[bitwize]

That's the September bit. Frosh would come in, get shell accounts, discover USENET and drive the regulars nuts. Then after a few months they'd acclimate themselves or get bored and USENET would settle into normal, only to repeat the cycle next September.

When AOL flipped the switch enabling USENET newsgroups in the fall of 1993 it was an "eternal September" because AOL had an endless continual stream of chuckleheads getting online foe the first time and not acclimating to existing net culture because they think the network is there to serve THEM.

[angrow]

> because they think the network is there to serve THEM.

I can't tell if you mean to imply that it's there to be served by them, or that it is there to serve "regulars".

[Goronmon]

I can't tell if you mean to imply that it's there to be served by them, or that it is there to serve "regulars".

I think he meant that USENET works best as a collaboration between users, whereas the users being complained about see it closer to visiting a restaurant where the other users are the waiters and they are the customer.

[bitwize]

I'd say it's there to facilitate communication, but as in all forms of communication, there are norms of etiquette to be observed.