Where is Everyone? Roll Call.

"CatNipped" wrote

Has UseNet finally been left behind / made redundant by Facebook? It's
sad
because it outlasted so many other internet innovations and messaging
systems since the old "bulletin board" days on which I started.

Hehe Fidonet is still around! 1:275/100 is me. telnet:\\shenks.synchro.net

I read here and post sometimes. I am involved in several UseNet
groups. By command of my great-niece Heili I am also on FB and I use
it to talk to a few people. But mostly I'm a UseNet junkie.

--
Will in New Haven

CatNipped wrote:
Has UseNet finally been left behind / made redundant by Facebook? It's sad
because it outlasted so many other internet innovations and messaging
systems since the old "bulletin board" days on which I started. It seems
now to be forsaken for Facebook - adding another few billions of dollars to
Facebook's creator/thief (according to the movie, anyway).

Or is it just this particular group that has been deserted by those fed up
with what it seems to have turned into these past two years (and, if so,
I'll have to take my fair share of the blame for that)? I don't know if it
will make any difference, but I've made a promise to myself to stick
strictly to the subject of cats and friendly chat amongst cat slaves - no
matter what the provocation. I'm hoping that it's not too little, too late.

Whatever the reason may be, I'm mourning the passage of this unimaginable,
unequaled, fantastic and even magical bit of cyber friendship - amazed that
it came to be in the first place. I remember the days when 200 new posts
per day was the norm, every troll was "recipied" out the door, political and
religious threads would see hundreds of posts but not a single rude comment.
*Everyone* felt welcomed, cherished and appreciated for who and what they
are/were - ailurophiles (thank you David Stevenson for teaching me that
word).

I *SO* miss my dear friends who no longer post here. I know my age is
making it seem like the "glory days" have gone by, never to be recaptured.
But, I would give anything possible to make this group what it once was -
even though no single person can bring back what we lost. It takes the
tacit agreement of hundreds of individual posters and I'm afraid that there
are not enough people still left here to accomplish that.

Anyway, I would love to know who is still posting or lurking here - those
who haven't given up on trying to recapture what we once had.

Also, if anyone knows why someone left (disliking the group or just likes
Facebook more), I'd like to know that too, if possible.

So my hand is up - Lori Crews (real name optional) aka "CatNipped" began
posting to rec.pets.cats from around 1994 (posting history is optional).




IMHO Asked and answered.
R= recreation
P = pets
C = cats
A = anecdotes

Only those with multiple cats or playful kittens have unlimited stories.
Somewhere, along the line, the stories seem to have run out.
Best wishes for "rejuvenation of the group". MLB

On 8/11/2010 2:36 AM, CatNipped wrote:
Has UseNet finally been left behind / made redundant by Facebook? It's sad
because it outlasted so many other internet innovations and messaging
systems since the old "bulletin board" days on which I started. It seems
now to be forsaken for Facebook - adding another few billions of dollars to
Facebook's creator/thief (according to the movie, anyway).

Or is it just this particular group that has been deserted by those fed up
with what it seems to have turned into these past two years (and, if so,
I'll have to take my fair share of the blame for that)? I don't know if it
will make any difference, but I've made a promise to myself to stick
strictly to the subject of cats and friendly chat amongst cat slaves - no
matter what the provocation. I'm hoping that it's not too little, too late.

Whatever the reason may be, I'm mourning the passage of this unimaginable,
unequaled, fantastic and even magical bit of cyber friendship - amazed that
it came to be in the first place. I remember the days when 200 new posts
per day was the norm, every troll was "recipied" out the door, political and
religious threads would see hundreds of posts but not a single rude comment.
*Everyone* felt welcomed, cherished and appreciated for who and what they
are/were - ailurophiles (thank you David Stevenson for teaching me that
word).

I *SO* miss my dear friends who no longer post here. I know my age is
making it seem like the "glory days" have gone by, never to be recaptured.
But, I would give anything possible to make this group what it once was -
even though no single person can bring back what we lost. It takes the
tacit agreement of hundreds of individual posters and I'm afraid that there
are not enough people still left here to accomplish that.

