I'm a furry and new to Usenet

At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is this place still active? :)

Dennis Lee Bieber

2020-08-09 16:06:46 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is this place still active? :)

There are some grey-muzzles monitoring, but one can't say it is active
-- I show about five threads a year, and some of those are SPAM.

Mostly we get announcements like yours, a few responses, and then
silence for a few months. Nothing like 15 years ago when we'd have more
traffic in a single day.

--
Baron Wulfraed IISS Elusive Unicorn
***@earthlink.net (detached)
http://baronwulfraed.microdiversity.freeddns.org/

Kavus Kazian

2020-08-09 18:42:15 UTC

On Sun, 09 Aug 2020 12:06:46 -0400

Post by Dennis Lee Bieber

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is this place still active? :)

There are some grey-muzzles monitoring, but one can't say it is active
-- I show about five threads a year, and some of those are SPAM.
Mostly we get announcements like yours, a few responses, and then
silence for a few months. Nothing like 15 years ago when we'd have more
traffic in a single day.
--
Baron Wulfraed IISS Elusive Unicorn
http://baronwulfraed.microdiversity.freeddns.org/

That's a shame, Usenet seems really convenient. It's nice to have alllll this stuff in one place. I also love the X-Face concept.

Dennis Lee Bieber

2020-08-09 22:29:07 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
That's a shame, Usenet seems really convenient. It's nice to have alllll this stuff in one place. I also love the X-Face concept.

Yeah -- but the modern generation seems to think that anything that is
text only is unusable, and fractured the community into dozens of
online-only systems where they can track how many people are reading them,
etc.

--
Baron Wulfraed IISS Elusive Unicorn
***@earthlink.net (detached)
http://baronwulfraed.microdiversity.freeddns.org/

Kavus Kazian

2020-08-10 00:17:37 UTC

On Sun, 09 Aug 2020 18:29:07 -0400

On Sun, 9 Aug 2020 11:42:15 -0700, Kavus Kazian

Post by Kavus Kazian
That's a shame, Usenet seems really convenient. It's nice to have
alllll this stuff in one place. I also love the X-Face concept.

Yeah -- but the modern generation seems to think that
anything that is text only is unusable, and fractured the community
into dozens of online-only systems where they can track how many
people are reading them, etc.

Yeah, I don't really like that. I think this is a pretty cool platform.
Although I suppose some people might want privacy features these days,
like end to end encryption and such. But to me it seems like Usenet is
meant to be more open, and I kind of like that. The spam is a little
annoying but it's not that bad, it's easy enough to tell what is spam
and what isn't.

How long have you been using this anyway?

Dennis Lee Bieber

2020-08-10 15:10:20 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
How long have you been using this anyway?

My oldest archived post (I don't save all, just those that were of
interest at the time) for alt.lifestyle.furry goes back to August 1997. Use
of Usenet itself goes back even further before I started using Forte Agent
as news reader (I'd used TIN and similar on an Amiga, and whatever
NetManage Internet Chameleon provided under Windows-for-Workgroups 3.11
[WfW3.11 provided M$ proprietary network protocol but not TCP/IP --
NetManage created or had a heavy hand in the first WinSock library for
Windows]).

--
Baron Wulfraed IISS Elusive Unicorn
***@earthlink.net (detached)
http://baronwulfraed.microdiversity.freeddns.org/

Kavus Kazian

2020-08-10 16:57:57 UTC

I tried to use TIN but couldn't get it to work properly with my Usenet provider (Eternal September). Plus when I discovered X-Face, I really wanted to use one that supported it. I got Pan working, but there's a bug in it currently that makes X-Face not work, so I'm using Claws Mail while I wait for the bug to be fixed.

Nomen Nescio

2020-08-11 22:19:12 UTC

On Mon, 10 Aug 2020 09:57:57 -0700

Post by Kavus Kazian
I tried to use TIN but couldn't get it to work properly with my
Usenet provider (Eternal September). Plus when I discovered X-Face, I
really wanted to use one that supported it. I got Pan working, but
there's a bug in it currently that makes X-Face not work, so I'm
using Claws Mail while I wait for the bug to be fixed.

Claws-mail user here too! I use to use Tin before it went gtk3. If
anybody has a non-gtk3 version or a gtk2 version let me know.
On Sun, 9 Aug 2020 11:42:15 -0700, Kavus Kazian

Post by Kavus Kazian

Post by Kavus Kazian
That's a shame, Usenet seems really convenient. It's nice to have
alllll this stuff in one place. I also love the X-Face concept.

Yeah -- but the modern generation seems to think that anything
that is text only is unusable, and fractured the community into
dozens of online-only systems where they can track how many
people are reading them, etc.

