Re: OT: FidoNet [Was Community hostility [Was Recent spam increase]]
On Mon, 2006-10-30 at 07:52 -0500, Gregory Seidman wrote:
> I am not 100% certain, but I believe Usenet predates FidoNet, if you want
> to talk about message boards and their equivalents. Blogging, however, is a
> different animal.
>
Not quite, but close. FidoNET pre-dates BitNET (which became Usenet) by
just a few years. I remember this well because I was one of the lucky
few to receive a Usenet feed from Univ of MD (which I piped promptly
into my BBS, heavily modified WWIV).
This was right around the time that the BOFH stories started appearing,
and some crafty people found a way to circumvent ma bell's luxurious
long distance fees with ham radios.
Many won't equate BitNET with Usenet .. as by the time you saw it.. it
was already Usenet.
To broaden the time line a bit, a couple years later this really big
huge multi line BBS named "America Online" opened running something very
similar to Oracomm. To this day I'm not entirely sure if that was what
we know now as AOL (now) in its infancy .. I just know it was huge and
well funded.
> Considering the architectural aspect, both Usenet and FidoNet were
> decentralized store-and-forward networks of servers with data replicated
> across all of them. Blogging is about the edge of the network, and
> maintaining one's blog on one's own server. (Yes, there are many blog
> services and servers which the users themselves do not own, but the point
> is that the blog posts stay on the server on which they were posted, and
> are retrieved from that server for reading.)
>
Still aggregated in a similar fashion, minus the nodelist semantics. No
routing is involved in a pingoat, its just a free for all xml/rss push.
However, you are right, Blogs were not conceived with the idea of store
and forward in mind, unless you count store (once) and forward to
everyone without routing of any kind.
FidoNET created hubs, nodes with logical routes in between them. So did
WWIVNet (and similar networks).
> Considering the discourse aspect, blogs are basically monologues. Yes, many
> blogs have comments and trackbacks, but their essential nature is that of
> lecture rather than conversation. Unless my memory fails me, FidoNet (and
> WWIVnet and the like) had message boards on which people held conversations
> on a topic (much like Usenet or a web forum) but there was no area set
> aside for an individual author to lecture.
Really depended on the theme of the board and sub. Some Fido subs were
themed around 'open mic' rants where people would then comment. But I do
agree with you, Blogs were created for a very specific purpose (as more
or less live journals), where conversation was incidental. The main idea
is exactly as you describe it below.
>
> If you are looking for activity in the past analogous to blogging, you
> might consider Socrates or Plato's philosophical speeches to their
> followers.
Filibuster and a Kennedy for a more recent example.
> Less charitably, you might consider the loons in Central Park
> (and, in pleasant weather, anywhere else with freedom of speech, crazy
> people, and a sufficient number of passersby).
Actually, I stand corrected. Filibuster and a Kennedy apply more to your
last example.
This is way off topic, but fun :)
Best,
-Tim
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