RSB RIP!

[Donn Irving]

Where do we deliver the funeral flower arrangements?

DCI

[Tony]

Post by Donn Irving
Where do we deliver the funeral flower arrangements?
DCI

Who died?

[Emanuel Berg]

Post by Tony

Post by Donn Irving
Where do we deliver the funeral flower
arrangements? DCI

Who died?

RSB.

But: If any of you know of/find a boxing web forum or
mailing list with active discussion, tell me and I'll
see if I can write a so-called gateway in between so
we can have their posts in newsgroup-form, and they
can have our articles in forum-form.

But it must be quite some discussion at that other
place, otherwise it won't be worth the effort.

[Donn Irving]

Post by Emanuel Berg

Post by Tony

Post by Donn Irving
Where do we deliver the funeral flower
arrangements? DCI

Who died?

RSB.
But: If any of you know of/find a boxing web forum or
mailing list with active discussion, tell me and I'll
see if I can write a so-called gateway in between so
we can have their posts in newsgroup-form, and they
can have our articles in forum-form.
But it must be quite some discussion at that other
place, otherwise it won't be worth the effort.
--
underground experts united .... http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
Emacs Gnus Blogomatic ......... http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/blogomatic
- so far: 21 Blogomatic articles -

RSB died from the fact that too many folks joined in on discussions without enough knowledge of the Sweet Science and the histories of boxing.

Amateurs teach amateurs how to be amateurs. The was initially a cadres of well informed folks who contributed excellent opinions, knowledge, experience and insights. Too soon a bunch of jerks came aboard and destroyed the informed from participating in good discussions.

RSB RIP!

DCI

[Emanuel Berg]

Post by Donn Irving
RSB died from the fact that too many folks joined in
on discussions without enough knowledge of the Sweet
Science and the histories of boxing.
Amateurs teach amateurs how to be amateurs. The was
initially a cadres of well informed folks who
contributed excellent opinions, knowledge,
experience and insights. Too soon a bunch of jerks
came aboard and destroyed the informed from
participating in good discussions.
RSB RIP!

Even so-called (and real) experts behave like jerks
from time to time.

Besides, I don't remember it like that. I remember
there were like ten guys who knew the sport and
behaved 95% of the time. Then suddenly there wasn't
any more traffic. I always thought this group was very
sparsely populated.

But perhaps you are talking the 90s RSB? If so, that
was before my time.

Perhaps someone should put together a booklet with
some 200 pages of the best articles - I'd buy it, for
sure! (But I don't want to be the compiler myself.)

[Juan Anonly]

Post by Emanuel Berg

Post by Donn Irving
RSB died from the fact that too many folks joined in
on discussions without enough knowledge of the Sweet
Science and the histories of boxing.
Amateurs teach amateurs how to be amateurs. The was
initially a cadres of well informed folks who
contributed excellent opinions, knowledge,
experience and insights. Too soon a bunch of jerks
came aboard and destroyed the informed from
participating in good discussions.
RSB RIP!

Even so-called (and real) experts behave like jerks
from time to time.
Besides, I don't remember it like that. I remember
there were like ten guys who knew the sport and
behaved 95% of the time. Then suddenly there wasn't
any more traffic. I always thought this group was very
sparsely populated.
But perhaps you are talking the 90s RSB? If so, that
was before my time.
Perhaps someone should put together a booklet with
some 200 pages of the best articles - I'd buy it, for
sure! (But I don't want to be the compiler myself.)

What could be more interesting than reading the personal opinions about
boxing from 20 years go? Surely nothing!

[Emanuel Berg]

Post by Juan Anonly
What could be more interesting than reading the
personal opinions about boxing from 20 years go?
Surely nothing!

That would be very interesting indeed!

The 90s were the heydays of Usenet and
"text Internet" culture, and some of the posts were
superior to what you'd find in National Geographic,
Outside, or whatever it is people read on paper. (In
general, that is, as I didn't make a special study of
back-then's RSB...)

The second reason it would be interesting is that only
the stars of the sport tend to appear again and again
in discussion, articles, documentaries, and so on.
The typical teenage boxing fan today probably has some
grip on Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones Jr.,
and perhaps a couple of others, but I dare say even
seasoned boxing fans would discover, or rediscover,
many interesting names and fights long lost in the
general current of things...

