AOL Newsgroup service will be discontinued in early 2005.

[spooge]

This popped up when I went to the newsgroups section on AOL.
Anyone else get this?
Please Note: The AOL Newsgroup service will be discontinued in
early 2005.
For members using AOL over a dial-up connection, you will no
longer be able to access Newsgroups. If you have a separate
high-speed connection, you can contact your broadband provider to
see if they offer Newsgroups. Newsgroup services can often be
accessed through a third party reader, such as Mozilla Thunderbird
(http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/).
Alternatively, you can access Newsgroups via Google at
http://groups.google.com/.
We apologize for this inconvenience.

If they were griping about their complaint level, they could have
probably cut the number by 90% if they were response to the complaints.
Needless to say, I believe many of the complaints were scores against
one user and not the effects of scores of users.

Surely you can't be serious thinking that 1 AOL user is responsible for
most of the Usenet TOS complaints to AOL? One? *One* person posted to 30
thousand + Usenet groups and generated most of the thousands and thousands
of complaints sent to AOL each month?

Do you envision something sorta like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, with
this poster covering the globe magically in a day, spreading TOS complaints
hither and yon? Wow. What sort of stimulant do you suppose this mythical
magic poster was on? Red Bull? Crack? Geritol? Jesus? Joanie's Butterfly?

Note to the idiots from AOL who trashed Usenet--never shit where you
sleep.

Usenet isn't trashed. No matter how brainless some of the AOL posters
might be, they'd never, ever succeed in trashing Usenet. Hipcrime couldn't
do it, AOL can't do it, even WebTV can't do it.

And it certainly wasn't one AOLer generating the majority of those
complaints, fer goodness sakes.

[Brandy Alexandre]

Post by spooge
Surely you can't be serious thinking that 1 AOL user is
responsible for most of the Usenet TOS complaints to AOL? One?
*One* person posted to 30 thousand + Usenet groups and generated
most of the thousands and thousands of complaints sent to AOL each
month?

You missed the inference of my post.

[spooge]

Post by Brandy  Alexandre

Post by spooge
Surely you can't be serious thinking that 1 AOL user is
responsible for most of the Usenet TOS complaints to AOL? One?
*One* person posted to 30 thousand + Usenet groups and generated
most of the thousands and thousands of complaints sent to AOL each
month?

You missed the inference of my post.

I erred in using the word 'most' instead of 'many'. Other than that, what
did I miss in this statement that infers that you don't think one user was
generating the majority of Usenet complaints to AOL?

" Needless to say, I believe many of the complaints were scores against
one user and not the effects of scores of users."

[Lady Chatterly]

Post by spooge
I erred in using the word 'most' instead of 'many'. Other than that, what
did I miss in this statement that infers that you don't think one user was
generating the majority of Usenet complaints to AOL?

Even a single Penny.

Post by spooge
" Needless to say, I believe many of the complaints were scores against
one user and not the effects of scores of users."

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely
rearranging their prejudices.

--
Lady Chatterly

"I'm going to do you a favor, although you don't deserve one, before
you make too big a fool of yourself. Lady Chatterly is a computer
program. She--err, it -- seems to have latched onto you. You owe me,
Raxo." -- Offshore Eddie

[Fred Hall]

Post by spooge

This popped up when I went to the newsgroups section on AOL.
Anyone else get this?
Please Note: The AOL Newsgroup service will be discontinued in
early 2005.
For members using AOL over a dial-up connection, you will no
longer be able to access Newsgroups. If you have a separate
high-speed connection, you can contact your broadband provider to
see if they offer Newsgroups. Newsgroup services can often be
accessed through a third party reader, such as Mozilla Thunderbird
(http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/).
Alternatively, you can access Newsgroups via Google at
http://groups.google.com/.
We apologize for this inconvenience.

If they were griping about their complaint level, they could have
probably cut the number by 90% if they were response to the complaints.
Needless to say, I believe many of the complaints were scores against
one user and not the effects of scores of users.