I think Open and decentralized systems are making a comeback. XMPP is
finally getting mentioned more in those circles. I've seen quite a few
people drop proprietary walled garden messengers. A lot of people are
searching for that kind of stuff where a big corporation can't track
and censor them for wrongthink right now. I think the biggest hurdle is
that you have all these other corporations who are building their own
walled garden centralized networks (even based on open protocols with
federation stripped out) marketing themselves and open and private and
"secure", but those are just words. Unfortunately a lot of people do
not know how to actually test those claims that something is private or
open and fall for the marketing just because some company claimed it to
be.
Telegram is a big example of this. They have the buzzwords 'private'
and 'secure' and 'encrypted' on their website, but you need a special
client to access their services, there is only one centralized server
to access and it doesn't federate with anyone else, and all
conversation logs are stored on the corporation's servers in plaintext.
In addition to this they claim to respect warrants which means they
have access to that data. Essentially another data mining operation
under the guise of buzzwords.
History does repeat itself. This same exact thing happened with EMAIL
and AOL. AOL used SMTP for it's internal messaging service but you
could only contact other AOL users with it because AOL forcefully
turned off the ability to send email to external hosts. This meant you
were in a siloed walled garden and could not email with all the people
on smaller ISPs. By the time AOL reversed this change consumers had
already gotten privy to the fact and had an expection to be able to
email anybody they wanted with an email service. When AOL fixed their
servers it was too late and people were leaving in droves.
This is the state instant messaging currently is in. Eventually open
XMPP federation will win out just like SMTP email did in the early 90s.
People have already tried to clone social media like twitter but with
federation and have made things like Plemora, GNU Social, and Mastodon;
but as these systems simply cloned the Twitter social media model they
brought along a lot of the same problems Twitter has even though it's
not centrally controlled anymore. Like the Twitter medium itself seems
to promote inflammatory short quips designed purely to attract the most
eyeball time. Social media engineers designed their platforms this way
in order to exploit the human psyche to maximize advertisement exposure
time and surveillance capitalism.
I think the open social media clones will eventually die out as well
and We will come back to an open system as society and consumer
expectations mature. Especially with all the shady big tech companies
and Chinese influence people are getting more and more aware of their
freedom when it comes to computing. I think forum-like systems will
probably come after instant messaging though.
Communities have even started to pool together guides and rating on
what is spyware and what isn't, how free something is etc. Sites like
the Spyware Watchdog https://spyware.neocities.org/ and writers are
https://digdeeper.neocities.org/

I think you meant to post it to both alt.privacy and
alt.lifestyle.furry.

tom

2020-08-28 23:12:56 UTC

On Mon, 10 Aug 2020 09:57:57 -0700

Just recompiled claws with xface support. I see it!

Kavus Kazian

2020-08-29 06:09:27 UTC

On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 16:12:56 -0700

On Mon, 10 Aug 2020 09:57:57 -0700

Post by Kavus Kazian
I tried to use TIN but couldn't get it to work properly with my
Usenet provider (Eternal September). Plus when I discovered X-Face,
I really wanted to use one that supported it. I got Pan working, but
there's a bug in it currently that makes X-Face not work, so I'm
using Claws Mail while I wait for the bug to be fixed.

Just recompiled claws with xface support. I see it!

Awesome! I'm a turian. I don't know if you ever played Mass Effect, but
they're from that.

tom

2020-08-29 06:35:08 UTC

On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 23:09:27 -0700

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 16:12:56 -0700

On Mon, 10 Aug 2020 09:57:57 -0700

Post by Kavus Kazian
I tried to use TIN but couldn't get it to work properly with my
Usenet provider (Eternal September). Plus when I discovered
X-Face, I really wanted to use one that supported it. I got Pan
working, but there's a bug in it currently that makes X-Face not
work, so I'm using Claws Mail while I wait for the bug to be
fixed.

Just recompiled claws with xface support. I see it!

Awesome! I'm a turian. I don't know if you ever played Mass Effect,
but they're from that.

I haven't, but it reminds of a really old cartoon called ben 10 or
looks like something out of teen titans

Kavus Kazian

2020-09-01 19:10:00 UTC

On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 23:35:08 -0700

Post by tom
On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 23:09:27 -0700

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 16:12:56 -0700

On Mon, 10 Aug 2020 09:57:57 -0700

Post by Kavus Kazian
I tried to use TIN but couldn't get it to work properly with my
Usenet provider (Eternal September). Plus when I discovered
X-Face, I really wanted to use one that supported it. I got Pan
working, but there's a bug in it currently that makes X-Face not
work, so I'm using Claws Mail while I wait for the bug to be
fixed.

Just recompiled claws with xface support. I see it!

Awesome! I'm a turian. I don't know if you ever played Mass Effect,
but they're from that.

I haven't, but it reminds of a really old cartoon called ben 10 or
looks like something out of teen titans

I've actually never seen those before.

critter

2020-08-16 17:49:05 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Sun, 09 Aug 2020 18:29:07 -0400

On Sun, 9 Aug 2020 11:42:15 -0700, Kavus Kazian

Post by Kavus Kazian
That's a shame, Usenet seems really convenient. It's nice to have
alllll this stuff in one place. I also love the X-Face concept.

Yeah -- but the modern generation seems to think that
anything that is text only is unusable, and fractured the community
into dozens of online-only systems where they can track how many
people are reading them, etc.

Huh. Just ran nn on this system and it ran, so of course had to look in
on alf. Kinda miss Homestead, was a far cry from the modern huge
cons.

Unfortunately my fingers have forgotten how to use nn, been so long.

Be safe and well, furiends.

- Critter a Greymuzzle

Cuddly Battleship Kattywampus

2020-08-27 01:49:03 UTC

I must say, I am fairly amazed to have seen a conversation with new users that are non-bots!
Greetings to you, fellow graymuzzles!

--Kattywampus

Post by critter

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Sun, 09 Aug 2020 18:29:07 -0400

On Sun, 9 Aug 2020 11:42:15 -0700, Kavus Kazian

Post by Kavus Kazian
That's a shame, Usenet seems really convenient. It's nice to have
alllll this stuff in one place. I also love the X-Face concept.

Yeah -- but the modern generation seems to think that
anything that is text only is unusable, and fractured the community
into dozens of online-only systems where they can track how many
people are reading them, etc.

