=> 👽 ruby_witch

Why are there so many cuckoo-bananas people on usenet these days? Actually, I guess there aren't that many numerically, but by percentage it's astronomical. I just made a newsgroup account this morning to see how things are going and...yikes!

I would really think that these kinds of people would be the types who would have forgotten about usenet by now, but I guess that goes to show what I know.

2 years ago · 👍 platypus_laser, arubes

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6 Replies

=> 👽 dasos

You should see the hot messes around on some of the IRC channels :D · 1 year ago

=> 👽 smokey

Mentally ill and hyper radicalized people like their small echo chambers. as corperate mainstream social services disuade these kinds of violently outspoken people from using them, they turn to alternative forms of communication. Even here on gemini we occasionally get the extremely vocal political/religious/plain ol' crazy person that will pop up, spew their agenda, hatefully argue till their blue in the face with everyone that doesn't completely agree with them, and leave after they realize nobody is giving them the validation and engagement they crave. · 2 years ago

=> 👽 eph

Yeah, I tried to get into Usenet but I encountered the same problems. · 2 years ago

=> 👽 ruby_witch

@remy soc.support.transgendered is...not so supportive. Anything magic or witchy-related is full of people who are out of their mind (even more than usual for magic communities!), especially one specific person who's dominating all of the groups.

You could say that I was asking for it with what seem to be "controversial" subjects for some reason. But even alt.cyberpunk has several VERY questionable and/or off-topic recent posts and there's literally no moderation. I know moderation was never usenet's strongest aspect, but it seems a lot worse now. · 2 years ago

=> 👽 remy

which newsgroups did you check? · 2 years ago

=> 👽 platypus_laser

I've found the same recently. The sane people are still there in certain groups, but they're massively outweighed by some really bonkers political posters and spammers. I've had some nice conversations in old cult TV groups and things like that, and the alt.folklore.computers group is still going strong, but the rest feels really hostile and weird. · 2 years ago