Re:What Is the Best Way to Stop Internet Trolls?
by astrodust on Thursday March 24, 2016 @05:05AM
(#11351438)
It was dead long before I saw any copyright issues being raised or before binary newsgroups were a problem.
The infamous "Green Card Spammers" (http://www.wired.com/1999/04/the-spam-that-started-it-all/) shifted the tone dramatically, and from there it was inevitable that the whole community would collapse. There was very limited control over what people could post, USENET was intended to be free and open. This succeeded wildly in an academic environment where if someone was seriously out of line you could address their university and get their account pulled.
As soon as the general population came on and there was no accountability to anyone it was simply a matter of time before unchecked abuse started to happen.
Most providers pulled the plug because the only thing of any value left on USENET was binaries. The discussions were virtually dead.
The infamous "Green Card Spammers" (http://www.wired.com/1999/04/the-spam-that-started-it-all/) shifted the tone dramatically, and from there it was inevitable that the whole community would collapse. There was very limited control over what people could post, USENET was intended to be free and open. This succeeded wildly in an academic environment where if someone was seriously out of line you could address their university and get their account pulled.
As soon as the general population came on and there was no accountability to anyone it was simply a matter of time before unchecked abuse started to happen.
Most providers pulled the plug because the only thing of any value left on USENET was binaries. The discussions were virtually dead.