<story><title>Ask HN: Is it time to resurrect a Usenet clone?</title><text>The current events of Reddit and Stack Exchange amplifying a thought that communities and users&amp;#x27; contributions should be decentralized. The current structure of online communication poses a major risk.&lt;p&gt;1. There has to be a movement at both protocol and community-level to bring a Usenet like forum for general consumption. Different decetralized subgroups hosting and replicating the communities for others.&lt;p&gt;2. The model needs to be rethought to ensure that the thoughts and knowledge of communities and users belong to them.&lt;p&gt;3. These forums should encourage less anonymity and more persistent communication.&lt;p&gt;4. Trustworthy individuals should run these forums, chosen by the community. Individual groups, academia, organizations running the communities but easily redistributed across to people who want it. This was usenet.&lt;p&gt;Failure to address these issues allows mega companies to exploit data and control access against users&amp;#x27; wishes.&lt;p&gt;Taking action is crucial to prevent unfavorable outcomes and hold ourselves accountable.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>myself248</author><text>The costs of transporting Usenet weren&amp;#x27;t zero, they were simply borne by your ISP because it was understood as a necessary part of internet access.&lt;p&gt;I think that&amp;#x27;s what we&amp;#x27;re missing here. If we simply paid for this stuff as part of our regular internet bill again, we could solve a lot of the &amp;quot;nothing works for free&amp;quot; problems.</text></item><item><author>joezydeco</author><text>Usenet thrived in a time where most of us trusted each other, traffic was an order of magnitude lighter, trolls were few, spam was unheard of, and moderation - if any - was cheap and painless.&lt;p&gt;I honestly believe those times are past us. And I say that as someone that loved Usenet back in the day.&lt;p&gt;What you&amp;#x27;re asking for, for &lt;i&gt;free&lt;/i&gt;, isn&amp;#x27;t possible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bigbillheck</author><text>&amp;gt; The costs of transporting Usenet weren&amp;#x27;t zero&lt;p&gt;Famously so.  &amp;quot;This message will cost the net hundreds if not thousands of dollars.&amp;quot;</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Is it time to resurrect a Usenet clone?</title><text>The current events of Reddit and Stack Exchange amplifying a thought that communities and users&amp;#x27; contributions should be decentralized. The current structure of online communication poses a major risk.&lt;p&gt;1. There has to be a movement at both protocol and community-level to bring a Usenet like forum for general consumption. Different decetralized subgroups hosting and replicating the communities for others.&lt;p&gt;2. The model needs to be rethought to ensure that the thoughts and knowledge of communities and users belong to them.&lt;p&gt;3. These forums should encourage less anonymity and more persistent communication.&lt;p&gt;4. Trustworthy individuals should run these forums, chosen by the community. Individual groups, academia, organizations running the communities but easily redistributed across to people who want it. This was usenet.&lt;p&gt;Failure to address these issues allows mega companies to exploit data and control access against users&amp;#x27; wishes.&lt;p&gt;Taking action is crucial to prevent unfavorable outcomes and hold ourselves accountable.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>myself248</author><text>The costs of transporting Usenet weren&amp;#x27;t zero, they were simply borne by your ISP because it was understood as a necessary part of internet access.&lt;p&gt;I think that&amp;#x27;s what we&amp;#x27;re missing here. If we simply paid for this stuff as part of our regular internet bill again, we could solve a lot of the &amp;quot;nothing works for free&amp;quot; problems.</text></item><item><author>joezydeco</author><text>Usenet thrived in a time where most of us trusted each other, traffic was an order of magnitude lighter, trolls were few, spam was unheard of, and moderation - if any - was cheap and painless.&lt;p&gt;I honestly believe those times are past us. And I say that as someone that loved Usenet back in the day.&lt;p&gt;What you&amp;#x27;re asking for, for &lt;i&gt;free&lt;/i&gt;, isn&amp;#x27;t possible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gorjusborg</author><text>So what you&amp;#x27;re saying is that we should bring back AOL :)</text></comment>