Surely you can't be serious thinking that 1 AOL user is responsible for
most of the Usenet TOS complaints to AOL? One? *One* person posted to 30
thousand + Usenet groups and generated most of the thousands and thousands
of complaints sent to AOL each month?
Do you envision something sorta like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, with
this poster covering the globe magically in a day, spreading TOS complaints
hither and yon? Wow. What sort of stimulant do you suppose this mythical
magic poster was on? Red Bull? Crack? Geritol? Jesus? Joanie's Butterfly?

Note to the idiots from AOL who trashed Usenet--never shit where you
sleep.

Usenet isn't trashed. No matter how brainless some of the AOL posters
might be, they'd never, ever succeed in trashing Usenet. Hipcrime couldn't
do it, AOL can't do it, even WebTV can't do it.
And it certainly wasn't one AOLer generating the majority of those
complaints, fer goodness sakes.

Of course not. For once, I believe AOL's explanation: Not enough
AOL'ers participate in Usenet to justify the cost. Add to that the
settlement of a copyright suit, directly related to Usenet, not in
AOL's favor.

[spooge]

Post by Fred Hall

Post by spooge

This popped up when I went to the newsgroups section on AOL.
Anyone else get this?
Please Note: The AOL Newsgroup service will be discontinued in
early 2005.
For members using AOL over a dial-up connection, you will no
longer be able to access Newsgroups. If you have a separate
high-speed connection, you can contact your broadband provider to
see if they offer Newsgroups. Newsgroup services can often be
accessed through a third party reader, such as Mozilla Thunderbird
(http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/).
Alternatively, you can access Newsgroups via Google at
http://groups.google.com/.
We apologize for this inconvenience.

If they were griping about their complaint level, they could have
probably cut the number by 90% if they were response to the
complaints. Needless to say, I believe many of the complaints were
scores against one user and not the effects of scores of users.

Surely you can't be serious thinking that 1 AOL user is responsible
for most of the Usenet TOS complaints to AOL? One? *One* person
posted to 30 thousand + Usenet groups and generated most of the
thousands and thousands of complaints sent to AOL each month?
Do you envision something sorta like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve,
with this poster covering the globe magically in a day, spreading TOS
complaints hither and yon? Wow. What sort of stimulant do you
suppose this mythical magic poster was on? Red Bull? Crack? Geritol?
Jesus? Joanie's Butterfly?

Note to the idiots from AOL who trashed Usenet--never shit where you
sleep.

Usenet isn't trashed. No matter how brainless some of the AOL posters
might be, they'd never, ever succeed in trashing Usenet. Hipcrime
couldn't do it, AOL can't do it, even WebTV can't do it.
And it certainly wasn't one AOLer generating the majority of those
complaints, fer goodness sakes.

Of course not. For once, I believe AOL's explanation: Not enough
AOL'ers participate in Usenet to justify the cost. Add to that the
settlement of a copyright suit, directly related to Usenet, not in
AOL's favor.

I don't think AOL ever really wanted to maintain Usenet service. AOL was
intended to be like a gated net-community, sort of a huge personal
intranet. The nice side-benefit to the rest of us being that the gates of
AOL would serve to keep the riff-raff in, not out.

[Fred Hall]

Post by spooge

Post by Fred Hall

Post by spooge

This popped up when I went to the newsgroups section on AOL.
Anyone else get this?
Please Note: The AOL Newsgroup service will be discontinued in
early 2005.
For members using AOL over a dial-up connection, you will no
longer be able to access Newsgroups. If you have a separate
high-speed connection, you can contact your broadband provider to
see if they offer Newsgroups. Newsgroup services can often be
accessed through a third party reader, such as Mozilla Thunderbird
(http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/).
Alternatively, you can access Newsgroups via Google at
http://groups.google.com/.
We apologize for this inconvenience.

If they were griping about their complaint level, they could have
probably cut the number by 90% if they were response to the
complaints. Needless to say, I believe many of the complaints were
scores against one user and not the effects of scores of users.

