Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: "Carlos E.R." Newsgroups: alt.comp.os.windows-11,alt.comp.linux Subject: Re: But is UseNet "Social Media"?? Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2026 13:20:38 +0100 Lines: 33 Message-ID: References: <10ln2f4$3ihvu$1@dont-email.me> <10ln6u8$3jrp5$1@toylet.eternal-september.org> <10ln974$3kjsq$1@dont-email.me> <10lnh8c$3n810$1@toylet.eternal-september.org> <10lpos7$g2t9$1@dont-email.me> <10lprc7$gtkh$1@dont-email.me> <10lqaaf$m212$1@dont-email.me> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net rzly0/zL/s6qRhTCYUo9MguZXFo1x8vPd7FR53jVPeRI1x4F2i X-Orig-Path: Telcontar.valinor!not-for-mail Cancel-Lock: sha1:kGoboHspS1bkSvlYy4aamVgBM+Y= sha256:WXGwr3x2GoFyTI1Kmbf81T0Aj9/XQ8ycpJaHM1fDBHo= User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Content-Language: es-ES, en-CA In-Reply-To: X-Leafnode-NNTP-Posting-Host: 127.0.0.1 Xref: csiph.com alt.comp.os.windows-11:29824 alt.comp.linux:4759 On 2026-02-03 04:52, Steve Hayes wrote: > On Mon, 2 Feb 2026 15:51:29 +0100, "Carlos E.R." > wrote: > >> Oh, and here we had (have?) to pay local phone calls, so we tried to >> make our calls to Fidonet or Internet as short as possible. > > There was a point at which all of South Africa's internetional > internet traffic was on a 9600 bps dial-up line via Fidonet, between a > BBS at Rhodes University in Grahamstown and Randy Bush's BBS in Oregon > USA. When TCP/IP connections became more widely available, it was the > other way round -- Fidonet packets were exchanged over the Internet by > FTP. > > That was also the time of the distinction between the Internet > (TCP/IP) and the internet, which included Fidonet technology networks. > > Fido techniology was developed after uucp, and was more sophisticated: > in nested replies it would show the initials of who had posted what, > so it was easier to follow conversations. I miss echomail for that > reason. And yes, there wqas a lot of social chitchat, so FTNs were, at > least in part, social networks. Yes, I also miss the initials in the quotes. I have seen some people do that now, but it is a mess because current mail clients (or usenet) like Thunderbird do not support it. I also miss that all groups were moderated. There was no spam. Every person was real. -- Cheers, Carlos. ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;