On 2014-11-07 10:58:18 +0000, Lostgallifreyan said:

Jerry Stuckle wrote in news:m3h6rc$871$1@dont-
email.me:

The best thing to do is ignore him - it will make him madder, but the
lack of attention will drive him crazy.


If he's on BT he'll have to get another ISP. Same goes for Demon who have
already cancelled Usenet as BT are about to do. UK ISP's seem to be dropping
Usenet like a ton of ****, without advance warning of any worth, and maybe
all within a very few weeks of they haven't already done it. It seems to me
that maybe the recent rush of govt demands that they clean up the piracy uses
of Usenet, combined with ever increasing surveillance of ordinary people
means that the only cheap safe way for an ISP to avoid looking like it's
antagonistic to the new secret-policing style of UK government is to drop,
IMMEDIATELY, all subsystems that might make them look bad.

There may be more innocent explanations, like Usenet going to the dogs
generally, public perception genrally favouring forums on the web. Judging by
the recent squabbles here that is not hard to exaplain. Recent;ly, one night,
I say one silly thing ina post otherwise reasonable, and TWO people try to
jump down my throat. For a fleeting moment I was daft enough to think it
might be about me, but no, I just went silent, looked the next morning, and
those two people were at each other for most of the night in my absence!

Anyway, I won't be paying for Usenet, so I'll be out of those people's hair.
I'll jump before I'm pushed. If I can get an ISP with decent web hosting for
no greater cost than I am paying to BT now for a heavily capped service with
no web host, and very soon, no Usenet, I'll go as soon as I can.

It's been helpful to me to have access easily to some knowledgeable people
willing to post thoughts rapidly, in direct response to things I ask, and
I'll miss that. On the other hand, some of those people have pointed out that
good texts usually get a better guide to someone wanting an answer, if not as
immediately. Usually I just trawl the web and look for multiple sources
before whittling down to the best that works for me.

It looks like the net's good times are over, it's likely to get harder after
being easy for about ten years. I'm not going to try to speculate about why,
but I know that if Usenet is no longer possible without a lot of additional
expense equivalent to a new utility service, then I'm out.

There are a number of good free text group newsservers, such as Eternal
September, and at least one paid-for one with a good reputation that
only costs 10GBP a year (news.individual.net). So I hope we don't have
to lose you.

--

Percy Picacity