Re: mailing list vs "the futur"
On Wed, 29 Aug 2018 08:27:41 -0400
Michael Stone <mstone@debian.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 01:02:21PM +0100, Joe wrote:
> >No, very occasionally, a proposed change is a clear improvement.
> >Usually it's just about altering the distribution of income.
>
> Rather, in my experience, resistance to change is usually about
> preserving the status quo and reinforcing the existing division of
> winners and losers.
>
> For example, in this thread, we see that mechanisms which make more
> information available to more people in a more easily accesible form
> must be worse because those people don't know what they're doing. Or
> something. I personally tend to think that bringing the next billion
> people online is more important than maintaining a Manichaean
> priesthood based on internet protocols from the 80s. (Regardless of
> how great those protocols are if you just understand them properly.)
>
I was around when Microsoft abandoned Usenet for shiny new web forums.
I used to post on the Small Business Server newsgroup. I'd look in two
or three times a day, usually add one or two posts. After the change, I
couldn't just type a line or two, I had to login. The next time I
looked in, I had to login again because it had timed out. After I
while, I only bothered to login if I had two or three posts to make, it
wasn't worth the effort otherwise. After a couple of months, I stopped
going there at all, and several other frequent posters had already
dropped out.
I don't know how to convey this, but the whole thing had a very
different feel. Before, I'd been among friends, afterwards, I was very
conscious of the interface and the moderators, of Microsoft looking
over my shoulder... there were no winners or losers on Usenet, we all
helped each other. Afterwards, not so much.
--
Joe
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