Re: Moving to new form of usenet ideas?
* Jon Slaughter:
Sorry for all the cross posting but I'm interesting in getting a serious
discussion about how usenet has become lately.
Many people are moving away from usenet because of all the spam and cooks
that have been showing up. The rate of spammer seem to be growing
exponentially(ok, not really but it feels like it).
I think maybe its time to do something about it. What I'd like to see happen
is an "upgrade" to usenet. I do not like th forum based communiations that
has sprung up lately but since it solves many of usenet's shortcommings I
believe that will will take over.
If many people feel the same way then maybe we can move on to something
better and increase the efficiency and productivity that usenet was meant
for.
Some ideas I have are:
1. Cook repellent - Some method to prevent cooks from interrupting normal
flow. Either having a voting scheme or some type of identifying means to
either completely remove them or at least make it easier to avoid them.
Use a newsreader with scoring.
2. Spam repellent - Similar to Cooks.
Use a spam filter and/or a smap-filtering news host (e.g.
news.individual.net).
3. Meta data - Have the ability to directly include graphics and things like
TeX into messages. For those that do not want to view it they can disable it
or have some other means to see it.
Use the MIME standard, supported by all newsreaders (except perhaps
Google (even your Outlook Express)).
4. Specific tools for groups - Different groups have different needs for
communication. Mathematics groups need to efficiently communicate
mathematical formulas while electronics need to communicate schematics.
Use the relevant XML-based standard in conjunction with MIME.
5. Moderation - Potentially give regular users of the group the ability to
"quasi-moderate" or in general just have a wide range of options to have
more control over groups(But not to much).
Use a newsreader with scoring.
6. Non-anomality or some way to slow down spammers. Maybe better routing
data and such.
Use a spam filter and/or a spam-filtering news host (e.g.
news.individual.net).
7. Potentially "Backwards compatible" with usenet - have the ability to surf
usenet with the same client to help make a smoother transition.
That would be Usenet.
Cheers, & hth.,
- Alf
PS: If not already evident, I think your posting was due to simple
ignorance.
[No follow ups, please]
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is it such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?