[Juan Anonly]

Post by Emanuel Berg

Post by Juan Anonly
What could be more interesting than reading the
personal opinions about boxing from 20 years go?
Surely nothing!

That would be very interesting indeed!
The 90s were the heydays of Usenet and
"text Internet" culture, and some of the posts were
superior to what you'd find in National Geographic,
Outside, or whatever it is people read on paper.

As usual you forget the critical contextual clarifier: "In my opinion".

Personally I have never found "whatever it is people blabber about"
quite as interesting as real journalism. But I wish you luck in
finding the aimless musing of people about Tyson and De La Hoya from 20
years ago.

[Emanuel Berg]

Post by Juan Anonly
Personally I have never found "whatever it is people
blabber about" quite as interesting as
real journalism.

... "real" journalism?

Post by Juan Anonly
But I wish you luck in finding the aimless musing of
people about Tyson and De La Hoya from 20 years ago.

There is material on those guys in every second issue
of The Ring, so you don't have to travel back in time
for that.

But like I said, there were other fighters as well
that are long forgotten, as well as other aspects of
the whole fight sport and industry and it is very
interesting to see those <whatevers> with contemporary
eyes and not (at best) those of reconstruction...

[Juan Anonly]

Post by Emanuel Berg

Post by Juan Anonly
Personally I have never found "whatever it is people blabber about"
quite as interesting as
real journalism.

... "real" journalism?

Not quite; real journalism. Chatter in the cafeteria, whether
enlightened, idiotic or a gurgling noise: It's not journalism. So
yeah, call me crazy but journalism or "whatever newspapers write about"
is generally more interesting that antique usenet chatter from 1995.
Inconceivably, your mileage varies. Enjoy!

[Emanuel Berg]

"whatever newspapers write about" is generally more
interesting that antique usenet chatter from 1995.

Perhaps Jon Krakauer is but take a random pick and it
is 50/50.

Have a look below. I found a list [1] from which
I yanked those entries I felt were the most
interesting. I also wrote some comments [like this].

Neither real nor unreal journalists should resign this
immense treasure of information - facts, attitudes,
disputes, the whole scene *exactly* as it was, and can
*never* be reconstructed at the public library
decades later.


1981 June A logical map of Usenet when it was still small

October TCP/IP Digest #1

1982 March First mention of MTV
[Jenny McCarthy, Sandy Hill Pittman
- good :))]

April ditto Sun Microsystems
[They did neat commercial UNIXes,
e.g. SunOS, but also hideous Java.]

July ditto the compact disc (CD)
[Paved the way for all worthless
cinematic games but also the
worthless multimedia worlds were
people pretended ot learn stuff.
And the CD-ROM porn boom which at
least never claimed it was anything
but worthless.]

August ditto C64
[The C64 demo scene in Europe -
nothing short of fantastic!
Dream on, yankies, and do your
network-hacking thing...]

August ditto Lisa and the Mac
[Together with the IBM PC, this
meant a long-lasting *huge* setback
for the distributed mainframe and
the whole associated CLI/batch/"DP"
model of computing (in favor of
the desktop s**t.) *Sob!* But were
are back! :) ...maybe]

November Early reference to emoticons
December Announcement of first cell phone deployment in Chicago

1983 September Stallman's announcement of GNU
[The GNU/Linux/X distros and the
whole FOSS culture down the line.]

1984 August First mention of the Commodore Amiga
[Geeks are still not getting any
girlfriends, the manufacturer
mused...]

1987 January Announcement of UUNET
[To be marvelous Usenet and Gmane
further down.]

1989 February First mention of Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
[The notorious hysteric playground
for havoc kids with a tech frenzy
that is only equaled by their
immaturity and
inferiority feelings.]

1991 August Tim Berners-Lee's announcement of the World Wide Web project
October Linus Torvalds' Linux announcement
[Both those - no comments :)]

1994 January Instance of first mass spamming
April Instance of first commercial mass spamming (more on spam history)
[I include this to show that not
only "superstar news" (i.e.,
discussion topics) were present.
Even so, interesting for anti-spam
people today, I'd recon!]

[1] https://support.google.com/groups/answer/6003482?hl=en

[Mike Hall]

Post by Emanuel Berg

"whatever newspapers write about" is generally more
interesting that antique usenet chatter from 1995.

