Retreat from Usenet

[thedarkages]

I remember the old days, late '80s to mid '90s, when posting to Usenet was a reasonable way of getting a question answered. Boy, is it bleak out there now. Spam and kooks as far as the eye can see.

And now, what do you have to do? Google for an infinite number of petty little PHP web forums, each one of which requires its own tedious registration?

It's enough to send me back to the (shudder) library.

Comments

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Me! Me! *waves hand like Horshack the sweathog* I remember usenet.

And I HATE it when the only answer to my google queries lies in petty little PHP web forums. Most annoying. And yet still...answers. Or at least triangulation on a theory. Or the general concept that nobody out there in any language you speak knows any more than you do on the subject...

[msfledermaus.livejournal.com]

I miss the Usenet Oracle, too...sometimes you got the best, funniest answers to the questions of the universe. *siiiigh*

[omarius.livejournal.com]

The Oracle's still incarnated. http://cgi.cs.indiana.edu/~oracle/index.cgi

[omarius.livejournal.com]

I have also pondered this very thing. There was only one place to "go," so everyone who knew more than you about something you were interested in were right there. It doesn't help for esoteric answers much, but it seems these days Facebook is the place where "everyone" "is."