Comcast dumping newsgroup access

I just received an email from Comcast announcing their end of newsgroup
access (offering only a promotional deal through "giganews" as a parting
gift).

Email from Comcast...

> Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer:
>
> As of October 25, 2008, the complimentary Comcast Newsgroups service,
> powered by Giganews, will be discontinued. This feature provided
> customers access to 2 gigabytes of newsgroup information on a monthly
> basis. After this date, these customers will no longer be able to access
> the
> Comcast Newsgroups service through Comcast. Customers who have
> subscribed directly to Giganews for newsgroup access will not be affected
> by this change.
>
> While we have seen a decline in popularity of newsgroups as customers have
> chosen to get information from other sources, we know a small percentage
> of our customers continue to use newsgroups today. If you are interested
> in
> continuing to access newsgroups, Giganews is offering a special promotion
> for Comcast customers. Click here to learn more.
>
> Thank you for being a valued customer. "

Ugh...well, I guess the writing was on the wall when other ISPs started
dropping newsgroup access, but Comcast dropping it will surely big a big
loss for the newsgroup community.

I guess a lot of us will have to switch to web based community boards
(assuming we don't want to pay for a newsgroup service). Anyone want to
offer up a decent new online discussion location for alt.cellular.sprintpcs?
Maybe http://www.sprintusers.com/ ?

- anthonyx26

---

› See More: Comcast dumping newsgroup access

anthonyx26 wrote:

> I just received an email from Comcast announcing their end of newsgroup
> access (offering only a promotional deal through "giganews" as a parting
> gift).
>
> Email from Comcast...
>
>> Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer:
>>
>> As of October 25, 2008, the complimentary Comcast Newsgroups service,
>> powered by Giganews, will be discontinued. This feature provided
>> customers access to 2 gigabytes of newsgroup information on a monthly
>> basis. After this date, these customers will no longer be able to access
>> the
>> Comcast Newsgroups service through Comcast. Customers who have
>> subscribed directly to Giganews for newsgroup access will not be affected
>> by this change.
>>
>> While we have seen a decline in popularity of newsgroups as customers have
>> chosen to get information from other sources, we know a small percentage
>> of our customers continue to use newsgroups today. If you are interested
>> in
>> continuing to access newsgroups, Giganews is offering a special promotion
>> for Comcast customers. Click here to learn more.
>>
>> Thank you for being a valued customer. "
>
> Ugh...well, I guess the writing was on the wall when other ISPs started
> dropping newsgroup access, but Comcast dropping it will surely big a big
> loss for the newsgroup community.
>
> I guess a lot of us will have to switch to web based community boards
> (assuming we don't want to pay for a newsgroup service). Anyone want to
> offer up a decent new online discussion location for alt.cellular.sprintpcs?
> Maybe http://www.sprintusers.com/ ?

Why not just switch to one of the numerous free or paid Usenet services?

http://blinkynet.net/comp/newfeed.html

--
Dutch
Sprint/Motorola RAZR V3m
tethered to PCLinuxOS 2008

In article <[email protected]>, anthonyx26
@gmail.com says...
> I just received an email from Comcast announcing their end of newsgroup
> access (offering only a promotional deal through "giganews" as a parting
> gift).

Old news...........;0)

> I guess a lot of us will have to switch to web based community boards
> (assuming we don't want to pay for a newsgroup service). Anyone want to
> offer up a decent new online discussion location for alt.cellular.sprintpcs?
> Maybe http://www.sprintusers.com/ ?
>
> - anthonyx26

Nope.........Text only service here is free & plugs into newsreaders:

http://news.motzarella.org/

Works very well.

I'm well aware of alternative means of accessing newsgroups. Unfortunately,
it's the overall effect of Comcast and various other large ISPs shutting
down access to newsgroups which will continue the downward spiral of users
actually _using_ and viewing newsgroups. The great part about newsgroups
has always been that they've provided a critical mass of end user
participation (with relatively low "noise"). Fewer and fewer users means
the value they're providing is dwindling whereas other end user forums are
increasing in user numbers and hence increasing in value.

While I don't like the commerical "fluff" advertisements that many web based
forums have it can be tolerated as long as the volume of user--to-user
communication is high and is of high quality.