Anyway, I would love to know who is still posting or lurking here - those
who haven't given up on trying to recapture what we once had.

Also, if anyone knows why someone left (disliking the group or just likes
Facebook more), I'd like to know that too, if possible.

So my hand is up - Lori Crews (real name optional) aka "CatNipped" began
posting to rec.pets.cats from around 1994 (posting history is optional).

No, its not *just* Facebook that has taken people away from RPCA - Real
Life has taken quite a few (I'll put myself in that category), the
shrinking number of ISPs willing to carry Usenet is another. The shiny
flashing lights of the Web can also take some of the blame - and webpage
based forums and blogs seem more popular than ever.

But be assured its not *just* RPCA that is suffering this. Its Usenet
wide. For a while, we'd get about the same number of newbies (or more)
joining up as we'd have people dropping out. That is no longer the case.

Whilst the 'social' newsgroups (this being one) benefited early on from
the the 'endless september', in the end, the 'endless september' meant
that here Usenet was no longer the domain of the smart and the
privileged (ie, those who had access to a computer - usually from a
University computer laboratory - who knew how to operate Usenet
protocol. Who knows what a bang path is, anyone?) but became the domain
of the averagely wealthy westerner (ie, anyone who could afford a PC and
internet access). Usenet and e-mail were designed for dial-up speeds,
and web pages back in dial-up days had to be extremely simple to load in
an acceptable time frame. Back in the day (and its less than 10 years
ago) Usenet was an important part of the inter*net* experience, now we
talk about the inter*webs* - pictures and media experiences are now an
intergral part of our social interaction over the interwebs. This typing
and posting is very old fashioned, and its not even in Real Time (ack!)

And lets not pretend that Usenet is all that easy to access now, because
it isn't. If you don't already know about Usenet, you probably will
never know about it. My ISP is the second biggest in Australia, but the
front-line tech support have *no idea* when I have issues with Usenet -
they've never heard of it. I have to get put through to someone in
Australia, some old fart who knows how The Olden Days worked. Folks now
getting a computer are highly unlikely to find Usenet, and even if they
do, they're going to find it through the likes of Google Groups, which
even on the best of days, suck so much you'd only use if you were
already addicted to usenet and had no other way to access it. You
certainly wouldn't start there with all the other cat-related stuff on
the interwebs.

I'd also add that the art of writing, or at least the desire to write
stories for itnernet consumption, has diminished too. LOLCats are great,
as are webcomics like Two Lumps, but they are replacing *anecdotes* for
cat-related humour. And they work better too, because visuals don't
suffer from poorly written text as anecdotes do. Creative writing is,
IMHO, not something that Gen Y is currently interested in (they'll come
around, I hope)

Add in the fact we've lost several extremely talented writers to the
Bridge and the group starts to lose its momentum. Half my inspiration
came from Shmogg, but half at least started here. Someone would post
something, and that would remind me of an incident, and I'd write a
reply (or new post) and that would inspire another person etc etc. Less
anecdotes leads to even less anecdotes. Such is the way of things.

This group, by the way, is the only one that I read regularly that is
still active. Sure, not as active as it once was, but its still active.
In the last year, at least 4 of my other groups have just 'dried up'.
I'm not going to predict "death of Usenet Imminent, film at 11", because
I don't think Usenet will *die* as such (I think it will become like ham
radio and vintage cars - not common amongst the unwashed masses but
certain groups still maintain an interest in past technology).

Which is a very long winded way of saying:
PING! Vicky Chapman aka Yowie, earliest post to RPCA that I can find is
circa July 1997, although I was reading rec.pets.cats and
rec.pets.cats.anecdotes before that (could read, but had no way to post)

Yowie

On 8/11/2010 6:02 AM, cshenk wrote:
"CatNipped" wrote

Has UseNet finally been left behind / made redundant by Facebook? It's
sad
because it outlasted so many other internet innovations and messaging
systems since the old "bulletin board" days on which I started.