Huh. Just ran nn on this system and it ran, so of course had to look in
on alf. Kinda miss Homestead, was a far cry from the modern huge
cons.
Unfortunately my fingers have forgotten how to use nn, been so long.
Be safe and well, furiends.
- Critter a Greymuzzle

Dennis Lee Bieber

2020-08-27 14:34:47 UTC

On Wed, 26 Aug 2020 18:49:03 -0700 (PDT), Cuddly Battleship Kattywampus

Post by Cuddly Battleship Kattywampus
I must say, I am fairly amazed to have seen a conversation with new users that are non-bots!
Greetings to you, fellow graymuzzles!
--Kattywampus

<BLINK><BLINK>

I can't recall the last time CBK showed up in the message list... <G>

--
Baron Wulfraed IISS Elusive Unicorn
***@earthlink.net (detached)
http://baronwulfraed.microdiversity.freeddns.org/

Kavus Kazian

2020-08-29 06:10:08 UTC

I dunno if 32 years old is a greymuzzle!

tom

2020-08-30 09:22:53 UTC

On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 23:10:08 -0700

Post by Kavus Kazian
I dunno if 32 years old is a greymuzzle!

No, that's gandalfmuzzle

lo just kidding

Smrgol

2020-08-31 12:21:33 UTC

Post by tom
On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 23:10:08 -0700

Post by Kavus Kazian
I dunno if 32 years old is a greymuzzle!

No, that's gandalfmuzzle
lo just kidding

I'm 66. I've been furry since before you were born, kid. :)
-};>~

Kavus Kazian

2020-09-01 19:11:05 UTC

On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 05:21:33 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Smrgol

Post by tom
On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 23:10:08 -0700

Post by Kavus Kazian
I dunno if 32 years old is a greymuzzle!

No, that's gandalfmuzzle
lo just kidding

I'm 66. I've been furry since before you were born, kid. :)
-};>~

How did furries communicate before BBS and the Internet? How did you
find each other?

Smrgol

2020-09-02 12:25:43 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 05:21:33 -0700 (PDT)

Post by tom
On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 23:10:08 -0700

Post by Kavus Kazian
I dunno if 32 years old is a greymuzzle!

No, that's gandalfmuzzle
lo just kidding

I'm 66. I've been furry since before you were born, kid. :)
-};>~

How did furries communicate before BBS and the Internet? How did you
find each other?

I'm not sure - I only "found" furry in 1998, so the web was already up and active.
-};>~

tom

2020-09-03 05:31:59 UTC

On Wed, 2 Sep 2020 05:25:43 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Smrgol

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 05:21:33 -0700 (PDT)

Post by tom
On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 23:10:08 -0700

Post by Kavus Kazian
I dunno if 32 years old is a greymuzzle!

No, that's gandalfmuzzle
lo just kidding

I'm 66. I've been furry since before you were born, kid. :)
-};>~

How did furries communicate before BBS and the Internet? How did
you find each other?

I'm not sure - I only "found" furry in 1998, so the web was already
up and active. -};>~

probably comic conventions.

Smrgol

2020-09-03 11:45:11 UTC

Post by tom
probably comic conventions.

Nope! On a link on the internet in early September 1998.
Started here: http://triggur.org/silo/
Which led to here: http://triggur.org/coqo/
Which led to the now defunct Fursuit Ring
Etc, etc, etc ...

-};>~

Aquilux Raptor

2020-09-03 17:30:02 UTC

Post by tom
On Wed, 2 Sep 2020 05:25:43 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Smrgol

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 05:21:33 -0700 (PDT)

Post by tom
On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 23:10:08 -0700

Post by Kavus Kazian
I dunno if 32 years old is a greymuzzle!

No, that's gandalfmuzzle
lo just kidding

I'm 66. I've been furry since before you were born, kid. :)
-};>~

How did furries communicate before BBS and the Internet? How did
you find each other?

I'm not sure - I only "found" furry in 1998, so the web was already
up and active. -};>~

probably comic conventions.

To my understanding it was mostly through other conventions (anime and scifi) and zines, and if you were lucky enough to know someone else in person.

In related news, there's the first in a series of documentaries about the fandom (made by an in-fandom film maker) that I've seen getting overall good responses about the generalized history of the fandom, with a promise of more focused installments later to drill down on subjects they had to gloss over in this first one:

*re-engaging lurk mode*

Chrysi Cat

2020-08-14 03:34:04 UTC

Post by Dennis Lee Bieber

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is this place still active? :)

There are some grey-muzzles monitoring, but one can't say it is active
-- I show about five threads a year, and some of those are SPAM.
Mostly we get announcements like yours, a few responses, and then
silence for a few months. Nothing like 15 years ago when we'd have more
traffic in a single day.

Hi! Sorta-grey-muzzle here who started with a teranews account and moved
to UsenetServer.com when teranews lost posting privileges most places,
but has never posted in THIS group. My first email program was Pine at U
of Denver, but I never bothered to access Usenet until just AFTER the
standard ISPs stopped running complimentary server access (I was
distracted enough with surfing the Web instead of doing my homework at
DU; after I flunked out the family finally had home access, but since it
was AOL I thought that their walled-garden discussion groups were
sufficient. So I had the opportunities to be here in '97 but wouldn't
have known it existed.

That said, I'm a kit(ten) compared to most of the semi-active members;
only 20 years UNDERSTANDING that I identify furry (which means it
started sometime between when I was 20 and 23), no active interaction
with the RL fandom (I TRIED to patronise Cafe Fur in Denver, but it had
closed a month prior; but I've had no money for a con appearance and the
only way I want to have fur in public is via genmod, not suit), and my
only montary support has been to Romeo Rabbit the past two years during
his pledge drive, and a standing donation to ND.Net so that I have
access to Terence and Isabel's commentary archive.