- anthonyx26


"ByTor" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>, anthonyx26
> @gmail.com says...
>> I just received an email from Comcast announcing their end of newsgroup
>> access (offering only a promotional deal through "giganews" as a parting
>> gift).
>
> Old news...........;0)
>
>> I guess a lot of us will have to switch to web based community boards
>> (assuming we don't want to pay for a newsgroup service). Anyone want to
>> offer up a decent new online discussion location for
>> alt.cellular.sprintpcs?
>> Maybe http://www.sprintusers.com/ ?
>>
>> - anthonyx26
>
> Nope.........Text only service here is free & plugs into newsreaders:
>
> http://news.motzarella.org/
>
> Works very well.

On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 16:50:58 -0400, anthonyx26 <[email protected]> wrote:
>I'm well aware of alternative means of accessing newsgroups. Unfortunately,
>it's the overall effect of Comcast and various other large ISPs shutting
>down access to newsgroups which will continue the downward spiral of users
>actually _using_ and viewing newsgroups. The great part about newsgroups
>has always been that they've provided a critical mass of end user
>participation (with relatively low "noise"). Fewer and fewer users means
>the value they're providing is dwindling whereas other end user forums are
>increasing in user numbers and hence increasing in value.

I only see fewer idiots using usenet, the kind of people who think
usenet is a web services and that messages in mime/html with
attachments is reasonable.

Comcast is well known for having herds of infected machines spewing
spam into their servers. Comcast dropping usenet can only be an
improvement.

ByTor:
Thanks for the recommendation.
My first post using Motzarella :-)
Bob

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...

> ByTor:
> Thanks for the recommendation.
> My first post using Motzarella :-)
> Bob
>

Yo welcome.........;0)

> "ByTor" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > In article <[email protected]>, anthonyx26
> > @gmail.com says...
> >> I just received an email from Comcast announcing their end of newsgroup
> >> access (offering only a promotional deal through "giganews" as a parting
> >> gift).
> >
> > Old news...........;0)
> >
> >> I guess a lot of us will have to switch to web based community boards
> >> (assuming we don't want to pay for a newsgroup service). Anyone want to
> >> offer up a decent new online discussion location for
> >> alt.cellular.sprintpcs?
> >> Maybe http://www.sprintusers.com/ ?
> >>
> >> - anthonyx26
> >
> > Nope.........Text only service here is free & plugs into newsreaders:
> >
> > http://news.motzarella.org/
> >
> > Works very well.

> In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...

> I'm well aware of alternative means of accessing newsgroups. Unfortunately,
> it's the overall effect of Comcast and various other large ISPs shutting
> down access to newsgroups which will continue the downward spiral of users
> actually _using_ and viewing newsgroups. The great part about newsgroups
> has always been that they've provided a critical mass of end user
> participation (with relatively low "noise"). Fewer and fewer users means
> the value they're providing is dwindling whereas other end user forums are
> increasing in user numbers and hence increasing in value.
>
> While I don't like the commerical "fluff" advertisements that many web based
> forums have it can be tolerated as long as the volume of user--to-user
> communication is high and is of high quality.
>
> - anthonyx26

Wasn't questioning your awareness, just offering alternative as you
mentioned web based access, I find them appalling.

IMHO.......I'm glad ISP's cut off access. The very very very small
population that even knows what newsgroups were won't be missed by me.

Well, I think it's the users who brought down usenet, by commonly
using the binary groups to distribute property they didn't have rights
to distribute. That gave the ISPs the excuse they needed to eliminate
newsgroup servers.
Actually, I'm pretty happy using http://groups.google.com/

On Oct 2, 11:25*am, "anthonyx26" <[email protected]> wrote:
> I just received an email from Comcast announcing their end of newsgroup
> access (offering only a promotional deal through "giganews" as a parting
> gift).
>
> Email from Comcast...
>
>
>
>
>
> > Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer:
>
> > As of October 25, 2008, the complimentary Comcast Newsgroups service,
> > powered by Giganews, will be discontinued. This feature provided
> > customers access to 2 gigabytes of newsgroup information on a monthly
> > basis. After this date, these customers will no longer be able to access
> > the
> > Comcast Newsgroups service through Comcast. Customers who have
> > subscribed directly to Giganews for newsgroup access will not be *affected
> > by this change.
>
> > While we have seen a decline in popularity of newsgroups as customers have
> > chosen to get information from other sources, we know a small percentage
> > of our customers continue to use newsgroups today. If you are interested
> > in
> > continuing to access newsgroups, Giganews is offering a special promotion
> > for Comcast customers. Click here to learn more.
>
> > Thank you for being a valued customer. "
>
> Ugh...well, I guess the writing was on the wall when other ISPs started
> dropping newsgroup access, but Comcast dropping it will surely big a big
> loss for the newsgroup community.
>
> I guess a lot of us will have to switch to web based community boards
> (assuming we don't want to pay for a newsgroup service). *Anyone want to
> offer up a decent new online discussion location for alt.cellular.sprintpcs?
> Maybehttp://www.sprintusers.com/?
>
> - anthonyx26- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I personally use goggle groups, and think it works just fine. If you
have a wide screen monitor especially, what adds there are seem pretty
unobtrusive.

