• @[email protected]
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    21610 months ago

    One of the things that contributed to the downfall of USENET was when people worked out how to post binary files, encoded as multi-part blocks of ASCII text. It still has piracy problems but you can just ignore that stuff.

    Ignore all the software pirates over there. Yes, sir, the ones sitting at the free bar full of top shelf liquor with strippers on each side. Yup, better not go over there.

    • yukichigai
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      10 months ago

      In fact we’ll provide you with a handy list of all of the places you should absolutely avoid. Indexed by interest and type even!

      • 6daemonbag
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        1610 months ago

        I would hate for people to see this index of places with potentially illegal content. The temptation is just too high. I’ll gladly guard it from innocent users with you. My eyes and heart are ready to protect the realm.

        • @[email protected]
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          210 months ago

          Oh world, that itching in my fingers! Some FOSS client for android that you can recommend?

      • @[email protected]
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        710 months ago

        Oh no, we wouldn’t want that to happen.

        Want to make sure you don’t accidentally download that new Mario movie? Definitely don’t visit these files in order. Should you, accidentally, encounter something that looks like the Mario movie, simply check if it matches this sha256 sum. If it doesn’t, you’re still in the clear.

        Stay safe out there, you upright citizen!

      • Voyager
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        1110 months ago

        These two rules caused Usenet to be abandoned by people who were once passionate about being part of the community, and instead taken over by spammers and bots.

    • Brownian Motion
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      2010 months ago

      strippers? You mean the cocaine and hookers and cuban cigars, as well as all the blue label you can consume!

      You should never go to usenet, you will see unbridled speed for nzb downloads, that are blindingly fast compared to that p2p stuff. Oh and actually 0-days the p2p sites get weeks later.

      • @[email protected]
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        710 months ago

        Back in the day I used to download the entirety of alt.music.indie (or whatever it was called) and spend weeks giving an honest listen to every album. I found so many artists through Usenet

    • @[email protected]
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      10 months ago

      it’s interesting bullshit if the article author actually things that binaries were the problem. What ended the usenet was google groups providing a gateway to the usenet for people who had no idea what the usenet was. Lots of dumb users posting low quality content, and eventually bots spamming all relevant groups. Binaries had been around forever, in dedicated newsgroups, and they most certainly did not contribute to the downfall of usenet, if anything, the opposite.

        • @[email protected]
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          310 months ago

          LOL I noticed just now - but it appears by @glassware explanation that it wasn’t actually my link, but a patch that would have affected every link posted to which piped reacts

          • Flying Squid
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            10 months ago

            It’s at 91 replies to itself. It was at 25 when I posted that 2 hours ago. I wonder how long it will be allowed to continue?

        • @[email protected]
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          210 months ago

          Looks like they commited a change to Piped bot two hours ago which accidentally removed the functionality to actually change the link. Whoops!

          • @[email protected]
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            110 months ago

            Do you have a name / user id of a piped bot developer? Because while we’re at it, I think that bot should also avoid responding to itself - which would also prevent such a scenario completely.

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        Absolutely. I tried getting back into Usenet a few years ago and it was like Yahoo Answers.