What is likely to replace #Reddit, at least eventually? It used to be "the front page of the Internet" having displaced #Usenet in this capacity.

Reddit has slowly turned to shit.

#askfedi

@fediversereport I remember when the original UK data protection act came in in 1984. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/35/enacted

One immediate question was whether it applied to #Usenet, which was the original federated social media. The general feeling was yes it probably did, but it was impossible for a Usenet node to comply. So everyone ignored the problem, and no legal issues ever arose.

NEWS : news://alt.flashback | news://alt.crossover

#Usenet #NetNews #NNTP

+++ Paganini (Anonymous)
nntp://paganini.bofh.team

Usenet is an ever-living, Casper the friendly ghost of discussion networks.

Just a friendly reminder that Usenet still exists and access to text newsgroups is still FREE. Access is provided by volunteer sysops around the world. See links below.

Back in its glory days it seems that just about every academic institution had its own Usenet hierarchy of newsgroups.

Linux was revealed to the world via Usenet.

Open source philosophy gained its steam via Usenet.

Usenet is the original free speech network.

Usenet is the original 'social network'.

Simple and free access to text-only Usenet Newsgroups
https://eternal-september.org/

#Usenet #BBS #NetworkNews #EternalSeptember #usenet #nntp #decentralized #censorship #retro #freespeech

+++ Ausics (Australia)

https://newsgroups.ausics.net

https://usenet.blueworldhosting.com

http://news.chmurka.net

http://csiph.com

https://dotsrc.org/usenet

https://www.eternal-september.org

https://news.gegeweb.org

https://news.hispagatos.org

https://news.nntp4.net

https://usenet.ovh

https://www.open-news-network.org

nntp://paganini.bofh.team

https://pasdenom.info/news.html

https://solani.org

Please don’t be shocked, but I’ve been reading old #UNIX Review magazines on Archive.org, as one does. I’ve been finding a number of interesting artifacts throughout. This June 1984 ad by Cadmus Computer Systems listed a #USENET address: !wivax!cadmus.

This is a UUCP bang path, for the kids who don’t know. The ! separates relay hops, it’s a literal routing instruction. Get to the backbone, reach wivax, forward to cadmus.

No DNS.

Machines screamed at each other to swap data.

#unix_surrealism

Alt...

A man works on a computer with multiple monitors displaying graphical data, surrounded by an advertisement for Cadmus computer systems.

Alt...

A vintage advertisement for the Cadmus 9000 computer system, highlighting its complete set of tools and contact information.

The only drawback is this.

There is a troll farm on Usenet. The purpose of the troll farm is to annoy and harass people with fake, lunatic, and disingenuous posts to try to drive them off Usenet. Once you learn to identify such posters, just put them in your killfile spam filter and move on.

Some of the discussion threads are fake, generated by the troll farmers.

Also, if you ever post a good idea on Usenet, the troll farmers will launch a tirade of malicious criticism to try to drive you away.

It's kind of like the Fediverse. Lots of mockingbirds lurk to pounce on any sentiment disapproved by their masters.

Here's the upside. Censorship is almost impossible. If someone wants to see your articles, they will. Unlike the Fediverse, which champions comformity, viewpoint bullying, and mockingbird enforcement hall monitors at the instance level, any Usenet sysop engaging in gratuitous censorship would lose all respect in the eyes of the Usenet crowd.

#censorship #usenet #nntp #freespeech

@octade @usenet It's perhaps worth mentioning that free Usenet servers generally do not provide the binaries groups, so if it's *dodgy downloads* you're looking for you will need a commercial provider.
#usenet

Free Usenet Hosting Providers

+++ Ausics (Australia)

https://newsgroups.ausics.net

https://usenet.blueworldhosting.com

http://news.chmurka.net

http://csiph.com

https://dotsrc.org/usenet

https://www.eternal-september.org

https://news.gegeweb.org

https://news.hispagatos.org

https://news.nntp4.net

https://usenet.ovh

https://www.open-news-network.org

nntp://paganini.bofh.team

https://pasdenom.info/news.html

https://solani.org

#fediverse question: Has anyone written a Bridge between #lemmy, #piefed, #mbin, #kbin, or other fediverse software and #nntp? I have #usenet access, and would be happy to bridge some of the various blindness groups on Usenet onto the fediverse.

