Death of Usenet: film at 11
The number of times I remember seeing that headline, when various ISPs did something Usenet regulars felt was wrong (like letting in the Great Unwashed masses of AOL in what became known as the eternal September). But this time it actually has some truth:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/20/usenet_duke_server/
It seems that the Duke University server, where Usenet started, is finally being shut down, citing "low usage and rising costs". With most ISPs having discontinued their own support for Usenet[1] already, perhaps this really is the end of proper threaded discussions, in favour of 140 character 'tweets', obscure memes, URLs pointing to the same joke sites again, and other ephemera.
[1] Very few of the UK Usenet community still use servers actually in the UK, and hardly any of the ISPs run Usenet servers (they outsource them).
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/20/usenet_duke_server/
It seems that the Duke University server, where Usenet started, is finally being shut down, citing "low usage and rising costs". With most ISPs having discontinued their own support for Usenet[1] already, perhaps this really is the end of proper threaded discussions, in favour of 140 character 'tweets', obscure memes, URLs pointing to the same joke sites again, and other ephemera.
[1] Very few of the UK Usenet community still use servers actually in the UK, and hardly any of the ISPs run Usenet servers (they outsource them).