rec.autos.simulators

by **ymenar** » Sun, 14 May 2006 10:46:07

Well it looks like this is a slow and painfull death.

From the 12,000 posts per month in 2000, we're now to almost less than 500.
A thread or two per day if we exclude non-related cross-postings. Perhaps
we shall all move on to rscnet, and sacrifice our freedom of speech on an
ugly web board.

I've seen my share of Usenet newsgroup death, and the decay rate here is
pretty much in the same pattern as all those previous ones. Inevitable.

R.I.P.

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimago-Dominguez
Corporation - helping America into the New World...

by **Darry** » Sun, 14 May 2006 11:50:32

> Well it looks like this is a slow and painfull death.

> From the 12,000 posts per month in 2000, we're now to almost less than 500.
> A thread or two per day if we exclude non-related cross-postings. Perhaps
> we shall all move on to rscnet, and sacrifice our freedom of speech on an
> ugly web board.

> I've seen my share of Usenet newsgroup death, and the decay rate here is
> pretty much in the same pattern as all those previous ones. Inevitable.

> R.I.P.

I suspect two causes: that a number of ISPs are shutting down
their NNTP servers, making free news a thing of the past, and the
flame wars that seems prevalent on this and many groups. (I'm not
saying htis group is as bad for flamewars as some others, but,
hey, you know it happens here.)

I look at the list of groups I'm subscribed to, and it shrinks
every year. I'm now down to five groups. One of them is moderated,
and two are extremely low volumn paddling groups. So there's
r.a.s. and a guitar-related group. The guitar group seems to do
pretty well at keeping things easy-going. Flames sputter out in no
time.

We get what we deserve, I guess.
--
Darryl

by **ski960** » Sun, 14 May 2006 12:43:47

That's sad. I remember all the flame wars you used to get into back in
the IndyCar II days. LOL

What kind of stuff has been said here lately that you can't say on RSC?

by **rex rolan** » Sun, 14 May 2006 12:49:18

> Well it looks like this is a slow and painfull death.

> From the 12,000 posts per month in 2000, we're now to almost less than 500.
> A thread or two per day if we exclude non-related cross-postings. Perhaps
> we shall all move on to rscnet, and sacrifice our freedom of speech on an
> ugly web board.

> I've seen my share of Usenet newsgroup death, and the decay rate here is
> pretty much in the same pattern as all those previous ones. Inevitable.

> R.I.P.

Look at the date messages took a plunge and then look at the messages
from that date. You will see someone named Mitch stirring up trouble and
causing many people to leave.

by **Tang** » Sun, 14 May 2006 15:13:00

quality not quantity

by **Tony Rickar** » Sun, 14 May 2006 16:49:11

> Well it looks like this is a slow and painfull death.

> From the 12,000 posts per month in 2000, we're now to almost less than 500.
> A thread or two per day if we exclude non-related cross-postings. Perhaps
> we shall all move on to rscnet, and sacrifice our freedom of speech on an
> ugly web board.

> I've seen my share of Usenet newsgroup death, and the decay rate here is
> pretty much in the same pattern as all those previous ones. Inevitable.

Not sure it is so painful. What remains is generally a core of generally
sensible people that will respond quickly to a genuine request for info
and can give an educated insight into sim racing developments. Many of
the other forums is like trawling through treacle to find the relevant
bits and regardless of the moderation is full of fanboy vs hater posts.

There are just so many forums now. Taking LFS as an example RSC has
minimal activity on this now, with the official LFS forum as the
definitive place to go. We also have forums for most products - and
there are a lot of products now compared with the good old days of Papy
sim racers vs DGF :)

It is the fragmentation of sim racing that is taking its toll on RAS
IMHO. I am sure it will continue for some time yet though.

Cheers
Tony

by **Tony Rickar** » Sun, 14 May 2006 16:58:47

> Look at the date messages took a plunge and then look at the messages
> from that date. You will see someone named Mitch stirring up trouble and
> causing many people to leave.

Well in the peak of 2000, when we had 12000 posts in one month Bruce was
compelled to write on July 23rd 2000

> In all the years that I have been posting to RAS I have never been so
> amazed at the behaviour of some as I have been over the past several
> days.
snip

> I, for one, have nothing but contempt for the morals and behaviour of
> some who have posted here over the last week. I feel as if I've
> trodden in something rather ***.

So maybe it is the lack of flame wars that has seen the demise in posts!
Not suggesting we want some, mind - I don't care about the number of posts.

Cheers
Tony

by **Uwe Sch??rkam** » Sun, 14 May 2006 18:05:35

Well, there's always Google News. Granted a web interface to USENET is a
pain in the rear, much like those pesky web forums, but it's still
better than nothing.

I don't think RAS is going to go away anytime soon. We have quite a list
of die-hard regulars who'll continue to lurk here.

All the best, Uwe

--
GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

by **sparadis** » Sun, 14 May 2006 20:25:45

Been using Google newsgroups forever..not all that bad. I
actually prefer it. Used to be called DejaNews,I think. Here's the link
http://groups.google.com/ Steve P

> > I suspect two causes: that a number of ISPs are shutting down
> > their NNTP servers, making free news a thing of the past, and the

> Well, there's always Google News. Granted a web interface to USENET is a
> pain in the rear, much like those pesky web forums, but it's still
> better than nothing.

> > We get what we deserve, I guess.

> I don't think RAS is going to go away anytime soon. We have quite a list
> of die-hard regulars who'll continue to lurk here.

> All the best, Uwe

> --
> GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

by **flightlessvac..** » Sun, 14 May 2006 22:07:04

Mitch killed r.a.s. a long time ago...

by **ymenar** » Mon, 15 May 2006 05:07:14

> quality not quantity

Erm... I've fast readed the threads for the past months, and I see the same
thing as ever. There was and will always be quality here.

Quantity ain't just here anymore. Time to move on...

by **ymenar** » Mon, 15 May 2006 05:12:42

Yeah "the other forums" being mostly rscnet, I agree with you that I don't
want to move on there. It's a (very) fragmented mess, there's no cohesion
at all. No soul. Other PC *** newsgroups are worse, check out the
comp.sys.idm.pc.games.* hierarchy.

My own ISP (the national #1 Canadian ISP) is dropping their NNTP server at
the end of the month. Sad.

I'm never sure whom actually won that :) I know that rasf1 vs. DGF
actually became a TKO by submission in the 8th round against David!

The rapid decay rate in the past year is for the most that, but there's
something else. The market for serious PC racing sims is not anymore a
mainstream market like it was back 5 years ago.

by **ymenar** » Mon, 15 May 2006 05:13:48

Stirring up trouble doesn't seem to have affected much of the r.a.s.
history. Trust *me*, I know that for a fact!

by **ymenar** » Mon, 15 May 2006 05:17:43

> That's sad. I remember all the flame wars you used to get into back in
> the IndyCar II days. LOL

There was a well balanced mess of serious and non-serious posts, which all
helped the community of racing simulations fans.

RSC is filled up with moderators, strict guidelines, "things you cannot
mention", sticky threads that are useless, internal wars that are hidden to
the public, cowardly attitude in front of developpers, etc...

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimago-Dominguez
Corporation - helping America into the New World...

by **flightlessvac..** » Mon, 15 May 2006 07:39:53

> The rapid decay rate in the past year is for the most that, but there's
> something else. The market for serious PC racing sims is not anymore a
> mainstream market like it was back 5 years ago.

Where do you get the idea PC racing simulations was ever a mainstream
market?

rec.autos.simulators

Death of r.a.s.

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