Verizon to shut down Usenet servers
By adamg - 9/7/09 - 6:54 pm
Adam Pieniazek alerts us to this notice that Verizon will be shutting its newsgroup servers down at the end of the month, because "most users have switched to more exciting ways of getting and sharing information via the Web, such as social networks, email and sites such as our Verizon Central Newsroom."
Verizon adds that customers will not see their rates go up because of the exciting change.
Comments
I know that when I want information...
...the first place I always go is the "Verizon Central Newsroom."
what
Sounds like The Onion
At least, the issue of The Onion where they were taken over by a Chinese plastics company that put a plug in every article.
Reading between the headers...
Verizon knows that 95% of you don't even know what Usenet is and the other 5% know that it's basically only a den for pirating software/music/movies. We're reducing our liability by dumping newsgroups.
Not to mention kiddie porn.
Not to mention kiddie porn. Usenet and whether ISP's can be held liable is still being debated. The risks by Verizon outweighed the benefits a long time ago.
Three Words...
alt.sysadmin.recovery
If it happened ten years
If it happened ten years ago, I would have been pissed. In spite of the flame wars and the trolls of Usenet, I found that the level of discussion went down when subject groups moved to web-based message boards. There was something to be said for the elitism of the in-the-know days of the internet.
Amen!
>There was something to be said for the elitism
>of the in-the-know days of the internet.
Amen, NotWhitey. Amen, man!!
you have 4chan to thank for
you have 4chan to thank for that, and also many of the most memorable meme's
Blame Google?
I wonder how much of the audience for traditional (NNTP) Usenet access disappeared when Google began providing web access via Google Groups.
I've noticed that Google's
I've noticed that Google's newsgroups became harder to search about a year ago. For technical information, their "Groups" searches were easier to refine in order to hone in on specific topic matter than their regular web searches, but not any more.