Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Johanne Fairchild Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Emigration from Usenet [was: Re: PTD was the most-respected of the AUE regulars ...] Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2024 12:27:52 -0300 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 45 Message-ID: <875xst5w5j.fsf@tudado.org> References: <20240724115828.5d9d85d9305fe8300a91db5d@g{oogle}mail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:27:53 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="95c262ecadd4664b2a661ee851da6844"; logging-data="2461175"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/WEVhxM24QN3vOSc4x5aXrNHZL7TKoLeY=" Cancel-Lock: sha1:tfi+svcpK5Q7dJWK9u/Z8zeasKs= sha1:AzNtBh2IlmMg66KC2DsbpJPZjPc= Bytes: 3758 Marco Moock writes: > On 25.07.2024 um 11:49 Uhr George Musk wrote: > >> You may try to make them use more modern open solutions like Mastodon, > > I've tried out mastodon and I don't like it. Only usable for chit-chat, > you can't open a "thread" in a new tab by middle click, so rather > uncomfortable to use. > The content is also mostly non-interesting, like Twitter. Some people > who hate Elon Musk now moved to mastodon and post their bullshit there. That's what most people don't realize: most of these chat systems are no good for conversation. People don't realize this because they also can't really tell a good conversation from chit-chat. That's because a good conversation requires thinking, but most people can't tell thinking from brain activity. In other words, the underlying phenomenon is more worrying. We've reduced thinking quality in the large. USENET is antiquated in some sense, but it's still the system where people can write calmly with no distractions. Therefore USENET is still the most adequate because there is no other system with these most important features. As I'm writing this paragraph, there is nothing flashing on my screen and nobody is waiting for me, so I can take all the time I want. And that increases the quality of the conversation. Here's an example. Most USENET clients maximize your writing screen. Compare that with Whatsapp or Discord. You write your message in a small region of the program, clearly implying that your writing is not important. What about all the flashing stuff? These programs all look like a Christmas tree. If you read writers blogs, you will notice sometimes they write about their tools and they talk about pens, paper, computers and text editors. The same applies to programmers and other technical people such as scientists. They all talk about not getting distracted with nonsense. Good conversation is sort of the same. If you start an oral conversation with someone and, say, the person goes off on some tangent all the time, that conversation doesn't get very deep. (For most people, perhaps, that's no problem because they don't even know what depth is.) Getting off on tangents is not so bad on USENET because we can easily backtrack a thread, say. Conversation in writing is different from oral conversation. But the point is that not getting distracted is important in conversation or anything else that requires thinking.