上古纯文本社交网络 USENET 涅槃重生
USENET

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> 考虑到它已经如此之老，它的活力令人惊讶。
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![](/data/attachment/album/202309/03/104333yfeyycmymbnyc1yn.jpg)


USENET 管理委员会已经重新召开，这个早于万维网的原创社交网络上出现了增长的新苗头。


USENET（或 NetNews）是一个纯文本的社交讨论平台，或者说，是一系列的被称为“<ruby> 新闻组 <rt>  newsgroup </rt></ruby>”的讨论组，这些讨论组部署在遍布世界各地的服务器上。虽然其原始开发者在 2010 年 [关闭](https://www.theregister.com/2010/05/20/usenet_duke_server/) 了他们的服务器，但那只是几百个服务器中的一个，在全球范围内，还有许多服务器运行得很好。USENET 并没有消失，它仍然活着，你可以免费加入，而且大多数操作系统都有协助你使用它的各种客户端应用程序。


尽管 USENET 是去中心化的 P2P 网络，但 Big-8 理事会仍是其最接近中央的管理机构。理事会成员 Tristan Miller 说：“我和 Jason Evans 在 2020 年 [重建](https://www.big-8.org/wiki/Press_releases/2020-11) 了这个理事会，此后，Rayner Lucas 几个月后加入了我们。”


包括其他事项在内，理事会开始重新管理新闻组列表。他们应版主的要求删除了一些过时的群组，并添加了多年来的首个新新闻组，这是一个用于 [Gemini 协议](https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/27/gemini_protocol/) 的新闻组。如果你有新闻客户端，你应该可以打开 `news:comp.infosystems.gemini`。此外，理事会也对网站进行了全新改版，举办了 [Reddit AMA](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nn4vp8/were_the_usenet_big8_management_board_ask_us/)（在线问我任何事）活动，更新了版主所用的 [GNU Stump](https://www.algebra.com/~ichudov/stump/) 和 WebStump 软件包等。


USENET 比万维网更早，并且它运行的方式更类似与电子邮件：服务器会保存一份新闻组列表，并与其他服务器同步信息。


（USENET 之所以走向衰败，其原因之一是人们发现了如何发布二进制文件的方式 —— 将其编码为多段的 ASCII 文本。它仍然存在 [盗版问题](https://www.theregister.com/2019/07/12/a_pair_of_usenet_pirates_get_66_months_behind_bars/)，但你可以选择忽略。这也是互联网历史上 [首次出现垃圾信息](https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/history-advertising-no-195-canter-siegels-green-card-spam/1441026) 的地方。）


连上 USENET 其实非常简单。你只需在 USENET 服务器上创建一个账户，安装一个客户端并告知它服务器地址。下载群组列表，选择订阅一些群组，新的消息便会传递到你的客户端，就这么简单。


The Register 的 FOSS 部门使用的是一个名为 “[Eternal September](https://www.eternal-september.org/)” 的服务器，该名字源自当年 AOL 向其互联网客户端引入 USENET 访问功能，导致大量的网络新手涌入但不了解其规则的 [事件](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September)。这里我们可以给出一条建议：请严格遵循 [纯文本、底部回复](https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/23/email_like_a_pro/) 的电子邮件“网络礼仪”。


“Eternal September” 只有文本新闻组，不接受二进制文件，但它提供完全免费的账户。而另一些大容量的服务器如 [Eweka](https://www.eweka.nl/en)、[Giganews](https://giganews.com/) 等则会收取访问费。


至于客户端 —— 如我们在新的 [Thunderbird ESR](https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/26/new_betas_of_firefox_and_tbird/) 版本的介绍中所提到的，我们选用了 Thunderbird。它是免费的，易用，并能运行在所有主流的桌面操作系统上。当然，市面上还有许多其他的客户端可供选择。甚至 [谷歌的网上论坛](https://groups.google.com/) 都还在运营，尽管显得有些被忽视。


作为一位重度科幻读者，我乐于深入研究 `rec.arts.sf.written` 和 `rec.arts.sf.fandom` 等群组。计算机历史群组 `alt.folklore.computers` 依然活跃。在一些复古计算频道中依然充满生机，我们也在这些频道中愉快地讨论了 Acorn RISC OS 和 Fortran 等诸多主题。


*（题图：MJ/97691bbe-858c-47d2-b47a-b4ca460016d6）*




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via: <https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/30/usenet_revival/> 


作者：[Liam Proven](https://www.theregister.com/Author/Liam-Proven) 译者：ChatGPT 校对：[wxy](https://github.com/wxy)


本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译，[Linux中国](/article-16153-1.html) 荣誉推出


OK
This article is more than **1 year old**

# USENET, the OG social network, rises again like a text-only phoenix

## Alive and still quite vigorous considering its age

The USENET management committee has reconvened and there are green shoots of growth in the original, pre-World Wide Web social network.