Paul Miner <[email protected]> writes:
>On Fri, 3 Oct 2008 08:32:38 -0700 (PDT), Russ in San Diego
><[email protected]> wrote:
>>Well, I think it's the users who brought down usenet, by commonly
>>using the binary groups to distribute property they didn't have rights
>>to distribute. That gave the ISPs the excuse they needed to eliminate
>>newsgroup servers.
>>Actually, I'm pretty happy using http://groups.google.com/
>
>That's good as long as you're getting what you need. Personally, I've
>seen a growing segment of traditional Usenet users who are actively
>ignoring anything coming from Google Groups because the SNR is so
>poor.

Another NNTP based server is Altopia. $6/month with SSL and unlimited
use.

https://www.altopia.com/

Chris Caputo
President, Altopia Corporation

"Paul Miner" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Fri, 3 Oct 2008 08:32:38 -0700 (PDT), Russ in San Diego
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >Well, I think it's the users who brought down usenet, by commonly
> >using the binary groups to distribute property they didn't have rights
> >to distribute. That gave the ISPs the excuse they needed to eliminate
> >newsgroup servers.
> >Actually, I'm pretty happy using http://groups.google.com/
>
> That's good as long as you're getting what you need. Personally, I've
> seen a growing segment of traditional Usenet users who are actively
> ignoring anything coming from Google Groups because the SNR is so
> poor.

I agree that happens but trying to satisfy those "traditional Usenet users"
by using something other than Google Groups might be a lost cause anyway.

Besides, it is easy to use groups.google.com from a Sprint Mogul with WM6.0.
With WM6.1 it is not so easy and that is part of the reason I went back to
WM6.0 on my Mogul.

FYI SNR = Signal to Noise Ratio

Hi everyone:

"anthonyx26" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I just received an email from Comcast announcing their end of newsgroup
> access (offering only a promotional deal through "giganews" as a parting
> gift).
>
> Email from Comcast...

[snip.....]

What does this have to SPRINT PCS????

Am I missing something here?

Cheers

Pat Cook (A user of both Sprint & Comcast)
Denver, CO

Hi everyone:

"ByTor" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>> "ByTor" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> IMHO.......I'm glad ISP's cut off access. The very very very small
> population that even knows what newsgroups were won't be missed by me.

And most of us who don't amongst THAT group are usually people who don't
monitor USENET on a regular basis for ANYTHING to begin with. We usually
hang out on Yahoo! Groups and message boards, which aren't allowed to run
rampant in a negative manner like some USENET groups are because they're
moderated forums.

And when we DO come onto USENET, we *don't* spew forth spam on the groups
(Our reputations within moderated forum circles depend on that!).
We use USENET for its intended purpose just like we do the moderated
discussion forums we hang out on.

When these undesirables spammers get on and spew forth spam, we're just as
much of a victim of the rest of the "old-timers" who've been on USENET-only
since the stone age (If not more so since those of us who don't frequent
USENET as much as the "old-timers" are constantly given a black eye AND WE
ARE TIRED OF IT. > ).

Just my opinion.....

Cheers

Pat Cook
Denver. Colorado

Elmo P. Shagnasty answered:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Pat Cook" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> We usually
>> hang out on Yahoo! Groups and message boards, which aren't allowed to run
>> rampant in a negative manner like some USENET groups are because they're
>> moderated forums.
>
> Ummmm.....check that moderation.
>
> Usually it's overly moderated. In other words, most boards are run by
> idiots with a power complex.

But thats a GOOD thing. It keeps the trolls and assholes OUT!

--
Ernie
<The man on the hill with a mountainous load in his shorts>