In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 26 Jul 2024 03:55:38 -0700, "John C." <
r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:
There seems to be a lot of off-topic discussion here in this newsgroup >(alt.comp.os.windows-10). I don't understand why posting questions to a
more appropriate newsgroup isn't done. The people who are posting the >off-topic stuff would usually be able to get better answers by posting
to more appropriate groups like:
Reordered to fit my reply:
alt.comp.software.thunderbird
alt.comp.hardware or any of its subgroups
Since the start of 2024. it seems that only Paul and Philo are posting
to alt.comp.hardware. Any other threads went primarily to other more
popular ngs. I know because I started 2 out of the 3 of those. I
included the hardware group because they were hardware-related, but I
checked and I knew before I posted that the group was almost dormant.
alt.comp.freeware
Hard to tell about this one. I don't read it so I can't judge.
alt.comp.software.firefox
Maybe there have been other crossposted threads, but I got flak recently
for a post to the FF and win10 groups. I had a good faith belief that
parts of my question related to Windows. I gave two examples of why I
thought so in the post itself though I don't think anyone addressed
them. (which sort of implies windows was not involved, unless windows
experts stopped reading earlier).
Just sayin' this group is supposed to be for the discussion of the
Windows 10 operating system and all the off-topic stuff makes it
difficult to go through the messages.
If the cross posted stuff is totally off-topic the Subject should be
preceded by OT, so that a filter could filter it out, but when it's computer-related and on topic for one of the other groups it's sent to,
that could filter it out even from that group.
As the population on Usenet gets smaller, people have a harder time
finding someone who can answer their questions, and they look for large
groups of people. Win10 and win11 are still pretty large, and people
here surely know more than just Windows stuff.
I hate to say it but there may come a time when there is only one ng
left that deals with computers and it may have to entertain all computer topics. This depresses me more than you can know because there is just
no alternative that is anywhere as good as Usenet, and reading ngs has
been a major activity of mine for 30 years, and other people here have
solved most of my computer and home-repair problems. (As well as
answered questions or had pleasant discussion about english usage,
physics, chemistry, photography, autos, electronics, law, etc. Even Miss Manners until that group folded decades ago.)
There are at least 10 major reasons Usenet is better than the web, and
the only reason the web is better is that it can display non-text. Any question on the web requires at least 2 tabs, probably more. One to
search and others to read, and I already have a problem because of
having hundreds of tabs. Someone suggested reddit, but using Reddit
won't solve the tab problem. With Usenet, there is no need to delete
prior discussions (which can be referred to later) but with the web,
there is a big incentive and even if the tabs were not deleted, it's
far, far harder to find an earlier discussion.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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