Surely you can't be serious thinking that 1 AOL user is responsible
for most of the Usenet TOS complaints to AOL? One? *One* person
posted to 30 thousand + Usenet groups and generated most of the
thousands and thousands of complaints sent to AOL each month?
Do you envision something sorta like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve,
with this poster covering the globe magically in a day, spreading TOS
complaints hither and yon? Wow. What sort of stimulant do you
suppose this mythical magic poster was on? Red Bull? Crack? Geritol?
Jesus? Joanie's Butterfly?

Note to the idiots from AOL who trashed Usenet--never shit where you
sleep.

Usenet isn't trashed. No matter how brainless some of the AOL posters
might be, they'd never, ever succeed in trashing Usenet. Hipcrime
couldn't do it, AOL can't do it, even WebTV can't do it.
And it certainly wasn't one AOLer generating the majority of those
complaints, fer goodness sakes.

Of course not. For once, I believe AOL's explanation: Not enough
AOL'ers participate in Usenet to justify the cost. Add to that the
settlement of a copyright suit, directly related to Usenet, not in
AOL's favor.

I don't think AOL ever really wanted to maintain Usenet service.

I think you are absolutely correct.

Post by spooge
AOL was
intended to be like a gated net-community, sort of a huge personal
intranet.

Which it was, until what, '94 or '95? (pardon my Alzheimer's)

Post by spooge
The nice side-benefit to the rest of us being that the gates of
AOL would serve to keep the riff-raff in, not out.

Well, the genie's out of the bottle now. I wonder how long before NIN
either denies Usenet access to former AOL'ers, or they start charging
for accounts. (Although many AOL'ers have migrated to Google Groups,
the internal AOL NG's are full of posts suggesting the best bet is
NIN.)

[Peter J Ross]

Post by Fred Hall

Post by spooge

Post by Fred Hall

Post by spooge

This popped up when I went to the newsgroups section on AOL.
Anyone else get this?
Please Note: The AOL Newsgroup service will be discontinued in
early 2005.
For members using AOL over a dial-up connection, you will no
longer be able to access Newsgroups. If you have a separate
high-speed connection, you can contact your broadband provider to
see if they offer Newsgroups. Newsgroup services can often be
accessed through a third party reader, such as Mozilla Thunderbird
(http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/).
Alternatively, you can access Newsgroups via Google at
http://groups.google.com/.
We apologize for this inconvenience.

If they were griping about their complaint level, they could have
probably cut the number by 90% if they were response to the
complaints. Needless to say, I believe many of the complaints were
scores against one user and not the effects of scores of users.

Surely you can't be serious thinking that 1 AOL user is responsible
for most of the Usenet TOS complaints to AOL? One? *One* person
posted to 30 thousand + Usenet groups and generated most of the
thousands and thousands of complaints sent to AOL each month?
Do you envision something sorta like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve,
with this poster covering the globe magically in a day, spreading TOS
complaints hither and yon? Wow. What sort of stimulant do you
suppose this mythical magic poster was on? Red Bull? Crack? Geritol?
Jesus? Joanie's Butterfly?

Note to the idiots from AOL who trashed Usenet--never shit where you
sleep.

Usenet isn't trashed. No matter how brainless some of the AOL posters
might be, they'd never, ever succeed in trashing Usenet. Hipcrime
couldn't do it, AOL can't do it, even WebTV can't do it.
And it certainly wasn't one AOLer generating the majority of those
complaints, fer goodness sakes.

Of course not. For once, I believe AOL's explanation: Not enough
AOL'ers participate in Usenet to justify the cost. Add to that the
settlement of a copyright suit, directly related to Usenet, not in
AOL's favor.

I don't think AOL ever really wanted to maintain Usenet service.

I think you are absolutely correct.

Post by spooge
AOL was
intended to be like a gated net-community, sort of a huge personal
intranet.

