How Does USENET work and WTF is it?
 

As I was a toddler in the heyday of atl.gothic, but would like to check it out and maybe get involved in Convergence '08, it would be helpful if some of the elder goths who are familiar with the format could explain to a babybat just what the heck this all is! Wow, that was quite a word-vomit.

Are you sure it's not alt.gothic

Google is your friend. And the first link promises Converginces info too!

And yes folks, the usergroup itself is fully backed up via Google.

(I havn't checked the other groups mentioned in the alt.gothic FAQ, but I assume they exist.)

Whippersnappers. I remember when USENET was an exciting new phenomenon.

Drake

Me too. Back then there no firewalls, only passwords limited exploration of cyberspace. And finger was a good thing. And Archie and Mosaic were the browser's Adam and Eve.

Exciting and oh, so clunky. :D I remember I liked the BBS'es more.

I ran a BBS for a while. :)

Drake

My dad still uses USENET. Apparently he's well known.


Anyone heard of EskWIRED?

I still don't get What is it or How does it work?!

Ah, alt.gothic. Saved me much pain and trouble when I was first exploring goth. Also provided me with the most monumentally great time-wasting device I've ever encountered...

Raggedyanne: USENET is, largely, what the Internet was before web-pages and HTML. It's clunky and not particularly user-friendly. It functions on the basis of "newsgroups," which are somewhat like a cross between mailing lists and online forums; people post to the group, but instead of instantly showing up for other users, there's a time lag as the message circulates through the various servers that host that group.

The first thing you need is a newsreader. Most email clients (Outlook Express, Thunderbird, and so forth) can be configured to work as a newsreader; consult your email client's Help section.

Next, you'll need access to a server that hosts USENET. Usually this is available through your ISP (at least, it used to be; it's been several years since I've been on USENET). Most ISPs do not host every USENET group; luckily, alt.gothic is (or was) pretty popular.

Perhaps someone with more recent experience--or a better memory--can fill in any gaps in my explanation?

I never used usenet. Just telnet. Good old MUDs...

Thank you! I do believe I'm beginning to sort of understand this. I'm the same age as Convergence, lol. Creepy math.