[CrackMonkey] rec.usenet.trolling.google.google.google

Mon Apr 30 11:56:28 PDT 2001

	The funny thing about this is that 1995 was long after I had
*given up* on Usenet.  I've got a few random posts in a few silly
newsgroups from when I popped on again in 1997 to rediscover usenet.
But it doesn't have my 1993 posts to alt.coffee and
rec.drugs.caffeine, or even my alt.test posts from the Bush
administration.

	I find it sad that this article doesn't mention my favorite
group names of all time:

	alt.walter-cronkite.shaolin-temple (and, indeed, the entire
alt.walter-cronkite hierarchy), alt.test.moderated ("Why didn't my
message go through?  Everything's fine on my end!"), alt.sex.fencing,
and alt.sex.nudels.me.too.

----- Forwarded message from glen mccready <gkm at petting-zoo.net> -----
Forwarded-by: Nev Dull <nev at sleepycat.com>
Forwarded-by: Adam Shand <larry at spack.org>
Forwarded-by: The Eristocracy <Eristocracy at merrymeet.com>

Google Restores Deja View
	-- by Michelle Delio
9:00 a.m. April 27, 2001 PDT

The porn is back. The chronicles of many nasty flamewars are back,
too.  And everything you ever said in Usenet, back before you had a
real job or kids to worry about, has now returned to haunt you.

Popular Internet search site Google has made more than 500-million
archived Usenet messages -- an archive dating back to 1995 --
available online again.

Google acquired Deja.com's Usenet Discussion Service, which included
the archives, on Feb. 12 and promptly took a large part of the archive
offline until the company could design a speedier search interface for
the collection.

Google seems to have succeeded in optimizing the search engine for the
archive. And some users are discovering that Google's more efficient
search engine is turning up old, sometimes embarrassing, Usenet posts.

Back in 1995, people might not have been thinking that their posts
would be archived and searchable some day. And they were also less
concerned about privacy.

Virtually everyone who posted on Usenet back then used their real
names and e-mail addresses. Now, many people post with nicknames and
altered e-mail addresses.

"Google certainly did optimize the search function, and I have found
all the posts I made when I was 18. I cannot believe what an absolute,
utter asshole I was back then," said a rueful Mike Milgen, an
open-source programmer who was furious when the Deja archives first
went offline.

Many users are now reporting the reappearance of posts that a search
on the original Deja service did not retrieve.

"Oh lord, you can find everything now. I don't know if I like this,"
said freelance technology writer Terry Franks, who immediately
searched for his own old posts.

Others aren't sure they like the new interface.

Google has grouped conversation threads -- collections of messages and
replies -- by the post's subject lines. Deja had archived them using a
message ID number. Message IDs are considered to be an effective way
of classifying Usenet posts because subject lines are often changed
mid-conversation as the discussion wanders into new, but
still-related, territory.

Grouping messages by subject lines can also lead to unassociated posts
being linked. Random posts with subjects that often crop up on Usenet,
such as "need help with my computer," are now all linked together.

Despite those problems, users have ready access to the pearls of
wisdom that had been posted in groups such as
alt.sex.hedgehog.ouch.ouch.ouch and
alt.sex.bestiality.hamster.duct-tape, along with all the other
salacious scribbling and naughty pictures posted over the years by
Usenet's merry band of amateur pornographers.

Despite -- or perhaps because of -- all the assorted strangeness, most
feel that Google's Usenet archive is an irreplaceable and invaluable
reference.

The Usenet archives are probably the best technical library on the
Internet, and also a wonderfully bizarre collection of all the things
that humans discuss, said Michael McCormick, a professor of New Media
at the University of Toronto.

"In amongst the random flames, self-obsessed rantings, and insanely
filthy porn, there is so much that is of real value," McCormick said.
"I applaud Google for making Usenet archives available again."

"We sometimes forget that the Web is only a small part of the
Internet.  Usenet is stupidity, brilliance, anger, kindness, art and
sex - all jumbled up in one glorious mess. It's the human side of the
Internet."

----- End forwarded message -----

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