the wanted to know if I
meant like, NY Times or other large newspapers. Yikes! :-(

Bottom line, Hargray doesn't have usenet any more (although they did ~25
years ago when I had dial-up through them), so I went to E-S. It works for
what I want it for, although binary support would be nice, too.
--
SC Tom

On Tue, 19 Nov 2013, Annie Woughman wrote:



"John Doe" wrote in message
eb.com...

As I recall... The feature I need from Eternal September is the
ability to reconstruct threads. That's important, but I could
survive without it. So, besides being free, why do you need
Eternal September?

My ISP (Charter) told us they were dropping usenet and it did disappear for
about three weeks and then one day I was using my laptop (I had deleted
Charter off my desktop, but not my laptop) and I noticed that the newsgroups
were once again working on Charter, so I added them back to my desktop. I
now use Eternal September because it is better about posting my messages--it
doesn't always happen on Charter. However, Eternal September doesn't have
binary groups and Charter does and I am still able to download from the
Charter groups--so I keep both around.

About a decade ago, my previous ISP said the newsgroups were being turned
off "temporarily" because they were moving the servers. I received
that announcement ten minutes before the server was going to be turned
off.

And they repeated that announcement a few times, until about five months
later when they admitted "no, the newsgroups are gone". I suspect they
were testing, see who complains, and when few did, they didn't bother.
And it was a small, non-profit ISP, the first in town, growing from a few
computers in a closet to something bigger, but somwhere along the way they
lost the traditional customers/members, so it was no longer a good place.

Michael