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  • Re: But is UseNet "Social Media"??

    From Mr. Man-wai Chang@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, February 01, 2026 17:38:16
    On 2/1/2026 4:21 PM, Daniel70 wrote:

    Whilst I doubt there were many under-16's using UseNet, I have heard
    some suggest that it is a "Social Media".

    Facebook ... Sure!
    X ... Sure!
    Instagram .... Sure!
    Youtube .... Some would suggest it is "Social Media", too.

    ... and there are probably others I can't think of or have Never heard of.

    But is UseNet "Social Media"??

    Usenet is "fully duplex", so it's social media because you can
    communicate with each others. :)

    The same goes to Fidonet BBS.


    --
    @~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
    / v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
    /( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
    ^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Mr. Man-wai Chang@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, February 01, 2026 20:29:23
    On 2/1/2026 6:17 PM, Daniel70 wrote:

    Yeap, aware of that .... I just guessed that as UseNet was around for
    sooooo long before the others came into being, I just never associated
    UseNet with "Social Media".
    In Hong Kong cantonese, the word "social" used to be a verb to mean
    making relationship with others. :)

    --
    @~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
    / v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
    /( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
    ^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Mr. Man-wai Chang@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, February 01, 2026 20:34:20
    On 2/1/2026 6:17 PM, Daniel70 wrote:
    On 1/02/2026 8:38 pm, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

    The same goes to Fidonet BBS.

    Never got into BBS's so couldn't possibly comment.

    Echomail is the technology used by Fidonet to run a distributed
    messaging network like Usenet. Back then, it ran on top of dial-up
    modems as slow as 1200 baud. Those were the days! :)

    --
    @~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
    / v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
    /( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
    ^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Carlos E.R.@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, February 01, 2026 14:17:09
    On 2026-02-01 13:34, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
    On 2/1/2026 6:17 PM, Daniel70 wrote:
    On 1/02/2026 8:38 pm, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

    The same goes to Fidonet BBS.

    Never got into BBS's so couldn't possibly comment.

    Echomail is the technology used by Fidonet to run a distributed
    messaging network like Usenet. Back then, it ran on top of dial-up
    modems as slow as 1200 baud. Those were the days! :)

    For some strange reason, Fidonet continued working in Rusia after it
    stopped in Europe. They took over the development of software, too.

    For a while at least, I could participate in Fidonet using internet
    instead of a modem. Then my uplink failed, his computer broke down and
    he gave up. Could not find another suitable node.

    --
    Cheers, Carlos.
    ES??, EU??;

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Frank Slootweg@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, February 01, 2026 13:33:58
    Mr. Man-wai Chang <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote:
    On 2/1/2026 4:21 PM, Daniel70 wrote:

    Whilst I doubt there were many under-16's using UseNet, I have heard
    some suggest that it is a "Social Media".

    Facebook ... Sure!
    X ... Sure!
    Instagram .... Sure!
    Youtube .... Some would suggest it is "Social Media", too.

    ... and there are probably others I can't think of or have Never heard of.

    But is UseNet "Social Media"??

    Usenet is "fully duplex", so it's social media because you can
    communicate with each others. :)

    The same goes to Fidonet BBS.

    The History section of Wikipedia's 'Social media' page starts with
    the PLATO system and later says

    "Usenet, conceived by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1979 at the
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, was
    the first open social media app, established in 1980."

    So I guess that settles it once and for all! :-)

    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media#History>

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Mr. Man-wai Chang@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, February 01, 2026 22:54:39
    On 2/1/2026 9:33 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:


    "Usenet, conceived by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1979 at the
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, was
    the first open social media app, established in 1980."

    So I guess that settles it once and for all! :-)


    "social media app"? Usenet was an "app"? I think it's a mistake. :)

    --
    @~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
    / v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
    /( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
    ^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Frank Slootweg@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, February 01, 2026 16:24:45
    Mr. Man-wai Chang <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote:
    On 2/1/2026 9:33 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:

    "Usenet, conceived by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1979 at the
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, was
    the first open social media app, established in 1980."

    So I guess that settles it once and for all! :-)

    "social media app"? Usenet was an "app"? I think it's a mistake. :)

    I normally also object to back-dating the use of the term 'app' by
    several decades, but if you substitute 'app' by 'program' (or
    'application', etc.), then for all intents and purposes, for the user,
    Usenet *was* a program, which read/posted articles from/to the *local*
    'spool'. A client program, reading/posting directly from/to a remote
    news server came only much later. Remember, NetNews/Usenet *predates*
    the Internet by quite a number of years.

    FWIW, I already used/managed a NetNews/Usenet system in the early 80s.
    Used RFA (Remote File Access) before NFS (Network File System) even
    existed and UUCP (Unix-to-Unix Copy) to receive/send articles from/to
    other systems. And yes, the user used a *program* (called 'notes' [1])!

    [1] <http://tin.org/history.html>

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From AJL@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, February 01, 2026 10:03:32
    On 2/1/2026 9:24 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:

    FWIW, I already used/managed a NetNews/Usenet system in the early
    80s. Used RFA (Remote File Access) before NFS (Network File System)
    even existed and UUCP (Unix-to-Unix Copy) to receive/send articles
    from/to other systems. And yes, the user used a *program* (called
    'notes' [1])!

    My Earthlink dialup subscription provided Usenet at the time which is
    where I got hooked. I also frequented some bulletin boards. Good old days...


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Steve Hayes@3:633/10 to All on Monday, February 02, 2026 06:36:38
    On Sun, 1 Feb 2026 22:54:39 +0800, "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote:

    On 2/1/2026 9:33 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:


    "Usenet, conceived by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1979 at the
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, was
    the first open social media app, established in 1980."

    So I guess that settles it once and for all! :-)


    "social media app"? Usenet was an "app"? I think it's a mistake. :)

    A newsreader is an app (app is an abbreviation for "application
    program").

    Windows 11 will have one set of apps to a\ccess Usenet, and Linux
    another.

    But Usenet itself is not an app. What is it?




    --
    Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
    Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
    Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
    E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)