Re: The end is nigh - for some

Derek Broughton said it like it is, on 07/07/2008 18:21:
> Tony wrote:
> 
>> You haven't mentioned any opinions about Verizon, Sprint, and Time
Warner
>> cable subscribers, but all three companies  have recently dropped the
alt
>> newsgroup hierarchy from their servers.  Are you predicting that this
will
>> have no effect on Usenet?
> 
> Pretty much.  We Usenetters are on our way to extinction anyway, and I
> haven't had an ISP provide Usenet since 1998, so I don't see that three,
> even large, companies are going to change anything.  The new kids want
ugly
> web forums where people won't criticize them for using unintelligible
> shorthand, as long as they use plenty of fancy emoticons.
 >

Spot on.

[Cynic mode : ON] The main reason, Tones, why Usenet participation has 
been going down the lav in recent years is that the vast majority of 
people see it as being too anarchic; too "free", as in speech. Most want 
to be part of a heavily-policed web-based forum culture with loads of 
surrogate parental-figures telling them what to do and say. Groupthink 
is safe, and comfortable, and should some awful, evil 
insurgent/reprobate/troll try to think, say, or do otherwise then Mistah 
Moderator will come along and kick some arse and make the world perfect 
again. [Cynic mode : OFF]

Or is it all a dream?