| Eternal September |
Article Index for Eternal |
Website Links For Eternal |
Information AboutEternal September |
|
Usenet originated among Universities . Every year, in September , a large number of new university students got access to Usenet, and took some time to acclimate themselves to the network's standards of conduct and Netiquette . After a month or so, the new users would (it is supposed) learn to comport themselves as normal Usenet users. September, thus, represented the network's largest regular influx of Newbie s. Right now it's summer, and most schools are on vacation, and a sizable percentage of other people are in the same state. So the net is quieter. Yet it's still growing. Will the return of all these people, plus the usual growth, be the final straw for the net? — Brad Templeton , posting to ''net.news'', July 12 , 1984 {Link without Title} In 1993, the online service America Online began offering Usenet access to its tens of thousands, later millions, of users. To many old-timers, these " AOLer s" were far less prepared to learn netiquette than university freshmen. This was, in part, because AOL took few pains to educate its users about Usenet customs — or even that these new-found forums were not simply another piece of AOL's service. But it was also sheer numbers. Whereas the regular September freshman influx would soon settle down, the sheer number of newbies now threatened to overwhelm the existing Usenet culture's capacity to inculcate its Social Norm s. Since that time, the dramatic rise in the popularity of the Internet has led to a constant stream of new users — in some people's view, drowning out the old Usenet entirely. Thus, from the point of view of the pre-1993 Usenet user, the regular "September" newbie influx never ended. Software programs exist which display the date in accordance with this reckoning — for instance, ''September 4086, 1993'' for the date ''November 8, 2004''. The gag is at times extended — for instance, the notional ''future'' date at which Usenet discourse will become sensible, mature, and educated has been called "October 1, 1993". An attempt to hurry the arrival of that date is being made by the proponents of Usenet II . On , especially with its new user interface, has picked up the torch that AOL has dropped — and that Eternal September has yet to end. EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|