Hmm, I’m not entirely sure. I can find old usenet comments—like my nethack YAFAP—from 2005 to 2008, but as far I can tell they were all made with Google Groups. I do vaguely recall using a newsreader, maybe trying to set up Thunderbird? It certainly would have been in character, “real men use newsreaders, and never top-post” kind of thing was a big part of the appeal. Possibly I could only get read-only access through whatever free provider I found.
At the time, the communities discussing interactive fiction and roguelike games were still centered on usenet (rec.arts.int-fiction and rec.games.roguelikes.* respectively) although iirc half the conversations were on the need to move on, to web forums or whatnot.
Hmm, I’m not entirely sure. I can find old usenet comments—like my nethack YAFAP—from 2005 to 2008, but as far I can tell they were all made with Google Groups. I do vaguely recall using a newsreader, maybe trying to set up Thunderbird? It certainly would have been in character, “real men use newsreaders, and never top-post” kind of thing was a big part of the appeal. Possibly I could only get read-only access through whatever free provider I found.
At the time, the communities discussing interactive fiction and roguelike games were still centered on usenet (rec.arts.int-fiction and rec.games.roguelikes.* respectively) although iirc half the conversations were on the need to move on, to web forums or whatnot.
LessWrong tends to remind me more of usenet. Probably just due to the threaded comments.
I’d happily read this site with a newsreader.