RSSAOL Pulls Plug on Newsgroup Service
By By Brian McWilliams, Guest Columnist | Published January 25, 2005, 9:50 AM
PERSPECTIVE The world's largest ISP is cutting off direct access to one of the oldest, coolest -- and strangest -- parts of the Internet.
America Online has quietly announced that it will discontinue providing member access to Usenet newsgroups next month. In recent days, AOL subscribers who access keyword "Newsgroups" are greeted with a pop-up message informing them of the change: "Please Note: The AOL Newsgroup service will be discontinued in early 2005."
According to a notice on AOL's Web site, the newsgroup shut-off will occur in February, severing subscribers from the thousands of discussion groups that make up Usenet.
AOL officials weren't immediately available to explain the newsgroup shutdown. The ISP's pop-up message advises subscribers that newsgroup services are available from third-party providers. The message also notes that users with separate high-speed connections may be able to arrange newsgroup access through their broadband provider. AOL users can read newsgroups over the Web using Google Groups, the message said.
The Usenet dates back to around 1980. Now that blogs and instant messaging have supplanted older Internet technologies such as newsgroups and IRC, it's unlikely that AOL users will create much of an uproar over the decision. But the event nonetheless represents a milestone in Internet history.
The AOL newsgroup shutdown comes almost exactly eleven years after the service first unleashed its members on the Usenet. In early 1994, seasoned newsgroup participants complained of the sudden influx of AOL newbies, who appeared to know little of Usenet etiquette. One dismayed user likened AOL members to drunk drivers on the Information Super Highway.
Others compared the stream of AOL users to freshmen arriving at college in autumn, and described the resulting decline of newsgroup discourse as the Eternal September. Perhaps not coincidentally, the first Usenet spam -- known as the Green Card Lottery spam -- appeared right around the same time.
Besides text-based discussions, Usenet newsgroups today are also used for the distribution of binary data, including images, MP3 music files and software programs. But the technology is much slower and more cumbersome than peer-to-peer networks for accessing such data. As a result, copyright holders and associations such as the RIAA and MPAA have been less aggressive about policing piracy on Usenet.
It's not clear whether such legal issues led to AOL's decision. Last summer, the ISP settled a long-running lawsuit brought by author Harlan Ellison. The science fiction writer had complained that AOL was partly to blame when one of its users posted digital copies of his published work in Usenet newsgroups. AOL argued that, under the DMCA, its liability for the actions of members was limited.
AOL's Usenet implementation was non-standard from the start. The service doesn't allow members to connect directly to its network news transfer protocol (NNTP) servers. Thus, AOL subscribers are forced to use the service's internal and poorly designed newsgroup reader rather than the array of better third-party programs.
But AOL did help to launch scores of local-interest newsgroups known as AOL Neighborhood Newsgroups. The future of those newsgroups, which contain job listings and personals ads, is unknown.
The newsgroups flame wars will certainly continue without the assistance of AOL members. And alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die and all the other bizarre newsgroup forums will no doubt survive the loss of participants from the big ISP. But the Usenet will nonetheless become a smaller, less interesting place once AOL turns off its newsgroup servers.
Brian McWilliams is a journalist and author of Spam Kings: The real story behind the high-rolling hucksters pushing porn, pills, and @*#?% enlargements.
This move was to be expected. They started cutting of features from their Usenet service long ago. For those who no longer have access to their favorite newsgroups - tough luck, folks. I would recommend Usenet.com to you all (www.usenet.com). Forget about all the restrictions of AOL and just get an account with a third-party provider. They are very cheap these days.
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|"AOL subscribers are forced to use the service's internal and poorly designed newsgroup reader rather than the array of better third-party programs."
No, they aren't. You can use, for example, Thunderbird, to access Usenet with an AOL connection. But this sounds like, in addition to discontinuing their antique internal reader, they're also completely taking away all Usenet access, which would include Thunderbird.
Unless it is for any of the serious reasons mentioned in the article, I don't see why they would do something so foolish. And it's not even like AOL causes an influx of "n00bs" into Usenet anymore--none of them can probably even figure out where AOL has hidden access (KW: Usenet, and you kind of have to guess or figure that out on your own).
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|AOL=SOL
AOL has got to be the biggest waste of money. The biggest piece of crap on this planet. People complain that Microsoft is a mess...Hate to tell you, but AOL has got them beat by miles.
If AOL was to go out of business tomorrow, the world would be a much better place. Maybe their headquarters should have been located in the Tsunami location...
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|If you guys have never used the web interface of Easynews.com, you're missing out.. AOL is for weenies!
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|True that! Also try Usenet.com, very affordable for a great retention rate.
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|AOL's newsgroup access was an insult to Usenet. All their newsgroups were so censored, they were useless. That is not what Usenet is about. I personally, am glad they are pulling out. My recommendation is to get Usenet provider. I use Newsgroups.com (http://newsgroup.com).
I used to have Gigga news, but they were way too expensive and their tech support treated me like I did not matter. Newsgroups has been really cool so far!
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|Yeah, I use Easynews.com for the web interface and Value-News.net for the bulk of my downloading.
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|I am very sorry to read about that. The Usenet was my first Internet experience. Its content is very rich. On a daily basis, I go into my favorite newsgroup. I would recommend it to anyone.
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|You're losing customers faster than a popped balloon loses air, so what do you do? You end a popular service, of course! Soon, AOL will be remembered only as a sad experiment in the history of the internet.
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|eh, it may actually make Usenet usable again...
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|I hadn't thought of it that way, but you make a great point :)
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|I don't think most of the remaining AOL members care about newsgroups.
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|AOL's version of Usenet access is so censored and filtered, there is no point of even using it.
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|Having used the newsgroups for a decade plus I have mixed feelings about this. More and more ISP's have dropped newsgroups from the included services of the monthly memberships and it diminishes their value while helping their bottom line.
How many of the 20 million AOL subscribers really know what newsgroups are these day?
AOL & most ISP's who are becoming more and more a commodity in the marketplace that requires a lower cost to remain competitive. Often meaning they give up something to build profits or find a way to market through it for those same profits. Since newsgroups aren't very good revenue streams for advertising dollars it's easy to guess why this is disappearing.
MSN has long since stopped providing newsgroups AOL soon... Whose next?
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|That is why there are third-party Usenet providers whose only job is to sell Usenet access - uncensored and unrestricted. They can't discontinue that service because it's what they do!
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