I'm also a kit in the other sense, in part because it was obvious even
18 years ago that I wasn't going to be able to keep wearing big-girl
panties anyway, and it's slightly less depressing to act like you need
them because you're too immature than that you're likely gonna fade from
the scene way too soon.

First furry webcomic was probably Doemain, though the one that was the
gateway to the majority of what else I followed was K&K (The exception
is that Doemain either led to Vinci and Arty, which led to Jack, or I
found Jack first, followed Arty to his home comic and then saw the link
to his appearance IN Jack), which in turn I found via a "Catgirl
Sighting!" posting on the TWC version of the forum for El Goonish Shive.
Always THOUGHT about ordering Shanda Fanstasy Arts products before I
lost the income to do so (so between 2000-2003,) but wasn't sure my LCS
had the proper understanding of how to check THAT box with Diamond Previews.

Am I the only one who would be willing to grow fur and a tail and fix my
ear shape but couldn't be convinced to suit for ANYTHING? Though
admittedly if I had to give up my ability to taste sweet, let alone
accept chocolate being able to poison me, I wouldn't even grow the furry
parts.

--
Chrysi Cat
1/2 anthrocat, nearly 1/2 anthrofox, all magical
Transgoddess, quick to anger.
Call me Chrysi or call me Kat, I'll respond to either!

Kavus Kazian

2020-08-16 05:39:29 UTC

This post might be inappropriate. Click to display it.

Kavus Kazian

2020-08-16 05:42:44 UTC

Aww damn, my X-Face didn't work! I fixed it now though. Can your Usenet
client display those? I hope so, it shows my sona, Kavus. :3

Mechasquirrel

2020-11-01 13:19:24 UTC

Post by Chrysi Cat

On Sat, 8 Aug 2020 22:05:13 -0700, Kavus Kazian

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is this place still active? :)

There are some grey-muzzles monitoring, but one can't say it is active
-- I show about five threads a year, and some of those are SPAM.
Mostly we get announcements like yours, a few responses, and then
silence for a few months. Nothing like 15 years ago when we'd have
more traffic in a single day.

Hi! Sorta-grey-muzzle here who started with a teranews account and
moved to UsenetServer.com when teranews lost posting privileges most
places, but has never posted in THIS group. My first email program was
Pine at U of Denver, but I never bothered to access Usenet until just
AFTER the standard ISPs stopped running complimentary server access (I
was distracted enough with surfing the Web instead of doing my
homework at DU; after I flunked out the family finally had home
access, but since it was AOL I thought that their walled-garden
discussion groups were sufficient. So I had the opportunities to be
here in '97 but wouldn't have known it existed.
That said, I'm a kit(ten) compared to most of the semi-active members;
only 20 years UNDERSTANDING that I identify furry (which means it
started sometime between when I was 20 and 23), no active interaction
with the RL fandom (I TRIED to patronise Cafe Fur in Denver, but it
had closed a month prior; but I've had no money for a con appearance
and the only way I want to have fur in public is via genmod, not
suit), and my only montary support has been to Romeo Rabbit the past
two years during his pledge drive, and a standing donation to ND.Net
so that I have access to Terence and Isabel's commentary archive.
I'm also a kit in the other sense, in part because it was obvious even
18 years ago that I wasn't going to be able to keep wearing big-girl
panties anyway, and it's slightly less depressing to act like you need
them because you're too immature than that you're likely gonna fade
from the scene way too soon.
First furry webcomic was probably Doemain, though the one that was the
gateway to the majority of what else I followed was K&K (The exception
is that Doemain either led to Vinci and Arty, which led to Jack, or I
found Jack first, followed Arty to his home comic and then saw the
link to his appearance IN Jack), which in turn I found via a "Catgirl
Sighting!" posting on the TWC version of the forum for El Goonish
Shive. Always THOUGHT about ordering Shanda Fanstasy Arts products
before I lost the income to do so (so between 2000-2003,) but wasn't
sure my LCS had the proper understanding of how to check THAT box with
Diamond Previews.
Am I the only one who would be willing to grow fur and a tail and fix
my ear shape but couldn't be convinced to suit for ANYTHING? Though
admittedly if I had to give up my ability to taste sweet, let alone
accept chocolate being able to poison me, I wouldn't even grow the
furry parts.

Ahh, Teranews. Best $3.95 I'd ever spent. Got started on Usenet back in
98 when I got my first dial-up account. (prior to that was all dial-up
BBS'es on an old 386sx... Ever spent a couple hours downloading a 200kb
jpeg just to find out your comp is too old and slow to actually view it?
I have! lol) Think I started with Mail & News on Win95, and my isp's
news server. It was like night and day when I switched to Xnews and
Teranews. With Hamster in the middle so I could just dial-up, yoink, and
disconnect, and not tie up the phone constantly.

And Furrynet. Was a sad day when its last server finally died. Every now
and then I'll fire up my ancient Hamster install and reminisce through
the bits I have saved. (most of fur.* from 98-99 to the end, started
with everything news.fur.com had when I redid Hamster one time and
decided to yoink the whole thing)

Tried to get myself to MFM several times back in the early 00's... Every
time I'd get serious about going, my truck would die expensively
anywhere from a few weeks to the day before, and I finally gave up.
(Seriously now. Two transmission swaps and multiple clutches in less
than a decade? I don't drive the thing /that/ hard...)

