I'm out. I think the decline in many Usenet groups has finally beaten me, so I won't risk boring anyone with my attempts to ask or answer stuff here anymore. I can stand watching paint dry, but watching something bleeding slowly from its wrists is soul-sapping, really bad for morale. Maybe in a month or so if I remember, I might check back to see if anyone answered with some post showing where the action is now, but I suspect it's just fragmented into forums all over the web that I can find for myself and sign up for if I can stand the irritation. I used to like forums (in small numbers), but came to Usenet because I found the signal to noise ratio high, but it looks now as if the signal is dropping off completely at a time of year when it's usually at a peak. The only posts in two days in this group seem to have been a repeated dose of spam. That's par for the course in a minor extreme- special-interest group, but s.e.c? That's just wrong. I think most people just went silent and left without a word, but it's got so bad that maybe it's time the rest of us marked its passing.
There's a certain critical mass of people needed to be active, like chunks of stuff in a fission reactor. If that doesn't happen, no reaction results. Pretty much sums up what's happening to Usenet. It's vast, but increasingly empty. No-one hangs around in what feels like a cold damp corridor, waiting for little or nothing to pass by, and I must be a glutton for punishment because I persist in it. It's not doing me much good though, I'm going to go where it's warmer and there's something interesting going on. I used to see people bemoaning the decline of usenet, but I don't even see that anymore! Got to be time I got the message, I must be one of the last to accept it.