Viliam comments on Turning the Technical Crank - All

43 Post author: Error 05 April 2016 05:36AM

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Comment author: Viliam 06 April 2016 08:16:30PM 2 points [-]

What are the reasons NNTP and Usenet got essentially discarded?

Just a guess: having to install a special client? The browser is everywhere (it comes with the operating system), so you can use web pages on your own computer, at school, at work, at neighbor's computer, at web cafe, etc. If you have to install your own client, outside of your own computer, you are often not allowed to do it. Also, many people just don't know how to install programs.

And when most people use browsers, most debates will be there, so the rest will follow.

Comment author: Lumifer 06 April 2016 08:27:17PM 3 points [-]

Just a guess: having to install a special client?

That doesn't explain why people abandoned Usenet. They had the clients installed, they just stopped using them.

Comment author: DanArmak 06 April 2016 11:16:38PM 1 point [-]

The amount of people using the Internet and the Web has been increasing geometrically for more than two decades. New users joined new services, perhaps for the reasons I gave in my other comment. Soon enough the existing usenet users were greatly outnumbered, so they went to where the content and the other commenters were.

Comment author: Lumifer 07 April 2016 02:50:30PM 1 point [-]

Yes, the network effect. But is that all?

Comment author: DanArmak 07 April 2016 03:50:05PM 0 points [-]

It's not an explanation for why new users didn't join existing services like Usenet, just for why even the people already using Usenet eventually left.

Comment author: Kaj_Sotala 10 April 2016 12:44:30PM 1 point [-]

Just a guess: having to install a special client?

The e-mail client that came pre-installed with Windows 95 and several later Windowses also included newsgroup functionality.