The Rise and Fall of MTR

[kurumi]

Google News provides monthly post counts for some newsgroups. I plotted this for misc.transport.road:



I had thought the decline started around 5 years ago, or at least picked up speed at that time; instead, we see a pretty steady decline in quantity* since 2001.

We'd probably see similar declines in other Usenet groups.

* quality is a bit harder to, er, quantify

[bugo]

I wonder what that spike in 2008-2009 was all about.  Was this the height of Carlmania?

[agentsteel53]

and how many of those posts are spam?

[oscar]

and how many of those posts are spam?

Not much.  Lots of garbage in m.t.r., but mostly of non-spam varieties.

FWIW, I've just canceled my Usenet feed account, so I won't be on m.t.r. anymore.

[mgk920]

I really do miss the 'good old days' of MTR from about eight-ten+ years or so ago, but I don't miss the crap that had started infiltrating it by the mid-double-aughts.  The early double-aughts is when other good, much more civilized forvms (Yahoogroups email lists, AARoads, etc) started appearing, too.

Even without direct Usenet service, one can still access MTR via Google Groups.

BTW, my first posting in MTR was in early 1997.

Mike

[Alps]

So right around now we should start getting negative posts...

[Scott5114]

So right around now we should start getting negative posts...

x = 55 — 63

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

I wonder what that spike in 2008-2009 was all about.  Was this the height of Carlmania?

Political arguements?

[Beltway]

I wonder what that spike in 2008-2009 was all about.  Was this the height of Carlmania?

Political arguements?

That was the main downfall ...

[hbelkins]

And a certain racist's rants.

[J N Winkler]

And a certain racist's rants.

Takes two to tango.

[agentsteel53]

I find it mildly amusing that a fringe character from years ago still persists in memory so enduringly.

it's the equivalent of going crazy over just how much undue influence Father Coughlin has on our society today.

[Beltway]

And a certain racist's rants.

Plus a couple professional blowhards.

[hbelkins]

And a certain racist's rants.

Takes two to tango.

I don't respond to him. I plonk every new nym he comes up with.

[J N Winkler]

I don't respond to him. I plonk every new nym he comes up with.

Yes, you do, but with so much ostentation that it becomes self-defeating.  Remarks like "he has people who carry his water for him" are more than enough to keep the conversation (one-sided as it is) going, and to keep the peanut gallery amused.

If you add someone to your killfile, that is one thing.  If you add someone to your killfile and then announce that you have done so, that is something else altogether:  it tells the person you have just killfiled that he has got to you.  It is much better to mokusatsu him instead.

[Beltway]

I don't respond to him. I plonk every new nym he comes up with.

Yes, you do, but with so much ostentation that it becomes self-defeating.  Remarks like "he has people who carry his water for him" are more than enough to keep the conversation (one-sided as it is) going, and to keep the peanut gallery amused.

If you add someone to your killfile, that is one thing.  If you add someone to your killfile and then announce that you have done so, that is something else altogether:  it tells the person you have just killfiled that he has got to you.  It is much better to mokusatsu him instead.

Some posters have done that, and he still keeps posting personal abuse months after the person killfiled him and stopped making any comments to him or about him.

MTR is a sewer.

[oscar]

If you add someone to your killfile, that is one thing.  If you add someone to your killfile and then announce that you have done so, that is something else altogether:  it tells the person you have just killfiled that he has got to you.  It is much better to mokusatsu him instead.

While I was on m.t.r., I killfiled only one poster (none of the usual suspects -- he didn't hang around m.t.r. for long, fortunately), unannounced.  Others, I just ignored without using a killfile to automate the process.

I never thought I was under any obligation to pay attention to every poster, or inform any of them that I wasn't reading their posts.  With the torrential flood of on-topic posts in m.t.r.'s heydey -- and what we have now on this forum -- that would've been a "drinking out of a firehose" task, anyway.

[F350]

Oh, wow.

I had forgotten all about m.t.r. I used to lurk there back in the heyday along with over a dozen newsgroups I was keeping up.

[vdeane]

I just stopped keeping up recently.  It doesn't take much effort to keep visiting the groups page once a day, but when I switched google accounts (email migrating as I type this), I decided it wasn't worth the effort to set up the group membership.

[Scott5114]

Seems like whenever I go to MTR 90% is flamebait thrown by trolls and 9% is stuff I've seen posted here already.

[flowmotion]

MTR did hold out a lot longer than any of other usenet groups I used to lurk in. I noticed a fairly dramatic dropoff circa 2000 when web message boards started to become available and people moved to moderated sites to escape the trolls and kooks. But, as far as I know, the roadgeek world didn't have a web message board until AARoads started this forum.

[vdeane]

Seems like whenever I go to MTR 90% is flamebait thrown by trolls and 9% is stuff I've seen posted here already.

The one that takes the cake is the "US route XX in <state> on Google Maps" thread there.  They were acting like this was unheard of when we had been discussing it for a month!

[froggie]

But, as far as I know, the roadgeek world didn't have a web message board until AARoads started this forum.

Not quite the case.  Several road-related groups on Yahoogroups were established, one as early as 1999.  The ones I used to follow were all established by 2003.

[kkt]

A few Usenet groups still have interesting traffic.  I'm okay with usage falling back down to pre-1995 levels.  It's finally October.

[Brandon]

But, as far as I know, the roadgeek world didn't have a web message board until AARoads started this forum.

Not quite the case.  Several road-related groups on Yahoogroups were established, one as early as 1999.  The ones I used to follow were all established by 2003.

"used to follow".  Most of the ones I used to follow are mostly dead, or filled with spam and unreadable.  This is better than either those or mtr, IMHO.