I've been using the Internet for about three or four years (I can't actually remember when I began using, but it was a long time ago!) In those early days I used to spend a lot of time in Usenet and a lot less time on the Web. The Web is maturing now, then it was pretty crap to be honest. Partly because we didn't have the bandwidth and modems were too slow. The idea of having graphics tempted people into putting up massive fractals and pictures of themselves which were painful to download. People are learning.

Usenet then was a great community, lots of groups with plenty of great discussion. There was a little bit of spamming but it was very much bearable. Since then I've been drifting away from Usenet. Partly because I simply haven't had the time but this has been exacerbated by the fact that most groups have so many junk messages to sort through before you can find a quality discussion that you're not in the mood, tired and bored by the time you do find anything of real value.

The nature of Usenet means that there's nothing you can really do about it without moderation which has worked wonders on some groups. Problem is that moderators spend a LOT of time moderating groups with no pay or anything. Not many can do this or want to. And when a moderator is away or ill the whole discussion dies without a replacement. I was surfing through the groups the other day and passed some of my old favourites. I stopped to look inside and there was no discussion whatsoever. They were filled with spammed adverts. Its a real shame.

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by Jason P. Kitcat [e-mail him]