Usenet is shrinking rapidly. It has been shrinking a bit for a few
years, but the recent spam tsunamis really seems to have done it in. I
am in five model clubs in the area and I am the only one I have talked
to who still subscribes to rms. Everyone else has gone to web based
discussion groups, but the ones they have gone to are all genre
specific. I really like the wide interest and coverage of this group.
What do folks think of a similar group on Yahoo? The advantage is that
the groups may be easily moderated, with any of several degrees of
moderation, so we could maybe control the spam. One group I moderate
does have a bit of a problem with facebook kids but we get rid of them
after their first post, and we could tighten up the moderation even
further but the problem is not that severe, one of those messages
(invite to become their friend) happens about once every two weeks or so.
Another advantage of having it is part of something like Yahoo groups is
the photo archive and archiving files for various things like
spreadsheets or anything of a modeling topic.
I belong to a couple of Yahoo groups for my decal printer, (alps), and
they work quite well. Can be a bit of work for the moderator but works
well for the members. I'm in if you start one.
on 1/18/2009 11:50 AM (ET) Don Stauffer wrote the following:
I'm not having any problems with spam. I have my TB filters set on my
news server for all groups.
I don't get any of the chinese knockoff crap and from other prolific
spam originators. My filter log shows me that they are working. It's
hard for me to count all the deleted messages, but there are at least 50
or 60 since yesterday
I also filter messages and threads that have gone from legitimate to
flame wars, or just became uninteresting after the initial subject
matter threads became OT or unrelated to the subject matter.
As for forums, I don't like forums and almost exclusively skip forum web
sites for any of my searches. There's just too many keystrokes to read a
message and follow the threads. Moderated newsgroups are out completely
for me. I like my messages and answers to be posted in a timely matter.
YMMV.
Just opens up yet another avenue to get spammed through. I use my
filters and I'm not seeing much spam anyway...
...but that shouldn't stop anyone from getting their info from several
sources. One size generally don't fit all, so go many.
Don,
I belong to several Yahoo groups and while they they are very good
good I still like the open format of the rms. I also like rms's lack
of focus on some specific type of modeling (cars, armor, aircraft,
etc). Most Yahoo groups are quite specific. Most are also not very
tolerant of OT posts which add a bit of entertainment here. You also
have to have a Yahoo account to participate. Then you have to find a
moderator who is willing to spend time on that task. You can have an
unmoderated group but those do get spammed.
The end result is that I participate in both - Yahoo groups and rms.
Peteski
I'm supposedly a ship modeler by inclination (ignore the various
Bf109Fs on my workdesk and the COLLECTION in the cupboards and against
the wall...), so the webforums I frequent are centred on ship
modeling. Such webforums, when run by interested moderators, and the
collaboration of cottage industry model enterprises, do quite well,
opinions can be fairly freely stated, and all people seem to get along
well. And pictures are possible, of course.
However, reading for actual text, and sending PMs is a royal and slow
pain. Nothing like text-based newsgroups read via text-based
newsreaders like gnus and others (or even the Netscape-based ones). To
me, text is the most wonderful thing for exchanging information
concisely, sans the fanfare and extraneous stuff seen in webforums.
My gripe with commercial entities like Yahoo and Google for groups is
that they use those forums to advertise, according to their business
model. Plus they use your private information and browsing habits to
gain more targeting information. And you have to register quite a bit
of your personal information with them. And at the end of the day it
is a poor substitute for a dedicated customized webforum, or a general
and very flexible (because it is text-based) Usenet newsgroup.
I'm not interested in binary groups at all, so I'm very happy to use
motzarella, a Germany-based free Usenet provider for text-based
groups, and when I finally move to a place where I can get fibre to my
apartment I will donate my computer/serve to act as a mirror. That's
how much I like Usenet. I'll never do that for a webforum, the wasted
bandwidth is just too much for me to accept, and most people don't
care to minimize the damage (sort of like trying to get people to
stick to text in email unless imperative to use MIME types...).
Usenet has the possibility to educate people as they join the group:
after the September that never ended the happy time for Usenet ended,
but nowadays the small number of entry candidates makes it viable once
more to educate individuals as they become members of the group.
Finally, yes, any good newsreader (meaning flexible and customizable
for text-based operations) will have no problems with filters to
remove undesirable things via filtering on authors, subjects, strings,
substrings, and any number of header fields and body strings. True
that GUI-based applications may be less flexible (or at least require
more effort to learn how the backend scripting might work) than
text-based types like gnus, but they can all do a lot more than the
average Joe expects. That is good news. Web browsers tend to get a lot
slower with the equivalent number of plugins to do that sort of thing
(if they even exist).
Now back to getting my fingers dirty with those Bf109s!
Kind of. You have to register for a free Yahoo email account. I never
use mine. You also have to be careful filling out the registration
form. The default is to allow email offers from Yahoo. Just check the
opt-out box, though.
I guess my message didn't get my point across. I personally am not
bothered by the spam. I will stick with Usenet as long as it continues.
The point I am making is that many, many people, whatever their
reason- spam, lack of pictures and other file types, or whatever, have
bailed from Usenet groups. I can remember when rms had 150-200 messages
a day. Now it is a good day if we see 10% of that. I am afraid rms is
dying. I am the only one of my modeling groups that is still here.
I can go to web based discussion groups, but don't know any that is as
open and wide ranging as rms, so I thought maybe we should start a
web-based, or at least a Yahoo-type group with similar subject matter
before the plug gets pulled on Usenet.
It is not just rms that is shriveling, other hobby related groups I
subscribe to are shrinking also.
Don Stauffer said the following on 19/01/2009 14:25:
is as
If you have your own hosting space, downloaded free php forum software
such as Wordpress which is seen everywhere now, then you can decide
what you want and what you don't.
That probably goes for egg-painting, cross-stitch, Clackers and the
Atari 2600 groups too. If you hold on long enough, the Nintendo Wii
groups will be echoing your ideas. ;-)
IPMS has an all-inclusive modeling forum as does Fine Scale Modeler
magazine. I use both as well as occasionally visiting here, but this
newgroup is fast becoming obsolete. If it weren't for the wealth of
knowledge older member modelers have that still use this forum, I
wouldn't even bother visiting. I remember if you missed a day or so of
reading RMS, it would take you hours of reading to just catch up.
Creating the umpteenth "general modeling website/forum" to compete
with the multitude already out there would just take away from the
finite group of modelers who are actively online.
IPMS forums (need to be a registered member)
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