[simonblack]

I use Usenet.

But I don't feel an extra server would add anything that current ones don't have. On the other hand, an extra server is a backup in case one of the current servers falls off the Net.

Today we have http and ftp to obtain binaries, and quite large ones at that. The need for binary Usenet newsgroups is pretty much obsolete.

What Usenet could do with is more 'advertising'. Not 'advertising ON Usenet' but 'advertising ABOUT Usenet'. Many people just do not know that Usenet exists.

I have often said that Reddit is 'The New Usenet' because its layout and threading is very similar. Having said that, my preference is that Reddit can FOAD.

[quilnux]

So efforts would be better served in training materials and perhaps software (clients and such) that is easier to use then what is current present today. Am I taking your response correctly?

[simonblack]

I don't think training materials would be necessary. YMMV. Most people get and appreciate the threading model.

Clients could be improved, I guess. Myself, I use a self-improved version of Tass that I originally got with a copy of Coherent (a UNIX Version 7 clone) around 1991. It uses an ncurses 'gui' which I admit I have thought of upgrading from time to time so that it uses a real GUI such as GTK.

However it works well enough, and though I suppose it could do with improving, it works well enough that I can't be bothered spending the time to debug/rewrite it.

My main thrust is that most people have never heard of Usenet and what it is capable of.

[quilnux]

I might look into a few clients and see if I can't contribute to make them better. I also prefer a TUI/CLI client. I don't use X11 very often personally.

My biggest consideration for Usenet (and one of the arguments that's been made against it when I've talked to people) is people aren't willing to pay for it. That was the reason I decided to ask the question about maybe doing a reset that would allow for the feed to start over to where people could host their own with minimal storage requirements. The current Usenet continuing for those who wanted it, and the newer one for those who want to either host their own, or use a friend's host or something.

So what is the best way to overcome the "I don't want to pay for it" argument when trying to sell people on the idea of using Usenet?

[simonblack]

So what is the best way to overcome the "I don't want to pay for it" argument when trying to sell people on the idea of using Usenet?

Ah, but people are paying for it. They pay with their time and interest in the subject-matter. Their time has value. Their knowledge has value.

This "paying for it" mentality has arisen with the commercial takeover of the Internet. Back when the Internet was young, there was a completely different mentality. It was a 'How can I help the next Man?' mentality. It was quite literally an 'open-source' mentality, and that was because the early Internet was not the domain of the commercial interests, but the domain of the universities and other centres of advanced learning.

My earliest leafnode of Usenet was as an offshoot of the Adelaide University in South Australia. I was part of a UUCP 'store and forward' sub-network. I remember the excitement around 1991 or so when the buzz was that there were now a million nodes on the Internet(!).

I also prefer a TUI/CLI client.

When you're using pure text 99.9% of the time, you might as well use a text-based client. If you have a 'Desktop GUI' you merely run that text-based client in an xterm.