Modern furry is just too scattered to really keep up with, and most
websites are pretty much impossible to find new interesting things
hidden among the piles and piles and piles of generic latex-skinned
furry that everything seems to be nowadays. (Remember back when people
would talk about their favorite brush for making fur in whichever art
program? Actually drawing the floof seems to really not be much of a
thing any more...)

Most of my internet time nowadays is spent keeping up with a small pile
of webcomics, reading random fanfiction, lurking a few discords, and
half an eye kept on twitter. Much less so with twitter anymore. It's a
mess.

And yes, real functional changes would be most excellent (given that
I could keep my over-sugared coffee with a nip of cocoa, of course), but
suits... Ehh, might convince me to put on a headband with fuzzy ears for
the lols, but that'd be about it and even that would take some pretty
good effort on someone's part. I'd rather have the real thing. XD

--
Mechasquirrel
(and now, back to lurking all the lurks)

Kavus Kazian

2020-11-02 04:33:03 UTC

On Sun, 1 Nov 2020 13:19:24 +0000 (UTC)

Post by Mechasquirrel
Ahh, Teranews. Best $3.95 I'd ever spent. Got started on Usenet back
in 98 when I got my first dial-up account. (prior to that was all
dial-up BBS'es on an old 386sx... Ever spent a couple hours
downloading a 200kb jpeg just to find out your comp is too old and
slow to actually view it? I have! lol) Think I started with Mail &
News on Win95, and my isp's news server. It was like night and day
when I switched to Xnews and Teranews. With Hamster in the middle so
I could just dial-up, yoink, and disconnect, and not tie up the phone
constantly.
And Furrynet. Was a sad day when its last server finally died. Every
now and then I'll fire up my ancient Hamster install and reminisce
through the bits I have saved. (most of fur.* from 98-99 to the end,
started with everything news.fur.com had when I redid Hamster one
time and decided to yoink the whole thing)
Tried to get myself to MFM several times back in the early 00's...
Every time I'd get serious about going, my truck would die expensively
anywhere from a few weeks to the day before, and I finally gave up.
(Seriously now. Two transmission swaps and multiple clutches in less
than a decade? I don't drive the thing /that/ hard...)
Modern furry is just too scattered to really keep up with, and most
websites are pretty much impossible to find new interesting things
hidden among the piles and piles and piles of generic latex-skinned
furry that everything seems to be nowadays. (Remember back when people
would talk about their favorite brush for making fur in whichever art
program? Actually drawing the floof seems to really not be much of a
thing any more...)
Most of my internet time nowadays is spent keeping up with a small
pile of webcomics, reading random fanfiction, lurking a few discords,
and half an eye kept on twitter. Much less so with twitter anymore.
It's a mess.
And yes, real functional changes would be most excellent (given that
I could keep my over-sugared coffee with a nip of cocoa, of course),
but suits... Ehh, might convince me to put on a headband with fuzzy
ears for the lols, but that'd be about it and even that would take
some pretty good effort on someone's part. I'd rather have the real
thing. XD

Is it possible to share these Hamster files? I'm curious to see.

Mechasquirrel

2020-11-02 07:58:33 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
Is it possible to share these Hamster files? I'm curious to see.

Uhh... Hrmm...

Would have to give me some time to see what I could put together, just fur.* is 2GB or so
uncompressed, but I'd need to move that bit over to a clean install that didn't have the other
20-someodd gigs of stuff and things from ages past. And it's been /years/ since I last dug that
deep into the backend of the program...

I'll probably need to do all the things inside a windows vm, too, as while everything runs fairly
okay on Wine like I'm using it now, well, lets just say there's definitely some quirks. XD

But... Yeah. This might take a bit.

--
Mechasquirrel

tom

2020-11-02 08:00:33 UTC

On Mon, 2 Nov 2020 07:58:33 +0000 (UTC)

Post by Mechasquirrel

Post by Kavus Kazian
Is it possible to share these Hamster files? I'm curious to see.

Uhh... Hrmm...
Would have to give me some time to see what I could put together,
just fur.* is 2GB or so uncompressed, but I'd need to move that bit
over to a clean install that didn't have the other 20-someodd gigs of
stuff and things from ages past. And it's been /years/ since I last
dug that deep into the backend of the program...
I'll probably need to do all the things inside a windows vm, too, as
while everything runs fairly okay on Wine like I'm using it now,
well, lets just say there's definitely some quirks. XD
But... Yeah. This might take a bit.

I would greatly appreciated a compressed tarball of those archives
preferably in mbox or maildir format. I also offer my assistance in
creating those archives =3

Kavus Kazian

2020-11-02 08:41:52 UTC

On Mon, 2 Nov 2020 07:58:33 +0000 (UTC)

Post by Mechasquirrel

Post by Kavus Kazian
Is it possible to share these Hamster files? I'm curious to see.

Uhh... Hrmm...
Would have to give me some time to see what I could put together,
just fur.* is 2GB or so uncompressed, but I'd need to move that bit
over to a clean install that didn't have the other 20-someodd gigs of
stuff and things from ages past. And it's been /years/ since I last
dug that deep into the backend of the program...
I'll probably need to do all the things inside a windows vm, too, as
while everything runs fairly okay on Wine like I'm using it now,
well, lets just say there's definitely some quirks. XD
But... Yeah. This might take a bit.

Oh no rush! I just love old stuff like this.