[for your address book]

https://soc.octade.net/usenet/

A #Fediverse group for discussing topics and tools related to #Usenet and #NNTP or #NetworkNews.

#groups #fedigroups #fediverse #retro

Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en). Image attribution: Benjamin D. Esham / Wikimedia Commons.

Alt...

A graphical interpretation of the "Big Nine" hierarchies on Usenet. The image shows a grid with the name of each hierarchy in a square cell. image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en). Image attribution: Benjamin D. Esham / Wikimedia Commons.

I know there are big archives of historical Usenet posts online. Are there similar Echonet archives from Fidonet?

#usenet #fidonet #retrocomputing #sysadmin #bbs

We at #hispagatos revamped our #blog and #gemlog [http|gemini] and posted the #announcement to #usenet check it out! Also created a new entry on it related to most of the #projects we have been working on in #2025 there are more news but this ones are the most relevant!

- https://rocksolid-us.pugleaf.net/groups/hispagatos.talk/thread/1238
- https://hispagatos.org
- gemini://hispagatos.org

Happy #Hacking
ReK2

#hackerculture #hackingisnotacrime #hackers #nntp #smallweb #gemini #gopher

@mike I would claim that Usenet is also free from centralized control, censorship and manipulative promotion of content. Usenet could be considered an ancestor of the fediverse, since it uses a loose network of cooperating servers run by different people and organisations.
#usenet #fediverse #socialmedia

You damn kids with your fancy new Spotify and such, we pirated our music from #Usenet in the Bush era and we liked it! #A1

Usenet is accessible via TOR and open access servers that don't require registration or identifying information.

The writer can write and discuss using a pseudonym or pen name without fear of retaliation from employers, government, friends, and family. This encourages some people to share their innermost thoughts they would otherwise not express. Of course it also encourages trolls, but there are plenty of trolls everywhere else.

Usenet is text-centric so unlike the fediverse there is not a stream of distracting images.

Even after all these years I still prefer reading and posting Usenet newsgroups over all other forms of so-called, 'social media'.

#Usenet #NewsGroups #NNTP #NetworkNews #NetNews #Anonymous #Anonymity #Writers #Writing

although I am months late in finding this out, a short eulogy for Thom Miller/Retro Guy, the creator and maintainer of RockSolid Light (RSL) - a web-based NNTP server

i have rarely known someone so dedicated to their passion project as he was. many of the features RSL came to support, like encrypted private messaging between server shards, were because folks like me naively asked "would this be possible?". suddenly, a week later, thom would post an announcement that the feature now existed and was ready for testing and feedback. sometimes he'd disappear for a week or two, only to return with an apology that he had been sick from his ongoing cancer treatments.

I consider him to be one of the most dedicated developers I've ever had the pleasure of working with, and Tomo - my fork of RSL - would have never existed without his constant willingness to lend a hand.

his death was announced on usenet. thom had been fighting pancreatic cancer for years through various treatment regimens. my condolences to his wife, who I'm sure lost a lot of time spent with thom as he worked on RSL.
https://alt.obituaries.narkive.com/k4pzKhgi/thom-miller-operator-of-novabbs-and-programmer-of-rslight-died

#usenet #cancer

https://github.com/go-while/go-pugleaf

Pugleaf sports a web portal and built-in administrative tools.

#Usenet #RocksolidLight #Retro #NNTP #NetworkNews

@odd @octade One option for iOS or Android is my web interface to Usenet at https://newsgrouper.org .
#usenet #ios #android

Alt...

Screenshot of the Newsgrouper web interface to Usenet, showing one discussion thread within the group uk.d-i-y

1. Get a free account: https://www.eternal-september.org/
2. Get a newsreader: https://www.claws-mail.org/

Configure the newsreader with your new account credentials, download the list of newsgroups, and start subscribing.

There are many free Usenet hosts and many different Usenet reader client softwares. The two proposed above are very popular.

