Anna Feruglio Dal Dan
4/24/2009 4:21:00 PM
On 24 Apr, 14:34, Remus Shepherd <re...@panix.com> wrote:
> > <zebo...@gmail.com> writes
> > >I've been a member of rasfc since at least 1998; that's a third of my
> > >life. I've seen it at its best, and I've held onto that memory as it
> > >has become an increasingly hostile environment to me and my friends
>
> Usenet in general has become an increasingly hostile environment.
> Nobody should be using any Usenet group as their primary link to any
> community; the service is broken, and awash in juveniles. But the converse
> is true also -- anybody who remains on Usenet should be willing and able
> to deal with the flamewars, trolls, and other problems.
Yeah, that would be why a lot of people decamped.
>
> Helen Hall <use...@baradel.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> > I think that says it all really. Just look around the group for a
> > moment. If you were a new writer coming across rasfc for the first time,
> > where is the useful discussion that would help you become a better
> > writer?
>
> Newcomers hopefully have some experience with Usenet, and with filtering
> out its chaff. They'll look for articles titled "Better Critiquing" or
> "Thrillers and third person", both of which are current. They'll ignore
> the other stuff because it can be found everywhere on Usenet.
My experience is that it's getting harder and harder to get Usenet.
It's no longer included in the protocols most ISP supply and I haven't
found a way of hanging on to it. I could pay a subscription... but
right now I'm broke, and even before, paying for the privilege of
hearing white oldish American males say they don' wanna pay taxes is,
what can I say... not worth as much as a good green curry. Hell, a bad
green curry for that matter.
>
> The decline of Usenet has been happening for over a decade, and it's
> gotten much worse since 2003 or so. I don't understand why people are
> reaching their tipping point now.
People aren't: Zeborah is.
> Well, the answer is that this isn't a writers' group. It's a bar,
> and occasionally there's a fight in the corner. :)
Yeah, but it used to be a coffee shop with people throwing paper
Spitfires at each other. Now there's sawdust on the floor, the music
is too loud, and people keep trying to grope me.
> Now I have a question. It's easy to leave one's community, but a
> true challenge is migrating the community as a whole to better lands.
> What online writers' forums can people use in lieu of rasfc? Are there
> any well-known, well-moderated forums that this community can transplant
> into?
Not that I know of. And frankly, even if I did, I wouldn't be saying
it here.
I have had good discussions on LJ. It's not Usenet but it isn't a
collection of monads either if you just use the tracking function.