Nice to be back on Usenet

[ronda hauben]

[This followup was posted to alt.amateur-comp and a copy
was sent to the cited author.]

In article <***@news.eternal-
september.org>, ***@magic-
cookie.co.ukNOSPAMPLEASE says...

says...

Does anyone know of any Freenets that still exist or are in use?
http://www.scn.org/
https://www.chebucto.ns.ca/

Mention of Chebucto brought back memories of Norman De Forest, who was a
tireless volunteer on the Chebucto userhelp team as well as a generous
and thoughtful contributor to Usenet. Google Groups is flaky these days,
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.comp.virus/c/abDxPPICLtI/m/l7dfyg3Nly4J
As for other freenets, NCF in Ottawa certainly seems to be going strong
after 29 years: https://www.ncf.ca/

NCF Just celebrated its 29th Anniversary on September 29.
It was registered on September 29, 1992. It recently
posted a "Happy Birthday to us" on twitter @ncfottawa
At their web site there was an interesting publication of
how they got started.
http://web.ncf.ca/fn352/InTheirOwnWords.pdf

I wonder if anyone knows if any of the existing FreeNets
offer Usenet?

BTW the Cleveland FreeNet ended on Oct 1 1999. That was a
big loss as it was an important pioneer of making the Net
in general and especially Usenet available in a way that
was accessible.

Ronda

[Rich Alderson]

Hey, Ronda! Haven't seen you in a.f.c for a while.

[A.T. Murray]

[...]

Does anyone know of any Freenets that still exist or are in use?
http://www.scn.org/

I have been a "Netizen" on the Seattle Community Network since 1994.

Mentifex (Arthur T. Murray)
https://www.amazon.com/review/R3N6ZD89711BU2 -- with Fri.8.OCT.2021 photo;
http://cyborg.blogspot.com

[711 Spooky Mart]

On 10/4/21 4:14 PM, ronda hauben wrote:

[...]

Post by ronda hauben

Does anyone know of any Freenets that still exist or are in use?

Some links below might be useful to you.

[...]

Post by ronda hauben
I wonder if anyone knows if any of the existing FreeNets
offer Usenet?

Link to the Tildeverse below has more information on a open NNTP server.
There's also https://news.aioe.org and
https://www.eternal-september.org. Some long-running cypherpunk NNTP
servers are intentionally run as open access but don't advertise that
fact. We can find each other's goodies by scanning ports ;)

[...]

I hope this isn't too much information. I'm really holding back a bit ;)
Many links await toward the bottom of this message.

Following your train of thought about the good 'ol days has me feeling
effusive and ready to go full-on grandiloquent of oratory. I too was
disconnected from the wire for quite a long spell, so long in fact I
almost forgot any of it existed.

I know of some old public access systems still in business, lots of
BBSes still running, and a horde of newer generation public access and
nano-niche communities with old-timey netizen nostalgia. Even Fidonet is
still chugging along.

Good news is some of these freenets are slowly growing! A new freenet,
Tildeverse, popped up and something like a thousand people jumped
onboard in no time.

Some of the freenet sites haven't updated the style or UX of their web
pages in decades. This links to a great example of an old site with
freenets listings:

http://www.afn.org/~alplatt/freenets.html.

This web page is like a present-day Pennsyltucky / Georgiabama
boondocker with a 80s-style mullet and a wife-beater T-shirt, clueless
that he appears anachronistic. Change goes in his pocket, not on his
fashion. Times may change, yet Bubba doesn't.

I love it that these old communities are still around. Nothing says olde
tyme like logging on to a BBS that's been running for 30+ years to chat
with the SysOp about retro terminal fonts or ASCII graphics or learn a
modem from the 80s _still works_ and is still walking Fido on a copper
leash.

