Post by Ken BlakeOn Mon, 29 Jan 2018 18:18:14 -0500, Will Parsons
Post by Will ParsonsI use a real newreader, so both reading and
responding to posts is done via NNTP, not e-mail. I've never used
Google groups to participate in Usenet - do people actually respond to
posts using e-mail (gmail or otherwise)? It seems unlikely to me, but
maybe I don't how Google works in this respect.
Some people do reply by e-mail, whether Gmail or any other way,
although most Usenet participants don't want to get replies that way.
I don't, and it's for that reason that I don't supply my real e-mail
address in newsgroup posts.
I supply a working email address in my headers, and I've received
perhaps a dozen emails from other posters over the last decade.
All of them provided helpful information of a personal or otherwise
delicate nature that was better not posted to the group.
If you're an especially provocative and/or controversial poster, you might
not want to use a real email address. But for the rest of us, real email
will not result in a deluge of replies.
Post by Ken BlakeAnd let me add that most people who participate in Usenet via Google
Groups have little or no idea what they are doing and screw things up
royally.
I think you're mixing up two very different groups. Those who
have no idea what they're doing tend not to know what Usenet is. They
stumble across a post and reply to it, having no idea where it's going
or how to view replies.
The other group, of which I'm a member, consists of people who
-- perhaps temporarily -- do not have access to an acceptable
news reader or news server. In my case, it's because my long-term
news reader for Mac is no longer supported by its creators, and I haven't
decided yet whether any of the alternatives are to my liking. Most are
no longer being updated, so I'm loath to board another sinking ship.
I'll be changing to something else some time, but in the meantime GG,
despite its limitations and irritating features, keeps me in touch with a few
groups. I try to remember to hand-enter returns for those whose software
isn't line-wrapping and I don't abuse other posters. Your comment above
felt like a thoughtless slight to me.
Post by Ken BlakeFor example it's common to see a Google Groups user reply to
a message that's several years old.
That's the other group, the people who have no idea what Usenet is.
I've been posting to Usenet since 1994 without making more than one
or two enemies. Perhaps you can see the gravity of your insult.
Post by Ken BlakeGoogle Groups is an excellent resource for doing Usenet searches, but
it's a terrible way to participate.
Terrible is overstating the case. GG has annoying features and limitations,
but it will do for a while.
Post by Ken BlakeAnd one other point: there's a lot of Usenet spamming that comes from
Google Groups. For this reason and the one above, many Usenet
participants don't read posts from Google Groups, and some people even
killfile such posts.
I've known posters who did that, but it's kind of an old-fashioned
prejudice by now. Most of those posters were seriously pissed off
when AOL and the like started spilling their members all over cyberspace.
They often had no idea what Usenet was, had never heard of netiquette,
and could not be corrected without a flame war. That was a long time ago.
bill