#Usenet #NNTP #EternalSeptember

alt.2600
alt.2600.hackers
alt.anagrams
alt.anonymous
alt.centipede
alt.cyberpunk
alt.cypherpunks
alt.folklore.computers
alt.html
alt.rhubarb
alt.sources.crypto
alt.ygdrasil
comp.os.linux.advocacy
comp.os.linux.misc
comp.os.plan9
comp.risks
eternal-september.talk
grc.techtalk
grc.techtalk.retro
hispagatos.talk
news.software.nntp
rec.puzzles
sci.crypt
sci.crypt.random-numbers
sci.math

#Usenet #NetworkNews #NNTP #retro #social

Usenet Reborn [0], a terminal‑based NNTP client written in Rust (by @rek2), is now available on pkgsrc.

[0] https://sr.ht/~rek2/Usenet_Reborn/
#nntp #usenet #smolweb #pkgsrc

Alt...

Screenshot of a terminal window running usenet_reborn. On the left, a column listing subscribed newsgroups, and on the right pane, a threaded view of the comp.infosystems.gopher group.

@selfhosting@a.gup.pe @retro@a.gup.pe @usenet@a.gup.pe @bbs@a.gup.pe @linux@a.gup.pe @nostalgia@a.gup.pe @opensource@a.gup.pe @networks@a.gup.pe @infostorm@a.gup.pe

NEWSCARD Publish and fetch permanent named records via Network News

Newscard creates a decentralized, encrypted, named record paste bin.

[git repo] https://codeberg.org/OCTADE/newscard (use most recent version only)

With a single command, name the card, snarf the file and encrypt it.

With another command, push the encrypted file to the public network.

With another short command, snarf a file from the network.

Only users knowing the name [key] of the record will be able to decrypt it.

If a strong passphrase is used to name the file, it will be very secure.

This is useful for quickly snarfing, encrypting, and publishing a text file:

$~: card enc [passphrase] [file]
$~: card put [passphrase]

It is useful for retrieving a text file with just a key:

$~: card get [passphrase]
$~: card show [passphrase]

If and when you want the general public to access the record just share the keyword.

Newscard uses nine (9) (NINE) layers of encryption with OpenSSL chacha20 cipher.

Newscard generates 9 each of: cipher keys, salts, key iteration parameters.

It would be nice if something like this were added to the ActivityPub protocol, such that keyword[@]host.url would do the same thing. Then secret text records could be stored securely for later retrieval or revelation.

#NewsCard #Pastebin #Usenet #NNTP #NetworkNews #Encryption #Cryptography #Messaging #Anonymity #Protocols #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #BlackHackJack #Censorship #Retro #InfoSec #Ciphers #Codes #FOSS

@infostorm@a.gup.pe @crypto@a.gup.pe @infosec@a.gup.pe @selfhosting@a.gup.pe

Alt...

Playing card of the Jack of Clubs. The Jack is a moustached man in a black top hat and suit in a oval center cameo. The colors are inverted so that everything on the face is black except the lines which are white, like a charcoal cutout picture., giving it a retro digital appearance mixed with retro handicraft vibes.

https://rocksolid-us.pugleaf.net/

#NNTP #Usenet #RocksolidLight #Retro #PugLeaf

I have been away from the Internet for at least a couple months. I came to quickly check my feeds and I am sad to have found report of the passing away of a very cool hacker, Thom Miller, known by the handle, Retro Guy. According to his wife Kaylen Miller, Thom died about two weeks ago from pancreatic cancer. He had a years-long struggle with cancer and multiple therapies and surgeries. During all the time of his illness he continued to hack away providing network access and software updates absolutely free to his user base. He was a strong believer in the value of open and decentralized communication for all. His software is simple and awesome, and useful for censorship-resistant communication. (https://gitlab.com/rslight-public/rocksolid-light)

Thom, known as Retro Guy, created the Rocksolid Light NNTP forums and server software. He served the hacker community as a free speech advocate and provider of free speech communication networking. He refused to censor opinions that he found offensive or stupid on the principle of the golden rule. He endured a lot of annoyances to provide service for many. Thom maintained the software for years giving web-based NNTP access to countless users. Thom was always helpful and patient with users needing assistance, even when he was feeling ill and suffering. He pushed through his pain to serve others with something he believed was a necessary tool and blessing for the general public.

I am sad to learn of Thom's passing. He will be missed and remembered. I will remember him by continuing to run his software.

