Gwnewch y pethau bychain

Usenet Walkabout

So tonight we moved our Usenet servers to our new data centre. All went pretty smoothly, aside from one stripped rackmount screw that we had to expend a good deal of effort dislodging.

Usenet was one of my first real online communities. I hung out on a few BBSes before I got on the Internet proper, and UMNews on BITNET was a sort of proto-usenet, but, really, it was on newsgroups that I first really became a PART of the online world. There was no world-wide web then. There was only e-mail, and glorious Usenet.

Which brings me to Russ Allbery’s Usenet Rant. I once had a copy of this printed out and posted over my desk. It’s a constant reminder of why I do what I do for a living, and why I do what I do in my spare time. It’s why I’ve poured my heart into sustaining projects like JediMUD and FilkNet.

Go read it. Here, there be wisdom: http://www.usenet2.org/rant.txt

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3 Comments

  1. *hugs you through the busy season* -H…

  2. Ah, it’s been a couple of years since I read that rant. It’s still just … spot on.

    Thank you for being one of the people who keep the communities going.

  3. Thank you for the rant pointer. I used to be a Usenet regular but drifted away due to all the spam and other junk. It’s a real pity that a few selfish people can ruin a community for the rest of us.

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