On 06/11/13 17:50, Sacha wrote:

I'm concerned for the future of this group which I've enjoyed hugely for
16 years. Some have been here longer than that. But given the number
of those who used to post and who lurk (I know of a few, not many now)
the response to the suggestion that we widen our horizons, look at a
blog and consider looking at others and discussing their content, were -
forgive the pun - seeds on stony ground. I don't know if this is
because of disinterest, complacence or a belief that urg will continue
into the mists of time. It won't.

I'm guilty of being a lurker on here, largely because the group's
experiences are far wider than mine, but I'm not a youngster either. In
those regards I bring nothing to the group. Yet, why do I lurk here? The
answer is simple: it's because I find useful information on topics I'm
interested in! For example, there were a number of posts a few weeks ago
that talked about black spot, the sort that grows on patio paving, and I
realised that that is what I have. So, despite the gloomy nature of the
postings, I set about about finding a way to deal with it. It's very
early days yet, but I might have had some success. However, it will be
quite some time, possibly a year or two, before long-term success could
be claimed. My next step is to take some 'before and after' photos, to
show what could be done, but that's several weeks ahead. So, if this is
a success, I could report back to the group and thus contribute to the
knowledge-base. I suppose I'm saying here that there is more to this
group than might appear on the surface, and from my ~20 years on Usenet
that appears to be pretty much universal.

Another widespread concern is exactly what you say here, about what you
see as the decline of Usenet - it has occurred in nearly every group I
read. Yet, are things that bad? The Usenet server Eternal-September was
so named for a specific reason: up to 1993, Usenet was largely
restricted to Universities, and in that year it was discovered by the
wider internet community and as a result usage grew enormously - some
might say that quality fell as a result. Nowadays we have the
blogosphere, Facebook, Twitter, Ask FM, in fact any number of 'social
media' sites - none of which have Usenet's advantages and none of which
existed back then. It's inevitable that new things will come along to
replace the old, or at least compete with it. But that doesn't make them
better, even if it does make them more popular. If it came to a contest
between quantity and quality, I know which I'd choose. Here's some
uk-hierarchy usage figures:

http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/spoolstats/

You'll see what might be the first signs of stability after some years
of steady decline, and it has been speculated that Usenet is getting
back the pre-1993 levels of usage. If this is in fact the case, then
perhaps your fears are largely unfounded, in that those left on Usenet
are the ones who want to be here, who see blogs, forums, FB and Twitter
as poor substitutes for the text-based, decentralised, advert-free
system we currently enjoy. But are FB and Twitter themselves set to be
dominant forever? I doubt it. I feel you may have over-egged the
doom-and-gloom, but of course only time will tell.

--
John Milner