I never went there, to be honest. All my newsgroups were programming/computer/game related or were piracy groups. I think, in general, newsgroups were better because there was a barrier of entry that was required to get there. Now that anyone can just download an app and spew whatever garbage they want in seconds, we have what we have.

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Are you old enough to remember actual flame wars on Usenet, etc.? That's what I'm talking about. The people who invented the term "flame war" weren't deterred by a high barrier to entry.

[–] dpkonofa@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

I am old enough to remember that. It wasn’t a huge part of what Usenet was. I remember downloading the original DooM shareware and finding an entire community of people that were super helpful and showed me resources for how to make my own maps and levels. I learned all about programming, making websites, and video editing. Maybe I got in earlier than you did or something, I’m not sure. For the most part, it was a group of highly technical, highly educated people looking for other people with similar interests. It was great.