Why the complaints about Google Usenet ? [telecom]

A number of Usenet posters have made very nasty complaints about Google Groups, a service where many people, including me, post to Usenet. I don't understand why. Could someone explain it?

One says Google uses "non standard" displays and adds extraneous characters. I haven't seen any such thing, nor has anyone reproduced what they saw.

Another says Google allows abuse. I'm not sure what that means. Google does limit posts per person, so you can't go out and flood the Internet.

Let's be honest: when it comes to Usenet posting, some people get extremely emotional about it, as if any deviation from some supposed 'standard' (which may not even exist) will End Life As We Know It. This could be a technical standard, definition of newsgroup scope (always contentious), or what constitutes a fact vs. opinion.

Consequently, I take such complaints with a grain of salt. However, the number of complainers seem to be growing.

Also, there's been talk about loss of Usenet access by some ISPs. Pulling such acess seems very odd to me since many people still use Usenet. I wonder if there's confusion because certain risque groups are being pulled, but only those groups.

Any comments appreciated. [public replies, please]

Reply to
hancock4
Loading thread data ...

wrote

It's pretty simple, really. They are totally unresponsive to complaints.

Therefore, they have become an open portal for posting of USENET spam......which was, incidentally, the original channel for the distribution of spam.

The effort to police Usenet spam is one factor that pushed the spammers over to email. Now that the efforts to curb it there have been much more successful in recent months (due in large part to some legal decisions favoring the ISPs over the spammers), some of them have come back to Usenet. They need a entry portal that does absolutely no screening of new users AND an abuse dept. that is either non-existent or totally incompetent. Google groups seems to serve the purpose nicely. They are not a good "team player". The reasons are immaterial.

Take your own survey. Look at the spam in the groups you frequent; "commercial" spam, that is. My unscientific sample indicates 100% of it comes in via Google Groups. That probably isn't true but it IS a VERY large percentage.

Male enhancement not your thing? How about breast enlargement.....or narcotic drugs.....or watch knock-offs....or cheap tennies.... ad infinitum.

Reply to
Who Me?

wrote

Not as many users as you might imagine, apparently.

Some ISPs are deciding that selective group screening isn't worth the hassle, no matter how minor, and are, in fact, dropping Usenet access altogether.

Most ISPs see Usenet support as a money pit. It certainly can't be identified as a profit center.

Once again, the almighty dollar wins out........with a little help from some blue noses!

Reply to
Who Me?

It has a *horrible* user interface, doesn't support KILL files, and makes a hash of quoted articles in replies. Plus, they don't do a wonderful job in keeping their service from being used to post spam. And every nine months ago, a different group of new Google hires takes over maintenance of it and breaks it in new and exciting ways.

As an occasional-use, read-only interface it is barely tolerable. For regular use, it is orders of magnitude worse than the newsreaders of fifteen or twenty years ago. It's a pity they're the only ones with the historical archives (assuming you can get to them -- the indexing of older articles has been spotty at times).

It is clear that Google doesn't really care about this service.

-GAWollman

Reply to
Garrett Wollman

It's more than just the spam problem. Many people complain about the cluelessness of people who post regular articles through GG. I coined the term "googliot" a few years ago, but it never caught on. :(

A big problem is that GG gives the appearance of being a web forum, so most of its users don't realize that they're posting to a more widespread network, and that most of the readers don't see their forum-style view. They rarely quote the posts they're replying to, and virtually never cross-post properly (I know these problems aren't limited to GG users, but they seem to be the worst about it).

We've seen this phenomenon before, whenever some system makes it easy for clueless people to post to Usenet. It first happened when AOL made Usenet available, then WebTV, and now Google Groups.

Reply to
Barry Margolin

"Barry Margolin" wrote

OK, but that is the part that THEY control......or could.

The rest is just inconvenient.......and transitory.

Reply to
Who Me?

True, but I didn't think we were discussing blame. I thought he was asking why people are killfiling GG.

Reply to
Barry Margolin

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.