Mechasquirrel

2020-11-02 16:59:31 UTC

-----------------------------

https://mega.nz/folder/qY9WmAjR#5uT10n-Kmi7WZHs61D8BHA

2.4GB (4.3 uncompressed) of FurryNet in Probably-Mbox format, 7zipped.

-----------------------------

Finally got everything to export correctly. (I think... The commandline
tool was just as buggyaf as I remembered, but a quick test and they all
seemed to import into Thunderbird 16 just fine...)

I had grand plans of putting all of it into a new instance of Hamster,
and bundling it along with Xnews as a pre-configured all-in-one archive
browsing setup, but, yeah, that dang commandline tool would just
silently die trying to import the binary groups, and no way to do it by
menu.

And I don't have a way to see if I could fix the tool, because my
Delphi 5 key expired over a decade ago. XD

So, in the interest of just going ahead and getting it out there,
here it is.

Anyways, have fun exploring some of the good ol' days!

--
Mechasquirrel
(Ow, my poor data cap... T-T )

Kavus Kazian

2020-11-03 21:14:55 UTC

On Mon, 2 Nov 2020 16:59:31 +0000 (UTC)

Post by Mechasquirrel
-----------------------------
https://mega.nz/folder/qY9WmAjR#5uT10n-Kmi7WZHs61D8BHA
2.4GB (4.3 uncompressed) of FurryNet in Probably-Mbox format, 7zipped.
-----------------------------
Finally got everything to export correctly. (I think... The
commandline tool was just as buggyaf as I remembered, but a quick
test and they all seemed to import into Thunderbird 16 just fine...)
I had grand plans of putting all of it into a new instance of Hamster,
and bundling it along with Xnews as a pre-configured all-in-one
archive browsing setup, but, yeah, that dang commandline tool would
just silently die trying to import the binary groups, and no way to
do it by menu.
And I don't have a way to see if I could fix the tool, because my
Delphi 5 key expired over a decade ago. XD
So, in the interest of just going ahead and getting it out there,
here it is.
Anyways, have fun exploring some of the good ol' days!

Thanks! I'll check this out.

tom

2020-11-05 19:38:28 UTC

On Mon, 2 Nov 2020 16:59:31 +0000 (UTC)

Hello all,

I made a torrent of all the files and recompressed them into a fast,
yet still small files for those that have trouble
downloading from the mega link full of nonstandard javascript. Please
seed this so that others may download as well

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:f99f8583957ba68dc5c01d2b7d0a748c7d8fa58b&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.cyberia.is%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.opentrackr.org%3a1337%2fannounce

If your archiver program does not recognize .zst, try renaming or .Z or
use http://www.zstd.net/

Ceru

2020-08-09 18:17:37 UTC

*bleaties*

Kavus Kazian

2020-08-09 18:42:40 UTC

On Sun, 9 Aug 2020 11:17:37 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Ceru
*bleaties*

*pets* Hi!

a random furry on the Internet

2020-09-21 11:55:52 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is this place still active? :)

yo another person here in 2020

Kavus Kazian

2020-09-22 20:28:13 UTC

On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 04:55:52 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is this place still active? :)

yo another person here in 2020

I think Usenet is nice, no ads and no other weirdness a lot of web
stuff has. And it's consistent in design between forums.

a random furry on the Internet

2020-09-22 23:40:11 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 04:55:52 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is this
place still active? :)

yo another person here in 2020

I think Usenet is nice, no ads and no other weirdness a lot of web
stuff has. And it's consistent in design between forums.

thank god it's not dead here

a random furry on the Internet

2020-09-22 23:43:39 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 04:55:52 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is this
place still active? :)

yo another person here in 2020

I think Usenet is nice, no ads and no other weirdness a lot of web
stuff has. And it's consistent in design between forums.

thank god it's not dead here

how do you start a new convo?

Sfner

2020-09-23 00:48:00 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 04:55:52 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is this
place still active? :)

yo another person here in 2020

I think Usenet is nice, no ads and no other weirdness a lot of web
stuff has. And it's consistent in design between forums.

thank god it's not dead here

how do you start a new convo?Assuming you're on Google Groups from a desktop browser, you click the

"New Conversation" button on the top-left of the page.

Assuming you're getting notifications from GMail, you send an email to
***@googlegroups.com .

Assuming you're on Thunderbird or an equivalently similar email client,
you click the "Write" button and write as if it'd be an email.

a random furry on the Internet

2020-09-23 00:48:47 UTC

Post by Sfner

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 04:55:52 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is this
place still active? :)

yo another person here in 2020

I think Usenet is nice, no ads and no other weirdness a lot of web
stuff has. And it's consistent in design between forums.

thank god it's not dead here

how do you start a new convo?Assuming you're on Google Groups from a desktop browser, you click the

"New Conversation" button on the top-left of the page.
Assuming you're getting notifications from GMail, you send an email to
Assuming you're on Thunderbird or an equivalently similar email client,
you click the "Write" button and write as if it'd be an email.

i can't post by email

Lakiya Windstalker

2020-09-23 10:33:31 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is this
place still active? :)

20 years ago ALF was known as Homestead to many. I was lucky enough to know this place back then. I have met friends and dear ones here who since have passed on. I was a pup then and now I am growing old. Many furs indeed met here, Mucks and Moos were also popular at the time. (Oh, btw, the Internet has been active since the late 70s, I didn't discover it until was a teenager in the 90s, and back then it was all about AOL. America Online. , eventually free hosted portal websites took off and discovering furry content from there wasn't far off.)

