Date   : Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:59:55 +0000
From   : zeem.uk@... (Alex Taylor)
Subject: Mailing list

2009/11/14 Rick Murray <rick@...>:
> Alex Taylor wrote:

>> as many groups I've used in the past seem to be suffering low traffic
>> as people turn to PHP-based web forums instead.
>
> Really? I always found forums to be clumsy second-rate Usenet wannabes,
> like the best solution for keeping it "local".

They are just that, but I think there a several factors at play. If
the SNR becomes too high on a Usenet group, people will defect. This
can be caused by excessive spamming, trolling or just very low
traffic. As people leave, the traffic gets lower and the problem is
exacerbated.

Then you have a whole swath of people who probably don't even know
that Usenet even exists, or how to use it if they do, but who do know
about forums. If all the interesting activity happens on forums, then
even people who much prefer Usenet will switch, because there's no
point hanging around a ghost town and wilfully ignoring the
interesting stuff happening somewhere else. As people dump Usenet to
go wherever the greater activity is, it also compounds the above SNR
problem.

It's probably worse when there's a single, well-served forum serving
as the alternative. Such as comp.sys.sinclair quietening down and
people using the World of Spectrum forums instead.

It's a shame, because I can use old hardware to read Usenet (such as
the Mac IIci I previously mentioned). Such a machine will read web
forums, but it's miserably slow - and the machine's been accelerated
with a 50MHz 68030 upgrade.

-- 
Alex Taylor