Perhaps Jon Krakauer is but take a random pick and it
is 50/50.
Have a look below. I found a list [1] from which
I yanked those entries I felt were the most
interesting. I also wrote some comments [like this].
Neither real nor unreal journalists should resign this
immense treasure of information - facts, attitudes,
disputes, the whole scene *exactly* as it was, and can
*never* be reconstructed at the public library
decades later.
1981 June A logical map of Usenet when it was still small
October TCP/IP Digest #1
1982 March First mention of MTV
[Jenny McCarthy, Sandy Hill Pittman
- good :))]
April ditto Sun Microsystems
[They did neat commercial UNIXes,
e.g. SunOS, but also hideous Java.]
July ditto the compact disc (CD)
[Paved the way for all worthless
cinematic games but also the
worthless multimedia worlds were
people pretended ot learn stuff.
And the CD-ROM porn boom which at
least never claimed it was anything
but worthless.]
August ditto C64
[The C64 demo scene in Europe -
nothing short of fantastic!
Dream on, yankies, and do your
network-hacking thing...]
August ditto Lisa and the Mac
[Together with the IBM PC, this
meant a long-lasting *huge* setback
for the distributed mainframe and
the whole associated CLI/batch/"DP"
model of computing (in favor of
the desktop s**t.) *Sob!* But were
are back! :) ...maybe]
November Early reference to emoticons
December Announcement of first cell phone deployment in Chicago
1983 September Stallman's announcement of GNU
[The GNU/Linux/X distros and the
whole FOSS culture down the line.]
1984 August First mention of the Commodore Amiga
[Geeks are still not getting any
girlfriends, the manufacturer
mused...]
1987 January Announcement of UUNET
[To be marvelous Usenet and Gmane
further down.]
1989 February First mention of Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
[The notorious hysteric playground
for havoc kids with a tech frenzy
that is only equaled by their
immaturity and
inferiority feelings.]
1991 August Tim Berners-Lee's announcement of the World Wide Web project
October Linus Torvalds' Linux announcement
[Both those - no comments :)]
1994 January Instance of first mass spamming
April Instance of first commercial mass spamming (more on spam history)
[I include this to show that not
only "superstar news" (i.e.,
discussion topics) were present.
Even so, interesting for anti-spam
people today, I'd recon!]
[1] https://support.google.com/groups/answer/6003482?hl=en

This timelime misses the introduction of AOL, which was the final death
knell of the intellectual internet, and when the United States political
establishment discovered extreme internet porn and blamed Usenet for it.

Anyway, in the days of the very first post fully propogated on RSB
(something retarded by myself back in the day), American boxers heavily
charged by Don King, who spent their remaining purses as soon as they
won them, ruled most of the heavier weights and we got angry if they did
not fight top opponents at least once a year. Now we have British
boxers ruling the heavyweights, who we know will quit after a single
payday worth half that of the big Tyson fights! We wait years for the
"super fights" where quality defensive fighters who can make mincemeat
out of heavy hitters bore us all to death!

MMA give far better shows; Queensbury rules boxing is not a proper
martial art but a strange violent dance, which I believe is coming to
the end of it's existence. Without the champions, the history dies,
without the history, without the history, boxing has not superiority
over MMA. Without the dominance of boxing, people aren't going to be
bothered to write online to the few dinosaurs who still have a provider
that gives access to USENET.


Mike Hall

[Emanuel Berg]

Post by Mike Hall

Post by Emanuel Berg
https://support.google.com/groups/answer/6003482?hl=en

This timelime misses the introduction of AOL, which
was the final death knell of the intellectual
internet, and when the United States political
establishment discovered extreme internet porn and
blamed Usenet for it.

Well, I didn't include it it my yanking of the
timeline, but if you follow the hyperlink, it is
mentioned:

* September 1989: First mention of AOL

As for me, I remember them shipping orange CD-ROMs
with magazines but that's about it. I don't know their
role, but I'll read the Wikipedia article tonight
God willing, so thank you!