Welcome! <^.^>

Kavus Kazian

2020-09-25 08:01:20 UTC

On Wed, 23 Sep 2020 03:33:31 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is
this place still active? :)

20 years ago ALF was known as Homestead to many. I was lucky enough
to know this place back then. I have met friends and dear ones here
who since have passed on. I was a pup then and now I am growing old.
Many furs indeed met here, Mucks and Moos were also popular at the
time. (Oh, btw, the Internet has been active since the late 70s, I
didn't discover it until was a teenager in the 90s, and back then it
was all about AOL. America Online. , eventually free hosted portal
websites took off and discovering furry content from there wasn't far
off.)
Welcome! <^.^>

I've used three MUCK/MOO servers, but I haven't been on any in a while.
Thanks for the welcome! I'm glad this place is still around, although
I'm sure it's less active than it was back then.

phoebe

2020-10-17 01:11:56 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Wed, 23 Sep 2020 03:33:31 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is
this place still active? :)

20 years ago ALF was known as Homestead to many. I was lucky enough
to know this place back then. I have met friends and dear ones here
who since have passed on. I was a pup then and now I am growing old.
Many furs indeed met here, Mucks and Moos were also popular at the
time. (Oh, btw, the Internet has been active since the late 70s, I
didn't discover it until was a teenager in the 90s, and back then it
was all about AOL. America Online. , eventually free hosted portal
websites took off and discovering furry content from there wasn't far
off.)
Welcome! <^.^>

I've used three MUCK/MOO servers, but I haven't been on any in a while.
Thanks for the welcome! I'm glad this place is still around, although
I'm sure it's less active than it was back then.

this is all adorable - i love reading this history. (maybe not a
greymuzzle, i'm 29)

i think there is a weird surge of interest in usenet lately... well,
demonstrably, considering that there are two other new users here. i
chalk it up to everyone being stuck in their rooms during pandemic
times. i've been setting up my own news server to explore usenet /
figure out where people are talking / try and make things a little more
appealing and less hostile to others. it is a bit of a process and slow
going though, but anyway leafnode is up and (slowly) syncing, and i've
been writing some statistics scripts and spam filters :)

i agree that there is a huge appeal to usenet. i love this interface and
the minimalism quite a lot. everything's in order, i just see what i
want to see. can't say the same about twitter.

happy to see you all, hope things are going ok in your worlds.

Kavus Kazian

2020-10-17 03:59:46 UTC

On Fri, 16 Oct 2020 21:11:56 -0400

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Wed, 23 Sep 2020 03:33:31 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is
this place still active? :)

20 years ago ALF was known as Homestead to many. I was lucky enough
to know this place back then. I have met friends and dear ones here
who since have passed on. I was a pup then and now I am growing
old. Many furs indeed met here, Mucks and Moos were also popular
at the time. (Oh, btw, the Internet has been active since the late
70s, I didn't discover it until was a teenager in the 90s, and
back then it was all about AOL. America Online. , eventually free
hosted portal websites took off and discovering furry content from
there wasn't far off.)
Welcome! <^.^>

I've used three MUCK/MOO servers, but I haven't been on any in a
while. Thanks for the welcome! I'm glad this place is still around,
although I'm sure it's less active than it was back then.

this is all adorable - i love reading this history. (maybe not a
greymuzzle, i'm 29)
i think there is a weird surge of interest in usenet lately... well,
demonstrably, considering that there are two other new users here. i
chalk it up to everyone being stuck in their rooms during pandemic
times. i've been setting up my own news server to explore usenet /
figure out where people are talking / try and make things a little
more appealing and less hostile to others. it is a bit of a process
and slow going though, but anyway leafnode is up and (slowly)
syncing, and i've been writing some statistics scripts and spam
filters :)
i agree that there is a huge appeal to usenet. i love this interface
and the minimalism quite a lot. everything's in order, i just see
what i want to see. can't say the same about twitter.
happy to see you all, hope things are going ok in your worlds.

Things are good for me! Honestly, I'd been meaning to check out Usenet
for years, but just never got around to it.

phoebe

2020-10-20 04:39:12 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Fri, 16 Oct 2020 21:11:56 -0400

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Wed, 23 Sep 2020 03:33:31 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is. Is
this place still active? :)

20 years ago ALF was known as Homestead to many. I was lucky enough
to know this place back then. I have met friends and dear ones here
who since have passed on. I was a pup then and now I am growing
old. Many furs indeed met here, Mucks and Moos were also popular
at the time. (Oh, btw, the Internet has been active since the late
70s, I didn't discover it until was a teenager in the 90s, and
back then it was all about AOL. America Online. , eventually free
hosted portal websites took off and discovering furry content from
there wasn't far off.)
Welcome! <^.^>

I've used three MUCK/MOO servers, but I haven't been on any in a
while. Thanks for the welcome! I'm glad this place is still around,
although I'm sure it's less active than it was back then.

this is all adorable - i love reading this history. (maybe not a
greymuzzle, i'm 29)
i think there is a weird surge of interest in usenet lately... well,
demonstrably, considering that there are two other new users here. i
chalk it up to everyone being stuck in their rooms during pandemic
times. i've been setting up my own news server to explore usenet /
figure out where people are talking / try and make things a little
more appealing and less hostile to others. it is a bit of a process
and slow going though, but anyway leafnode is up and (slowly)
syncing, and i've been writing some statistics scripts and spam
filters :)
i agree that there is a huge appeal to usenet. i love this interface
and the minimalism quite a lot. everything's in order, i just see
what i want to see. can't say the same about twitter.
happy to see you all, hope things are going ok in your worlds.