Which it was, until what, '94 or '95? (pardon my Alzheimer's)

<http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/September-that-never-ended.html>

It looks as if September 1993 is about to end. But what about February
2002?

Post by Fred Hall

Post by spooge
The nice side-benefit to the rest of us being that the gates of
AOL would serve to keep the riff-raff in, not out.

Well, the genie's out of the bottle now. I wonder how long before NIN
either denies Usenet access to former AOL'ers, or they start charging
for accounts. (Although many AOL'ers have migrated to Google Groups,
the internal AOL NG's are full of posts suggesting the best bet is
NIN.)

NIN's last period of violent banning of "abusers" coincided with the
death of deja.com. If they just banned top-posters they'd have no
trouble.

PJR :-)

[Fred Hall]

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 06:38:14 +0000, Peter J Ross

Post by Peter J Ross

Post by Fred Hall

Post by spooge

Post by Fred Hall

Post by spooge

This popped up when I went to the newsgroups section on AOL.
Anyone else get this?
Please Note: The AOL Newsgroup service will be discontinued in
early 2005.
For members using AOL over a dial-up connection, you will no
longer be able to access Newsgroups. If you have a separate
high-speed connection, you can contact your broadband provider to
see if they offer Newsgroups. Newsgroup services can often be
accessed through a third party reader, such as Mozilla Thunderbird
(http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/).
Alternatively, you can access Newsgroups via Google at
http://groups.google.com/.
We apologize for this inconvenience.

If they were griping about their complaint level, they could have
probably cut the number by 90% if they were response to the
complaints. Needless to say, I believe many of the complaints were
scores against one user and not the effects of scores of users.

Surely you can't be serious thinking that 1 AOL user is responsible
for most of the Usenet TOS complaints to AOL? One? *One* person
posted to 30 thousand + Usenet groups and generated most of the
thousands and thousands of complaints sent to AOL each month?
Do you envision something sorta like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve,
with this poster covering the globe magically in a day, spreading TOS
complaints hither and yon? Wow. What sort of stimulant do you
suppose this mythical magic poster was on? Red Bull? Crack? Geritol?
Jesus? Joanie's Butterfly?

Note to the idiots from AOL who trashed Usenet--never shit where you
sleep.

Usenet isn't trashed. No matter how brainless some of the AOL posters
might be, they'd never, ever succeed in trashing Usenet. Hipcrime
couldn't do it, AOL can't do it, even WebTV can't do it.
And it certainly wasn't one AOLer generating the majority of those
complaints, fer goodness sakes.

Of course not. For once, I believe AOL's explanation: Not enough
AOL'ers participate in Usenet to justify the cost. Add to that the
settlement of a copyright suit, directly related to Usenet, not in
AOL's favor.

I don't think AOL ever really wanted to maintain Usenet service.

I think you are absolutely correct.

Post by spooge
AOL was
intended to be like a gated net-community, sort of a huge personal
intranet.

Which it was, until what, '94 or '95? (pardon my Alzheimer's)

<http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/September-that-never-ended.html>
It looks as if September 1993 is about to end.

September 1993? Jesus, I'm losing it.

Post by Peter J Ross
But what about February
2002?

<ahem>

Maybe Wollkook knows?

Post by Peter J Ross

Post by Fred Hall

Post by spooge
The nice side-benefit to the rest of us being that the gates of
AOL would serve to keep the riff-raff in, not out.

Well, the genie's out of the bottle now. I wonder how long before NIN
either denies Usenet access to former AOL'ers, or they start charging
for accounts. (Although many AOL'ers have migrated to Google Groups,
the internal AOL NG's are full of posts suggesting the best bet is
NIN.)

NIN's last period of violent banning of "abusers" coincided with the
death of deja.com. If they just banned top-posters they'd have no
trouble.

I don't think top-posting is in the NIN AUP, although it ought to be.
However, using phony reply-to and sender email addy's is in the AUP,
last I checked. Forewarned is forearmed, or some such silly nonsense.

Post by Peter J Ross
PJR :-)