Hehe Fidonet is still around! 1:275/100 is me. telnet:\\shenks.synchro.net

OMG! I was on fidonet long before I discovered The Internet. Spent alot
of time on BBSs in my misspent youth and paid a very high price, too,
since my favourite BBS - with 10 lines! - was a long-distance call, and
long distance calls were not cheap back then (they're not cheap now, but
in comparison to back then, they're a steal).

Will have to check it out!

Thanks for the memory-flash.

Yowie

In article ,
"CatNipped" wrote:


So my hand is up - Lori Crews (real name optional) aka "CatNipped" began
posting to rec.pets.cats from around 1994 (posting history is optional).

Still here, not sure for how long. I like how going off-topic is OK, as
long as it stays friendly. I kinda miss the really friendly atmosphere,
though...

--
minnow ^..^

http://twitter.com/taheenahana
http://www.flickr.com/photos/minnow/

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
Has UseNet finally been left behind / made redundant by Facebook? It's
sad
because it outlasted so many other internet innovations and messaging
systems since the old "bulletin board" days on which I started.

(snippage)

I don't know why you can't see posts here. I didn't like Facebook so I
unsubscribed from it. I still see plenty of posts here on Usenet (including
yours).

Jill

No, I can see them, but there only appears to be about an average of 10 - 15
posts per day when a couple of years ago it was about 150 - 200 posts per
day. I have a Facebook account, just to keep up with people who aren't here
anymore and family. On Facebook I see lots of people who used to post here
but no longer do.

--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See all our masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped

See the RPCA FAQ site, by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.com/rpcablog/

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
Has UseNet finally been left behind / made redundant by Facebook? It's
sad
because it outlasted so many other internet innovations and messaging
systems since the old "bulletin board" days on which I started.

(snippage)

I don't know why you can't see posts here. I didn't like Facebook so I
unsubscribed from it. I still see plenty of posts here on Usenet
(including yours).

Jill

I know of two cases where facebook really hurt a family and their jobs. A
cute photo can come back to bit you in the............well, you get the
point.
"Judith Latham" wrote in message
...
In article , CatNipped
wrote:
Has UseNet finally been left behind / made redundant by Facebook? It's
sad because it outlasted so many other internet innovations and
messaging systems since the old "bulletin board" days on which I
started. It seems now to be forsaken for Facebook - adding another few
billions of dollars to Facebook's creator/thief (according to the movie,
anyway).

Or is it just this particular group that has been deserted by those fed
up with what it seems to have turned into these past two years (and, if
so, I'll have to take my fair share of the blame for that)? I don't
know if it will make any difference, but I've made a promise to myself
to stick strictly to the subject of cats and friendly chat amongst cat
slaves - no matter what the provocation. I'm hoping that it's not too
little, too late.

[Snip]

Anyway, I would love to know who is still posting or lurking here -
those who haven't given up on trying to recapture what we once had.

Also, if anyone knows why someone left (disliking the group or just
likes Facebook more), I'd like to know that too, if possible.

So my hand is up - Lori Crews (real name optional) aka "CatNipped" began
posting to rec.pets.cats from around 1994 (posting history is optional).

I'm still here. I first joined the group early 1995. I'm staying as long
as there's at least one other person here.

I don't like the nastiness and bullying that has become part of the group
as my previous posts have shown. However, I do think that the people here
are good people, it's just that emotions can run away with us and get out
of hand. Then playground gangs attack. The people here are too good for
this to happen.

I don't do facebook, I don't think it's a good idea. Future employers
check it out. It's so easy to put unwise things on it. I hated it when my
colleagues went on it to check out the new man and then proceeded to slag
off his wife in a way that, to me, was vile.

Judith

--
Judith Latham
Stourbridge, West Midlands. UK.

I'm still here, after a break of a year or two when I lost Usenet
access through my ISP and finally gave up and came 'home' via Google.
I have no idea when I first posted here, but I know that I found
Usenet in 1990 when I was working at Liverpool Uni, and a couple of
years later I had a PC at home and was getting involved in Usenet
groups, so let's say I've been around since the early 1990s posting
about Izzi, Fenda, Spooky and Charlie.

I reckon I'll be here until the bitter end, whenever that is.

Jeanette