Re: <nettime> Usenet archives sold

[Felix Stalder <stalder@fis.utoronto.ca>]

I really have a hard time with this discussion which seems about knee-jerk
complaining. The fact is that for the last 5 years, Dejanews was the only
one interested enough in Usenet as a whole to archive it. Without them,
there would be no archive whatever.

Everyone who is now complaining about Dejanews selling their archive is
really saying that they haven't cared enough to organize an archive
themselves but think now, from the comfort of their home computer, that
Dejanews/Google should not act as the businesses they always said they are
but as a community service nobody was ever willing to put the work in.

Fact is, everybody could have archived Usenet but nobody really cared.
Complaining now seems not only futile but also pretty ludicrous.


Felix

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