In article , Simmy Jacks
wrote:
"Your Name" wrote in message
...
In article , The Real Bev
wrote:
On 01/28/2016 11:47 AM, Your Name wrote:
wrote:
On 01/27/2016 09:15 PM, Your Name wrote:
wrote:

Few used it even when it was highly active. When I rode on the ski
lifts with strangers I asked them if they ever used any of the
skiing or
other newsgroups. Granted, a small sample -- maybe 100 people, if
that
-- but you'd think that ONE might have been an addict. Nope.

For swift help from strangers, many of whom are actually qualified
to
offer it, nothing has even come close. The "forums" are
maddeningly
inefficient and the users are frequently... of negative utility.

Hi, you must be new to the internet. ;-)

sigh You guessed it. Only since 1994 sob.

*All* internet forums, including Usenet, Facebook, Wikipedia, IMDB,
etc., etc., are infested with idiots, know-nothings, and trolls
claiming to be experts. The reality is most of them are 12 year olds
(either physically or mentally).

My only facebook friends are people I "knew" from usenet, actual RL
friends and relatives, and friends/relatives of usenet "friends". I
have met some of the usenet people in real life and stayed in their
home. How often does that happen in facebook-only relationships? With
usenet you could get to "know" people from their repeated interactions
with you and others; with facebook you're limited to pre-approved
people for the most part, and total strangers just don't wander in
because they're interested in the subject of the group.

Or maybe that actually happens, but I'd bet against it. The interface
doesn't encourage serious interchanges, just pronouncements. Twitter,
of course, is worse. I have a Twitter account, but I just used it to
track down people I knew in a previous life, and I've done that maybe 3
times.

I have a Facebook account I created (under a fake name) years ago to
enter competitions, but since the website is hopelessly slow and
doesn't work properly on this ancient Mac, I've never actually used it
... and yet I still get emails a few times a month asking if I know
different people.

Those are sent by facebook itself and appears to use usenet to
decide that you likely do know those people. Most of the ones
it suggest to me are the ones I have typed to on usenet.

The ones I get that I do actually know are work clients or through web
forums. It probably gets them from things like Google searches, web
trawling bots, people stupidly uploading their email address books,
etc. It also searches through it's own information to match people with
similar interests in the same area (for example, if you have on your
Facebook account that you like Macs / Like Mac Facebook pages and live
in Eggnog, Ohio, then it will match you with other people near Eggnog
who like Macs too).