Things are good for me! Honestly, I'd been meaning to check out Usenet
for years, but just never got around to it.

yeah same, but it's been an adventure! a lot of strange little pockets
of activity...

got sick enough with dealing with spam while clicking around that i
moved from thunderbird to slrn to make things a bit more tolerable :p

Kavus Kazian

2020-10-20 07:19:41 UTC

On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 04:39:12 -0000 (UTC)

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Fri, 16 Oct 2020 21:11:56 -0400

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Wed, 23 Sep 2020 03:33:31 -0700 (PDT)

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is.
Is this place still active? :)

20 years ago ALF was known as Homestead to many. I was lucky
enough to know this place back then. I have met friends and
dear ones here who since have passed on. I was a pup then and
now I am growing old. Many furs indeed met here, Mucks and Moos
were also popular at the time. (Oh, btw, the Internet has been
active since the late 70s, I didn't discover it until was a
teenager in the 90s, and back then it was all about AOL.
America Online. , eventually free hosted portal websites took
off and discovering furry content from there wasn't far off.)
Welcome! <^.^>

I've used three MUCK/MOO servers, but I haven't been on any in a
while. Thanks for the welcome! I'm glad this place is still
around, although I'm sure it's less active than it was back then.

this is all adorable - i love reading this history. (maybe not a
greymuzzle, i'm 29)
i think there is a weird surge of interest in usenet lately...
well, demonstrably, considering that there are two other new users
here. i chalk it up to everyone being stuck in their rooms during
pandemic times. i've been setting up my own news server to explore
usenet / figure out where people are talking / try and make things
a little more appealing and less hostile to others. it is a bit of
a process and slow going though, but anyway leafnode is up and
(slowly) syncing, and i've been writing some statistics scripts
and spam filters :)
i agree that there is a huge appeal to usenet. i love this
interface and the minimalism quite a lot. everything's in order, i
just see what i want to see. can't say the same about twitter.
happy to see you all, hope things are going ok in your worlds.

Things are good for me! Honestly, I'd been meaning to check out
Usenet for years, but just never got around to it.

yeah same, but it's been an adventure! a lot of strange little
pockets of activity...
got sick enough with dealing with spam while clicking around that i
moved from thunderbird to slrn to make things a bit more tolerable :p

I'm using Claws Mail, I tried Pam, but X-Face support is broken and I
really wanted that. I dunno if you can see it or not.

phoebe

2020-10-20 12:32:03 UTC

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 04:39:12 -0000 (UTC)

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Fri, 16 Oct 2020 21:11:56 -0400

Post by Kavus Kazian
On Wed, 23 Sep 2020 03:33:31 -0700 (PDT)

On Sunday, August 9, 2020 at 1:05:14 AM UTC-4, Kavus

Post by Kavus Kazian
At least, I think I'm a furry! If turians count that is.
Is this place still active? :)

20 years ago ALF was known as Homestead to many. I was lucky
enough to know this place back then. I have met friends and
dear ones here who since have passed on. I was a pup then and
now I am growing old. Many furs indeed met here, Mucks and Moos
were also popular at the time. (Oh, btw, the Internet has been
active since the late 70s, I didn't discover it until was a
teenager in the 90s, and back then it was all about AOL.
America Online. , eventually free hosted portal websites took
off and discovering furry content from there wasn't far off.)
Welcome! <^.^>

I've used three MUCK/MOO servers, but I haven't been on any in a
while. Thanks for the welcome! I'm glad this place is still
around, although I'm sure it's less active than it was back then.

this is all adorable - i love reading this history. (maybe not a
greymuzzle, i'm 29)
i think there is a weird surge of interest in usenet lately...
well, demonstrably, considering that there are two other new users
here. i chalk it up to everyone being stuck in their rooms during
pandemic times. i've been setting up my own news server to explore
usenet / figure out where people are talking / try and make things
a little more appealing and less hostile to others. it is a bit of
a process and slow going though, but anyway leafnode is up and
(slowly) syncing, and i've been writing some statistics scripts
and spam filters :)
i agree that there is a huge appeal to usenet. i love this
interface and the minimalism quite a lot. everything's in order, i
just see what i want to see. can't say the same about twitter.
happy to see you all, hope things are going ok in your worlds.

Things are good for me! Honestly, I'd been meaning to check out
Usenet for years, but just never got around to it.

yeah same, but it's been an adventure! a lot of strange little
pockets of activity...
got sick enough with dealing with spam while clicking around that i
moved from thunderbird to slrn to make things a bit more tolerable :p

I'm using Claws Mail, I tried Pam, but X-Face support is broken and I
really wanted that. I dunno if you can see it or not.

i didn't see it in thunderbird, and now i definitely don't see it in slrn
(since it's text-based), i think claws works on osx too but i haven't
messed with it too too much yet.

i've been pretty pleasantly surprised with the amount of activity in
groups, definitely some, uh, interesting figures to talk to around.
cheers me up that the furry groups seem to be the friendliest ones
around.

Nomen Nescio

2020-10-26 08:37:55 UTC

Post by phoebe
i've been pretty pleasantly surprised with the amount of activity in
groups

Which groups are you thinking of? If that's not a secret.

Nomen Nescio

2020-10-26 08:36:55 UTC

Post by phoebe
i think there is a weird surge of interest in usenet lately...

Too much censorhip going on on social networking platforms, so people
are looking for other ways to express themselves freely.

That's my guess.

tom

2020-11-02 00:29:25 UTC