The Super Dimension Fortress
SDF Public Access UNIX System .. Est. 1987
Everything from shells to gopher sites to dialup to irc
https://sdf.org/

Nyx - The Spirit of the Night
World's oldest ISP, still in existence
Free Public Internet Access
https://www.nyx.net/

Tildeverse (much newer community)
They also provide Usenet access, link on their page
https://tilde.club

FidoNet (still many BBS setups, esp. w/ synchronet)
https://www.fidonet.org/

PolarHome
Lots of servers for shell accounts, forums, email.
http://polarhome.com/

Many Newer Public Access Communities
(some of the current generation 'grok' ye olde schoole)
https://tilde.club/~pfhawkins/othertildes.html

A walk down nerd memory lane, explaining the formation of the Tildeverse
https://medium.com/message/tilde-club-i-had-a-couple-drinks-and-woke-up-with-1-000-nerds-a8904f0a2ebf

Poking around the googlesphere for 'free shell accounts' one can sift
out some old communities still hiding out. God only knows what fun and
mischievous things lurk in these spaces.

[Kurt Weiske]

To: 711 Spooky Mart
-=> 711 Spooky Mart wrote to
alt.amateur-comp,alt.fan.usenet,alt.folklore.computers <=-

7SM> This web page is like a present-day Pennsyltucky / Georgiabama
7SM> boondocker with a 80s-style mullet and a wife-beater T-shirt, clueless
7SM> that he appears anachronistic. Change goes in his pocket, not on his
7SM> fashion. Times may change, yet Bubba doesn't.

And yet, eventually, it'll become hip again. I can't wait until the next
round of late teens/twentysomethings resemble Joe Dirt.

7SM> I love it that these old communities are still around. Nothing says
7SM> olde tyme like logging on to a BBS that's been running for 30+ years to
7SM> chat with the SysOp about retro terminal fonts or ASCII graphics or
7SM> learn a modem from the 80s _still works_ and is still walking Fido on a
7SM> copper leash.

I'm reading this newsgroup on my BBS, so it all comes around eventually.

kurt weiske | kweiske at realitycheckbbs dot org
| http://realitycheckbbs.org
| 1:218/***@fidonet








7SM> The Super Dimension Fortress
7SM> SDF Public Access UNIX System .. Est. 1987
7SM> Everything from shells to gopher sites to dialup to irc
7SM> https://sdf.org/

7SM> Nyx - The Spirit of the Night
7SM> World's oldest ISP, still in existence
7SM> Free Public Internet Access
7SM> https://www.nyx.net/

7SM> Tildeverse (much newer community)
7SM> They also provide Usenet access, link on their page
7SM> https://tilde.club

7SM> FidoNet (still many BBS setups, esp. w/ synchronet)
7SM> https://www.fidonet.org/

7SM> PolarHome
7SM> Lots of servers for shell accounts, forums, email.
7SM> http://polarhome.com/

7SM> Many Newer Public Access Communities
7SM> (some of the current generation 'grok' ye olde schoole)
7SM> https://tilde.club/~pfhawkins/othertildes.html

7SM> A walk down nerd memory lane, explaining the formation of the
7SM> Tildeverse
7SM> https://medium.com/message/tilde-club-i-had-a-couple-drinks-and-woke-up-
7SM> with-1-000-nerds-a8904f0a2ebf

7SM> Poking around the googlesphere for 'free shell accounts' one can sift
7SM> out some old communities still hiding out. God only knows what fun and
7SM> mischievous things lurk in these spaces.
7SM> --
7SM> roAroUroUroUroUrooroCroCroAroUroUrooroCroCroCroAroUroUrooroC
7SM> roiroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroC
7SM> roCroE roiroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroE
7SM> rouroUroUrooroCroaroCroCrourooroCroaroCroCroCrourooroCroaroC roe
7SM> Spooky Mart [chan] 711 roe roe always roe
7SM> roCroCroCroaroCroaroCroCroArocroCrourooroCroCroArocroCrouroo roe
7SM> https://bitmessage.org roe roe open roe
7SM> roCroCroCrouroUrocroCroCrouroUroUroUrocroCroCrouroUroUroUroc
7SM> rooroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroC
7SM> roCroy rooroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroCroy

7SM> --- Synchronet 3.19a-Win32 NewsLink 1.113

... I hear he can kill people with an init string.
--- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
--- Synchronet 3.19a-Win32 NewsLink 1.113
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