Re:
[email protected]
dsi1 wrote:
You're not grasping my point. *IF* a person wants to reference any
historical archives on Usenet, past the point of their own server's
retention, *there is no other choice* than to use GG. Don't you get that?
It's not a matter of willingness, it's a matter of necessity because the
Deja News archive was hijacked by GG years ago. So even someone who hates
Google has nowhere else to go for that resource, or to reference a series of
posts or compilation on a subject, there is no other way to transmit URL
references to those posts.
It's not rationalization when there is no other option because the company
you don't like has monopolized what you want to use.
Personally I don't mind Google's search engines and I don't need their mail
accounts, and I also think their Blogger service is pretty cool. But I
detest Google groups as well as their relentless campaign to acquire
personal data in depth from those who just want to do simple things on the
net. And my main objection to GG is very sound... between gmail and GG, they
have facilitated communications for hundreds of thousands of spammers,
trolls, malicious site posters and virus distributors. If you have ever
tried to report a particularly egregious or repetitious violation, even if
it borders on the criminal, you quickly learn that they don't give a rat's
ass. The way they have implemented but failed to police the GG service is
irresponsible and cynical. It seems unthinkable that such a technically
advanced company should hold the time honored conventions of Usenet in such
callous disregard. And don't tell me it's because it's old technology. If it
was useless or dying, Google wouldn't have anything to do with it.
I also don't like the notion that some folks never learn how nicely a proper
newsreader works in organizing, storing, and presenting Usenet material,
compared to the mind numbing methods of doing the same things in GG, even
when referencing material you've already read. I for one detest loading page
after page to get to something that is accesible with one cllick in a
newsreader. I think the problem is that it causes people not to learn to use
technology, and rather to have someone else do it for them and hand them
everything, mindless of the fact that it's inefficient and slow by
comparison.
Just because there is a cloud doesn't mean that is the one and only solution
for all computing from here on out. But it does pose the risk of creating a
generation whose ability to manipulate computer technology at a fine grained
and customizable level is decreasing rather than improving.
And finally, if I am doing a writing project, I definitely want my work
here, not up in the sky somewhere. MS Word is just ducky. If I want it to be
somewhere else, no problem, I can put it anywhere on the planet that I
choose, and I know for a fact who will see it and who won't.
MartyB