For fedizens unfamiliar with Usenet, access to text-only servers is available for free. Here is a list of free Usenet service providers as well as some links to other lists of providers:

https://sybershock.com/#usenet

There are tens of thousands of Usenet newsgroups. Hundreds of them have activity, and there are thousands in the alt.* hierarchies that are dormant and just waiting for you to set up shop and start a discussion.

If you are interested in anonymity, cryptography and ciphers, you can find people in these groups:

sci.crypt
alt.cypherpunks
alt.anonymous
alt.privacy.anon-server
talk.politics.crypto
rec.puzzles
alt.sources.crypto
rocksolid.shared.encryption

If you are interested in arcane cryptography and sources, you might find me occasionally posting cryptic messages in the group: alt.sources.crypto

Since it is mainly text-based, Usenet generally has a different pace than modern social network feeds. There's a "feel" to it without the images and flashy blinkenlights. Usenet favors long threads with lots of quotations of former comments and debate, rather than the "spit it and quit it" vibe often seen on social media. News readers are threaded like email clients, so conversations are well-organized. YMMV.

#UseNet #NNTP #NetworkNews #NetNews #Retro #OldSchool

while i'm sad to see #reddit circling the toilet, it only reminded me of how urgent it is that we finally ditch centralized social media. reddit itself isn't the problem - it's a symptom of a much more generalized problem we've had since FB became a thing in the late 00's.

i've spent the past week re-purposing, patching, porting, and expanding a great piece of software based on the same #nntp protocol that #usenet uses, for creating discussion groups. i'm calling it "tomo" (友 - 'friend') bbs.

some time soon folks can spin up their own tomo shards, create discussion groups in a similar manner to reddit, decide whether they want to keep the group restricted to their shard, or share the group with other tomo shards in a public network of discussion groups called tomonet. completely decentralized private or public discussions without supercorporation bs.

best of all, since it is based on plain 'ol usenet-like nntp, you can read and post to discussion groups from a 1977 VAX mainframe, a 1984 IBM PCjr at 2400 baud, an Apple Newton, or a brand new phone.

i can't wait to bust out forté free agent for windows 3.11 and get posting this weekend. 😎