PING: Pat Kight

Pat, you're a name I recognize from this group from a couple-three years
ago, so I'm asking you: what the heck happened to this group? It used
to be people helping people with projects and craft ideas and plans. It
now seems to be about90% advertising. What happened?
--
-Barb, http://www.jamlady.eboard.com 5/8/05.
"Are we going to measure, or are we going to cook?" -Food Critic Mimi Sheraton

Melba's Jammin' wrote:

Pat, you're a name I recognize from this group from a couple-three years
ago, so I'm asking you: what the heck happened to this group? It used
to be people helping people with projects and craft ideas and plans. It
now seems to be about90% advertising. What happened?

Well, this is pure conjecture, based on observation, but I blame several
things:

* Usenet is declining in general. New Internet users think the Web is all
there is to the 'Net, and when they go looking for forums they're more
likely to seek out Yahoo groups or other Web-based communities.

* Many Internet providers no longer offer newsfeeds as part of their
service, with the result that many people have no access other than Google
Groups, which is clunky as hell.

* Veteran crafters are more likely to look for forums specific to their
crafts than to use a "misc" newsgroup.

* Anyone who posts on Usenet without spamproofing their e-mail address will
soon find their mailboxes filling up with spam; the harvesting of addresses
from newsgroups is a lucrative business these days. I've tested this out by
using a disposable address to make a single Usenet post and not using it
for anything else; within a month, that mailbox was being inundated by sex
spam, drug spam, home mortgage spam, phishing scams and viruses.

--
Pat Kight

In article , Pat Kight
kightp@ wrote:

Melba's Jammin' wrote:

Pat, you're a name I recognize from this group from a couple-three
years ago, so I'm asking you: what the heck happened to this
group? It used to be people helping people with projects and craft
ideas and plans. It now seems to be about90% advertising. What
happened?

Well, this is pure conjecture, based on observation, but I blame
several things:

* Usenet is declining in general. New Internet users think the Web is
all there is to the 'Net, and when they go looking for forums they're
more likely to seek out Yahoo groups or other Web-based communities.

* Many Internet providers no longer offer newsfeeds as part of their
service, with the result that many people have no access other than
Google Groups, which is clunky as hell.

* Veteran crafters are more likely to look for forums specific to
their crafts than to use a "misc" newsgroup.

* Anyone who posts on Usenet without spamproofing their e-mail
address will soon find their mailboxes filling up with spam;

I think you're right -- on all counts. My daughter is a scrapbooking
junkie. She participates in the forums of a scrapbooking site. She
used to laugh at me and my newsgroups -- now she's found her own. I'm
sorry to see the decline, for sure. This place was always one where I
could pop in for a question and get a reply. For myself, web-based
newsgroups aren't for me -- my dial-up connection makes reading them
cumbersome.. sigh

Best regards and thank your for your nickel's worth.
--
-Barb, http://www.jamlady.eboard.com 5/8/05.
"Are we going to measure, or are we going to cook?" -Food Critic Mimi Sheraton

In article ,
says...

Well, this is pure conjecture, based on observation, but I blame
several things:

Pat is right on, as usual. I suspect that the
traffic in porn imagery remains as busy as ever
in the news groups devoted to that sort of thing
since it's more difficult to post it on the web
without incurring consequences. Other than that
narrow interest group, I too notice the decline
and morn its passing. One group I used to like
is alt.culture.us.southwest and it hasn't had
a single running thread in many months. And it
makes little sense to be the one to post to such
now-inactive news groups since no one is going
to be reading/replying.