Re: uk.r Stuffing!

On 2007-12-14, Andy Kirkham <andrewj.kirkham@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Dec 13, 11:28 am, The Good Doctor <nos...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Eric <e...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Strange how Google Groups users always seem to assume that
they are the norm and that the rest of us are a little odd.

If you only ever came to uk.railway via Google Groups, you probably
wouldn't even know what Usenet is. To someone who is used to Google
Groups, Yahoo! Groups and web-based discussion forums, Usenet
newsgroups must seem particularly odd.


Yes, that describes me exactly. Perhaps someone could outline the
benefits of Usenet.

Easy access to an enormous number of conversations on an
enormous number of topics. Nobody owns the messages, there
is no central repository, the messages are exchanged between
participating servers on the basis of "What messages have you
got that I haven't got?".

End-users (like us) use a newsreader program to get messages
from one of the participating servers, and to send messages
back into the collection via the same server.

Participating servers do not keep messages for ever - how long
is entirely up to each administrator.

A particular server may not carry all groups, but a good
newsreader program will make it easy to use more than one
server so you can get everything you want.

As a Google Groups user:

* Google servers participate in the exchange of messages.

* Google provides a web-based newsreader for you to read and
post messages (and doesn't allow you to use any other newsreader
to get at their servers).

* Google does keep messages virtually for ever, on its own
servers. It also inherited an archive going back to before
Google existed (from something called Dejanews).

HOWEVER:

* There are Google groups that are not Usenet groups. Google
does effectively own these messages and they are held only on
Google servers.

* Like any participating server, Google may not have all groups, and may
not keep up with messages in all groups.

* The Google newsreader web interface obscures the above facts,
so that many people (like you) are not aware of them.

* There are many conventions for Usenet messages which the
Google newsreader does not tell you about (selective quoting,
bottom posting...).

Would anyone recommend that I change over to it -
and if so how? I have to say that I'm perfectly satisfied with Google
groups so I don't have any basic inclination to change;

As long as none of the above bothers you, you probably don't
want to change.

and Google
evidently has the distinct advantage of concealing unwanted stuffing.

which is a mixed blessing, since it may hide redundant junk,
but may also hide all clue as to what the message is about -
the message being answered may not have arrived yet, so the
embedded quote from it may be necessary to make the current
message mean anything.

Probably both more and less than you wanted to know!

Eric

.

Relevant Pages

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