To paraphrase your own recent words, what you are now getting in Internet
access from the corporate ISP model currently in vogue is more sizzle and
less steak.

It is not UseNet that is dying, it is the technical competence required to
run an ISP, with all the attendant services like nntp, that has become a
victim of the general corporate incompetence in this country.

The attitude you remark upon has become prevalent as the smaller local
ISP's, which were plentiful during the early days of the Internet, have been
replaced with these large, corporate ISP's.

Many of the current problems can be traced directly to the technical
incompetence that results from hiring inexperienced IT personnel in order to
make the bottom line more attractive. Corporate ISP's like AT&T (one of the
VERY worst as far as technical competence is concerned, IMNSHO) try make it
easy on themselves with self-serving justifications for doing away with the
services we came to expect as part of the ISP package not all that long ago.

Those services that they can't outright do away with (yet) they reluctantly
continue to provide, but at reduced levels, and with none of the required
technical expertise to do the job well.

As a partner in a small Internet company, I deal with the situation on a
daily basis, spending increasingly more time wading through self serving
corporate directives aimed at justifying technical shortcuts, and arguing,
on behalf of our clients, with increasingly incompetent technical personnel
who are barely conversant with the basic underpinnings of the Internet.

AAMOF, it is getting so bad that I sometimes fancy you may eventually see
some of the older, pre-Internet networks, like FidoNet, rear their heads
again.

On second thought, there soon may be no one left competent enough to do even
that again.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 9/21/03


"Tom Watson" wrote in message
I read someone's comment the other day about how their ISP claimed
that "no one uses newsgroups anymore."

My own ISP has made the same comment to me when I've called to
complain about inadequate Newsgroup service. They seem to feel that
their customer base uses Usenet in only a marginal fashion. They act
as though they couldn't be bothered.

This newsgroup, in particular, seems to be vibrant and well
subscribed. The chess newgroups that I lurk on seem to be in the same
condition.

When I look at the Netscan statistics, I see signs that there are many
active groups.

Why this attitude by the ISP's?

I use two newsgroup providers, TeraNews being my backup, because my
ISP's provider is often out of whack. TeraNews is fine for a backup
but is often down.

However, I've had complaints from some that they don't see my posts
when they come through my ISP's provider (Voicenet, I believe) because
their system does not pick up the posts.

I've tried reading the group through Google but it seems to have a lot
of lag time between the time that posts are made and when they show up
on Google.

What is going on with this Usenet thing? Are the ISP's right in
claiming that Usenet is dying? And, given that the ISP's don't care,
what is the most reliable way to read and post on Usenet?


Regards, Tom
Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker
Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania
http://users.snip.net/~tjwatson