USENET, or NetNews, is a text-only social discussions forum, or rather a set of a great many forums, called "newsgroups," carried by multiple servers around the world. Although the original developers [closed down](https://www.theregister.com/2010/05/20/usenet_duke_server/) their instance in 2010, that was just one server out of hundreds, and many are still running just fine. It never went away – it's still alive, you can get on it for free, and there is a choice of client apps for most OSes to help you navigate.

Although USENET is a decentralized, peer-to-peer network, the Big-8 board is the closest thing it has to a central governing authority. Board member [Tristan Miller](https://www.big-8.org/wiki/User:Tristan_Miller) told *The Reg*: "[Jason Evans](https://www.big-8.org/wiki/User:Jason_Evans) and I [re-established the Board](https://www.big-8.org/wiki/Press_releases/2020-11) in 2020, after a long period of dormancy. We were joined a few months later by [Rayner Lucas](https://www.big-8.org/wiki/User:Rayner_Lucas)."

Among other things, the board manages the list of newsgroups, and now that there's an active board again, it has been busy. It deleted some very old groups at the moderators' request, and added the first new newsgroup in many years for [the Gemini protocol](https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/27/gemini_protocol/). If you have a News client, news:comp.infosystems.gemini ought to open it. The board has also revamped the website, run a Reddit [Ask Me Anything session](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nn4vp8/were_the_usenet_big8_management_board_ask_us/), updated the [GNU Stump](https://www.algebra.com/~ichudov/stump/) and WebStump packages used by moderators, and more.

USENET is older than the web, and works more like email: servers carry a list of newsgroups, and sync messages with each other.

(One of the things that contributed to the downfall of USENET was when people worked out how to post binary files, encoded as multi-part blocks of ASCII text. It still [has piracy problems](https://www.theregister.com/2019/07/12/a_pair_of_usenet_pirates_get_66_months_behind_bars/) but you can just ignore that stuff. It was also the venue for the [first spam message](https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/history-advertising-no-195-canter-siegels-green-card-spam/1441026) in internet history.)

[Want tech cred? Learn how to email like a pro](https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/23/email_like_a_pro/)[Computer graphics pioneer John Warnock dies at 82](https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/21/john_warnock_obituary/)[Why you might want an email client in the era of webmail](https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/26/new_betas_of_firefox_and_tbird/)[Founder of FreeDOS recounts the story so far, and the future](https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/18/retro_tech_week_freedos/)

Getting online is pretty easy. Get an account on a USENET server. Install a client, tell it the server address. Download the list of groups, subscribe to some, and new messages get delivered to your client. That's it.

*The Reg* FOSS desk uses a service called [Eternal September](https://www.eternal-september.org/), after the [event](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September) when AOL added USENET access to its internet client and tens of thousands of newbies flooded in without knowing the rules. We'll give you one hint: scrupulously follow the "netiquette" of [plain-text, bottom-posted email](https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/23/email_like_a_pro/).

Eternal September only carries text groups, no binaries, but it offers totally free accounts, whereas some higher-capacity servers such as [Eweka](https://www.eweka.nl/en) or [Giganews](https://giganews.com/) charge for access.

As for a client – well, as we mentioned [when introducing their new ESR versions](https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/26/new_betas_of_firefox_and_tbird/), we use Thunderbird. It's free, it works, and it runs on all the big desktop OSes. There are lots out there, though. Even [Google Groups](https://groups.google.com/) is still alive, if woefully neglected.

As a big science fiction reader, this vulture enjoys dipping into `rec.arts.sf.written`

and `rec.arts.sf.fandom`

. The computer history group `alt.folklore.computers`

is still pretty busy. There is life in several retrocomputing channels, and we've been enjoying talking about Acorn RISC OS and Fortran among other things. ®

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