On 8-10-2009 10:00, scott wrote:
>>> In the end I just gave up, the groups I frequented died out as people 
>>> moved
>>> to web-based forums
>>
>>  Why do people do that?
> 
> I think they are better for many reasons:
> 1) You don't need access to a usenet server
> 2) No spam, or very little spam that usually gets deleted
> 3) They are usually way better organised into sub- and sub-sub-forums, 
> rather than just a huge list of threads
> 4) Moderators often move, merge or delete threads that are put in the 
> wrong place, or ask already-asked questions.  This makes 
> searching/browsing much easier
> 5) On some forums moderators often change the subject line to make 
> searching easier, obviously this makes searching easier
> 6) "Sticky" threads always appear at the top of the list with things 
> like the FAQ and anything else related to the subject
> 7) Many other useful functions like chatting/messaging directly with 
> another user, seeing how many posts they've made, seeing how many people 
> have read your post, etc.
> 8) More flexibility in presentation of posts, eg including images in 
> certain places, text effects etc
> 9) Everyone gets the same experience by default, none of this "oh you 
> need to turn on monospace fonts" or "don't top post you idiot" or "this 
> is NOT a binary group" or "fix your line-wrap" or "DO NOT USE HTML" or 
> "don't quote his entire post and add one word to the end" from all the 
> net nannies that patrol every usenet group.

Does the fact that some usenet groups are used to exchange illegal 
downloads also play a role?

Still wondering if this trend means that at some point nntp support is 
stripped from mail browsers like Thunderbird and what that would mean to 
this forum. I know there is a web interface, but I find NNTP much more 
convenient.

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