Post by Mike Hall
Anyway, in the days of the very first post fully
propogated on RSB (something retarded by myself back
in the day), American boxers heavily charged by Don
King, who spent their remaining purses as soon as
they won them, ruled most of the heavier weights and
we got angry if they did not fight top opponents at
least once a year. Now we have British boxers ruling
the heavyweights, who we know will quit after
a single payday worth half that of the big Tyson
fights! We wait years for the "super fights" where
quality defensive fighters who can make mincemeat
out of heavy hitters bore us all to death!

Ha ha! You see? It *is* interesting to read! Even tho
this is a reconstruction and not a post from
back-then. Now I'm even more confident the kind of
book I described with the "best of" RSB would be very
interesting indeed!

But I don't think Mayweather is boring. If he is, it
is because the other fighters weren't at his level, at
least not by the time they fought him, so the fights
themselves turned out unexciting. But Mayweather sure
is an amazing athlete and I know I could watch him
spar and do mits for hours in an actual boxing gym :)

[5016]

Usenet died, not RSB. It's a shame about Usenet. I think I've been here longer than anyone other than DCI. And I will outlive you too DCI, with your crazed crush on a drunken Larry merchant.

[Donn Irving]

Post by 5016
Usenet died, not RSB. It's a shame about Usenet. I think I've been here longer than anyone other than DCI. And I will outlive you too DCI, with your crazed crush on a drunken Larry merchant.

Worry not! I am at an age that gives you plenty of time to out live me.

Of Larry Merchant. He was just another voice, sober or not, who commented on boxing and irritated many a boxer with his droll interviews.

Next! :)

DCI

[Emanuel Berg]

Post by 5016
Usenet died, not RSB. It's a shame about Usenet.

Usenet is about as alive as RSB and at points
more alive.

I get RSB from nntp.aioe.org which is a real Usenet,
NNTP server. As we all see, it is very operational. (I
also get rec.bicycles.tech from them and that group is
very active at that with 272 messages since last
I checked.)

For all the other stuff that would once have been
Usenet, and now are mailing lists, I use Emacs Gnus
and Gmane which turns it all into Usenet in all
essence, at least in terms of the interface. Here are
a couple of examples:

6 gmane.comp.graphics.gnuplot.user 2 8207
6 2 gmane.comp.shells.zsh.user 23 16638
6 gmane.emacs.erc.general 12 1435
6 gmane.emacs.gnus.general 83214 83214
3 gmane.emacs.gnus.user 18226

While this seems to work very well for technology and
in particular computer technology, I never found
people really doing it with my other interests. (The
bicycle group is perhaps the exception that proves the
rules, however obviously that is technology too.)

With boxing there is RSB but the problem is if there
are ~ten people writing, at best traffic will be very
low, and at worse cabin fever will set in...

I always thought of Usenet as virtually what I have
today in terms of technology (with Emacs Gnus and
Gmane), *but* including many other aspects of life as
well. And that, I never did find and I doubt
it exists.

[That SOB Van Owen]

On Sat, 16 Apr 2016 22:47:36 +0200, Emanuel Berg <email clipped>

Post by Emanuel Berg

Post by 5016
Usenet died, not RSB. It's a shame about Usenet.

Usenet is about as alive as RSB and at points
more alive.
I get RSB from nntp.aioe.org which is a real Usenet,
NNTP server. As we all see, it is very operational. (I
also get rec.bicycles.tech from them and that group is
very active at that with 272 messages since last
I checked.)

Yes, that is the free service I also use. Dunno how they continue to
offer it, except that I think they just offer the text groups, as
opposed to binaries and music and movies and such. Text has a
miniscule footprint comparatively, and can't cost very much.

Nntp.aioe.org is probably in a European university closet that
everyone forgot about.

If you can be bothered to set it up, you can probably use it with
"Free Agent" which I use.

That SOB Van Owen.

[The Arranger]

Post by 5016
Usenet died, not RSB. It's a shame about Usenet. I think I've been here longer than anyone other than DCI. And I will outlive you too DCI, with your crazed crush on a drunken Larry merchant.

I've come back for the services.

[mwhaught]

Post by Donn Irving
Where do we deliver the funeral flower arrangements?
DCI

Laid up for awhile from a motorcycle accident and decided to see what was going on here. This is one of the first threads that I see. It was a happening corner in the latter days of the usenet groups.

Weird how I still expected to see new posts from SkippyPB in the threads.

Hope all of the r.s.b folks of the 90's and early 00's are doing well.

-mwh