More:
https://news.novabbs.org/rocksolid/article-flat.php?id=1024&group=rocksolid.nodes.help#1024

More:
https://news.novabbs.org/rocksolid/article-flat.php?id=560&group=rocksolid.nodes.announce#560

More:
https://news.novabbs.org/rocksolid/article-flat.php?id=561&group=rocksolid.nodes.announce#561

More:
https://www.novabbs.com/interests/article-flat.php?id=25410&group=alt.obituaries

#obituary #rocksolidlight #usenet #nntp #freespeech #cancer #condolences #networknews #retroguy #novabbs #bbs

@octade @infostorm @usenet@a.gup.pe @usenet@lemmy.ml this sounds great, do your usenet server federates with the rest of usenet? if so I will paste it around to a tons of people that uses #usenet and #fediverse if is not federated with the rest of usenet then is not that great for us.

This is cool.

It is a Fediverse server you can use with a newsreader client like Thunderbird.

Demo: https://illuminant.asjo.org/
Profile: https://illuminant.asjo.org/user/asjo
Source: https://koldfront.dk/git/illuminant/

#NNTP #Illuminant #Fediverse #Software #Usenet #CoolCode

@infostorm@a.gup.pe @usenet@a.gup.pe @usenet@lemmy.ml

@octade @infostorm @academicchatter I'll add my site to the list of free web interfaces to text-only Usenet - https://newsgrouper.org/ . See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web-based_Usenet .
#usenet

Usenet is an ever-living, Casper the friendly ghost of discussion networks.

Just a friendly reminder that Usenet still exists and access to text newsgroups is still FREE. Access is provided by volunteer sysops around the world. See links below.

Back in its glory days it seems that just about every academic institution had its own Usenet hierarchy of newsgroups.

Linux was revealed to the world via Usenet.

Open source philosophy gained its steam via Usenet.

Usenet is the original free speech network.

Usenet is the original 'social network'.

NovaBBS
https://novabbs.org

Simple and free access to text-only Usenet Newsgroups
https://www.i2pn2.org/

#Usenet #BBS #NetworkNews #EternalSeptember

@infostorm@a.gup.pe @academicchatter@a.gup.pe

NEWSCARD Publish and fetch permanent named records via Network News

Newscard creates a decentralized, encrypted, named record paste bin.

[git repo] https://codeberg.org/OCTADE/newscard (use most recent version only)

With a single command, name the card, snarf the file and encrypt it.

With another command, push the encrypted file to the public network.

With another short command, snarf a file from the network.

Only users knowing the name [key] of the record will be able to decrypt it.

If a strong passphrase is used to name the file, it will be very secure.

This is useful for quickly snarfing, encrypting, and publishing a text file:

$~: card enc [passphrase] [file]
$~: card put [passphrase]

It is useful for retrieving a text file with just a key:

$~: card get [passphrase]
$~: card show [passphrase]

If and when you want the general public to access the record just share the keyword.

Newscard uses nine (9) (NINE) layers of encryption with OpenSSL chacha20 cipher.

Newscard generates 9 each of: cipher keys, salts, key iteration parameters.

It would be nice if something like this were added to the ActivityPub protocol, such that keyword[@]host.url would do the same thing. Then secret text records could be stored securely for later retrieval or revelation.

#NewsCard #Pastebin #Usenet #NNTP #NetworkNews #Encryption #Cryptography #Messaging #Anonymity #Protocols #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #BlackHackJack #Censorship #Retro #InfoSec #Ciphers #Codes #FOSS

@infostorm@a.gup.pe @crypto@a.gup.pe @infosec@a.gup.pe

Alt...

Playing card of the Jack of Clubs. The Jack is a moustached man in a black top hat and suit in a oval center cameo. The colors are inverted so that everything on the face is black except the lines which are white, like a charcoal cutout picture., giving it a retro digital appearance mixed with retro handicraft vibes.

Behold! The net cop gives expensive advice! You are basically requiring that I pay for yet another ERC20 cryptocurrency token just to send text messages.

From the Autonomi site:

"WHEN SOMEONE (A PERSON OR A COLLECTIVE) UPLOADS DATA THEY PAY A FEE TO DO SO."

"+1 Million tokens on offer for early contributors."

"MaidSafe are the team behind Autonomi ..."

