| Jim Townsend 2008-01-01, 3:33 pm |
| Darius wrote:
> Google is the real news provider as an administrator of Google Groups
> aka Usenet.
Google groups is NOT USENET.
It's simply ONE of many thousands of independently owned and operated
computer systems around the world that runs news server software.
They all share their message base with each other using the network news
transport protocol (NNTP).
Nobody administers USENET. Each of the thousands of individual system
owners is free to do what they want.
Most people who follow USENET don't use Google groups. If Google groups
were completely shut down tomorrow, most USENET users wouldn't even
notice the fact. Things would go on without skipping a beat.
I like Google as a company and I use many of Google's great services
such as Google Earth, Gmail and their search engines. They have truly
enhanced the internet for many.
Google groups is another story. It's an ugly scab on the face of USENET.
The fact that anyone can sign up for an instant free account and the
fact that Google does very little policing and enforcement makes
Google groups fertile ground for every manner of spammer and miscreant.
They flock to Google groups.
If I started spamming and disrupting groups, my account would be quickly
terminated. This goes for most of the respectable news providers on
USENET who maintain and enforce acceptable use policies.
Google on the other hand does very little policing. They seldom act on
complaints. They just don't care. They are not a responsible news
provider.
The spew from Google groups has become so bad lately that my news provider
(Supernews) has started deleting all posts from Google Groups that are
crossposted to five or more newsgroups. They go in the garbage. I never see
them. I suspect other news providers are starting to do the same.
|