s.a.a. vs. other forums

sci.astro.amateur or Astromart or Cloudy Night forums (fora)??

I browse & post to all three. The recent threads on what's happened to
s.a.a. got me thinking about the history of astro newsgroups and the
net. I'd be interested in other s.a.a. & AOL veterans' thoughts about
this...

Years ago, on AOL, there was a wonderful astronomy community. It was
great being able to browse by topics, with the threads nicely organized.
I can remember discovering s.a.a. and, at first, being completely put
off by the anarchy, and the massive list of unrelated threads. It took
lots of effort to find relevant material on s.a.a. It was the
difference between a small community and a frontier crossroads. I spent
far more time within AOL.

Soon, however, s.a.a. grew, and many, or most AOL regulars seem to shift
locations... Plus, s.a.a. was free (if your place of work had net
access and was OK with personal use after hours) while AOL cost $$. And
s.a.a. had a wider range of diverse voices, with more posts, and more
people likely to help---and do so very quickly. It became a vibrant
city, with all sorts of types, information, & notions. It was also a
time of many observing reports.

We're in stage 3 now of newsgroups and the web (back to the future). It
seems that hosted or moderated groups are again coming back to the
fore... there is again a sense of community, one can drop in from time
to time on AM and CN and find relevant threads easily because they are
grouped by topic, and there is a remarkably high signal to noise ratio
and an incredibly helpful, welcoming environment. There *is* a
different feel there than here...

The city here is becoming an underworld, though still a fascinating
place to visit, especially if one actively filters out subjects!

(The specialized yahoo newsgroups are yet another venue, with their own
atmosphere and issues.)

Larry Stedman
Vestal
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: AOL response to usene
    ... S> Subject: Re: AOL response to usenet inquiry ... S>> able to access AOL Newsgroups. ... before Internet was a commercial offering. ... converted to text-only Internet services for email and ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: AOL response to usene
    ... S> Subject: Re: AOL response to usenet inquiry ... S>> able to access AOL Newsgroups. ... before Internet was a commercial offering. ... converted to text-only Internet services for email and ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Fed up with "Linux sucks..." type of messages
    ... It's a long-standing and unsolvable problem on Usenet. ... contributed to the decline in popularity of newsgroups. ... newsgroup experience was when using Windows and AOL. ... I dropped AOL because they didn't have a Linux ...
    (alt.os.linux)
  • Re: Running AOL - PC hangs - Event ID 3001
    ... I ran into this error many times in many newsgroups. ... > ages for everything to work again and then restart the PC. ... > I think aol might be the cause because if I log on and don't use the ... > third DWORD in Data section. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: OWA problem...
    ... Also I can take it another site - NOT AOL - where both work fine. ... Click the "Settings" button in the Temporary Internet Files area. ... Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support ... newsgroups so that they can be resolved in an efficient and timely manner. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)