Newscard has several selling points:

0. It's not for sale. Try that with Autonomi, Maidsafe, and a thousand others.
1. It is free, unlike your suggested cryptocurrency pump.
2. My solution is simple and elegant - naming small text files for retrieval.
3. Newscard uses existing infrastructure already in operation for decades.
4. Many mature client softwares and terminal emulators already exist for the task.
5. Newscard doesn't require investment or payment.
6. Newscard doesn't have an integrated, useless payment system.
7. Newscard is ANONYMOUS and uses The Onion Network by default.
8. Users won't lose their money when using Newscard.

And my Newscard solution doesn't require taking zillions of dollars from people who will likely never see a return on their token investment. Storage token sale schemes are a dime a dozen. I can't believe you think I have the credulity to swallow such a scheme.

For almost two decades running countless crews have claimed that they will, 'decentralize the Internet' if you give them your money.

Newsflash: The Internet already is decentralized. Decentralization is a basic part of the design of the Internet. It already routes around damage and censorship by default. Why do I need to pay for a crypto token for something that already exists? Decentralized Usenet has been in continuous operation for decades. I'm already using the 'decentralized Internet' for the Newscard protocol. I've been using the 'decentralized Internet' since forever! It doesn't need to be decentralized by crypto pump schemes. The Internet is already decentralized.

So we already have a decentralized Internet where data storage is abundant and cheap. And these token pumpers want to set themselves up as gatekeepers so we have to pay them to get the tokens to store our data. That is not decentralization. That is the essence of a centralized monetary gatekeeper!

You accused me of misusing Usenet. Yet I am only doing what people have done with Usenet for decades--posting encrypted messages. I'm not misusing Usenet. You're misusing my patience for cryptocurrency dumps and re-hashed token sales strategies.

#CryptoCurrency #Tokens #Decentralization #Usenet #NNTP #Internet #Censorship #Blockchain

@octade @usenet - another misuse of Usenet. 🙄
If you really want permanent decentralized encrypted storage, try building it on the Autonomi network - https://autonomi.com/ .
#usenet #distributed

NEWSCARD Publish and fetch permanent named records via Network News

Newscard creates a decentralized, encrypted, named record paste bin.

[git repo] https://codeberg.org/OCTADE/newscard (use most recent version only)

With a single command, name the card, snarf the file and encrypt it.

With another command, push the encrypted file to the public network.

With another short command, snarf a file from the network.

Only users knowing the name [key] of the record will be able to decrypt it.

If a strong passphrase is used to name the file, it will be very secure.

This is useful for quickly snarfing, encrypting, and publishing a text file:

$~: card enc [passphrase] [file]
$~: card put [passphrase]

It is useful for retrieving a text file with just a key:

$~: card get [passphrase]
$~: card show [passphrase]

If and when you want the general public to access the record just share the keyword.

Newscard uses nine (9) (NINE) layers of encryption with OpenSSL chacha20 cipher.

Newscard generates 9 each of: cipher keys, salts, key iteration parameters.

It would be nice if something like this were added to the ActivityPub protocol, such that keyword[@]host.url would do the same thing. Then secret text records could be stored securely for later retrieval or revelation.

#NewsCard #Pastebin #Usenet #NNTP #NetworkNews #Encryption #Cryptography #Messaging #Anonymity #Protocols #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #BlackHackJack #Censorship #Retro #InfoSec #Ciphers #Codes #FOSS

@infostorm@a.gup.pe @usenet@lemmy.world @crypto@a.gup.pe @infosec@a.gup.pe

Alt...

Playing card of the Jack of Clubs. The Jack is a moustached man in a black top hat and suit in a oval center cameo. The colors are inverted so that everything on the face is black except the lines which are white, like a charcoal cutout picture., giving it a retro digital appearance mixed with retro handicraft vibes.

Site: Cryptography project site. (https://octade.net)
Publications: https://octade.net/publications.html
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5144-3278
Netnews: Find me on #Usenet in #Newsgroup alt.rhubarb.
Git: https://codeberg.org/OCTADE
Keyoxide1: https://keyoxide.org/0CF7084CF97B85F2ABF97010C6663A42C56F5F0E
Keyoxide2: https://keyoxide.org/B9B2A8EC2C4B20D2011CFEAA07E4A7FFF6585E8F
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/octade.bsky.social
HackerNews: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=OCTADE
Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/@buckbriar